📑 Sections (7)

Quick guide: mix guitars

The concrete settings so the guitars take their place without covering the bass, drums or vocal.

Distorted guitars take up a huge amount of spectrum. The key is to remove what they don’t contribute to leave room for the rest. Always adjust with the band playing: a trimmed guitar alone sounds odd, and in the mix it’s exactly what you need.

1. First, the amp sim

Most of the sound gets decided there, which is why it’s worth keeping the DI.

  • Less gain than seems necessary. It sounds bigger and more defined, especially with doubled guitars.
  • For metal: a Tube Screamer-style pedal before the amp, with drive at 0 and level high, to tighten the lows.

2. Panning

  • Two rhythm takes: 100% left and 100% right.
  • Four takes: 100/100/50/50 to build the wall.
  • Solos: center or slightly off.

3. EQ with the Pro EQ

On each track, with the Pro EQstock:

  • High-pass at 80–120 Hz (100–120 Hz in metal): those lows belong to the bass and kick.
  • Low-pass above 8–12 kHz: removes the distortion’s fizz.
  • Cut at 200–500 Hz if there’s mud, looking for the zone that bothers you.
  • Narrow cuts at 2.5–5 kHz on resonances that hurt, if there are any.
🔴 Set this NOW· in mixing

The high-pass is the adjustment that most organizes the mix for what it costs: one filter, and the bass and kick appear.

If the palm mutes boom: Studio One 4 has no dynamic EQ, but the Multiband Dynamicsstock does that job. Compress a band at 150–250 Hz so it drops only when it jumps out.

4. Compression

A distorted guitar already comes heavily compressed and normally doesn’t need more. Clean guitars can take gentle compression.

5. Guitar bus

Send them all to the same bus:

  • Glue compression with the Compressorstock: ratio 2:1, medium or slow attack, 1 to 3 dB of reduction.
  • Room for the vocal: a gentle cut at 2–4 kHz. If the vocal can’t be understood, try this before raising it.

6. Solos

When there’s a vocal, the lead guitar drops or moves to another range. In the solos, raise it with automation and add a little delay.

Checklist

In order

  1. Amp sim with less gain than seems necessary.
  2. Panning: 100% to each side (or 100/100/50/50 with four takes).
  3. High-pass at 80–120 Hz and low-pass at 8–12 kHz.
  4. Cut the mud at 200–500 Hz if needed.
  5. All to the bus, with 1 to 3 dB of compression.
  6. A 2–4 kHz gap for the vocal.
  7. Mono check: they're still there and don't disappear.

Expected result

Expected result

A wide, firm wall of guitars that lets you hear the kick, snare, bass and vocal. Alone they can sound thin and even ugly: what matters is how they sound with everything. The detail of each step is in chain and high-pass and the sections that follow.