Loose Strings

If you want to record an acoustic backing track of the strummed variety and you want a big, fat sound then you will probably be disappointed with the results if you just pop a microphone in front of your guitar and play your part. The result will likely be thinner than expected and difficult to set in a mix. The solution is to use a fair degree of compression (see last month’s Loose Strings), and to record the part at least twice. Do not just record the second part exactly the same as the first part; make a point of repositioning the microphone or use a different mic, use a different gauge of pick or use your fingers. If your instrument has a pickup and preamp then plug these into another channel and record these signals as well. If you are fortunate enough to own two guitars then use both of them — do not be afraid to experiment, as small changes can often make a big difference. If you are recording two different guitars then use different chord inversions for each instrument, as this will fill out the frequency spectrum and generally make the whole thing fuller and fatter. The next step is to play back all these different signals and experiment with EQ and stereo positioning until you are happy with the result. At this stage, resist the temptation to add any reverb or delay as these should only be added at mixdown.

The next trick is to fatten the whole lot up by using a little chorus. Set the depth of the chorus as shallow as you can whilst still being able to hear an audible chorus effect, and then notch the depth back a little until the chorus disappears. Now set the rate to a slow setting. You should now have two mic signals, two pickup signals and a stereo chorus signal. Mix them together to your taste and bounce them down onto two tracks to give you a big, beautiful acoustic backing track that will just need a touch of reverb or delay and possibly some EQ at mixdown.

Reverb is a wonderful thing; it truly is the audio equivalent of ‘fairy dust’. Sprinkle a little bit over your mix and just hear it come to life. The key words here, though, are ‘a little bit’, as too much can lead to a mushy mess! There are numerous varieties of reverb available to us and they can radically change the character of any piece of music, so it is vitally important to understand a little bit about reverb before you start drenching everything that you record with it. Reverb occurs naturally in every environment that you can come across, and is a result of sound waves leaving their source and hitting various different surfaces and reflecting off them. Hard surfaces reflect sound waves very well and if a space has a number of hard surfaces then it will be very reverberant — think of a concrete subway and the way every sound bounces around and appears to echo. Soft surfaces absorb a large amount of the energy of the sound wave resulting in a much drier-sounding space — think heavily carpeted living room with large curtains and lots of soft furnishings. To understand this phenomenon, play your acoustic guitar in a room with lots of hard surfaces (tiles, wooden doors, etc.), and then move into a room full of soft absorbent materials and listen to the difference. Modern digital reverb units and software plug-in reverbs aim to replicate a whole host of different reverberant spaces whilst simultaneously offering control over a number of key parameters. The most important controls cover pre-delay, attack, reverb length, decay, room size, reverb type and high- and low-frequency content. For general guitar use it is a good idea to dial in a little pre-delay as this will stop any fast picking passages from losing definition. You should also remember to tame the high frequencies to avoid cluttering the sense of space at the top end of a mix. Apart from that you should spend a lot of time playing with your reverb unit to find out exactly what each parameter does to your tone, and you should do this both in isolation and within the confines of a mix. You can have hours of fun just learning how reverb functions and it is time well spent, as you can not only make or break your guitar tone but you can turn a mediocre mix into a stunningly brilliant one with the judicious use of reverb.

In conclusion, this month I would recommend that any guitarists in the early days of their recording experience should spend a little time experimenting with double tracking and getting inside their reverb’s parameters — don’t just rely on the presets. You will thank me in the long run.  0