DIY Music: How to produce great guitars

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to share with you all some helpful advice that I follow typically whenever I’m recording my own guitars. 

Let’s get into it.

How to produce great guitars

So let’s start with some audio 101. 

When you are producing music, there are 2 types of sounds. There are computer sounds and there are acoustic sounds. 

So a computer sound would be a sample of a kick or snare being played and an acoustic sound would be like singing into a microphone or an acoustic guitar or an acoustic drum kit. 

Basically anything that is made with the computer is a computer sound and anything that uses a microphone is an acoustic sound. 

And when you are recording acoustic sounds, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind especially when talking about instruments acoustic sounds. 

So the first thing you should keep in mind is that you need to be in tune. 

I know that sounds obvious but believe it or not, a lot of guitarists wing the tuning a lot because they feel confident in their tuning abilities. 

And though a guitarists tuning abilities maybe strong with their ears, it’s almost never going to be enough to tune to the standard that a good tuner would do. 

So it’s just better to use a tuner to tune the guitars or pianos or whatever instrument you need to be tuned. 

Next it’s important that you are a locked in guitarist that can keep beat and rhythm

So you will develop these 2 things long before you ever step foot in a recording studio.

But just know that it’s highly important that you can use a metronome and keep beat and use rhythm and wide variety of rhythm. 

Because there will be instances where different rhythms are going to be needed right on the spot. 

So keep practicing using a metronome and playing along to your favorite songs. 

Layer between 2 and 4 guitars at the same time 

So when you make guitars, it’s important that you play the same guitar part on top of each other because it actually creates a great second guitar.

What happens is you should know that when you play a rhythm in a song, you almost always will never play the same thing over again, and that’s good for us. 

Because if you were to play a chord progression with one rhythm, and have another guitar play another rhythm but the same progression it actually sound really good when you play them at the same time because it sounds like a wall of sound just coming out after you. 

I would not recommend layering more than 4 guitars though because then it can just sound messy. 

I typically stick with 2 to 3 guitars. So that’s 2 acoustic guitars and a bass guitar. 

And if I do 4 guitars it’s usually with one electric guitar on it as well. 

*Pro tip when making your second guitar, play the same exact chords except on a different position on the guitar. So say for example if you’re playing a Dsus4 in first position then your second guitar play it in like 5th position, that means that you’re using the fifth fret of the guitar to play the same chord, it will sound really good. 

Some general tips for mixing guitars

So this is not a comprehensive guide on how to mix music. 

But these are just some general tips that you should follow when mixing guitars. 

EQ goes first. When you’re mixing guitars or anything in general, it’s usually best to have your EQ as the first effect that acts on your acoustic sounds. 

So in your chain in your DAW just set the EQ as the first thing that acts when you play that sound. 

And take away the lowest parts of the sound and shape the rest of the guitar accordingly to your reference track. 

Compression

Compression is used for acoustic sounds. It ensures that there is enough volume in the quiet parts and the volume is lowered on the loud parts so that way it’s all consistent. 

And believe me it happens in acoustic sounds. 

So learn how to use compression and you will be good. It’s really not that hard, however, it can be tricky.

So I will teach you the fastest way to detect compression in professional recordings. 

Take one of your songs that you don’t have mixed or mastered. 

And take a professional song that’s already professionally mixed and mastered.

and notice the difference in volume levels on the guitars.

Pick a song that’s professionally mixed and mastered and it’s within your genre. So say for example if you have an acoustic song, then pick an acoustic song to compare your music to. 

And when you have both songs, bounce back and forth between listening to both songs in a fast manner. So say for example listen to your song for 10 seconds and then listen to their song for 10 seconds and notice the difference in volume levels that they have, and just know that most of the problems that you have with your volume levels can be fixed with compression.

that’s the fastest way to learn how to mix. 

you can use that technique for all the other aspects of a mix too. 

Whether that’s EQ, reverb, or delay, or Saturation, you can use it to learn how to mix. 

Reverb and Delay

So the general rule of thumb when adding delay to a guitar track, is to NOT add delay. 

The reason is because guitar is a rhythm instrument and delay is a rhythm part of a song that can make the song sound too distorted if done on the guitars. 

However, I personally put delay on the guitars because I like it and it sounds really big. 

So you choose how you want to do it. 

And reverb is the one that you put on the guitar. 

The reason why you kind of need to put reverb on the guitar is because reverb helps acoustic parts to settle into a song really nicely. 

So you might notice in some of your recordings that your acoustic parts are on beat but they sound off. 

That problem can actually be fixed with reverb, the reverb will help the guitars to settle in. 

And that will eliminate the “off” that you notice on your acoustic tracks. 

You don’t need a lot. 

And depending on the kind of song that you’re making is how much reverb you’re going to put in that song. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!