I think that tape is expensive and there isn't a single emulation that sounds exactly like it. :( But... the softube TAPE plugin I find myself using a lot, not for a realistic tape effect, but just for adding a bit of grit to the audio. On the lowest speed it can also act like a nice vocal de-esser. xD
I use mainly the same concept, tape emulator, compressors... but Marc is on another level, very precise, small steps, awesome. Anyway I agree with digital being “worse” than analog for acoustics guitars. My old 4 tracks cassette recorder sounded “better” than today guitars on digital. I think that the tape speed fluctuations made a difference.
I found Izotope Neutron 3 to be an amazing tool for acoustic guitar. It's basically the same chain of processing than Marc presented but in one tool. I'm not a huge fan of presets but the Neutron 3 presets are pretty awesome and very good starting points. Once again thanks a lot to Marc and to Produce Like A Pro for this great video. Cheers
Hey all, I'm the artist featured in the video. First off, Marc did an amazing job with this song - he's incredibly talented and a joy to work with. For anyone interested...the acoustic guitar was actually a Hofner Archtop that I believe was mic'd with a Vanguard V13. We recorded it as a scratch track with the intent of mic'ing up a proper acoustic later, however, the track ended up with a lot of dense elements towards the end, and the percussiveness of the instrument made sense so I decided to keep it. What Marc did with it is nothing short of genius - he really made something that was just passable come to life in a beautiful way by retaining the dynamic nature of the guitar but limiting the harshness. A delicate balance. Marc is the man. Thanks PLAP for posting!
Hi Brandon, Corbin here. I'm a singer/songwriter, guitar player. I love what little I'm hearing of your song. "The wind's blowing cold but it's warm in the sand". Clever writing, I'd like to hear the rest. Where/How can I get a copy? I'm not on any social media other than you tube.
@@HenryC7625 hey Corbin thanks for the kind words. This track will be released later in the summer. You can find me on any of the streaming platforms. I have a song called “colors” Marc mixed and a new track dropping June 11 he also did for me. Thanks!
I'm going to try this with my stock plug ins in Cubase Elements 11. 1. Channel Tape Saturation 2. Standard Channel EQ 3. Tube Compressor 4. Roomworks Reverb 5. Envelope Shaper It might not sound as great as the paid plug ins, but I'm sure it will improve the sound for sure!
@@MrHhkrohn Always after. Get a decent signal while recording (I usually set about 75% level peak). Then apply the plug ins. Sometime I might not use a tube emulator if I want something extra clean. Check how it sounds in the mix and see how it sits.
Wow Marc! That sounds amazing! Interesting how that Trans X didn't just lower it in the mix ...it's as if it moved it in the room. So many layers in that song as well. Great mixing! Like you could stick your head in and see around in there instead of just a wall of sound coming out of the speaker. Humbled by your skills .
What a pleasant moment it is to receive a notification about how to learn to improve the sound of an acoustic guitar with a few simple and subtle steps. The result is incredibly organic. I have some very similar guitars to mix. Right now I get to work! Thanks Marc for your contribution and Buena Vida!
The recording of the guitar is really good! Marc manages to make it fit in the mix and make it sound like a record with some great tricks. I work with acoustic guitars a lot and this is definitely something I'll try out! :)
Another fantastic tutorial from Marc! Your channel has been extremely helpful. I'm always picking up cool things to try, and finding artist I really enjoy. Thanks Warren!
Your ideas are the best! I had a mix I was working on that needed something extra on the acoustic guitar and tried this. As soon as I added the virtual tape machine the guitar sounded better, more real, somehow. I really like hearing the reasoning behind your mix decisions as well, because they inform what to look for or try to bring out in a mix. Thanks again!
waves req +waves c1 compressor (low reference to brings out the high frequencies) +waves veq4 for tonal eq +waves cla 3a to eliminate clicks and peaks .
Thank you so much Marc, I've been struggling with an acoustic piece for months, trying to get rid of the spikiness and keep it sounding natural, I've kept United Plugins AG and CLA Guitar at the start of the chain and added a couple of additional Q3 points to taste, but otherwise your suggestions have transformed a painful, unnatural sounding piece into what was originally intended. Thanks again.
Your tips and tricks continue to be a huge source of ideas/inspiration, and in this case perfectly timed. I'm struggling with the placement of acoustic guitar tracks in a current mix with heavily competing piano and harpsichord. The character of the song is circa-Tusk period Fleetwood Mac, with the Bass carrying an above average role in driving the melody (i.e. contributing more traffic in the mids and high-mids than normal) . My mix is cleaner after a series of precision boosts and corresponding cuts, but I'd describe the remaining acoustic guitar tone as "spikey transients featuring the shrilly harsh 5k freq." that you demonstrated shelving down. In just 8:39 spent watching your approach I learned: 1) Even though I built the saturation on my tracks in small incremental steps (from multiple plugins), the cumulative effect was too much and probably wasn't even the right kind of saturation for acoustic guitar. Fortunately I own the Softube Tape plugin you used. Significant tonal improvement after greatly reducing the old saturation buildup and adding Softube Tape. 2) I had established a mentality that 2-3 dB of gain increase or reduction IS being conservative, but I'm rethinking this after hearing the impact of the subtle 1-1.5 dB moves you were making. Especially in the higher frequencies. 3) Similar to #2, the 2-4 dB that I believed constituted gentle compression was negatively impacting the guitar tone. Much better now after reducing it to a little over 1 dB. 4) A transient designer isn't always the best tool for taming transients. What?!? I've been using Punctuate by Newfangled Audio for a while now and in most cases it provides really good results. Except... not so much on my current song. It's actually helping me make things worse. Without watching your video I wouldn't have known to consider using something like Trans X by Waves in this instance. . I've only been at this for a few years, but I think I've recently entered a "golden period" of hyper-improvement. Now that I have a reasonable handle on process/tools and have the experience of creating enough sub-optimal mixes, I can conceptualize the impact of the information I'm consuming. The advice you and Warren are providing is absolutely invaluable for someone like me. Thanks!
Yet another fantastic lesson from Marc. This has helped me in so many ways honestly, I was working on an acoustic guitar song before I saw this video and it's been a godsend. Thank you so much.
Marc as usual master the art of acoustic with his amazing ears an taste, plus the knowledge about when and how using it. Thanks so much, guys!! The song is also beautiful!!
Softube tape is by far the best tape emulation. For all you Studio One users, on your mix bus insert it on the Mix FX drop down. Not on the insert section but above it there's a Mix FX option. This allows all your channels to hit the plugin individually but only have one instance of the plugin running. Also hit the right hand tab on the plugin for more options
what I would have liked is that he compares it with a very fast limiter. I don't really get what's the difference from what I saw/heard here. I'd have to compare it myself.
Marc gets real good arrangements, like "Jeremiah Jones - Make My Lonely" and this one, love every single one. Very great material to exercise. Cheers all :)
Good one, Marc! I have been struggling with some acoustics over the past few months, a very brightly recorded acoustic that just has too much click for the song. I've tried de-essers and all sorts of EQ combinations, without reaching my goal. This combo should definitely get me a lot closer. Thanks for sharing!
A perceive a very common theme from nearly all the producers here on PLAP: first use a very precise parametric EQ and/or a de-esser to find and surgically attenuate offending frequencies and high pass and/or low pass the track in order to clean it up; then modestly compress it in order to tame transients and bring low volume content forward enough to be heard; then add a broader analogue color EQ to sweeten it up. There are lots of exceptions to this methodology, of course, including adding that tape plug-in so early in the chain as MDN does here, but it does seem a good general practice. Do I have that right?
For sure once I went to digital recording vs. tape, the most difficult instrument, for me, to get the sound I wanted was acoustic guitar. It's also one of the instruments that varies so much with the player, the guitar, the mic, and the mic placement. Put the "sterility" of the digital medium on top of all that and your acoustic guitar track(s) can be a pretty big challenge. As far as plug-ins, my "secret" is also a tape saturation plug-in. Once I found one I liked and figured the parameters that sounded good to my ears, I got nothing but compliments and questions about how the hell I got that sound. Compression is pretty touchy on the acoustic guitar tracks also. Like Marc, I generally use just a "taste" to sit it in the mix. Too much kills the...damn, describing aspects of music with words is so hard sometimes...kills the overall "vibe" I guess you could call it. The totality of what makes acoustic guitar such a beautiful sounding instrument gets smeared and squashed. Dulls the vibrancy. That's my feeling on it anyway. Another great video, thanks. Peace.
Acoustic Guitar is hard to record right, and hard to mix right, it's so dynamic. MDN is a magician and so smooth. Big ups and thank you. BTW the guitar tone on the Make.Music.Happen intro is awesome, would love to know the guitar, amp and chain.
I definitely need help with my own acoustic guitar recordings and they often sound as harsh as the one in this example, but Marc really tamed the transients without making it dull or without energy. I'll keep working on the recording process, but it's good to know that all hope isn't lost if isn't perfect. Thanks.
How do 'I' mix acoustic guitar ... ? ... you ask. Well ... the story goes back a long ways (and I so love to talk about myself). But now days I don't do much but it's still the most important instrument on anything I do. I always use acoustic as a guide track along with a guide vocal even if it's not intended to be in final mix (but it almost always is, and it almost always gets retracked after drums are recorded). I track it with a condenser pointed at the ninth (roughly) fret maybe angled toward the sound hole a bit then double it and hard pan. then I process it pretty much like a vocal lowpass, cut at 600 wide, boost at 5k wide. That's it, maybe slight reverb if there is room in the mix. Saturation is something I have not experimented with. I keep seeing Marc's antique Akia and wondering if he is ever going to use it to side effect a track. I have the same machine and intend try it on something, perhaps acoustic. The hiss that comes off it stabs me with nostalgia every time I hear it.
Great video! I love Softube Tape, I like it on acoustic guitars as well. The only difference is I open the expanded controls and add a bit of crosstalk.
Awesome video, thank you. I really appreciate the angle you give in looking for creative and subtle ways to tame and enhance the acoustic guitar within the mix, it really does sound tape-like. A beautiful song too, seems like all the right elements have come together and nothing is overcooked.
Listening again on the cans and back at some new recordings I’m on with I’m liking more and adjusting my opinions. Thanks Marc, Brandon and Warren of a course
This is great, thanks Marc and Warren. I think a massive difference to the acoustic sound comes from having the right strings - steel and silk strings really tame the transients and almost make a guitar have built in compression.
I’ve yet to try recording with silk and steel strings but I knew there was something I was hearing just acoustically that dragged my ear to favouring them over other strings. Gonna have to try them on a track now
such great content! I've always used the same accumulative approach to processing acoustic instruments with small steps spread out over several plugins instead of the sledge hammer method.
Great ideas.....with acoustics I've always tended to be heavy handed with one comp plug, but I'm learning to make more incremental steps towards the finish line. I haven't got the ProQ3, but I have the Voxengo Gliss, which is also a dynamic EQ. Always very useful lessons from Marc ;:-)
I noticed that you barely had to take any low end out of that. In my mixes I find myself often having to scoop out many dbs of low end to reduce boom, especially with acoustic guitar, sometimes with multiple passes of EQ. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Is it inadequate recording room (no bass traps) or perhaps my hard playing style?
Sweet! Thank you Marc! So well explained and a wonderful example. I learned a lot. I love recording acoustic guitars because 99% of my songs are written on acoustic. They are always the foundation of my songs. Very much appreciated. Always top shelf videos from Marc. Please keep them coming.
Honestly, with the entry level mixing skills I have I found that panning the guitar then blending in chorus on the other side through a bus was the best trick to get the full way when I was almost done and not that happy. It doesn't need to be noticed in the full mix.
What do you think of Marc's tricks for amazing sounding acoustic guitar? What do YOU do when mixing acoustic guitar? Let me know by commenting below!
I think that tape is expensive and there isn't a single emulation that sounds exactly like it. :(
But... the softube TAPE plugin I find myself using a lot, not for a realistic tape effect, but just for adding a bit of grit to the audio. On the lowest speed it can also act like a nice vocal de-esser. xD
I just know that acoustic guitars will sound in my compositions and should sound great.
I use mainly the same concept, tape emulator, compressors... but Marc is on another level, very precise, small steps, awesome. Anyway I agree with digital being “worse” than analog for acoustics guitars. My old 4 tracks cassette recorder sounded “better” than today guitars on digital. I think that the tape speed fluctuations made a difference.
definitely apply tape sat; also use the decapitor
I found Izotope Neutron 3 to be an amazing tool for acoustic guitar. It's basically the same chain of processing than Marc presented but in one tool. I'm not a huge fan of presets but the Neutron 3 presets are pretty awesome and very good starting points. Once again thanks a lot to Marc and to Produce Like A Pro for this great video. Cheers
Hey all, I'm the artist featured in the video. First off, Marc did an amazing job with this song - he's incredibly talented and a joy to work with. For anyone interested...the acoustic guitar was actually a Hofner Archtop that I believe was mic'd with a Vanguard V13. We recorded it as a scratch track with the intent of mic'ing up a proper acoustic later, however, the track ended up with a lot of dense elements towards the end, and the percussiveness of the instrument made sense so I decided to keep it. What Marc did with it is nothing short of genius - he really made something that was just passable come to life in a beautiful way by retaining the dynamic nature of the guitar but limiting the harshness. A delicate balance. Marc is the man. Thanks PLAP for posting!
Hi Brandon, Corbin here. I'm a singer/songwriter, guitar player. I love what little I'm hearing of your song. "The wind's blowing cold but it's warm in the sand". Clever writing, I'd like to hear the rest. Where/How can I get a copy? I'm not on any social media other than you tube.
@@HenryC7625 hey Corbin thanks for the kind words. This track will be released later in the summer. You can find me on any of the streaming platforms. I have a song called “colors” Marc mixed and a new track dropping June 11 he also did for me. Thanks!
@@NoEBITDuh It's a great song - can't wait to hear the whole thing!
@@lenmusic123 thanks! I’ll post a link when it’s released.
@@NoEBITDuh nice work all round, and thanks for posting PLAP
This is great. I think I'm going to have to add the Trans-x to my list.
I see a video with Marc, I click.
I'm right there with you!
I click and Like , just to come back to the same later when I am doing the mix myself. Awesome tips, every time. 👍
Yep
Same 😀
100%, I thought he was great right from the first one. But he is getting better and better as an educator
3:12 Softube Tape Emulator
4:31 Fab Filter Pro Multiband EQ
5:37 Klanghelm MJUC Tube Compressor
5:57 Abbey Road Plate Reverb
6:11. Waves Trans-X Wide
I'm going to try this with my stock plug ins in Cubase Elements 11.
1. Channel Tape Saturation
2. Standard Channel EQ
3. Tube Compressor
4. Roomworks Reverb
5. Envelope Shaper
It might not sound as great as the paid plug ins, but I'm sure it will improve the sound for sure!
@@D_Tuned How did it work out for you? I wanne try the same in cakewalk 😉
@@MrHhkrohn It worked well. I'm starting to use an EMT reverb type instead. It's got that classic plate sound I like.
@@D_Tuned cool. are you using this chain during recording or after the recording is done?
@@MrHhkrohn Always after. Get a decent signal while recording (I usually set about 75% level peak). Then apply the plug ins. Sometime I might not use a tube emulator if I want something extra clean. Check how it sounds in the mix and see how it sits.
Wow Marc! That sounds amazing! Interesting how that Trans X didn't just lower it in the mix ...it's as if it moved it in the room. So many layers in that song as well. Great mixing! Like you could stick your head in and see around in there instead of just a wall of sound coming out of the speaker. Humbled by your skills .
What a pleasant moment it is to receive a notification about how to learn to improve the sound of an acoustic guitar with a few simple and subtle steps. The result is incredibly organic. I have some very similar guitars to mix. Right now I get to work! Thanks Marc for your contribution and Buena Vida!
The recording of the guitar is really good! Marc manages to make it fit in the mix and make it sound like a record with some great tricks. I work with acoustic guitars a lot and this is definitely something I'll try out! :)
Very useful. Thank you for sharing your experience!👍
Thank you for all these educative and easy to watch videos! Hello from Greece!!!
Another fantastic tutorial from Marc! Your channel has been extremely helpful. I'm always picking up cool things to try, and finding artist I really enjoy. Thanks Warren!
Your ideas are the best! I had a mix I was working on that needed something extra on the acoustic guitar and tried this. As soon as I added the virtual tape machine the guitar sounded better, more real, somehow. I really like hearing the reasoning behind your mix decisions as well, because they inform what to look for or try to bring out in a mix. Thanks again!
I've been searching for this video for a long time! Many thanks for posting!
this got me interested in recording again.
Fantastic
I absolutely love all of Marc's videos! His stuff sounds amazing!
Thanks for the MJUC set up, love it !
Better than I thought it would gonna be. I really like that you left the original guitar sound in tact. Subtile but noticable. Thanks
One of theee best tutorial series on the web! Likeable guy, great tips, good music.
Awesome lesson, MD! THANK YOU
I always learn something useful when I watch Marcs videos. He is such a great wealth of mixing knowledge. Thanks for sharing.
Actually it´s all about sound and feel and fury. Marc is the man.
waves req +waves c1 compressor (low reference to brings out the high frequencies) +waves veq4 for tonal eq +waves cla 3a to eliminate clicks and peaks .
Great Great Great .Waiting for more such videos.
Great information... well done 👍
Thanks! I'm a guitar player and I've been trying for many years to teach myself how to convey the sound of my acoustic guitars. This helps a lot.
Great vid! Even the picture and his narration sound and look top quality. Thanks for sharing.
Simple but so suttle, so effective, this is lovely! Can't wait your next video Marc.
Im working on some acoustics right now, cant wait to try this!
Fantastic William! Thanks ever so much!
Great info, thanks Mark!
Thank you so much Marc, I've been struggling with an acoustic piece for months, trying to get rid of the spikiness and keep it sounding natural, I've kept United Plugins AG and CLA Guitar at the start of the chain and added a couple of additional Q3 points to taste, but otherwise your suggestions have transformed a painful, unnatural sounding piece into what was originally intended.
Thanks again.
Another Fantastic Insight to the Mind of Mr Marc D Nelson and how to elevate mixing to the Top level. Love It.
I tried the Trans-X as suggested in the video. Really love that touch to my acoustic guitar track. Very Good.
Well articulated; super thoughtful. Grounded with intent. Excellent.
Would pay a good amount for an acoustic version of this track - the guitar sounds just amazing...
Your tips and tricks continue to be a huge source of ideas/inspiration, and in this case perfectly timed. I'm struggling with the placement of acoustic guitar tracks in a current mix with heavily competing piano and harpsichord. The character of the song is circa-Tusk period Fleetwood Mac, with the Bass carrying an above average role in driving the melody (i.e. contributing more traffic in the mids and high-mids than normal) . My mix is cleaner after a series of precision boosts and corresponding cuts, but I'd describe the remaining acoustic guitar tone as "spikey transients featuring the shrilly harsh 5k freq." that you demonstrated shelving down.
In just 8:39 spent watching your approach I learned:
1) Even though I built the saturation on my tracks in small incremental steps (from multiple plugins), the cumulative effect was too much and probably wasn't even the right kind of saturation for acoustic guitar. Fortunately I own the Softube Tape plugin you used. Significant tonal improvement after greatly reducing the old saturation buildup and adding Softube Tape.
2) I had established a mentality that 2-3 dB of gain increase or reduction IS being conservative, but I'm rethinking this after hearing the impact of the subtle 1-1.5 dB moves you were making. Especially in the higher frequencies.
3) Similar to #2, the 2-4 dB that I believed constituted gentle compression was negatively impacting the guitar tone. Much better now after reducing it to a little over 1 dB.
4) A transient designer isn't always the best tool for taming transients. What?!? I've been using Punctuate by Newfangled Audio for a while now and in most cases it provides really good results. Except... not so much on my current song. It's actually helping me make things worse. Without watching your video I wouldn't have known to consider using something like Trans X by Waves in this instance.
.
I've only been at this for a few years, but I think I've recently entered a "golden period" of hyper-improvement. Now that I have a reasonable handle on process/tools and have the experience of creating enough sub-optimal mixes, I can conceptualize the impact of the information I'm consuming. The advice you and Warren are providing is absolutely invaluable for someone like me. Thanks!
Yet another fantastic lesson from Marc. This has helped me in so many ways honestly, I was working on an acoustic guitar song before I saw this video and it's been a godsend. Thank you so much.
Marc as usual master the art of acoustic with his amazing ears an taste, plus the knowledge about when and how using it. Thanks so much, guys!! The song is also beautiful!!
Awesome video. Acoustic guitar is so tricky, great advice
Super helpful as always! Thanks Marc!
Softube tape is by far the best tape emulation. For all you Studio One users, on your mix bus insert it on the Mix FX drop down. Not on the insert section but above it there's a Mix FX option. This allows all your channels to hit the plugin individually but only have one instance of the plugin running. Also hit the right hand tab on the plugin for more options
Brilliant - thanks as always, Marc!
Thanks ever so much
Fantastic Video, very insightful and "organic" view of the subject; much appreciated.
Tape modulation is beautiful thing
I always love Marc's videos!! Thank you for this. I'm about to track some acoustic guitars this weekend.
Great video, many thanks. The Trans-x was/is the missing link I've been looking for.
Truth be told I didn’t know about it either! - Warren
Thanks for the tip. Wow, even just the tape plugin darkened the transients and warmed up details.
Thank you so much. I will be applying these concepts this evening to an acoustic guitar track.
That trans-x trick was really good , and def something that can be used on too transient heavy sounds ! Thanks for the told tutorial.
what I would have liked is that he compares it with a very fast limiter. I don't really get what's the difference from what I saw/heard here. I'd have to compare it myself.
THIS IS AMAZING, and just what I needed, I have been wrestling with an acoustic on a record for months. The Trans-X is magical!
Damn. That first minute said everything I felt when first recording and mixing acoustic guitar.
Marc gets real good arrangements, like "Jeremiah Jones - Make My Lonely" and this one, love every single one. Very great material to exercise. Cheers all :)
Awesome videos, Marc. I always learn something. Thanks!
Agreed 100%! Me too!
So good. I’m still learning from this years later.
What a gift thank you
Very thoughtful explanation. Guitars mixed for the song.......natural
Man, sounds really warm and present. Great ear and job.
Thanks ever so much
This is really ace work on acoustic guitar. It's really a tough instrument to get just right.
Good one, Marc! I have been struggling with some acoustics over the past few months, a very brightly recorded acoustic that just has too much click for the song. I've tried de-essers and all sorts of EQ combinations, without reaching my goal. This combo should definitely get me a lot closer. Thanks for sharing!
A perceive a very common theme from nearly all the producers here on PLAP: first use a very precise parametric EQ and/or a de-esser to find and surgically attenuate offending frequencies and high pass and/or low pass the track in order to clean it up; then modestly compress it in order to tame transients and bring low volume content forward enough to be heard; then add a broader analogue color EQ to sweeten it up.
There are lots of exceptions to this methodology, of course, including adding that tape plug-in so early in the chain as MDN does here, but it does seem a good general practice.
Do I have that right?
This guy is a gem💎
Very nice thank you
Great video Marc. Gonna try it on my acoustics. Thanks
For sure once I went to digital recording vs. tape, the most difficult instrument, for me, to get the sound I wanted was acoustic guitar. It's also one of the instruments that varies so much with the player, the guitar, the mic, and the mic placement. Put the "sterility" of the digital medium on top of all that and your acoustic guitar track(s) can be a pretty big challenge. As far as plug-ins, my "secret" is also a tape saturation plug-in. Once I found one I liked and figured the parameters that sounded good to my ears, I got nothing but compliments and questions about how the hell I got that sound. Compression is pretty touchy on the acoustic guitar tracks also. Like Marc, I generally use just a "taste" to sit it in the mix. Too much kills the...damn, describing aspects of music with words is so hard sometimes...kills the overall "vibe" I guess you could call it. The totality of what makes acoustic guitar such a beautiful sounding instrument gets smeared and squashed. Dulls the vibrancy. That's my feeling on it anyway. Another great video, thanks. Peace.
Acoustic Guitar is hard to record right, and hard to mix right, it's so dynamic. MDN is a magician and so smooth. Big ups and thank you. BTW the guitar tone on the Make.Music.Happen intro is awesome, would love to know the guitar, amp and chain.
Always love your videos and approach! Thanks for sharing!
Great tricks! Thanks Marc! Have a nice day! ;-)
Awsome content! Thanx a lot Marc.
Right on time, I'm about to track some acoustic and do the mix ITB - thanks for this Warren! 😀
It sounds fantastic as Always Marc. Thanx.
I definitely need help with my own acoustic guitar recordings and they often sound as harsh as the one in this example, but Marc really tamed the transients without making it dull or without energy. I'll keep working on the recording process, but it's good to know that all hope isn't lost if isn't perfect. Thanks.
Total hit and makes 100 % sense - Marc you are just a rock star dude ;-)))
Marc or Warren, what settings on Valhalla Plate will be more or less like the Abbey preset here?
Great stuff Marc! Cheers!!
Really good stuff. I wonder what’s Mark’s take on working with sample based Instrumentes and how he gives them a little more space in the mix?!
I love how Marc mixes. Mindset and approach just seem right…. 🎵🎛🎚
Great vid, Great help
How do 'I' mix acoustic guitar ... ? ... you ask. Well ... the story goes back a long ways (and I so love to talk about myself). But now days I don't do much but it's still the most important instrument on anything I do. I always use acoustic as a guide track along with a guide vocal even if it's not intended to be in final mix (but it almost always is, and it almost always gets retracked after drums are recorded). I track it with a condenser pointed at the ninth (roughly) fret maybe angled toward the sound hole a bit then double it and hard pan. then I process it pretty much like a vocal lowpass, cut at 600 wide, boost at 5k wide. That's it, maybe slight reverb if there is room in the mix.
Saturation is something I have not experimented with. I keep seeing Marc's antique Akia and wondering if he is ever going to use it to side effect a track. I have the same machine and intend try it on something, perhaps acoustic. The hiss that comes off it stabs me with nostalgia every time I hear it.
Soooo useful. Thanks!
as per great video lots to learn thanks guys
Great video! I love Softube Tape, I like it on acoustic guitars as well. The only difference is I open the expanded controls and add a bit of crosstalk.
You speak my language. I appreciate this pointed out so clearly
Awesome video, thank you. I really appreciate the angle you give in looking for creative and subtle ways to tame and enhance the acoustic guitar within the mix, it really does sound tape-like. A beautiful song too, seems like all the right elements have come together and nothing is overcooked.
So well explained. Thank you.
Very nice! I would love to hear how you work with fingerpicking, ala phil keaggy or someone like that. That is my predominant acoustic style.
I like the guitar sound !
Thanks! Marc rules!!
Listening again on the cans and back at some new recordings I’m on with I’m liking more and adjusting my opinions. Thanks Marc, Brandon and Warren of a course
This is great, thanks Marc and Warren.
I think a massive difference to the acoustic sound comes from having the right strings - steel and silk strings really tame the transients and almost make a guitar have built in compression.
True. Silk and Steele make a big difference. Most players don´t have that on the radar.
I’ve yet to try recording with silk and steel strings but I knew there was something I was hearing just acoustically that dragged my ear to favouring them over other strings. Gonna have to try them on a track now
Saturation is so useful and don't 'alf 'elp you out, guv'nor. Great video, Marc's great !
Thank you - how fantastic is this advice!
such great content! I've always used the same accumulative approach to processing acoustic instruments with small steps spread out over several plugins instead of the sledge hammer method.
Thank you so much for this.
Thanks ever so much
Thanks from Brasil!!!!
thanks mark very good info there
Great ideas.....with acoustics I've always tended to be heavy handed with one comp plug, but I'm learning to make more incremental steps towards the finish line. I haven't got the ProQ3, but I have the Voxengo Gliss, which is also a dynamic EQ. Always very useful lessons from Marc ;:-)
I noticed that you barely had to take any low end out of that. In my mixes I find myself often having to scoop out many dbs of low end to reduce boom, especially with acoustic guitar, sometimes with multiple passes of EQ. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Is it inadequate recording room (no bass traps) or perhaps my hard playing style?
This is great. Thanks for ideas!
Sweet! Thank you Marc! So well explained and a wonderful example. I learned a lot. I love recording acoustic guitars because 99% of my songs are written on acoustic. They are always the foundation of my songs. Very much appreciated. Always top shelf videos from Marc. Please keep them coming.
Honestly, with the entry level mixing skills I have I found that panning the guitar then blending in chorus on the other side through a bus was the best trick to get the full way when I was almost done and not that happy. It doesn't need to be noticed in the full mix.
Great info thank you!!
That trans-x is a cool idea. I'm really interested in knowing more about that kick!