#136: How to Make Guitar Stand Out in a Mix (PRODUCER KICKSTART: VYLT)

If you are looking for mixing tips on topics like how to mix multiple guitars, how to get my guitar to sit in the mix, where should the guitar be panned in a mix, how can I make my guitar sound more interesting, or maybe even just how do you make an instrument stand out in a mix. Then check out EP 136 of the Inside The Mix podcast where horror synth/dark synth/synth metal music producer VYLT joins me for a Producer Kickstart Strategy Session.

CLICK HERE, to book a Producer Kickstart Strategy Session: https://tidycal.com/inside-the-mix-podcast/producer-kickstart

Step into the shadowy realm of horror synth as I catch up with the enigmatic VYLT, Singapore's witchy wave maestro. Whether you're a producer looking to refine your mix or a fan of spine-tingling dark synth, you'll gain insider knowledge on mixing low-end frequencies and the alchemy of EQ and compression to bring out the soul in guitar tracks.

Horror meets harmony as we explore the technical labyrinth of music production. Learn the secrets behind the perfect mix, understand the context of each track and avoid the pitfalls of overzealous EQ that can haunt your final product. I also dissect the virtues of natural band-pass filtering and debate the merits of recording guitars through an amp versus a simulator. This episode peels back the layers of distortion, compression, and dynamic preservation, giving you the tools to craft audio that maintains the natural essence of sound while fitting perfectly into your musical incantation.

Finally, I reveal a trove of creative production tricks that could be your secret weapon. Imagine your double-tracked guitars not just doubling, but towering over your mix with an unexpected auxiliary send trick. I cover the spectrum from panning to centred signals, and manual automation, and celebrate the philosophy of sound: if it's cool, it's the rule. And before the spirits of inspiration fade, I spotlight VYLT Viola's latest track release, a testament to the power of embracing the unique and the unknown in music production.

CLICK HERE, to listen to VYLT: https://linktr.ee/vyltmusic
CLICK HERE, to listen to MANIFESTO (VYLT Remix): https://vylt.fanlink.tv/manifesto-vylt-remix

Transcript

VYLT: 0:00

Hey Inside the Mix podcast fans, it's Matt Leffler-Schulman. Follow me or find out more information at Mobtown Studios on Instagram. You are listening to Inside the Mix podcast.

Marc Matthews: 0:11

Here's your host, mark Matthews. Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you. Hey, folks, and welcome back to the Inside the Mix podcast. As always, new listeners, you are very much welcome. Make sure you hit that follow button on your podcast player of choice and also subscribe and notify as well on YouTube so you get notified when there's a new episode. And, as always, if you're a returning listener, a huge, huge welcome back Now in this episode.

Marc Matthews: 0:57

I'm very excited today to welcome a returning guest, my friend VYLT Viola, a singapore horror synth, dark synth, synth metal music producer music producer rather with a love for witchy and occult vibes for a producer kickstart strategy. We were talking off air that we did this approximately a year ago. We did one, so it was amazing and it's almost three days off, one year since we last spoke on the podcast. Time really does fly, violet. How are you today? How are you?

VYLT: 1:28

Hi hi, thank you so much for having me back. I'm doing great. I'm just pumped to be back on the podcast. It's really been like a whole year and it's kind of crazy to think about that. I know it's mad isn't it?

Marc Matthews: 1:40

And I've been following your stuff online as well and obviously you've had really really good success with your music in the streams. I noticed on one track, vibrancy, in particular, which got in excess of 100,000 plays, and the live shows as well, are really really exciting.

VYLT: 1:54

Yeah, thanks in part to you, by the way, I should mention because, for those who don't know, mark here did the mastering for my track. Vibrancy is an amazing job thank you very much.

Marc Matthews: 2:06

Thank you for the shout out. It's a, it's a great track, it really is, and um, it's, it's. It's always nice to see good music getting the exposure and the streams that it deserves. So, yeah, very much deserved so and it's also really cool. We were once again talking off air of how I'm finding that. I'm talking to individuals who are finding the podcast and then they're finding you as an artist as well, and we were. We were discussing one chap in particular and how he listened to episode 75. So, audience, if you want to listen to the first episode, it's episode 75, how to mix bass frequencies and he found uh, violet v-o-i-l-t. Um through that episode and a spot Spotify playlist. So it just goes to show that it's quite nice that you, coming on the podcast, you're then reaching that audience as well, that sort of evergreen content, which is really really cool yeah, honestly thanks.

VYLT: 2:55

Because of Inside the Mix, I guess. So thank you for listening.

Marc Matthews: 3:00

You're very much welcome and also it does help that your music is really really good as well. So, yeah, it's been a year. You're very much welcome and also it does help that your music is really really good as well. So, yeah, it's been a year. So we got you back on today for a producer kickstart session and in the notes that you sent over to me, you mentioned about mixing low end, which I think is one of those ones for artists and music producers. It's probably one of the most common pain points that I see in particular. But you mentioned about mixing guitars in general is quite tricky, so I've got some tips here that I'm going to share with you today on mixing guitars, in particular, with compression and EQ. But can you just go through at the moment? So let's say you're mixing or producing a song right now, what's the general sort of guitar setup that you use? Are you using more than one guitar and are you using VSTs or are you recording guitar through a cab? What is your current process?

VYLT: 3:51

Oh gosh. So I've changed my process a lot. Like every song is basically a completely different process Because I'm constantly trying to search for like the tone that I'm happy with, because I don't come from a band background so I don't have that much experience with tone setting for guitars and stuff. I came from primarily an electronic music background. Let me think I believe for Visions use, I record it directly out from my amplifier. So I use a Boss Katana Mark II, I believe is what it's called. So I just like I play the amplifier out loud straight into a condenser mic and I just record the audio. That way I run it through like a little bit of pedal stuff, but not that much like a noise and a distortion, just for like slight boost before going into the amplifier. That was for Visions. For my latest, I have a track coming soon. It's the remix of a friend's track. For that one I actually opted to direct my input straight into my audio interface and then use a guitar sim.

Marc Matthews: 5:11

I was going to mention then about DIing the guitar. So one of my first points was going to be sort of like could you DI the guitar and record it from the amp as well at the same time? But it sounds like you're doing it one way or the other. I think that's always quite a good thing to do is capture the di signal, in particular with bass. I find I know bassists do that a lot. Um, when I've been in the studio with our bass guitar, so when I recorded bass for some songs of my own last year, we di'd the bass and then we also had um we were recording the bass for a bass cab as well. But that's always something to bear in mind.

Marc Matthews: 5:42

If you've got the facility to do it, I would recommend do it. It's just to capture the clean signal of the guitar as well. If you can do it, if you can get like a splitter going from your guitar, obviously one would go into your cab and then one, you've got the DI going straight into your. It's been a while since I've done it so I might butchering that description, but basically you want to capture the di of the guitar into your audio interface and then obviously you can record it going out through your cab as well. So I always think that's a really good tip is to record both. That way you've got that clean signal and then you can if you're not happy with the guitar tone that you've captured going through the cab. You can do what you've done in your second track, which is to then just use that clean di and then use an amp. Sim just give you, gives you extra possibilities if that makes sense.

VYLT: 6:26

That is fascinating, because I've never thought of that as an option.

Marc Matthews: 6:33

It's fairly simple. It's really easy to do. You just need to get a splitter.

VYLT: 6:39

Yeah and they're quite.

Marc Matthews: 6:39

I'm thinking off the top of my head now it's been a while since I've done it, but yeah, that's just a random thought that just came into my head when you were talking. But I think in terms of tips with regards to mixing guitar. So you say you're not really happy with the tone. I think when I was playing guitar I was constantly tweaking the tone of my guitar. I don't think it ever particularly stayed in one particular setting on my amp. So I don't think you're alone in that respect.

Marc Matthews: 7:07

But with regards to actual mixing so in the notes I've got here you mentioned about that you have a problem figuring out how to mix the lows together without losing punch in the guitars. I think if you just get the fundamentals of mixing down, I think that would just come anyway with regards to not losing the guitars in the mix. So, for example, if you're looking at EQ, when you're EQing a guitar, how do you start that particular process? Are you EQing and removing unnecessary frequencies, then compressing and then EQing again? How does that look in your mix at the moment?

VYLT: 7:40

Oh, it's hell of messy. Well, okay. So I think the number one thing I immediately start off is I just cut out the lows, Like below, like okay, I don't remember the exact number like maybe 150 or 200 and everything below that. I just take it out, and then I tend to approach EQ from a very like not standardized way where sometimes.

VYLT: 8:10

Sometimes I try like scooping out mids a little bit to see how that sounds, and sometimes I actually boost mids to see how that sounds in the whole mix itself. Um, and then after that I don't really use a compressor because, like for me, I run my guitar when I di, at least I run it through a distortion pedal, and then I think I ran it through a compression pedal, um, or and, and then it went di, so like it was a very like compressed signal already it was like zero, zero dynamics yes, I, I get what you're saying now.

Marc Matthews: 8:48

So I think you're doing the right thing with the eq in rolling off the low end. My I always say this to people as well when you're doing that, obviously you want to do it in the context of the mix and also make sure you're not using too steep a slope as well. I've seen some mixes and and heard sort of reports of where the slopes. The slopes rather sort of like 24 db, I think. If you want to have like a nice gradual slope of something like 6 db like a first order slope, because what can happen is if it's too steep you can get sort of resonant bumps around that cutoff point, and obviously the more of those you have then it's going to introduce anomalies into your track. So I would be wary of that. And the other one as well is the other side. So you've you, you can think of it like a band pass. You've got your high pass filter. Are you doing anything in terms of low passing sort of, let's say, around sort of eight, the eight kilohertz range? Are you doing anything around there?

VYLT: 9:42

uh, not at all. Um, I usually like I I reduce the shelf maybe if I find that the highs are too like screeching and things like that, um, but usually I let the highs sit. Um, I think, yeah, because, like for my music, I have a lot of things going on and like the lows and the mids so I try to find space in the higher high-mid area for the guitar to sit. So that usually leads me to just let the highs just kind of shrill out.

Marc Matthews: 10:14

I see what you're saying, yeah, it does make sense. And I think when you're looking at sort of like 5 to 8 kilohertz that's the range where your guitars are going to cut through the mix and then below that, in the mid-range, you've got the sort of presence frequencies, sort of like one to five kilohertz. But right, I had this. I had a conversation with a mastering engineer the other day and they mentioned a very valid point, which it might be quite a sweeping statement, which was whereby when you're recording a uh through a cab, there is a natural band pass filter going on there. You're not, it's not producing frequencies higher than then sort of like 10, 12k that an amp sim would produce. So I saw a really good tutorial online a few years back where this guy mentioned it and he's like, yeah, basically just band pass. Obviously you want to do it in the context of the mix again, but you'll get a much more natural sounding guitar sound.

VYLT: 11:08

I don't know if that's ever something you've ever considered yeah, no, not that you mentioned it, I think, actually I think you're. I think I didn't put a low pass filter for the di guitar. I didn't do it for the cab sim guitar, so that actually um lines up exactly with what you're saying yeah, yeah, it's an interesting one, um, because I never thought of it that way.

Marc Matthews: 11:30

It's just something I naturally do anyway, when it comes to mixing, I'm thinking, right, okay, well, I'm going to go through and I'm just going to remove or attenuate frequencies I don't necessarily need, and it's great to hear that you're not automatically reaching for a high or low pass filter. You're actually using the, the um, the shelves, the low and high shelves, um, which is a good thing to hear, because sometimes that's all you need. You don't necessarily want to remove all that information, you just want to duck it down by three or four db rather than get rid of it altogether. So it's good to hear that you're using those and not automatically going through all the uh for the sort of high and low pass filtering. So that's a good thing.

VYLT: 12:06

I think I actually got that from you one year ago.

Marc Matthews: 12:09

Oh, amazing.

VYLT: 12:10

Yeah, that was something you mentioned to me that kind of stuck with me of like you don't need to always high pass all the lows out, you can just low shelf it and just leave a little bit of information there.

Marc Matthews: 12:20

Yeah, 100%, because, again, conversations this is the great thing about the podcast.

Marc Matthews: 12:26

I have conversations with these other engineers and they're like, yeah, that information, specifically in mastering, if it's not there, then like you can't boost what isn't there, essentially, if you want to. So yeah, it's, it's great, it's great that you're doing that. Um, so, with regards to eq, it sounds like you're doing the right things and, in particular, with the presence frequencies in that mid range, and you're using that to have your guitars cut through. With regards to compression, now that's an interesting one, because you're saying that, at the moment, you're compressing it as it's coming in, which is fine, which is fine, but I think it'd be quite that's where, I guess, if you were to record two signals, one that's not compressed and one that is at least that way, you've got the option, then, of tailoring that compression in the mix, if that makes sense oh yeah, no, I do notice like when it runs through the distortion pedal itself alone, I don't really have much out to compress anyway, because like the whole thing is just one fat sausage and it's just like.

VYLT: 13:23

You know, there's no such thing as dynamic after that. Because, okay, I, I'm gonna expose myself on, on, on the, on the podcast. I don't know if this is controversial I use a metal zone I.

Marc Matthews: 13:35

Metal zones are great. I used to use a metal zone okay that's good years and years ago. Yeah, yeah, um, I did use one, but many the boss metal right, it's black, isn't?

VYLT: 13:44

it, if I remember rightly. Yeah, I've heard many things that it's been a very controversial figure in the guitar scene.

Marc Matthews: 13:52

I think it's one of those People say there's certain equipment that when you mention it you're sort of reluctant to say you have it. There are audio interfaces that are like the common memes that you see online, like the common memes that you see online like the Focusrite ones.

VYLT: 14:06

Oh, I've heard.

Marc Matthews: 14:06

yes, but ultimately, if it does the job you know, then use it Like don't worry about what other people think, you know, just go with it.

VYLT: 14:14

Oh man.

Marc Matthews: 14:15

I love Boss pedals. I used to have quite an extensive collection of Boss pedals. I had the NS2 Noisegate. I had a few others as well, I can't remember. I had the compressor, the Boss compressor pedal I think it was like CP something or other, and, yeah, the Metal Zone for a while, and then I moved on. I got a PV6505 so I didn't need it anymore. Essentially still a great pedal, though, but yeah, with compression it sounds like if you're running it through that distortion, that distortion, that distortion pedal, sort of like doing it already for you. It's kind of it sounds like it's limiting it for you as well at the same time by absolutely sort of slamming the signal that you've got going in there yeah, it's just like hard clipping everything, I think but if it works for your sound and it's the sound you want, then I don't see there's any any problem with it, to be honest.

Marc Matthews: 15:05

But what I would say is I would definitely consider, like, if you're doing that, it's just recording a clean di as well, I would certainly, I would certainly do that, um, and when you're recording, when you're recording your guitars, are you just doing one guitar? Are you doing like a left and right or you or you, are you stacking? Are you doing two lefts and two rights?

VYLT: 15:25

um, yeah, I take like two takes and then I uh, what do you call it double track? Yes yes, yeah, I double track it. It's only two okay, that's fair.

Marc Matthews: 16:49

Yeah, I mean we, we only we only quadruple track, I think. I think that's the one, because there were two guitarists. Essentially that's that's the reason why we did it. But you don't have to. I mean, left and right would be fine.

Marc Matthews: 17:00

The EP I released last year I just did left and right with me playing and it worked fine. One thing I was going to say to you and this is quite a cool little trick you could try is, if you are double-tracking, your guitars, pan left and right and then send the signal from each of those left and right guitars to an auxiliary send with a compressor on it and then have like 8 to 10 ratio, sort of like 10, 20 dB of gain reduction on it, and then have that left compressor auxiliary send in the center and then just have that underneath the left and right guitars. It's uh, it's quite a cool trick to do and it just means that your guitars sound louder without actually being louder, if that makes sense in the sense of like it's one compressor that's being acted on by both signals but affecting both signals that's correct.

Marc Matthews: 17:53

Yeah, so you've got your left and right and then you've got your auxiliary send with the compressor on it. Then you're sending the left and right signal the same amount to that compressor on that auxiliary send in the center, and then you just bring that in underneath and it's sort of like just tucks in underneath the left and right guitars and it just gives that sense of the guitars being fuller and louder without them, without you actually bringing up the volume of the left and right guitars. It's quite a cool little trick. Maybe you want to try out.

VYLT: 18:21

Would it be? Because I'm imagining it would have that sort of thing where if, let's say, the left side is louder than the right side, would it bring the right side down too much?

Marc Matthews: 18:33

Yeah, you'd want the same amount of signal going from each of the guitars so you could put it in. Trying to think which way you would put it, you could put it in pre-fade, because are your? Is your left left guitar louder than the right guitar, is that?

VYLT: 18:49

no, I mean it's supposed to be the same but because, like sometimes I'll do like sort of like um chuggy rhythms that are like somewhat not fully like the same, like it's not always like I see chug strum, chug, chug, strum. Maybe it's like I I I might not perfectly do the chug in one and the other one sounds like louder kind of thing.

Marc Matthews: 19:10

They're like those minor inconsistencies yeah, I think, I think that'd be fine. I okay, yeah, that wouldn't. You wouldn't notice that too much, because I think if you're using a sort of eight ten to one ratio on that, then it's going to have an impact on those transients and it and also, because it's tucked in just underneath, it's not going to be audible. Yeah, I'm just thinking off the top of my head. I've never experienced it whereby it has had a detrimental effect on the other side. If that makes sense, I think the best thing would be just to give it a try and see what it sounds like. But I've used it to great effect. I think it sounds great. I mean, obviously, if you were to have a left and right and the left was ridiculously louder than the right, then it's going to have a negative impact. But if it's just that subtle variation in playing whereby it's just a touch louder here and there, then no, you're not going to notice that.

VYLT: 20:01

Right, I think what I did for my latest upcoming release was that I had both sides going into a bus that just wave-shaped it. I don't know if it gets a similar effect, because I really enjoy using wave-shaping Okay it gets a similar effect, because I really enjoy using wave shaping.

VYLT: 20:19

Okay, uh, which I probably should learn to use compressors more, but, um, so it all goes into one wave shaper. And then, like I just I did this thing, which I don't know if it's a cardinal sin or not um, for each side of the guitar, I did reverse compression where it would, uh, boost the signal that was above a certain threshold oh, expansion.

VYLT: 20:42

So you were using expansion on the guitars yeah, I guess I yeah yes, yeah, yeah, okay, that's interesting the idea was that I wanted to emphasize, um like certain, like open strums compared to chugs, so that it would give a more rhythmic sound, especially when there was a lot of stuff happening in the mix and it's not that easy to make the guitars out and then having those run through a clipper so that the open strums would have almost like a different timbre to the chugs or like a more obvious difference in tomber my first response would be like if it sounds good, then do it.

Marc Matthews: 21:19

If, if you get the, if you get, if the effect that you get is what you want, then there is no rule in my, in my head. I mean, if you're using expansion to do that and then you're running it through a clipper just to to trim those peaks and you get the sound you want, and it is creatively changing the tombre of the instrument as well, then I would continue doing. It. Sounds like quite a cool trick. To be fair, never considered it. I've never used an expand, expansion or expander on the guitars, um, but maybe it's something I'll get. I'll have a look at going down in the future. There you go, audience. Give that one a go. I've never considered it.

VYLT: 21:52

I I would, I would you know, place a disclaimer on it, because I is a thing where I have to manually automate it to turn off whenever there are long chugs or long strums, so that it doesn't just randomly dip down at some point in the strum.

Marc Matthews: 22:08

Right, okay, so you've got to control it. It sounds like it needs to be very much controlled.

VYLT: 22:14

I guess. So yeah, but I guess you're right in the sense of there is always the golden rule of if it sounds cool, it sounds cool yeah, 100 you can often.

Marc Matthews: 22:22

I often find that if I am mixing something and then if I listen to it in isolation and I'm like, oh, that sounds terrible. But then in the mix I'm like actually it sounds quite good and and it achieves the effect I want. And it might be a slightly, um, unhinged way of achieving that effect, but if it works, then just do it and then just continue doing it.

VYLT: 22:42

This is true, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 22:44

That was always the way I've been told and that's kind of what I preach on the podcast as well, and for the most part it seems to work. I realize, Violet, we're coming towards the end of this producer kickstart, so out of what we've been through today, what sort of actionable steps do you think you'll take forward in your next project?

VYLT: 23:04

Yeah, definitely the splitting I'm going to. I'm going to have to look into getting a splitter because I that's really never been an idea in my head that I could do both at the same time, so I'm definitely going to give that a try I do. I am curious about, like, the compression trick. It sounds like I don't know if the right term is glue compressing.

Marc Matthews: 23:31

Yeah, I suppose you could call it that in a way, because it is kind of well, it's definitely going to be gluing the two guitars together and putting them in the same space. I'll do something, some total tangent. Now I'll do something similar with drums as well, whereby I will have an auxiliary send with, like, the decapitator on it or some sort of saturation, and then what I'll do is I'll create it's almost like a headphone mix for a recording artist. I will send a separate mix of the drums to that auxiliary send, not all the same level, so I'm mixing again into that auxiliary send and then I'll use the decapitator on it just to add a bit of for want of a better way of putting it just punch and impact, basically for drums. So it's not just guitars.

Marc Matthews: 24:14

You can use that sort of trick on, I mean, auxiliary sends. You can use on any instrument ultimately. But again, you could switch out the compressor for something like a decapitator or saturation or distortion, because in a way they're kind of doing a similar thing. Now, that's a sweeping statement, I'll probably get corrected on that but in a way they are sort of like slamming down on that signal and then affecting that signal. So you could try it. You could try compressors, saturation, distortion, other tips, the wave wave shaper element that you, you mentioned there as well, but that's cool. The splitter will be good. It'd be interesting to see. Um, let me know how that goes when you, if, you, if and when you do implement it and and how you get on.

Marc Matthews: 24:55

So give yourself a bit of a shout out now. Where can our audience find you online? Where's the best place to go? And also, have you got any key dates, any releases coming up as well?

VYLT: 25:05

Well, I'm so glad you asked, so you can find all my links at linktreecom slash VYLT music no caps, no spaces. You can find me on Instagram at VYLT underscore music. That's where I think I'm most active. I think my most upcoming thing is going to be on the 23rd of March, so it's not too far off.

Marc Matthews: 25:34

Cool.

VYLT: 25:35

It is a remix of a track done by Falling Islands. I'm not sure if you're familiar.

Marc Matthews: 25:41

No, no, tell me more.

VYLT: 25:42

He's a really, really talented producer from Singapore as well, and actually we're in the same because I'm in my university's electronic club. It's called Electronic Music Lab and so Falling Islands islands. He's a an assistant tutor at that club. So, yeah, we, we. I got a chance to work with him for a remix of one of his tracks, um manifesto. So it's from his netwalker ep and it's gonna be the. He's releasing a whole remix EP of everything from that EP, like remixed by a really cool Singaporean artist, coming out on the 23rd of March. So I'm very excited. I'm so excited for that.

Marc Matthews: 26:29

I will put links to your link tree and also that track as well, because this episode is going to go out post that release date. So, audience listening. You'll be able to click on the link in the episode description and not only follow VYLT Violet Online but also check out that remix as well. So do go and do that. And before you go, folks, if you want to be like my friend here at VYLT and become a producer, kickstart, participant, just click on the link in the episode description. Or you can go to the website, insidethemixpodcastpodiacom, which will soon be changing to insidethemixpodcastcom, because I have bought the domain for that and I need to set the website up. And so, yes, get signed up and join me on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure to speak to you almost a year to the day that we last spoke, which is amazing. So, yes, violet, good luck with the release and also mixing guitars as well, and I will catch up with you soon.