I know so many home studio owners who started out playing guitar, me included. I also know many home studio producers and mixers who struggle mixing guitar and never quite manage to get the balance right.
I really used to.
Until I learned a great some great simple tips for getting an electric guitar to serve the mix and have great tone.
So if your electric guitars are thin, spiky and scratchy or thick, boomy and muddy, here's 5 top tips that will really help you mix like a rock star:
Never mix in solo. It's as simple as that. Getting a killer tone on a guitar is really satisfying but the truth is that a killer tone on it's own might not be the best fit for your mix.
The Upper Mid Sweep. Here's where you're going to find the good stuff (2 - 6KHz). A boost sweep around here, ideally with an analogue style eq/channel strip is going to help you draw out the tone you're looking for.
High Pass & Low Pass filters. Filters are super useful for removing unnecessary low end that make encroach on your bass guitar and the low pass for backing of that hairy top end. Dial your filters in until they sound like they are taking away too much, and the pull them back to taste.
Tape Saturation. This will not only help glue your guitars together, especially when summed to a bus but will tame some of that digital harshness, particularly if you're using amp sims.
Help your mix out and plan out your guitar parts. Less is so often more when it comes to arrangement. If you're double tracking, try using two different guitars, if that's not possible different pickups or amps.
If you'd like to learn more about mixing electric guitars then check out my latest electric guitar mixing tutorial on YouTube.