Edit Your Way To A Better Guitar Tone - Mixing HEAVY Guitars

One of the biggest challenges we all face as metal producers is getting those damn guitars to sit right when mixing our heavy guitars.

Not only was this an extreme frustration of mine for years, but I constantly hear of other people dealing with the same issues to this day.

Different era.

Fancier plugins.

More advanced amp modelers...

SAME OLD ISSUES WITH MIXING HEAVY GUITAR TONE.

Even when we do get our guitars sounding decent on their own, getting them to gel within the rest of the mix always proves to be a major pain in the ass.

Why is this?

After years of banging my head against the wall..

chasing my tail..

overprocessing my guitar tracks to complete crap in a desperate attempt to finally achieve the heavy guitar tones I've always wanted in my mixes..

I finally got to see how a real pro handles heavy guitars in a mix.

The answer to this guitar tone mixing problem is often the last place where people tend to look.

This truth is that it all comes down to how you EDIT your guitar tracks.

No EQ, compression, or saturation plugin can help a guitar tone that's not in the pocket.

The most subtle of timing discrepancies can really do a number on your perceived guitar tone.

[spikessignal]

There's thousands of videos on mixing. But I don't come across videos on editing nearly as much. You've been a big help man.

Years ago I didn't edited guitars but I tried to play tight while recording.. now I do both 😁 try to play the best as possible while recording and check out the guitars and correct little details on the editing 🙂 👍

[stewartsmyth]

Totally agree with you that it's not cheating. To me, it's about serving the music and if it makes a recording sound awesome, isn't that what we all want?

[anthonyryan]

I’m new to mixing metal but this is important, from your videos on editing specifically in relation to other metal mixing videos I’ve seen, I’ve noticed that metal engineers are seriously smarter than most other genre engineers. Usually you can very obviously hear when someone bypasses the effect their showcasing, but with metal music, the difference in sound that’s being referred to as a huge improvement, is And I know it only lends to the idea my ears aren’t as experienced as they can be, but I must say they are a lot more experienced than your average streaming consumer. You guys are

[recordman]

Your philosophy of Production is spot-on, Bobby. I like to do "whatever it takes" when it comes the realisation that it's MY name that appears as PRODUCER on that track that is released.

[ZedChuva]

I spent the late 80's and most of the 90's recording to tape on a Tascam 4-Track. And to this day, I still try to do everything in one take. I CAN'T (cause I suck), but I do my best, cause once I start punching in, I can't stop. haha
Great info and video.

[OmgItsAlexOfficial]

It's the un-sexy stuff like editing guitars that makes a mix clean and clear and punchy.

[blastbeatdown]

This is sick man. I learned two quick things about editing just from watching this. You should do more videos that focus on editing. I always thought that was one of your strongest traits as an engineer.

[samravi]

Woah, thanks a bunch man I did this to all my double tracks &, everything's so tight now!

[greghillmusic]

I just can't get this editing thing down. Now all my stuff sounds rushed. I think it's cuz I line up the transients with the drums instead of the pick attack.

[JohnsonGuitarCovers]

Why didn't I think of that sometimes I just can't get my tracks as tight as I want them. this helps so much. Thanks!!

[dankabbott]

ive been watching your vids like a mad man this weekend, thanks for what you do

[AlexeySolovievMusic]

Really awesome video! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful videos Bobby! Learning so much great stuff about metal production from you! You are the best bro 😀👍🔥🔥🔥

[crissabater]

Great video again. Even though I am a pretty tight player I have certainly learned something here from the DI tracks. Will look to utilise this. Cheers.

[leearmitage]

thanks man great tips, think I need to do this at times haha

[mitiasmirnovmusic]

Once you've done this to the guitars, should you also be doing this to the bass?

[EviloveMetal]

Isn't there little gaps in the audio where you spliced it? How do you fill in those gaps?

Thanks for the tutorial & great channel!

[zaydacevedo]

What hot keys did you use to apply fades and consolidate in pro tools?

[NacekO]

Hello Bobby. It took me a long time to start ignoring this BS "editing is cheating" advice and my sound improved as soon as I started editing things. I have a question about drum editing. Let's say that the drummer is playing sixteenth notes with the kick and hitting the snare on the second and fourth beat. The drummer being the drummer is not hitting the snare at the same time as the kick. So I edit my kicks so they sound consistent but the snare is right between two kicks. Is there anything I can do about this or am I screwed. I know I can nudge just the snare into the right place but I want to avoid doing that because I wish to have room mics in the mix and in those as you know you can't put the snare on the kick if they haven't been played at the same time. Is there some sort of trickery I could to?

[tompung]

Editing guitars in PT is so much faster and smoother than in Cubase. I hope Steinberg will make it as easy and fast like PT very soon.