Cutting resonance on detuned guitars?

stereopathetic_banjo · Post by **stereopathetic_banjo** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:44 am

A few weeks ago I recorded a 3 piece in the vein of gluey porch treatement-era melvins, with very detuned (but in tune) and heavy guitar tones. The bass was also fuzzed out, but all in all it sounds good. Problem is- at points when chunking in unison, there's insane resonance that I can't seem to eliminate without killing the guitar tones. It was done all in one shot, and the band loves what they hear now, but I'm mixing this thing this coming weekend, and I want it to be better than i've achieved thusfar. Any eq, compression, etc. tips for me? Anything at all, because i'm really not used to recording things this utterly heavy, and normally have no problems getting things to mesh, but with this i'm kinda pulling my hair out. Thanks in advance!
-Travis

nopenopenope · Post by **nopenopenope** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:41 am

just editing out my idiotic idea....

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:48 am

sounds like a job for multiband compression to me....

RodC · Post by **RodC** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:48 am

Multiband compression?

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:08 pm

yeah try dialing in just the low band of a multiband around the resonant freqs and see if that helps. or just try getting in there with a really narrow eq and notching it out some.

sammyp · Post by **sammyp** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:16 pm

Yeah Metallica's album "and justice for all" has this resonance issue as well.....i've always noticed that......maybe that's why the band likes the mix as it is now

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:33 pm

see if you can find where the resonances are. Set an EQ to a very narrow bandwidth (like a Q of more than 12), boost it by 12dB minimum, and slowly sweep it back and forth. There are likely to be a few very narrow bands that are just resonating like crazy, most likely it will be related to the key of the song and/or the room modes of the room you tracked in.

Once you know exactly where your resonances are, and at what frequencies, you can try different strategies to tame them. I'd start with a simple EQ cut at exactly the right frequency and exactly the right bandwidth. If that doesn't work you can give multiband comp a try.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:39 pm

if that doesn't work just leave all the guitars off and tell the band they're stuck with the dub mix.

stereopathetic_banjo · Post by **stereopathetic_banjo** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:50 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought about multiband compression, but am a little hesitant- I rarely use 'em. I'm mixing this from PT thru a board, so i'll def give that and or notch eq'ing a shot. I've got a few days to play around with this, so all should be well. Thanks again!
-Travis

stereopathetic_banjo · Post by **stereopathetic_banjo** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:52 pm

and yeah, if I get sick of it all, i'll just shelve the guitars and pull up some mysterious keyboard licks. and shaker egg.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:01 am

stereopathetic_banjo wrote:and yeah, if I get sick of it all, i'll just shelve the guitars and pull up some mysterious keyboard licks. and shaker egg.

And cowbell! (Where's Auralman?)

chris ryan · Post by **chris ryan** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:55 am

i record this type of stuff all the time, and i almost always have to reach for the waves C4 (multiband comp) i'll just bypass everything but the low band and move it around until i get the trouble spots. works well without killing the tone, just keeps things under control.

ludwig_van · Post by **ludwig_van** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:19 am

If the problem is only in one band, you can do the same thing with the waves C1 with sidechain. Set it to split mode (not sidechain mode), listen to the sidechain until you find the spot you want to compress, and you're good to go. C4 gives you more control, though. And LinMB even more, but that thing is a huge resource hog.

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Cutting resonance on detuned guitars?

Cutting resonance on detuned guitars?

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