Mixing the Acoustic Guitar [Acoustic Guitars Part 4]

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Mixing the Acoustic Guitar Acoustic Guitars Part
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When it comes to mixing acoustic guitar with a
complement of other instruments and voices, there
are some specific strategies to achieve the best
results. Getting your acoustic guitar tracks to
play nicely in the mix is much easier than you
might think! Here are some tips.
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Whats It Doing, Anyway?
Consider what the acoustic is doing for the
song. If the guitar is a prominent instrument,
feel free to make it as big and wide as the mix
will tolerate. Pay special attention to the
transients, or the attack of the sound, as well
as the relationship of the transients to the
decay of the guitar. The other crucial ingredient
to consider is the recording technique.
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No More Rumble
High pass filters are critical for getting rid of
errant noises and clearing up the headroom of the
entire mix. The cutoff frequency is the first
place where you can start refining the presence
of the guitar.
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No More Rumble
High pass filters are critical for getting rid of
errant noises and clearing up the headroom of the
entire mix. The cutoff frequency is the first
place where you can start refining the
presence of the guitar.
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Capitalize on the Transients
Acoustic guitars respond really well to transient
designers since they allow you to narrow your
dynamic processing to a very specific part of the
waveform. Add some punch or mellow out the attack
with a transient designer. It could work better
than a compressor.
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Carve It Up
Think of EQing as trimming your signal to fit
into the big sandbox of the mix with all the
other children the vocals, the drums, bass, and
so on. You need to slim down the signal just
enough to make it fit.
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First, lets talk about subtractive EQ. Dont
follow these guidelines strictly. However, these
are just some common frequencies to tend
to Boom!  Somewhere between 150 and 350
Hz Plink  Cutting a bit around 800 Hz can make
any guitar sound a little less like a plastic toy
and more like a professional instrument Upper
Mids of Destiny  a cut somewhere between 2-8 kHz
with a broad Q
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Magic Air
Just like voices, adding a little high end to
guitars can create a lovely sparkle that makes
them perk up in a mix and leave space for other
instruments.
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Reverb?
Applying reverb to acoustic guitars is a personal
pursuit but it is one way to thicken the sound or
push it back in the mix. How much or what kind of
reverb is track dependent. Consider some slap
back to thicken it up as well. Some considerate
EQing of the reverb can help glue the sound to
the guitar track and keep it classy.
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Moving Targets
You can make the acoustic a little more
distinctive in a dense mix by adding judicious
quantities of modulation effects.
Image  Maggie Osterberg via Compfight
Doubling
A classic doubling effect utilizes a hard
panned track with a short delay of the original
in the opposite channel.
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Mixing the Acoustic Guitar Acoustic Guitars Part
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