Electric Guitar

The electric guitar plays many important roles in my music in particular, due to the versatility of the instrument and the types of artists that influenced me as a teenager and young adult.

Most of my songs, particularly in the rock genre, will have several electric guitar tracks, covering a wide range of the frequency spectrum and filling in many of the rhythmic gaps left by the bass and drums. Though each song is unique and calls for its own compositional approach, I typically like to break these tracks up into the following 4 categories: rhythm, octave, lead, and noise.

Here's how they break down:

Rhythm: This is usually the lowest and fullest electric guitar part, tonally. It is often the first written element, as I tend to more easily perform vocal melodies while playing in this style.

It’s called rhythm guitar for a reason. It usually follows the bass line closely and determines the feel of the song. Tonally, I like to keep this track pretty thin, so that it can cut through the mix without taking it over.

Octave: This track is usually present during heavier parts of the song that require more tonal density. It will typically follow the feel of the rhythm guitar and complement it, melodically.

I usually like to use a warmer tone for this track.

Lead: This is the most melodic guitar track in the song. It might even include a solo, though I should point out that, despite my love for the instrument, I have never become particularly good at it, so most of my lead guitar tracks are more textural than flashy.

I like this track to have a full tone, with plenty of warmth and clarity, since in many ways it’s the most important, or at least noticeable, guitar part, especially to the average listener.

Noise: Not every song will have this track, but if the mix feels empty, I might use the electric guitar to fill it out, texturally. This can be done by strategically recording noise, often through improvisation. It can add a unique and unpredictable element to a song if executed properly.

Noise tracks usually sound best when they’ve been thinned out. I usually want them to sit further down in the mix, almost undetectable to the untrained ear.

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I like to take the same approach to recording electric guitar that I take to bass guitar. I connect my Line 6 HX Stomp directly to my interface and use it to simulate amplifiers, cabinets, and microphones. Given the right equipment and the right environment, however, the traditional approach to recording electric guitar can yield great results. This, of course, would involve an actual amplifier, cabinet, and at least one microphone. There’s no right or wrong way to record an electric guitar using microphones, but producers have traditionally pointed one directly at one of the cabinet’s speakers from within a few inches.

Often, they will use an additional microphone to capture room tone or even place one behind an open back cabinet. Typically, the more microphones, the thicker the tone, but at the very least, a multi-microphone setup gives the producer more tracks to choose from and balance as he pleases.