All language subtitles for How to Make Lead Guitars Stand Out in a Heavy Mix

what's up everyone Jordan here from
hardcore mixing studio. in this video I'm

going to show you how I would EQ and
compress a lead guitar track to get it

to poke through the mix and cut through
the rhythm guitars and everything else

and really just kind of sore on top of
the mix so I'm going to play the little

section that I'm going to to work on
here just so you can hear what the end

result sounds like

all right so you can hear how here how
that's really right up in your face and

it just stays on top of the mix the
whole time so let's see what the raw

guitar track sounded like

so first up I've got an SSL channel for
EQ here so my first step is to set the

high-pass filter and I have this set
pretty high at 180 because on a lead

guitar track like this when it's mostly
on the higher strings or at least on the

middle strings and higher strings you
don't need any of the low-end below that

that's just going to help it that's just
going to make it a clash with the rhythm

guitars in the bass and it's just going
to be kind of Rumble that's there so

let's check that out

Oh

so hopefully you can hear how it just
takes that all of the subtle rubble

that's in there and just really focuses
it where we want it next we've got a

low-pass filter at 10 K just to get rid
of all the the hissing noise up top

alright moving down here adding some
brightness at about 7 K not a whole not

a big boost but we'll check that out

so just adding a little air on top
moving down at boost at 2.5 k and

boosting like guitar especially the
guitar at 2.5 k it's going to give it a

little extra bite and kind of aggression
in the mix so I'll a be that as well

alright moving down again we've got
another boost at about 1.5 K and that's

going to help it
give the mid-range cut that we need

that's going to sit on top like a vocal
and poke through the other guitars and

those 1.5 2.5 k frequencies or what you
really want to focus on boosting to

two-letter lead guitar cut through the
mix so all of these are fairly subtle

moves on their own but let's see what
it's what it adds up to here

the mid-range boosts even make it sound
maybe a little bit too hokey or too

strong in the mid-range but in the
context of the mix it works works

perfectly so next I've got a the CL 3 CL
a 3a compressor which I use a lot on

electric guitars I use the electric
guitar preset here so you can see so

I'll do an a/b here

Oh

just gives it a little squeeze that
sounds a nice on guitars it's not so

much for dynamic or level control it
just kind of smoothes it as squeezes it

a little bit and gives it a good
character

so finally I've got the L one limiter
which I actually use quite a bit on lead

guitars and this is just going to take
off the the high high peaks and just

really put it right up in your face and
have it not moving away

Oh

so it's only doing a few DB at a time
and it's not necessarily working on it

constantly but hopefully you can hear
when I switch it on the guitars just

right up there like right in your face
it doesn't move every note just cuts

right through there and is right up
front I'll do one more a beyond that

all right so that's my whole chain
pretty simple just some EQ compression

and a little bit of limiting let's just
listen to it one more time I'll pass all

my plugins and then switch them on
halfway through

that's how you can help a lead guitar
cut through the mix okay you guys hope

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