Original subtitles

hello Jordan here from hardcore music

studio calm in this video I'm going to

show you how to fix a muddy guitar tone

using the classic Andy Sneap c4 setting

for the ways c4 plugin so a common

problem with heavy distorted guitars

especially in you know rock and metal

music is the Pamyu it's right they tend

to build up the low end and the low mids

and kind of a nasty way they can kind of

really just swell and take over the mix

and make it sound like you've got a

muddy tone when maybe everything else

you know we needs not playing pond meets

sounds totally fine so how do we address

this in the mix well it's very very

simple here let me show you just one

section in this song where we've got

some pom mutes happening

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

lots of heavy chucks here with you know

lots of low-end building up you can even

see it in the waveform you can see the

the spikes here when he's hitting the

palm you

[Music]

so we're just gonna focus on this c4

plug-in so this is a multiband

compressor this one is by ways but if

you've got something by another brand

that's totally fine it just has to be a

multiband compressor so the c4 setting

it's incredibly incredibly simple so let

me reset this and by the way I've got

I've got these rhythm guitar tracks

grouped here so everything I do on one

of these left or right tracks is gonna

show up on the same plug-in on the other

one as well so just so you know as I'm

adjusting this plug-in on the left side

it's gonna happen for the right side as

well so let's bypass this and just see

the raw well not the right tone because

we have all these other plugins but

without the c4 here so especially right

here when he's doing these Chuck's you

can really hear the low-end build up

starting to sound a little money there

so we're gonna control that using the

c-4 plugin so let me actually get rid of

this plug-in first so let's load it up

again okay now here's the thing this

plug-in is loading up with just the

factory default so nothing is set here

already I'd actually don't even have

this saved as a preset because it's

incredibly simple I don't change

anything except for I bypass all the

bands except for the low mid where I

want to actually affect so for money

pomade guitars you know they're gonna be

between probably a hundred and you know

maybe up to four hundred Hertz but

probably around the 250 300 range so

let's change this to 350 so now I've

adjusted the bandwidth here so this

compressor is only gonna act within this

range from 92 Hertz to about 350

everything else is going to ignore but

just when that specific frequency range

exceeds the threshold it's gonna

compress it down so I don't change any

of the other settings you know the

attack and release it's all fine I'm

happy with how it sounds for guitars

here so now we're just gonna play this

section and then we're just gonna adjust

the threshold down until we're getting

the amount of compression we want

[Music]

so right away off the bat you know just

it's doing a fair bit there let's listen

to a B so here's without and then I'll

put it away in with

[Music]

so you can see how that's already

sounding a lot cleaner there let's just

play with it a little more I'll kind of

go extreme and then I'll back it up to

kind of where I would normally want to

have it

[Music]

so let's ad again

[Music]

so I'm I'm exaggerating here I'm just

trying to emphasize what this plug-in is

doing I think that's actually doing a

little bit too much there the thing is

you don't want to totally suck that out

because that's part of what makes a

pomade sound like a Pamyu right you

don't want to make it sound like Aflac

it's our tone that's never being played

differently he is palming and you want

that to come across there should be a

little bit of extra added low-end when

that happens that's what makes it sound

heavy so you don't want to suck at all

that like I was just doing there if you

really want to set it so that the bulk

of the normal guitar plane in the song

is not getting touched by this plugin

but then when he hits those big chugs or

the the parts in the song where the low

ones really building up then you want it

to kick in and then leave the rest of

the tone alone so let's try and dial

that in

[Music]

that's a little better you can see it's

barely moving on these normal port parts

here

see how it really kicked in on those

Chuck's there

really here that buildup right there

let's put it back in

so we still get a little bit of

chunkiness from the chugs but it's not

kind of overwhelming and it's not

sounding muddy it's just you know giving

a little bit actually pushing this

plugin is just controlling that swell so

it's not too crazy so I like where

that's sitting right there so that's it

all you got to do with this plugin is

bring it up don't worry about any of the

other settings hit bypass on everything

except for the low mid band here adjust

the frequency usually end up with this

around 350 but you know if you have

something that's a little lower in the

range and you can adjust that as well

then you just tweak the threshold so

that the bulk of the tone is untouched

and then just when it hits those big

swelly

low-end chug parts then you want the

compressor to kick in and dip it down

and the reason this is so powerful is

because the other option to deal with

kind of the low end or the low mid

muddiness and heavy guitars like this is

to use an EQ so you could pull up any

key like this you know set it around 250

[Music]

so right there we've we've got rid of

the low-end build up from the chugs but

we've also ruined the rest of the tone

right when he's not chugging you know

we've made it sound thin by just doing a

once-and-for-all

dip out in the low-mid so we don't want

to do that that's why the c4 or a

multiband compressor in the low mids

here is super powerful that for guitars

like this because it's only gonna work

on those problem spots you'd almost

think of it as a dynamic EQ it's almost

like an EQ that's dipping it down only

when necessary so hopefully that helps

hopefully that's a really clear demo of

the Andy Sneap c4 setting you might see

people throwing around that term online

this is how it's done and this is how

you can control the muddiness from pom

unity guitars in your mixes without you

know ruining the tone with the big EQ

skew if you want to see more mixing tips

like this make sure you subscribe to

this YouTube channel and get automatic

updates when I put a new video please

like it leave a comment below with what

you'd like to see next and share this

with other people who need to see it

and lastly if you're not on my email

list already if you're just discovering

this for the first time I want you to

head over to make it better records calm

I've got a free gift for you there some

mixing cheat sheet it's really gonna

help you out give you a good starting

point for EQ and compression for all the

different tracks you might have in your

mix Plus on my email list it's all my

best stuff you're gonna get notified

when courses are opening when there's

new content and there's a bunch of stuff

that I literally only send out on the

email it never makes its way to YouTube

or the podcast so make sure you're on

there that's where the best stuff is

it's the best place to keep in touch

with me again make it better records

calm otherwise see you next time