Lessons

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Prep & Setup

I've been doing recording for about 10 years, professionally, probably longer than that if if you were an account, like a little bit older stuff. But, um, these are some of the albums that you are probably familiar with, that I've done a lot. I've done a lot of stuff for a day to remember their biggest albums, The Ghost Inside who has taken off after doing their album with me. And so I I've done things from recording in my bedroom to recording in studios that I think are perfect, and I've been there every step of the way, trying to figure it out on my own because it's been me doing it. I haven't had any partners or that had interns and stuff, but it's really just been D I y. And I know a lot of the viewers right now are also D I y. So there's a lot of tips for you guys and a lot of a lot of, you know, like Keith that we have here. Hopefully he'll pick up on some stuff because I'm gonna be touching on everything that I could possibly think of. So I'm going to be going over specific tone...

s, one that I know a lot of people are gonna be wondering about. Common courtesy just came out by a day to remember, and it's being received very well. And I'm gonna be going over that tone. I'll be showing demonstrations of the actual song if you're not familiar with the band and then also be going over the different settings that you can use with different plug ins on the actual song. Dead and buried is the song that I'm going to be using. I'm gonna be going over the ideal technique, in my opinion on, But I'll also be talking about how you can actually do this at home, even if you are broke or, you know, just don't have very many. Resource is so everyone thinks that there's some kind of one size fits off for this every once a magic bullet, uh, to see guitar sound. But there isn't one. It's the combination of a 1,000,000 little things, and I can't emphasize this enough. I just keep going through this over and over because I want to pound this into your head because you have to have these on your mind at all times. Whenever you're recording a guitar tone. And when you're trying to Teoh find, find the right tone, find the right player, find right, pick all that stuff. This whole mess of a pie is your tone. I have some mixes prepared, and I'm going to take out certain pieces of this pie and show you that you don't like it with these pieces missing. And you will be surprised. These are things that you have to be aware of at all times. While you're recording is the string dying? You need to be aware of that. That happens so often to the lowest string. That string will be your 1st 1 to go. You need to be paying attention. If it's dying, it's gonna die quickly. It always does gauges. I'm gonna talk about strain gauges really quick and tunings. Thicker strings does not mean heavier sound. If you get the thickest string that you confined, it's probably not gonna fit in the nut of your guitar, Which still thinking the top this, uh so it's probably not gonna even fit. You're not. You're gonna have to shave your nut. Um, and, uh, it's just gonna sound dead changing strings every song. I at least change them every song. Um, sometimes in the middle of a song, you change strings every for every song. Yeah, well, sometimes people like your strings would last a lot longer. Sometimes, people, uh, kill the strings immediately. Sometimes you can play for a long Alec for me. I can usually get away with a couple songs. Yeah, before I change him out. Um, actually, in one of those weird people that don't like the way string sound right out of the package. I welcome when you played on him for about 1/2 hour or something like that. Yeah. They start toe, you know, they get a little warmer sounding not quite as harsh for sure. Um, but guys like Jeff, um you know, as super aliens sweat, You know, when we get around to tracking his guitar parts on the album that we're working on, we're gonna change him, probably either halfway through the song our you know, our every song for And it has to do with the the ability of the player because if you're taking longer, you doing more takes. For instance, uh, you're wearing the strings down as you play So if you know your stuff really quick really well and you can knock it out, you're gonna, you know, string that you're going to last for a lot longer. So how do you guys? How do you guys, I know that it's time to change strings. Like, what are the things that you hear that let you know? I usually to test the string, I'll turn the guitar off and listen to it acoustically, and you can hear this is a dead string. I mean, it's taking me a long time to learn when it's if I'm being insane or if it is actually getting more dead. And, uh, but there's a brilliance, a sustained brilliance that's gone. You could hit a string immediately and bright as soon as you hit it. But if the sustained brilliance is gone, that's whenever it's time to change. Yeah, there's there's, like an aggressive, you know, attack and kind of a chirp sound you get with brand new strings. And when when they're old, it just sounds really flat, you know, almost like you're picking it with your thumb or something. Yeah, you know, and they also feel a little bit different to when you go dead. Absolutely. Especially the unwound strings. Um, get there. Not a slick feeling. They kind of you will get You can't slide as easily and stuff. So, um okay, and then Oh, yeah. Wash your hands. That's a tip to keep your strings lasting a lot longer. The oils, dirt, Whatever weird things you've been touching throughout the day. Your dog Keep your dog out while you're tracking guitar. And even for just your own playing and not recording cleaning the strings afterwards themselves. Yeah, right away. Last longer. No corrode if you wait to clean, um, if you clean him immediately than the last longer. And, uh, so you're washing your hands in between each song. Well, depending on the house of Depends on the person, but you have to wash your hands immediately before you play. Do you ever use any string conditioner or anything like that? I know there's, like the G hs like Fast Fred and stuff like that. Do you ever use I? I have. But it seems it feels very strange to me. So make some kind of slick and yeah, I've never noticed that making the strings last any longer. It's just more of the fuel thing. Yeah, Yeah. I don't know if I have some people say that it makes a difference, you know, in how long they last. But I don't know. I've never really I've never really had strings last longer by using anything on him. Yeah, I think just keeping your hands clean and stuff like guys is gonna help and do in learning your songs so you don't have to do a 1,000,000 takes on it. Okay, so this is Ah, this is a typical the orange pack. 52 is I think we I'll use that for, like maybe see tuning. I like to use pretty thin strings because they have a really have this 20 sound which I know sounds like it might be goofy, but it's like this quick clarity and this twain that happens with thinner strings. The 56 is about as heavy as I'll go if you're tuning to something really low. But actually you can get away with thicker strings if you have a longer neck on your guitar, if you have a baritone guitar or if you have a base is a great example because those air Really thick strings. Why did they sound bright? It has to do with life, the neck. So if you have a baritone guitar, or if you have a seven string guitar that has a little bit along the neck, you can get away with thicker strings. But for some reason, I have just ended up learning how to track on the the standard next. But I I If you can get a longer neck for deeper tunings, I would absolutely recommend it. But not everyone has that option. G strings for For the most part, I like wound. So even if the the gauge goes up, for instance, this 24 wound here is what I would replace the 17 with, and I know that sounds very extreme, but that 24 wild sounds a lot clearer than the 17. I don't know why, but it does. Even those thicker that's the G strings are always Yeah, I actually cannot stand the way. A thick, unwound G string sounds on a guitar have been trying to string it. It's like poking you. You're bleeding everywhere. They feel weird. There's a terrible event you can't. It's harder to bend the on while in 17 than it is to bend the 24 wild. So there these were the gauges that are most typical use. And, you know, anything kind of between these, So Oh, yeah. Um, this is a great tip. The, uh, strings that are above the nut ring out, and it's almost impossible to get rid of it when it when it's really bad. You could try to use a gate or edited out, but it's gonna ring through your chugs or your stops, anything like that on, and that will drive you insane. So you typically do that? Oh, definitely. And actually ah, there's the product now that is made specifically for that. Oh, the the group gear fret rap. I have one on every guitar, every video. What is it again? It's Ah, groove gear G R U V gear round. That's threat rub. It's basically just Well, it's that, but it's a Velcro strap. You can take it on and off and you can slide it up and down the neck. Let me show this part On some guitars also rings out, depending on how far back the this is the bridge. How further back this is from the bridge. So, um what it also fit down here? It wouldn't. It's It's mainly just for the neck of lamb, but it, you know, I use it for that exact reason that you have in that picture there. You know, I put it above the nut, and it kills that Chinese overtone you get from up there. You know? Exactly So, uh, that come to them? Okay. Um, yes. So sometimes this will ring out, too, if you take that up and you're wondering why you're still here. Stuff is this also Ah, lot of this one does not have it. But when you have a floating bridge, have straight at springs in the back and they want ring out sometimes so you can put cloth in their or Kleenex, whatever. Just shove it in there and not too tight. So it's it's not bending it, but it will keep that from feeding back, even live. Sometimes we get weird, low and feedback, and that's probably from the springs inside your guitar. Yeah. I usually just wrapped tram springs with electrical tape. Just a couple lines around him. You can still use the trim, and it doesn't really affect the way that it operates, but it kills those. Those overtones authority will. Okay, let me show you guys about picking and stuff. This is This is the part where a lot of guitarists in the studio don't understand. It is one of the reasons that I have to grab the guitar the most during tracking. It might not be because of any kind of lack of skill. It's just because you just you're not aware of this information. So whenever you're tuning, you want to tune. Let's say if we're doing a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that's open or, you know, just rhythm that's down on the further down on the neck, Um, you would want to tune it, you would want to tune it open on the reason I said that will become clear in a second eso while you're tuning, you want to hit it as hard as you're going to be playing. So if it's a really soft part, if you're doing like pretty little chords like that, you want it. You're gonna tune as hard as you're playing, which is enormous, Sophia. Really hard. It's You can hear it going sharp. So to play like that, you see, it's sharp. Sometimes you need to flip the tone, so it's a little, little more tonal. If you're having problems picking up like just now. And I usually use a pedal tuner or a rack tuner in the studio. I feel like it. It picks it up. I thought this was a terrible thing. Well, this was not very responsive, actually. Um, anyway, so you would tune it while you're doing that? Picking out a good tuner is actually a Really This is a good example. You can't just buy any old tune or just use use any tuner. For some reason, this doesn't work on the way. So that's all right. That was cool. So when you're doing the harder strummer, your what I've actually done is tuned a little bit flat. So whenever you're strumming harder, it's staying in two. But when I strum lightly, it sounds terrible. So, um, some tuners are gonna work better than others. I have a little, uh, pedal tuner, the chromatic tuner that everybody owns. I think it's made by boss. Maybe, um and then rack tuners are great to, um so tuning how you tune is huge. So now that I've tuned to that, that's open. If I'm trying to play the same thing up here, it's a mess. So sometimes as you're playing, it depends on the style and depends on how hard you're playing, etcetera, etcetera. So, um, you kind of need to adjust as you go, and I know this is very tedious, but this is one of one of the most important things and making great D I track. If your stuff is out of tune, you won't, especially if you're doing open stuff. You're not gonna get those the clarity in the low end that you're aiming for. So you need to make sure all your stuff is in tune. If it's a little bit out of tune. A little bit of a tune versus perfectly tuned is a world of difference whenever whenever you're trying to get a tone and having it in the mix and stuff. So what I would do normally is intimated guitar, and I don't think we're demonstrating that exactly because that's that's kind of a long, um, process. But what you do when your Internet guitar is your adjusting the saddles how far this way, how far up we're down they are. And, um, how it correlates to the neck. But I'm not gonna be getting into a lot of that stuff. Um, if you concede the the height of the strings from this pick up, what's cool is you can mess with that a little bit. Listen to how it sounds. Keep messing with it to see what sounds the best. Where it's the clearest, Um, sometimes having it right up against the pick pick up sounds of the worst. So sometimes having a little bit further out. Well, it will be clear and sound bigger somehow. It's just how it works. So, um, you have to first adjust the height and then intimate. And while you're intimating, you also have to know the I think we might have a slide about this, but you need to know what tuning you're going to be playing in. And you have to know what gauge strings and all of that has to be on the guitar ready to go before you intimate. So anyway, what's let's say, I'm intimated perfectly. I haven't said this guitar, so I'm not sure, um, but if you are playing really high on. You are perfectly tuned when it's open, and even if you are perfectly intimated, sometimes you're pressing down on the string a little bit too hard. Sometimes you are playing harder than you would. So what you dio is you actually tune to the fret. You can't do this live. This is just in the studio thing. Sometimes if you're playing sometimes if you're playing a lead or something like that, you might have to split the lead up between playing down here and having it tune and then playing up here and having it tuned to the frets. So some people bend the strings a lot when they play, and it's important for the person that's playing to tune it to their playing style. And that's why it's really important to understand how to tune correctly eso thing way. So I think you understand the method, Um, whenever I'm doing very fine adjustment on this type of the guitar with a fixed bridge, Um and uh, I don't have those little like on a Floyd Rose. I don't know what those little things are, but it's really easy to tune. Finally, with that whatever. Whenever it's flat, I tune up with the tuning machine. If it's sharp, I stretch the string. So, um, that's how you're going to get the best results. I'm gonna use three different styles of picks and tell you when when you would use it and when you should not use it etcetera. This is, ah, popular style of pick. It's very thick, and it's pointy, a very popular style of picket bands that use these all the time. Um, when you're doing something like leads, this is This is really good because it doesn't It's not gonna do a lot of squeaking because it's pointy. So you're doing like speed speed picking or something like that when you would not want to use this. In my opinion, this is all just things that I've noticed is if you're going to try to do really aggressive sounding rhythm or chugs. The problem is, whenever you're using a pick like this, uh, again, this is my just my opinion. It this tiny little point is the only thing that's hitting the strings. So you're not getting a lot of like, pick, attack and straight like aggression whenever anything that I hear that I really like when it's a super heavy guitar tone. You can really hear every single hit, every chug if it's really fast, Um, and this is not really going to deliver that, But if you're doing leads and really fast speed picking is something that this is great. Now this is another pick. When I was younger, a lot of people had these. I don't know why, but there very, very flexible, very thin. And as you know, that's me playing the same way with that pick. This one is absolutely soft. It's not aggressive. You cannot really do much with it. Maybe barely dio pick scrape with, um But this is like playing with a piece of paper, and I would not recommend playing with this. So if you have super thin picks, this is specifically ah, 38.38 millimeter thickness of a pick. I If you come into my studio with this, I'm going to throw it away so or just put in your pocket. This is my favorite type of pick, Um, or anything like this. This specifically is a Dunlop old techs. Uhm, 0.6 millimeters. Um, it's not super thick so you can play really hard. You can play really hard with it. Um, it's gonna have that kind of little pick scraping sound on the strings. If you could hear that, I don't know what that sounds like exactly, but that But that's the technique I'm talking about. So, um, whenever you're playing aggressive music or, well, any kind of music, this is This is my favorite type of pick. It's also great to if you are doing effects like guitar scrapes every single notch on this. The the wound part of this string is getting hit, so it's very clear for doing pick sliding slowly that this one, for instance, is a little more rounded on the end. So there's, like no clarity coming through, and then this is just gonna break in half when you try to do that, just cut right through it, Um, so it's really important to have the right pick. You can have a pick like this and have it be too thick, because as soon as you start playing aggressively and fast, um, your stuff is going really sharp, and you're also not getting a lot of that picks. Great pick attack sound. It's interesting because for the longest time, I thought I was the only guy who used a bunch of different pics. I don't just stick toe one pick, especially when I'm recording. You know, kind of. There's certain picks that will work better for certain parts. You know, zeal. The play a certain part unless you're using the right pick. If you're having a hard time playing something really fast, try switching the pick out. Yeah, that that's a big thing to, and it makes a difference in the way that it sounds the way that it feels, you know. So if you're performing better with with one pick opposed to another, you know it's it's kind of cool to be able to change it up and get different results. Absolutely no. A lot of times you can make big improvements on you know, the overall sound and performance of the parts by switching the pick Exactly. It's such a big, such a small thing. It's like, this is really what we're going over in this class is these tiny things that you don't think about because you go straight to your amp. You start dialing the tones and you just grab your guitar because that's what sitting around and you want to sound heavy and you want to sound tight and you're trying your best, it's not working. And that's why because it's all of these tiny little things that we're gonna be talking about today that you never even thought about made a difference at all. I mean, who would think that switching a pick would make you a better guitarist? In certain circumstances, it will, if you're trying to play really fast solo, try doing with this. Try it. You probably fail unless you're holding it like really weird. You're used to playing with it, But then pick, pick up. Ah, thicker one. Play the same thing and it's gonna be clear it will be easier to play. It makes a huge difference. It's a really cheap and easy thing to, you know, I have, like, a little tackle box that I keep, you know, in my desk drawer that Scott like, ah 100 different hicks in it, you know? And you just you play through him and you're like, now this one doesn't feel right. Doesn't sound right, you know? And you just you go through until you find the one that works best, you know? So the one that I really like is this one just gonna say it again? 10.6 millimeters by Dunlop All text this one It lasts a long time to sometimes picks Will, it will be hard to hold them and they'll slide. They'll change positions as you're playing with them. So I think about the grip and some pics just fall apart quickly. So that one's a very durable brand specifically, and I really love that one. So, um, another thing while we're talking about that, uh, is your playing position? Um, that will change the way that everything sounds just like everything else. So if you if you're guitarist and you play like this and you're you have some kind of weird position that you feel like you're choking the string out too much, you're playing over this pickup, which is making it sound really boxing. But if you just position yourself so you're closer to this pick up. This is the, uh, the The bridge pickup is my favorite one whenever it comes to aggressive music. So if you're over this one more, it's a lot easier to make it sound clean, aggressive, tight. And you can also experiment with the different riffs and where, where your palm muting it. For instance. Here's a really open one, whereas the sustained will be long, but then you're chugs aren't very tight, so that might not cut through, so you might want to move it up. Then there's another technique where it's kind of a hybrid. As you're playing, you're adjusting the palm, the palm mute. So let's try that. So your palm mutes your scribbles. I like to call him will be tight, but then the sustained will still be there, and that's by rolling your fist back a little bit. So if you could really get that down, you could make it really the perfect sound. So, uh, you see, just by these small little adjustments your pick your hand placement, your palm placement, you can get completely different sounds. Keith, I'm sure you have some thoughts on this. Since you are by far the best guitarist in this room, I don't know that, but, um, yeah, I mean, how you play the guitar is that's ultimately what translates to what you hear, you know, if your recording guitars and you know it's it's really up to the player to get the sound. You know, if you're going for something specific, you know, sometimes it comes down to moving your hand one way or another by 1/2 inch, you know, especially when it comes to aggressive and palm muted types of riffs and things like that. I mean, the way that you play it is everything. You know, Um, lutely. It's kind of hard to force someone like, especially when you're in the studio. You don't have a lot of time to learn. Like when I'm recording other people. They don't have a lot of time to learn. Sometimes I have to grab the guitar to play the part right. It's not that they wouldn't be able to do it. It's just that they don't know how to play for two. Sound correct when you're recording, so something that I really like to do something that I think can help people out. If you do have an AMP or something like that, this is fun, and it's a great way to learn how to play correctly. But just crank your amp turn on a great tone and just start trying different things. You're going to feel the difference while you're playing, what's whatever is coming out of your AMP? Yeah. I mean, unless you're completely oblivious. You kind of know if you're making it sound good or bad, as soon as it's almost automatic Hewlett, you'll adjust your hand like as long as you understand those techniques that I just went over, which is further up or down, and the different picks that you have, it will be become automatic. And that translates into a studio that translates live. But that's a lot of times. If you just listen back to what you just did and you're you know, you're like, that doesn't sound good, you know, if you you got to think about why it doesn't sound good. And is it something that you can improve? You know, is it something in the way that you can play it differently, you know, and sometimes the hard part is knowing what you have to do toe to make that difference. You know, if it sounds really choked out in boxy, you know, then you know you need to slide your hand back knowing your options. Yeah, sometimes you know, it's hard to know what you need to do. And that's why you just have to try a bunch of different things. You know, like for me. Sometimes I wanted to sound really choked out in boxing, so I'll choke up further on the strings. You know, if you wanted to sound a little bit more open when you're doing palm mutes or something like that, you know, you slide your hand back a little bit more So it's that it really comes down to a technique thing exactly. Very good stuff. All these things very small, but they are going to make the world of difference when you combine them all in your final tone. I remember when I was kind of first learning how to, you know, playing guitar for a long time. But I didn't record it until a couple years ago, which, of course, is two very different things. And you remember when I was first learning this stuff, I was trying to get this one part, those palm meter to sound right and just matter how a cute and I just couldn't do it couldn't get it to sound right remember Ale told me he was talking to me about hand placement stuff like, You know what? Maybe I'll try playing it differently. I choked up a little bit more, got rid of all that bottom in that I was trying to get rid of with e que instantly. It sounded right. So, you know, point is that, you know, people think you know that the answer to solving your tone problems is always in the computer or, you know, an amp setting or something like that. But more from the not It's something you do with the guitar before it even gets to the computer. It always starts with the player. I mean, ultimately, you know what you What you're performing is what is what's gonna end up on the record. And if you're not playing it, you know the way that it should be played. It's never gonna sound good again. Here's the tone pie. Please eat one slice of it, but you won't be able to stop. You have to eat the whole pie pig out on tone. Hi,