Interestingly enough, the reason so many demos out there now sound out of tune, is because the bass is so unbelievably IN tune. People forget MIDI bass instruments are heavily processed tuning wise, if you're 20 cents off with the wrong temperament you may as well be tuning on the moon lmao. In other words, "if you logarithmic while you linear, you're gonna have a bad tune"
This actually goes back to my time playing in bands live and something I found is you could find really really talented guitarist, but they didn’t have the talent to stop and play for the song. It seems inherent to guitarist in particular to just have a need to show how good they are and it’s like, the Internet is full of millions of guitarists that can play better than me, so I wanna write a song. I’m not really here to show off. I’m here to make a good product.
This is exactly why I admire Michael Romeo. He has an incredible technique, but never goes into soulless demonstrations. His solos always serve the music more than him.
The tuning thing is an interesting one for me. I’m of the opinion that reliance on tuners is partly to blame. I was producing an EP for a band years ago and the guitarist had an octave line that was totally out of tune. I suggested she retune and start again. She reached for the tuner, tuned up the guitar, and played it again… and it sounded the same. I asked her to tune again and again she reached for the tuner. At that point I stopped her and suggested she tune the octave by ear. At first she looked at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about. We tuned by ear and the track came out great. It’s just interesting to me that tuning by ear is becoming a lost art. Not to say we shouldn’t use tuners-we absolutely should-I’m just saying it’s good to have those checks and balances.
That sounds like the guitar not being intonated properly. If she tuned the open string, but then it was playing one octave above, unless you are perfectly intonated you are gonna sound off.
Eae tuning is a lost art. I do it, my students don't see the need. When I'm recording I tune the guitar to sound the best in the frets that I'm going to use, even if the guitar is properly intonated, and that is done by ear, a clip tuner can't understand music.
I do my own mixing and play guitar. Bass. Drums. Keys. Synths. Percussion etc. I found that playing everything really helped my mixes. As in frequency and where they will fit. Guitars in solo vs the mix are two different things. Same with every instrument. I also have had numerous people send me tracks to mix where the guitar is way to hot and clipping. I now ask just for the DI only to reamp. Guitar players tend to think in terms in them vs everyone else. They forget it's a song. Everyone needs to play for the song. Your guitars don't need to be louder or more present than everyone else. Drummers also tend to do this. Overplay. Fills to long or don't fit. And yes bass is really half of the guitar tone. It's amazing what a good tight bass will do for guitar. However vocals are 100% the focal point They come first. Always. Everything he said is 100% true.
Love your work bobby.. i learned a lot of awesome tips from your channel that i applied to my own mixes and my album i released just over a month ago, I'm really happy with it. Thanks for sharing all of your insights and knowledge. I still need improvement but you definitely got me on my way. Cheers! Hello from australia.
On tuning: when you leave strings on for too long the intonation goes wrong, meaning they start going sharp by the 12th fret. This can take but a few months, and I am told that changes in temperature (and especially humidity) will ruin your tuning and intonation. Playing guitar is expensive.
@@Anthonybrother If its because of old strings you replace the strings. If it's because the intonation isn't set properly you adjust the bridge saddles to be closer/further from the neck. Truss rod adjustment is to get your frets all on the same plane with each other.
Guitar cables make a huge difference in sound, especially whenever you have a bigger rig, running through a lot of cables. Causing tone suck, more feedback humming, etc. They definitely make amps sound more alive and overdriven. I used to think my amps didn’t have enough gain, but it was my guitars not having enough clarity from my tone. My gold Mogami cables cleared that issue up from day one, and yet I’ve never had more gain than ever.
Good luck with the new studio. You deserve upgraded digs. For me this is all a hobby. Im just getting to relive my youth and be 18 again. Except in what would be for me then a science fiction world of recording. But I have learned a lot from your channel and it has allowed me to create music better. So thanks for all your wisdom. Even though it’s well above my level, I’ve been able to use the parts where I can and it’s been supper helpful. Thanks !!
Thanks Bobby, This vid just confirm that I'm on the right track (he he). And yes the bass is so important... For the 3 last years I've been recording (learning my DAW) all most full time in my home studio. I'm now achiving much better results than 3 years ago thanks to you, and some others UA-camrs... I print tracks with out major difficulty because, I have a quicker set-up to work in my DAW, I learn my parts, I keep my instrument in tune and I get my Tone/Sound right in the box (I usually use my Amp whit a speaker simulation) same for the bass. If I'm not satisfied with the sound result, I just plug a mic and re-print with my cab. Long live your chanel Sly Note: please excuse my english...
Great tips for beginners, I will add that people should be aware of mechanical noise on their instrument and learn how to mute them, otherwise they will be on the recordings and there's no way to clean that out
Bass is everything and guitarist hate it I guess. I bought one just for playing on my songs and I ended up really enjoying it. Ended spending more on a bass than ever have on a guitar and it's paid off big time. Getting a nasty bass tone and adding it in is one of the most satisfying parts of writing.
This is a really good list and I personally don’t fall under any of these surprisingly but I used to. I think another one that’s worth listing is that a lot of recording guitar players feel like they need to record their guitars super loud through an amplifier where you don’t need it loud at all. I rock an SM57 pointed between the middle and edge of the speaker, regular volume. you’ll definitely notice a difference in the transient when it comes time to mix.
3:39 Im a newbie maybe i dont now shit, but I tought I could cheap on cables when I got my guitar, I was messing with the bass before that and I was using Fender Professional Series cables wich converted to my currency seemed more of a mid-priced I would say. So I bought cheaper cable and for the first couple of days it sounded super muddy my guitar was also a budget one so I thought I messed up with my purchase altogether but when I tried the Fender cable on my guitar it was night and day difference, it sounded super clean. EDIT: I should also mention that it was indeed the cable because I tried it on the bass and again the sound was muddy, also the cable wasn't long either.
My last band was notorious with trait #1 and #7. The lead guitarist (a high end software engineer with AMAZON who has been with them for 10+ years) had no understanding for overall mix and just turned guitars up louder than everything and would always praise "how good it sounds."
now imagine working with guitarists that do all 7 of these. being a guitar player myself, i obviously did some of those at some point, but being a producer for 8ish years definitely changed my View on things
Great video! I've been guilty of a couple of these habits in the past. But I believe I've worked past them thanks to you and others here on YT. Keep up the great work! Horns up! 🤘🤘
Regarding the point on tuning, technique also plays a huge part in the "tuning" of the guitars. Hard attack on the strings (especially lighter gauge strings), bending notes while fretting chords due to a death grip on the neck, pressure on the floating bridge with the picking hand etc etc etc. Also when tuning, playing notes to delicately. As a side note, some great records from the 70s and 80s have guitars that are out of tune in them :) The over all idea of the video is spot on though, serve the song - not your ego, took me a while to learn that. As a side note, not a fan of the idea of recording in sections. Learn the song back to front and record it that way - even if you have to do a number of takes. The only time I see this being useful is if you are recording DI and the song switches between "dirty" and "clean", don't wanna be chopping up DI signals. In my experience, the way you play the riff at the beginning of a song is very different to the way you play it at the end of the song and the audience can pick up on that energy. Call me crazy :)
Had a band teacher who always said a single note will stand out of an Orchestra like a sore thumb. We have tuning software in our daw no reason for a single note to be out of tune. I do feel like my programed drums could be better. I am putting a little more time on them.
I'm glad to know you're just busy, I thought my phone wasn't giving me notifications of your videos, happy i haven't missed anything. I am definitely guilty of #5, I'm not a good singer and don't know anyone who is at the moment. I do personally like listening to instrumentals but as we all know... The real deal comes with vocals.
The one I do waaaay too often is picking some beautiful, lush guitar sound with reverb and delay. Then running guitars to my reverb and delay busses. “Everything sounds sort of muddled…” 🤔
When does a string become old? I change like every second month depending on how much i play, i usually feel no difference, so maybe my strings werent old by that time
Its liberating not caring about being Professional. I can just create what I can with what I got, access the situation, learn, then move on. Its so much more realistic just to hire someone like you 🤘There is no way I can ever have my Home Studio / Jam Room / Living Space on par with you Professionals 🍻 Its so awesome to have a ton of demos up to find band members, and build comradery along the way, but when its time to get serious fork over the cash and let the pros handle it. If being great at Guitar isn't hard enough on its own, now days, I have to fill many shoes, AV production, social media, acoustic's, band management, neighborhood management...IT NEVER ENDS 🤣🤣
I’m still using a recording setup I purchased used late 2008. Whilst I have replaced hard drives in the DAW, it’s still a Windows XP a pro on an old HP Woekstation, FireWire converters and good ol’ CuBaseSX3 and Ozone 3. As I remind myself, that had more capability than the setup the recorded Nevermind, the album that changed the world. It’s proved to me that 90% is in the performance, and the mostly live recordings I make have a much better vibe than the staid demos done in professional studios
when i did live sound bands always use to ask what can we do to get better. my response everytime everyone should get a tuner. its magic when your all in tune.....and it makes u see some timing issues you can fix. people make fun of the old drunk hill billy country people but guess what....they were all in tune....and they all edited
I do none of those, either because I never did, or because I learned the hard way. But I will add some: 8. Having the guitar track too loud in the mix. You touched on this with the importance of bass, bass tone and bass performance, but I hear this a lot, and I used to be guilty of this. This will vary with the song, but I used to be too timid about letting the guitar be lower in the mix overall for some songs. Some songs are driven by bass, or some songs are driven by drums, and sometimes that is true for parts of a song, like perhaps in the verse, the guitar is hanging back and then comes in louder in the drop. The song, the song, the song. And I would one thing about guitar tone - ironically and hilariously, sometimes to get a guitar tone right for a mix, it needs to be smaller, shittier or duller. I don't know how many times I've gone back and realized that a straight Plexi was the right tone for a track. 9. Turn down the gain to the bare minimum - your tracks will be heavier. 10. Don't listen to these people who say that less low mids is always the right answer - it's not. You should keep it in mind, and watch how much low mids you're having to sculpt out during mixing. The huge tone you want when practicing isn't the tone you want to record most of the time - but not always. And if you want big tone for your sound, you can do that - just ask Jerry Cantrell or Zakk Wylde. But something else will have to give up the space that the guitar is soaking up, and that may not work for every song. Also, it's far better to get the right tone at tracking time than to EQ (even with subtractive EQ only) at mix time. Queens of the Stone Age's Insane track has a +8 db boost at 250hz for example - that's breaking every conceivable "rule" and it was exactly what that producer wanted and exactly what that song needed. Isolate those guitar tracks and you will find it sounds like ass.
The final tip is my issue. I have a slight intonation problem with my guitar. I have made adjustments, and am close, but find myself retuning frequently.
Hey! guitar tech here.. if you have tuning issues near the first couple frets, check the open notes against the first fret. If the first fret pulls sharp, it means your nut slots are too high. If tuning issues happen near the 12th fret and higher, moving the saddle should correct this. Assuming your neck and action are where they should be. Make sure your pickups are not too close to the strings. This can cause note deflection. Proper string gauge for the specific tuning is also very important. Hope that helps!🤘 Also +1 for everything @lomni mentioned. If you are an aggressive player, you’ll want to tune your guitar for the initial hit. And make sure you are tuning with the same amount of pick attack as you would when playing. Personally, I tune a few cents flat bc I have a habit of picking harder when I press record
And if you have the string wound around the post backwards or too many/ not enough wraps around the post, you’ll almost always have tuning instability issues
Hi I can relate to many of those points, now I'm seasoned enough to know how valuable advice all of this is! However, I doubt that as a beginner you could avoid things like "ignoring the vocals" or "voice the tone without knowing it's place in the mix". I don't know if there is any way around other than making those mistakes to gain the experience necessary to get a feeling for them. "Just avoid them" is probably an impossible task for someone who is trying to learn. Getting a feeling for such things really takes time but shouldn't stop anyone from making the music they need to at this time of learning. Anyone with me?
I think the main message here is: people want songs, so that's what you'd better give them. It doesn't have to be genius-level, but you need a basic understanding of structure and arrangement to build the foundation for your performance. ... Regarding being in tune, I'd say it's not always essential! But there is an obvious difference between conscious imperfection, and just not knowing what you're doing.
Hmmmmm.... pickups are actually one of the few things on a guitar that *do* affect tone. You can't tell me a vintage single coil versus an overwound humbucker doesn't matter, or even a vintage alnico versus a modern ceramic of the same style. I wouldn't include pickups in that list, swap it out for tone wood or string gauge. Otherwise, nice video. I wish #7 was a problem for me... I have an easy time writing chord progressions and putting them together into song structures, but suck at coming up with riffs and melodies.
@@user-zx5gg8od6l No, they don't make *any* difference. Rick Beato did a long video where him and two other guitarists, along with a guitar tech, swapped string gauges on an electric guitar from 8's to 12's, re-set up the guitars, and recorded themselves playing the same riffs with each string gauge. The tech then took all the recordings, randomized them, and the three players listened to the results and tried to choose between string size. *None of them could tell any difference.* As a viewer, I also couldn't tell any difference. The fact is that 8's and 12's sound identical; it all comes down to personal preference and feel.
Especially as a guitarist you don't leave space for everything else, as long as your riff sounds cool over the rest of the track we think that's all that matters. I'm guilty of a couple.
Point 3: Why do you keep guitar pickups in there? Compared to di boxes and cables or even "tone wood" they actually contribute the most to your tone besides your Amp.for me, a good sounding guitar inspires me to play and that alone is worth their investment and makes the quite important in how I play as well. Of course stock pickups can sound great too, but they do need to fit to that particular guitar.
guitar cables have capacitance and can/will change your tone. they're not magic, signal degradation is a real thing. probably would rarely matter in a home studio situation though (short off the shelf cables). also active/passive matter too.
You nailed it already with no. 1. Metal needs to start with the drums and bass. Not that guitars are just "the icing on top", guitars are of course extremely important in metal, but unless you get the drums and bass mixed and sounding heavy as all fuck FIRST, your guitar tone will be severely lacking in heavyness and intensity.
@ oh yeah for sure man, I record using a guitar-recorded DI track then convert to midi in EZBass and just adjust from there. But I’m just lazy and wanna just play guitar 😂
While you can buy decent pickups and guitar cables for little money these days, actually the statement that pickups and guitar cables don't matter sound-wise is completely wrong. Sadly the source I have for this is only in German but you could try the AI-generated English subtitles: ua-cam.com/video/pg4oPYVlx1g/v-deo.html
I actually bought a bass to have bass on my songs. Not a bass player though. However I am getting a high frequency hum when I play notes. I have to take them out on the EQ afterwards. It is annoying. Mind you it is only a cheap bass for learning.
@@Durkhead It isn't ground hum. My line 6 pod go already has a noise gate. There is a high frequency humming only on my bass when I play a note. My guitars are fine. There is no freq noise when I don't play a note, only when I play. I am suspecting it is because it is a cheap bass.
to be honest - main idea of live mix of band and sometimes in a record mix - guitar is not so matter 😅 good drums, vocal and bass - make 99% of atmosphere and sound on a stage 🤣🤣 and opposite of it - good guitar wouldn't rescue a mix with bad other parts 😔
Ehh, small components do make a cumulative tonal difference. Whether or not the recording equipment, and the listeners ears are good enough for it to matter is another story.
All instruments in a song need to shine. If not, you need to stop and start over. A killer riff will never be enough Listen to isolated tracks from fav songs. Why do you think they are successful? Becuase great riffs and the rest are boring? Of course not. Even programmed drums need to sound exciting and real. Yes soooo boring spending time on them to sound really good but it will worth it.
Believe it or not, the bass sound you choose can have a huge impact on guitar tone. There are areas where they intersect and can help or hurt each other. I realized a while back that part of Dimebag's tone on records is due to the way the bass rubs against it. Alice in Chains used a bass with distortion and played power chords up high to bolster the guitar tone on Dirt.
@petealba707 bro, production! just recording! just DI, as usually it's forced on this channel :) putting a plugin on a guitar - as for me, it's on mixing stage :) not relative to self-recocrding
@@petealba707 just final try - I couldn't agree just with wording of head of this video "self-recording guitarist". Correct phrase should be like this - "bad habits for guitarists which try to do a song in an one person" :) I don't like a phrase "self-recording" there, because self-recording of guitar at home just an one simpliest thing on this way... but yes, that sounds extremely boring from my side... 😅 have a good day bro 😃🍻
Your example of “Walk” doesn’t line up with what you’re trying to say. People don’t hyper focus on the details enough and it isn’t an easy riff. In other words… people can’t seem to play it correctly
THANK YOU. It’s such a lazy practice, and it’s fucking rampant. Rehearse what you want to say and do multiple takes until you get it right, just like you (presumably) would recording a guitar part.
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Interestingly enough, the reason so many demos out there now sound out of tune, is because the bass is so unbelievably IN tune. People forget MIDI bass instruments are heavily processed tuning wise, if you're 20 cents off with the wrong temperament you may as well be tuning on the moon lmao. In other words, "if you logarithmic while you linear, you're gonna have a bad tune"
Instructions unclear. I taped two dimes to my humbucker and my guitar is still out of tune. Joking aside.. you make a valid point
I never thought of that.. but lucky for me I retune after every play through for rhythm guitars
This is a brilliant point!
@@AJoylessEon always always tune to the note! perception and context never fail!
This actually goes back to my time playing in bands live and something I found is you could find really really talented guitarist, but they didn’t have the talent to stop and play for the song. It seems inherent to guitarist in particular to just have a need to show how good they are and it’s like, the Internet is full of millions of guitarists that can play better than me, so I wanna write a song. I’m not really here to show off. I’m here to make a good product.
You're so right! I see this with drummers from time to time as well. The song should be the #1 priority.
Agree with both of you guys 100%
Sounds like you have a winning concept there.
This is exactly why I admire Michael Romeo. He has an incredible technique, but never goes into soulless demonstrations. His solos always serve the music more than him.
The tuning thing is an interesting one for me. I’m of the opinion that reliance on tuners is partly to blame.
I was producing an EP for a band years ago and the guitarist had an octave line that was totally out of tune. I suggested she retune and start again. She reached for the tuner, tuned up the guitar, and played it again… and it sounded the same.
I asked her to tune again and again she reached for the tuner. At that point I stopped her and suggested she tune the octave by ear. At first she looked at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about. We tuned by ear and the track came out great.
It’s just interesting to me that tuning by ear is becoming a lost art. Not to say we shouldn’t use tuners-we absolutely should-I’m just saying it’s good to have those checks and balances.
Seems like he's dumb
That sounds like the guitar not being intonated properly. If she tuned the open string, but then it was playing one octave above, unless you are perfectly intonated you are gonna sound off.
@ That was exactly the problem. We were paying for studio time though and couldn’t really take the time to address that.
@@KevinOShaughnessyGuitareither that or she was playing hard pushing it out of tune
Eae tuning is a lost art. I do it, my students don't see the need. When I'm recording I tune the guitar to sound the best in the frets that I'm going to use, even if the guitar is properly intonated, and that is done by ear, a clip tuner can't understand music.
I do my own mixing and play guitar. Bass. Drums. Keys. Synths. Percussion etc. I found that playing everything really helped my mixes. As in frequency and where they will fit. Guitars in solo vs the mix are two different things. Same with every instrument. I also have had numerous people send me tracks to mix where the guitar is way to hot and clipping. I now ask just for the DI only to reamp. Guitar players tend to think in terms in them vs everyone else. They forget it's a song. Everyone needs to play for the song. Your guitars don't need to be louder or more present than everyone else. Drummers also tend to do this. Overplay. Fills to long or don't fit. And yes bass is really half of the guitar tone. It's amazing what a good tight bass will do for guitar. However vocals are 100% the focal point They come first. Always. Everything he said is 100% true.
This guy is the best honestly. Love his videos.
Love your work bobby.. i learned a lot of awesome tips from your channel that i applied to my own mixes and my album i released just over a month ago, I'm really happy with it. Thanks for sharing all of your insights and knowledge. I still need improvement but you definitely got me on my way. Cheers! Hello from australia.
On tuning: when you leave strings on for too long the intonation goes wrong, meaning they start going sharp by the 12th fret. This can take but a few months, and I am told that changes in temperature (and especially humidity) will ruin your tuning and intonation. Playing guitar is expensive.
Isn't that fixed by truss rod adjustments?
@ New strings fixed last I checked. The action, truss rod, etc. has always been fine on my guitars.
@@Anthonybrother If its because of old strings you replace the strings. If it's because the intonation isn't set properly you adjust the bridge saddles to be closer/further from the neck. Truss rod adjustment is to get your frets all on the same plane with each other.
Guitar cables make a huge difference in sound, especially whenever you have a bigger rig, running through a lot of cables.
Causing tone suck, more feedback humming, etc.
They definitely make amps sound more alive and overdriven.
I used to think my amps didn’t have enough gain, but it was my guitars not having enough clarity from my tone.
My gold Mogami cables cleared that issue up from day one, and yet I’ve never had more gain than ever.
Good luck with the new studio. You deserve upgraded digs.
For me this is all a hobby. Im just getting to relive my youth and be 18 again. Except in what would be for me then a science fiction world of recording.
But I have learned a lot from your channel and it has allowed me to create music better. So thanks for all your wisdom. Even though it’s well above my level, I’ve been able to use the parts where I can and it’s been supper helpful. Thanks !!
Great Video Bobby! Looking forward to the studio build vids!
Thanks Bobby,
This vid just confirm that I'm on the right track (he he). And yes the bass is so important...
For the 3 last years I've been recording (learning my DAW) all most full time in my home studio. I'm now achiving much better results than 3 years ago thanks to you, and some others UA-camrs... I print tracks with out major difficulty because, I have a quicker set-up to work in my DAW, I learn my parts, I keep my instrument in tune and I get my Tone/Sound right in the box (I usually use my Amp whit a speaker simulation) same for the bass. If I'm not satisfied with the sound result, I just plug a mic and re-print with my cab.
Long live your chanel
Sly
Note: please excuse my english...
Great tips for beginners, I will add that people should be aware of mechanical noise on their instrument and learn how to mute them, otherwise they will be on the recordings and there's no way to clean that out
Bass is everything and guitarist hate it I guess. I bought one just for playing on my songs and I ended up really enjoying it. Ended spending more on a bass than ever have on a guitar and it's paid off big time. Getting a nasty bass tone and adding it in is one of the most satisfying parts of writing.
Werd.
This is a really good list and I personally don’t fall under any of these surprisingly but I used to. I think another one that’s worth listing is that a lot of recording guitar players feel like they need to record their guitars super loud through an amplifier where you don’t need it loud at all. I rock an SM57 pointed between the middle and edge of the speaker, regular volume. you’ll definitely notice a difference in the transient when it comes time to mix.
3:39 Im a newbie maybe i dont now shit, but I tought I could cheap on cables when I got my guitar, I was messing with the bass before that and I was using Fender Professional Series cables wich converted to my currency seemed more of a mid-priced I would say. So I bought cheaper cable and for the first couple of days it sounded super muddy my guitar was also a budget one so I thought I messed up with my purchase altogether but when I tried the Fender cable on my guitar it was night and day difference, it sounded super clean.
EDIT: I should also mention that it was indeed the cable because I tried it on the bass and again the sound was muddy, also the cable wasn't long either.
My last band was notorious with trait #1 and #7. The lead guitarist (a high end software engineer with AMAZON who has been with them for 10+ years) had no understanding for overall mix and just turned guitars up louder than everything and would always praise "how good it sounds."
now imagine working with guitarists that do all 7 of these. being a guitar player myself, i obviously did some of those at some point, but being a producer for 8ish years definitely changed my View on things
Welcome back Bobby! Looking forward to seeing your new studio soon. Thanks for the common sense post.
Great video! I've been guilty of a couple of these habits in the past. But I believe I've worked past them thanks to you and others here on YT. Keep up the great work! Horns up! 🤘🤘
Regarding the point on tuning, technique also plays a huge part in the "tuning" of the guitars. Hard attack on the strings (especially lighter gauge strings), bending notes while fretting chords due to a death grip on the neck, pressure on the floating bridge with the picking hand etc etc etc. Also when tuning, playing notes to delicately. As a side note, some great records from the 70s and 80s have guitars that are out of tune in them :) The over all idea of the video is spot on though, serve the song - not your ego, took me a while to learn that. As a side note, not a fan of the idea of recording in sections. Learn the song back to front and record it that way - even if you have to do a number of takes. The only time I see this being useful is if you are recording DI and the song switches between "dirty" and "clean", don't wanna be chopping up DI signals. In my experience, the way you play the riff at the beginning of a song is very different to the way you play it at the end of the song and the audience can pick up on that energy. Call me crazy :)
Good to see you again, can't wait to see the new studio 🤘
Had a band teacher who always said a single note will stand out of an Orchestra like a sore thumb. We have tuning software in our daw no reason for a single note to be out of tune. I do feel like my programed drums could be better. I am putting a little more time on them.
I'm glad to know you're just busy, I thought my phone wasn't giving me notifications of your videos, happy i haven't missed anything. I am definitely guilty of #5, I'm not a good singer and don't know anyone who is at the moment. I do personally like listening to instrumentals but as we all know... The real deal comes with vocals.
Love this video 🙏🙏
Feel quite proud that I don't do any of these but know a few who do... Makes sense they would cause issue though.
The one I do waaaay too often is picking some beautiful, lush guitar sound with reverb and delay. Then running guitars to my reverb and delay busses. “Everything sounds sort of muddled…” 🤔
As blaming gear goes, I feel like age of the strings and intonation are the things that matter most.
The main issues from older strings I have are when they start affecting intonation though.
I agree.
When does a string become old? I change like every second month depending on how much i play, i usually feel no difference, so maybe my strings werent old by that time
When I recorded my album.. I changed strings every 2 or 3 songs just to make sure. And retuned the guitar after every single play through.
Its liberating not caring about being Professional. I can just create what I can with what I got, access the situation, learn, then move on. Its so much more realistic just to hire someone like you 🤘There is no way I can ever have my Home Studio / Jam Room / Living Space on par with you Professionals 🍻 Its so awesome to have a ton of demos up to find band members, and build comradery along the way, but when its time to get serious fork over the cash and let the pros handle it. If being great at Guitar isn't hard enough on its own, now days, I have to fill many shoes, AV production, social media, acoustic's, band management, neighborhood management...IT NEVER ENDS 🤣🤣
I’m still using a recording setup I purchased used late 2008. Whilst I have replaced hard drives in the DAW, it’s still a Windows XP a pro on an old HP Woekstation, FireWire converters and good ol’ CuBaseSX3 and Ozone 3. As I remind myself, that had more capability than the setup the recorded Nevermind, the album that changed the world. It’s proved to me that 90% is in the performance, and the mostly live recordings I make have a much better vibe than the staid demos done in professional studios
when i did live sound bands always use to ask what can we do to get better. my response everytime everyone should get a tuner. its magic when your all in tune.....and it makes u see some timing issues you can fix. people make fun of the old drunk hill billy country people but guess what....they were all in tune....and they all edited
I've made some of these mistakes in the past. Good advice!
I do none of those, either because I never did, or because I learned the hard way. But I will add some:
8. Having the guitar track too loud in the mix. You touched on this with the importance of bass, bass tone and bass performance, but I hear this a lot, and I used to be guilty of this. This will vary with the song, but I used to be too timid about letting the guitar be lower in the mix overall for some songs. Some songs are driven by bass, or some songs are driven by drums, and sometimes that is true for parts of a song, like perhaps in the verse, the guitar is hanging back and then comes in louder in the drop. The song, the song, the song. And I would one thing about guitar tone - ironically and hilariously, sometimes to get a guitar tone right for a mix, it needs to be smaller, shittier or duller. I don't know how many times I've gone back and realized that a straight Plexi was the right tone for a track.
9. Turn down the gain to the bare minimum - your tracks will be heavier.
10. Don't listen to these people who say that less low mids is always the right answer - it's not. You should keep it in mind, and watch how much low mids you're having to sculpt out during mixing. The huge tone you want when practicing isn't the tone you want to record most of the time - but not always. And if you want big tone for your sound, you can do that - just ask Jerry Cantrell or Zakk Wylde. But something else will have to give up the space that the guitar is soaking up, and that may not work for every song. Also, it's far better to get the right tone at tracking time than to EQ (even with subtractive EQ only) at mix time. Queens of the Stone Age's Insane track has a +8 db boost at 250hz for example - that's breaking every conceivable "rule" and it was exactly what that producer wanted and exactly what that song needed. Isolate those guitar tracks and you will find it sounds like ass.
The final tip is my issue. I have a slight intonation problem with my guitar. I have made adjustments, and am close, but find myself retuning frequently.
Could be binding in the nut, improper stringing or pitch drift if your pick attack is quite high and you have lighter strings
Hey! guitar tech here.. if you have tuning issues near the first couple frets, check the open notes against the first fret. If the first fret pulls sharp, it means your nut slots are too high. If tuning issues happen near the 12th fret and higher, moving the saddle should correct this. Assuming your neck and action are where they should be. Make sure your pickups are not too close to the strings. This can cause note deflection. Proper string gauge for the specific tuning is also very important. Hope that helps!🤘
Also +1 for everything @lomni mentioned. If you are an aggressive player, you’ll want to tune your guitar for the initial hit. And make sure you are tuning with the same amount of pick attack as you would when playing.
Personally, I tune a few cents flat bc I have a habit of picking harder when I press record
And if you have the string wound around the post backwards or too many/ not enough wraps around the post, you’ll almost always have tuning instability issues
@@jordanneville2044
Thank you for the tips. I will give them a try.
Hi I can relate to many of those points, now I'm seasoned enough to know how valuable advice all of this is! However, I doubt that as a beginner you could avoid things like "ignoring the vocals" or "voice the tone without knowing it's place in the mix". I don't know if there is any way around other than making those mistakes to gain the experience necessary to get a feeling for them. "Just avoid them" is probably an impossible task for someone who is trying to learn. Getting a feeling for such things really takes time but shouldn't stop anyone from making the music they need to at this time of learning. Anyone with me?
Bobby I’m blaming bad UA-cam advice 😂😂😂! Seriously I learned a very lot from some of you guys
I think the main message here is: people want songs, so that's what you'd better give them. It doesn't have to be genius-level, but you need a basic understanding of structure and arrangement to build the foundation for your performance. ... Regarding being in tune, I'd say it's not always essential! But there is an obvious difference between conscious imperfection, and just not knowing what you're doing.
Thank you!
Hmmmmm.... pickups are actually one of the few things on a guitar that *do* affect tone. You can't tell me a vintage single coil versus an overwound humbucker doesn't matter, or even a vintage alnico versus a modern ceramic of the same style. I wouldn't include pickups in that list, swap it out for tone wood or string gauge. Otherwise, nice video. I wish #7 was a problem for me... I have an easy time writing chord progressions and putting them together into song structures, but suck at coming up with riffs and melodies.
@@user-zx5gg8od6l No, they don't make *any* difference. Rick Beato did a long video where him and two other guitarists, along with a guitar tech, swapped string gauges on an electric guitar from 8's to 12's, re-set up the guitars, and recorded themselves playing the same riffs with each string gauge. The tech then took all the recordings, randomized them, and the three players listened to the results and tried to choose between string size. *None of them could tell any difference.* As a viewer, I also couldn't tell any difference. The fact is that 8's and 12's sound identical; it all comes down to personal preference and feel.
FIRST !! Finally you and your hair made it through and proper headbanging can happen
An add on for that last toxic trait: all instruments are to use *one* tuner.
Especially as a guitarist you don't leave space for everything else, as long as your riff sounds cool over the rest of the track we think that's all that matters. I'm guilty of a couple.
Point 3:
Why do you keep guitar pickups in there? Compared to di boxes and cables or even "tone wood" they actually contribute the most to your tone besides your Amp.for me, a good sounding guitar inspires me to play and that alone is worth their investment and makes the quite important in how I play as well. Of course stock pickups can sound great too, but they do need to fit to that particular guitar.
guitar cables have capacitance and can/will change your tone. they're not magic, signal degradation is a real thing. probably would rarely matter in a home studio situation though (short off the shelf cables). also active/passive matter too.
Me: “Guitar players have ADD in all the wrong places”.
Also me: “Errr…” 😬
You nailed it already with no. 1. Metal needs to start with the drums and bass. Not that guitars are just "the icing on top", guitars are of course extremely important in metal, but unless you get the drums and bass mixed and sounding heavy as all fuck FIRST, your guitar tone will be severely lacking in heavyness and intensity.
Bro can you do a step by step drum tracking session
#7 is THE Big one...🤘
“Toxic habits” is such a goofy way to describe ignorance/lack of experience 😂
Ignorance can be toxic
Not in this context
I understand the importance of recording bass, I just don't wannaaaa fucken dooooo ittttttttttttttttttttttttt
Just use a plugin then. For example i use the free version of modo bass with a guitar rig bass amp on top of it. Couldnt even be better
@ oh yeah for sure man, I record using a guitar-recorded DI track then convert to midi in EZBass and just adjust from there. But I’m just lazy and wanna just play guitar 😂
As a bass player i approve of #1 toxic habits. Lol
While you can buy decent pickups and guitar cables for little money these days, actually the statement that pickups and guitar cables don't matter sound-wise is completely wrong. Sadly the source I have for this is only in German but you could try the AI-generated English subtitles: ua-cam.com/video/pg4oPYVlx1g/v-deo.html
I actually bought a bass to have bass on my songs. Not a bass player though. However I am getting a high frequency hum when I play notes. I have to take them out on the EQ afterwards. It is annoying. Mind you it is only a cheap bass for learning.
Try moving further away from your computer also reaper has a noise reduction plugin called reaFIR where you record the noise and it cancels it out
@@Durkhead It isn't ground hum. My line 6 pod go already has a noise gate. There is a high frequency humming only on my bass when I play a note. My guitars are fine. There is no freq noise when I don't play a note, only when I play. I am suspecting it is because it is a cheap bass.
A Sean Clark fan I see
I'm a huge fan of his...great eye!
Very guilty👍 But I agree on everything even if Im stil learning
to be honest - main idea of live mix of band and sometimes in a record mix - guitar is not so matter 😅
good drums, vocal and bass - make 99% of atmosphere and sound on a stage 🤣🤣
and opposite of it - good guitar wouldn't rescue a mix with bad other parts 😔
Long cables DO change the sound , they reduce dynamics and high end. You can solve this with a buffer ✌🏻
Nothing is more important than my guitar tone! Nothing! NOTHING!!!1 😉
Have you tried reverse pan reverb?
IT'LL GET IN THE WAY OF MY FELTY TONE I GOT FROM THE PURPLE COMPOSITE PAINT!
@@mikaelnyblom pitch it down an octive and blend it in with the original signal?
I'm being ironic.
@@mikaelnyblom dont cha think?
A little too ironic........
And i really do think
Ehh, small components do make a cumulative tonal difference.
Whether or not the recording equipment, and the listeners ears are good enough for it to matter is another story.
All instruments in a song need to shine. If not, you need to stop and start over. A killer riff will never be enough Listen to isolated tracks from fav songs. Why do you think they are successful? Becuase great riffs and the rest are boring? Of course not. Even programmed drums need to sound exciting and real. Yes soooo boring spending time on them to sound really good but it will worth it.
sorry, but... habit1 is not so relative with selfrecording) with arrangement, with mixing - sure, but not in production, isn't it?
Believe it or not, the bass sound you choose can have a huge impact on guitar tone. There are areas where they intersect and can help or hurt each other. I realized a while back that part of Dimebag's tone on records is due to the way the bass rubs against it. Alice in Chains used a bass with distortion and played power chords up high to bolster the guitar tone on Dirt.
@petealba707 bro, production! just recording! just DI, as usually it's forced on this channel :) putting a plugin on a guitar - as for me, it's on mixing stage :) not relative to self-recocrding
@@alexbrowchenkomusic I read your statement three times and still don't understand it. Let's just agree to disagree.
@@petealba707 just final try - I couldn't agree just with wording of head of this video "self-recording guitarist". Correct phrase should be like this - "bad habits for guitarists which try to do a song in an one person" :) I don't like a phrase "self-recording" there, because self-recording of guitar at home just an one simpliest thing on this way...
but yes, that sounds extremely boring from my side... 😅
have a good day bro 😃🍻
Your example of “Walk” doesn’t line up with what you’re trying to say. People don’t hyper focus on the details enough and it isn’t an easy riff. In other words… people can’t seem to play it correctly
Walk the simplest riff that nobody can play
@ we are talking about a very specific accent on a swing groove here… if you were in the know, you’d agree
@@dougleydorite who r u talkin to?
@@Durkhead I agree with what you said above lol. I misread, I apologize
@@dougleydorite dont apologize on youtube it makes you look weak
Why does the video cut and chop about every few words it’s very distracting. Is it that hard to say a sentence in one go?
We live in a world of perfection and editing like this for some reason is becoming the norm. I don't get it.
I can’t finish the video now that I’ve seen this comment. It’s annoying the shit out of me.
THANK YOU. It’s such a lazy practice, and it’s fucking rampant. Rehearse what you want to say and do multiple takes until you get it right, just like you (presumably) would recording a guitar part.
Some of us listen to it while driving without watching and appreciate the seamless splicing of sentences
😂
Hello, I'm the guy who like to complain about youtube audio mixing. Nice to meet you. 0:29 is way too loud. Great video tho.
Unsubscribed😂