Jump to content

Good effects to make a guitar sound electronic?


Recommended Posts

I hope this makes sense. I wrote punk rock/etc. for years and recently I got into electronic, I've done pretty well keeping them separate but I'm trying to bring both my major influences together in one project. The problem is, whenever I write electronic parts and try to put electric guitars in them, they sound WRONG. Even when I get the guitars and electronics to work nice together, the distortions/etc. sound too ROCK. I'm trying to get a sound more like the Postal Service or something.

For guitar recording I'm using Guitar Rig 3 and the built in amps and pedals and stuff in there.

I'm thinking maybe just find a really clean distortion, record, and then bring it into Orion and apply some kind of effects to it to make it sound more electronic-ish and fit in with the rest of what I'm doing in Orion. Just not sure what effects to try out.

Anyone have any ideas?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I could rattle off some effects that would make your guitar sound more electronic, but "electronic" covers a wide range of sounds, many of which you probably don't want.

Can you post some examples of the kind of guitar sound you're looking for? I'm not very familiar with Postal Service, but their one song I've heard doesn't have any unusual effects on the guitar -- it's just mixed in modestly. By comparison, most rock will have the guitars mixed front-and-center, wide-and-full, etc.

Alternatively, post an example of what sounds 'wrong' and maybe we can offer suggestions to make it better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I like to put a sliiiiiiiiight amount of phaser on my guitars to just give them more of an electronic twinge. However, in a song I've been working on I would suggest layering in a sawtooth synth with a little guitar pedal to make the sound a tad more synthetic. It works well, especially if you have chugging rock-like guitars.

Also, that synth effect in guitar rig works pretty well for adding a slight amount of synthetic edge. Or, since thats basically filtering the source and adding a synth wave to the waveform, another option is to just automate a filter. Filters are a big part of synthesis, so even a slight amount of filtering can give it more of an electronic feel.

When I think electronic punk, I think Prodigy, Hyper and Pendulum, so I guess you could listen to how they do guitars. Prodigy seems to like to cut up their guitars and make them more of a sample-set for splicing in to their songs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll have to wait until work to get some examples of what I'm looking for, but here is a song I'm working on now with electronics + guitars and the guitar sounds so harsh and out of place when it comes in...

http://www.negativeworld.org/mymusic/unfinished/indiegame1.mp3

The guitar comes in around the 0:55 mark, does chords for a half a minute and then some single string stuff for 20 seconds or so. Also appears at the same part later in the song. None of it quite seems to fit to me...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The timbre of the guitar doesn't really sound awkward to me. I think it is just mixed in too loud or occupies too much of the spectrum. Tweaking the levels and EQ should make it work.

The rhythmic parts do seem a bit off, though. Like it was recorded with too much latency, or maybe your takes just were dragging.

So my opinion is that there's no certain effect that will help, it's just a matter of proper mixing and recording. But feel free to seek out other opinions.

cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...