All language subtitles for How to Mix Epic Metal Guitar Solos and Leads

it what's up guys in this video I'm

gonna show you how to mix epic guitar

solos and leads for rock and metal and

the best news is that it's very simple

and you can use the same basic template

and approach and pretty much any song so

we're gonna dive directly into it let's

check out this solo this is a song by

the band a mandroid echo star

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so there's the solo let's check it out

with no plugins and no effects

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so first thing we want to do with a

guitar solo is used to me cue to help it

poke through the mix and sit above a

little bit so here's our SSL channel

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first thing we're gonna do is cut out

all the low-end that we don't need we

don't need any Rumble below 200 Hertz so

we've got our high-pass filter there

you

especially where he does those I don't

know what they're called but you hear

kind of the low strings the low kind of

muffled pom meeting sound here how about

the low-end mud they're in there now

check this out in the PAS mute sections

here without the filter and with a lot

cleaner so that's pretty obvious now

pretty simple moves otherwise on the EQ

the the most important one here is going

to be the mid-range or I guess high mid

boost and this one's at 1.3 K so usually

it's somewhere between 1 and 3 K

sometimes it's more on the 2k range in

this case 1.3 helped it stick above the

main guitars really well and we're doing

a 3 DB boost here and then we're also

just doing a high shelf so boosting

everything above about three and a half

K just by 2 DB so not as aggressive

there this is the the move that's really

making it cut through the mix so let's a

be this out of solo

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without the midrange

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okay so that's helping it just sit above

the mixed brightness wise and giving it

that extra mid-range boost to poke

through the other guitars and layers

then from there we've just got a simple

limiter the l1 byways I like how this

just kind of just really nails something

down in place and it's not really

working that hard check this out

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so you can see when he gets so this

higher notes it's not really doing

anything but because we're using kind of

a beefier tone and he's got he's playing

on the neck pickup here we get a little

bit more low-end build up on certain

notes depending on where he's playing so

when he starts off lower here you can

see even the waveform is bigger and here

it gets thinner so this limiter is just

really in a really final way just kind

of making everything just a really solid

consistent volume all the way through

which you definitely want for a solo you

don't want the listener trying to

struggle to hear a part of the solo and

then on top of that of course we

automate to make sure again just like a

lead vocal that every notes going to

come through the way it should and be

consistent volume but the limiter really

helps a lot with that you'll notice it

again like we just saw right here and

then also towards the end when you

starts getting back to the lower strings

when you get somewhere that low-end

build up the limiter is just going to

keep it all consistent here

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especially right there at the end let's

do an a/b

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does a good job of really just making

sure those quick little bursts of low

end and kind of spikes of the the

low-end Rumble there don't stick out and

sound harsh or annoying to the listener

it's just all very smooth so that's what

we got in terms of EQ and a limiter so

very simple it doesn't take a lot now

let's go to the effects side first

effects end I've got here is a split

harmonizer so basically this is kind of

like an artificial doubler of source

kind of using a course effect so I'm

using the sound toys little micro shift

in this case you can also just use a

pitch plug-in I used to use this pitch

plug-in in Pro Tools just the stock

pitch plug-in and what you do is you

make it stereo and you just have it

detuned a little bit so see how it's -9

here on the left and then + night on the

right so it's just tuned and slightly

delayed so 21 milliseconds laying on the

Left 30 on the right so you're just

basically creating copies of it left and

right

that are slightly off time and pitch

wise from each other and that creates

that kind of Corsi widening harmonizer

effect micro shift it does a good job of

a similar thing here modeled after an

old analog piece so let's check this out

first I'll play it without this effect

on and then I'll unmute this end

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so listen to the sides listen to the

stereo with it's a little bit subtle

I'll turn it up a bit and then put it

back in where it is

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now if you use too much of this it can

become obvious and a little bit cheesy

but just a touch of it just helps to

widen the guitar sound there and give it

a nice kind of soaring sound as does

this stereo delay so again let's say be

that

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here's my return here

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can hear the echoes there and this is

just the stock Pro Tools plug-in we're

using eighth notes on the left and

quarter notes on the right side so it's

a little bit of a ping-pong and again

having the difference between left and

right gives it that width usually it's

on quarter notes this time I did eight

and quarter just to give it a little bit

more spread and it's pretty subtle in

this mix sometimes I will use a little

bit more of this delay on elite but in

this case as you can hear there is a

little bit of just mono delay up the

middle sounds like a quarter note that

was just baked in I think we're using an

axe FX here so we probably just put a

little touch of delay on that it was a

tiny bit more ambience if it wasn't for

that I probably would use a little bit

more of this instrument delay here and

those two things combined the split

harmonizer make a kind of the course

doubling effect and this ping-pong delay

or you can think of it as just a quarter

or eighth note delay that's stereo it's

really helping to just give this more of

an epic vibe notice I don't use reverb I

don't know I just find it clouds things

up in the mix I kind of only use it when

there's lots of space like something a

lot more sparse or if I just really need

it to be over the top like and over the

top epic kind of reverb effects but

otherwise just using delay like that so

check out what these effects do

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so pretty simple little EQ to get a

little brighter and a little mid-range

boost to poke out get rid of the low-end

stuff that you don't need and then

little doubling effect just spread it

out in stereo field and some stereo

delay I'm gonna show you one other

example here just to show you how you

can apply this across different

different songs and I've used you know

this same mix template all these mix

sends and returns here are basically

imported from my mix template so I'm

using these across really almost every

single mix I do and it all stays pretty

consistent so let me show you one more

song here alright so here's one more

epic solo for you I love this one this

is actually the same dam but there are a

couple years separating these mixes so

this one's actually a little bit earlier

but you'll see how this is basically the

exact same approach

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all right so pretty epic solo I had to

play that whole thing for you but this

one you'll see is basically the same

approach and it's even simpler so real

quick let's just walk through the chain

here we'll disable the effects by the

way the harmony and the lead here this

is harmonized as a whole the whole time

they're both treated basically the same

so let's check out the main solo here

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so this one we're not even doing any

boosting all we're doing is cutting out

the low end at about a hundred Hertz

here now we didn't have to go at quite

as high as I showed you on the last song

because we don't have as much of kind of

the low kind of stuff in the solo on the

harmony you see we put it up a little

bit further at 160 but again just

getting rid of the junk

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just focuses it a little bit

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and the awesome thing is that in

tracking this we got a tone that didn't

need any mid-range or high-end boost

here so we're good that way it's really

poking through the mix fine and then

again the same thing as before we got

the limiter just doing a little bit of

work

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not doing much but you hear that sounds

a little bit dry so again we got the

same thing going on

split harmonizer let's check this out

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here's our B turn here so this time like

I explained I am using the pitch plugin

same settings I showed you

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sounds like crank up

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so again just in their subtly to spread

it out a bit and then our delay send

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this time using the H delay and again

it's a ping-pong with the quarter note

so I believe that'll be a quarter note

and an eighth or maybe with this plugin

it might be quarter and a half note a

quick delay on one side and a slightly

shorter one on the right

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whose birth defects needed

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that's all there is to it so I hope you

guys enjoyed this tip on how to get epic

guitar leads and solos in your mixes if

you want more of this and make sure you

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ideal starting points now this is not a

formula for every mix it's a starting

point for EQ and compression settings

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will just help you get started on the

right foot you'll know kind of what what

the go-to points are in the frequency

spectrum when it comes to boosting and

cutting on different instruments and it

will really kind of just get you on the

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alright thanks for watching again I'm

Jordan talk to you later