MIXING

MIX DECONSTRUCTION 04 / Guitar Solo

Many people have emailed me that while they like the sound of the solo they think there is too much noise on this guitar track. I strongly disagree.

First of all, any decent old single coil pickup will most likely have two things: great tone and some hum. I would much rather find a way to deal with the noise than give up the tone. Period.

Also, while I could have muted the very beginning of the solo track (so it came in "clean") I did not want to do that. Noise before the pick hits the string is like a vocalist's breath...very human.

I once recorded some background vocals that were to be flown all over a song. The next day the synclavier (sampler) operator told me that he stayed late and cleaned out the vocal breaths. I listened, thanked him and then asked him to put the breaths back in. It didn't sound human.

LIFE IS NOISY! GET USED TO IT! Are you making music or sterile sounds? While you can get very clean sounds that are quite musical, human imperfections can be more believable.