Multiband tip for Mixing Guitars

Guitars in Electronic Music

Here is a really quick Multiband Compression tip for mixing guitars that can help your recorded guitars sit better in a modern mix.

When a track is made up of more VST synths and less organic instruments it can be challenging to make a raw guitar part sit well in that sonic space. Of course, sometimes you really want the organic sound of a varied guitar part. But what about those times you want your guitars to sit as tightly as possible in the mix, more like a sample? With the tight controlled sound of a VST? Here’s a tip that can help you achieve that sound.

I used my Fender Telecaster in the video below, which sounds surprisingly good on electronic tracks once processed properly.

Using Multiband compression on guitars in an electronic track

Upward Compression

Here we are going to use a particular type of compression called Upward Compression. Here’s a diagram of that process in action on our guitar signal (blue). Our compressor is going to bring the quieter sounds (red) up in level. It acts on all sounds quieter than the threshold (dotted line).

Step 1 – Add a Multiband compressor to the guitar channel

We’re going to start by adding a Multiband compressor to the guitar channel in our track. The song in my example used guitar power chords in the chorus but I felt they could be more consistent to sit with the other instruments in the mix. I used the Ableton stock Multiband Dynamics compressor (fig 1 below), but any Multiband compressor will work.

Step 2 – Threshold for the Hi band

We next want to set the compressor threshold for the high frequency band on which we are going to apply the upward compression. The key here (as always) is to use your ears, but a good guide we can use is the visual blue bar guide in the compressor window and start with our threshold above the average input signal of the hi band (fig 2 below).

Step 3 – Ratio

Our next step is to set the upward compression Ratio for that hi band we are working on. To do this drag up on the upward compression band until the lines start to close together (fig 3 below). You can play with the ratio settings when you try this yourself. Obviously, the more extreme the ratio, the more extreme the effect you will hear. Always check how the guitar sounds with the compressor on and off.

Step 4 – Word of Caution

This is a fairly extreme technique if used excessively. We want to make sure that we’re achieving the sound we want without increasing the noise floor too much. So as always, use your ears and decide what amount works for your song at that moment. Luckily, Ableton’s Multiband compressor has a mix control so we can dial back the level of the effect if we want, without adjusting the ratio and threshold. (fig 4 below)

Conclusion – Mixing guitars in electronic music tracks

This is a simple tip for mixing guitars to sit well in electronic productions. As we’ve seen, Multiband compressor can be a powerful tool to hype up our guitar tracks in more modern sounding productions. Guitars are inherently variable and while that is the essence of what makes them great, sometimes we want them to sit tightly with the other more hyped ingredients in the track. Varnishing the top end by flattening out and making the highs consistent is one way to do this. It’s a quick way to make the guitars sound more polished when they’re beside synths and other consistent elements. Good luck with the technique and let me know any questions or comments below.