Mixing Acoustic Guitar: 8 Steps to Know

Mixing an acoustic guitar is not an easy task.

Sure, it’s a bit simpler than vocals: there are generally fewer treatments to apply.

But at the same time, the acoustic guitar is a rather delicate instrument, and a poorly applied effect can quickly make your mix sound strange or even unpleasant.

Especially if your recordings are not perfect from the start (on this subject, I invite you to check out my tips on recording acoustic guitar).

So, if you’re looking for tips on how to properly mix your guitar tracks, well, you’re in the right place!

However, keep in mind that the steps necessary to mix a track always depend on the base recording. Therefore, what I propose in this article corresponds to standard steps that are generally useful — but it’s up to you to adapt these tips based on your audio files and your sound target.

Here is, through this article, a detailed and step-by-step overview of what to do when you start mixing an acoustic guitar track.

Step 1: Define a Target

Ah, the sound target, indeed.

The worst thing you can do is dive into mixing without thinking about it.

Or blindly apply presets or advice picked up from the internet like “+3 dB at 1000 Hz”.

Simply because depending on the base sound you are working with, the necessary adjustments will not be the same.

And neither I nor anyone else can tell you, without having heard your recordings, what effects and settings to use.

But how to do it then?

Well, the solution is primarily to take the time to listen to your piece and define a sound target for your acoustic guitars.

Ask yourself the question of the role of your guitar track(s):

• Is it a piece with a solo acoustic guitar?
• Does the guitar solely accompany a voice, in songwriter mode?
• Or is it simply there as a harmony track (next to a piano track, an electric guitar track, a flute track, and backing vocals)?
• Should the guitar have a frontal and defined sound, or should it be more in the background compared to the rest of the mix?

These questions should help you determine what you want to do with your acoustic guitar track.

To determine what your sound target is.

In other words, these reflections will allow you to establish where you are starting from, and where you want to go.

Once you have built this vision, listen to the piece again, and try to define the steps and effects that are missing to reach your target.

Step 2: Preparing Acoustic Guitar Tracks

Nope, for now, we still won’t be adding any effects.

Sure, we all love adding plugins, but it’s rather a bad idea to rush into it. First, there are a few small things to do, which I have grouped in this chapter on “preparing tracks”.

Make Sure You Have the Right Takes

It may sound cliché to say this, but who hasn’t been guilty of recording something thinking “meh, it’s not perfect, but I’ll fix it in the mix”?

And then arriving at the mixing stage to realize that nothing can be done to save the track in question?

So, make sure you have the right sound takes from the beginning: this will save you time in mixing, but more importantly, improve quality.

Decide Whether to Keep Everything

Just because you recorded 15 acoustic guitar tracks doesn’t mean everything should be kept during mixing.

Sometimes, there are things that seem like a good idea initially but turn out to be in the end unnecessary or difficult to integrate into the mix.

Especially if you’re a beginner, don’t hesitate to simplify your mix by removing certain tracks that are not essential for the piece.

Edit Your Takes

When recording, microphones do not always capture only the sound of the instrument.

Especially if the guitar does not play throughout the entire piece, it is likely that your recordings contain:

• breathing noises;
• movement or rubbing noises from the arm on the guitar during pauses;
• external noises if your room is not well soundproofed;
• noises from other devices (air conditioning, computer…) depending on the context in which you are recording.

These noises should be eliminated as much as possible: take the time, before you really start mixing your acoustic guitar, to edit your recordings and cut out the empty or unsuitable passages.

Tip: for less abrupt transitions, remember to use fades when cutting the tracks.

Step 3: Panning and Balance

That’s it, you have good well-edited recordings — it is now time to integrate your tracks into the mix.

Panning Adjustment

Personally, I tend to adjust the panning as early as possible: some sound engineers do it a bit later, but I like to hear something that resembles the final result as soon as possible.

If you have a stereo recording, position one of your tracks completely to the left, and the other completely to the right. This will maximize the perceived stereo width.

That said, note that your choice of panning depends on your sound target (yes, I did tell you that it was important to start with this step).

If the acoustic guitar is an important instrument in your mix, which is intended to be central from a musical point of view, then you can adjust your panning accordingly.

If, for example, you listen to the song “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran (below), you can see that the guitar is quite central in the stereo image.

On the other hand, if the guitar is just playing a harmony within a complex mix, it may be interesting to position it to one side, with another instrument (or another guitar take) positioned mirroring on the other side.

In any case, feel free to experiment a bit, but be careful not to destabilize the stereo image (unless it’s intentional) by having a guitar on the right and nothing on the left.

Balance Adjustment

You can now adjust the level of your guitar track.

Start by setting your fader to 0 (well, all the way down), and gradually raise it while trying to find a balance point based on your sound target, again.

If you are mixing a piece with just a vocal track and an acoustic guitar track, you will be able to position the latter at a fairly high level, probably just below that of the vocal track so as not to overpower it.

If, on the other hand, you are mixing a very dense rock piece with a lot of instrumentation, it will probably be more strategic to mix the acoustic guitar quieter, so that it just supports the orchestration.

Step 4: Subtractive Equalization

It is time (finally!) to move on to audio processing.

This is probably what you have been eagerly waiting for! 😀

99% of the time, I start by cleaning the acoustic guitar recording with an equalizer, only cutting frequencies: this is called subtractive equalization.

There is no amplification at this point.

The goal is to achieve the cleanest and highest quality sound possible.

First, I try to remove any resonances that may be present: resonances from the body of the instrument on certain notes, resonances related to the acoustics of the room, resonances related to the microphones…

Then, I adjust the frequency profile more globally with less precise attenuations: for example, attenuation around 1000 Hz if the guitar is too nasal, around 400 Hz if the sound is a bit too muddy, etc.

If you are not very comfortable with the frequencies of the acoustic guitar, I invite you to read my equalization guide for this instrument.

To correct these various issues, I recommend using the famous equalization technique below:

1. Identify the problem or element you want to correct
2. Add a bell equalizer with
   • a high gain (+10 dB for example)
   • a high Q factor (4 to 10)
3. Gradually sweep through the frequencies from 20 to 20000 Hz with this filter until you hear the problem stand out strongly
4. Then attenuate the signal (instead of +10dB) at the frequency you are on by adjusting the Q factor as needed to be more or less precise.

Note that it is really important to properly identify the problem before you start using this technique: if you randomly boost frequencies by +10 dB, it will always sound unpleasant. So if you don’t already have a clear vision of the problem you want to correct, you will quickly get lost.

In short, once you have cleaned your signal, your equalizer will look like something like this:

In any case, really take the time to clean your recording: for me, this subtractive equalization step is key to achieving quality sound in the end.

Step 5: Compression of the acoustic guitar

Compression is not always useful on the acoustic guitar: it depends a lot on the context.

That said, it often happens that there are dynamic variations to control.

This dynamic control, I find, can take two different forms: either you are looking to control peaks that are too strong, or you are looking to add density to your recording.

Also, I suggest via the table below some tips, “starting points” if you will, for properly setting your compressors (impossible to be more precise, it always depends on the original recording and the piece):

In fact, compression will in any case help you reduce the dynamic range of the acoustic guitar so that its level is more homogeneous and it integrates well into the complete mix.

If you are not yet comfortable with the meaning of all these settings, I invite you to read my guide on compressor settings.

Step 6: Additive Equalization

Sure, you could also use additive equalization before compression, but I generally find that the results are more interesting when all frequency amplification comes after compression (I explain why in this article).

Technically, this phase of additive equalization is an opportunity to highlight certain aspects that you really like in the sound of your acoustic guitar.

For example, to give a bit more body at 200 Hz or conversely add air by opening the highs with a high-shelf filter at 8 kHz.

Feel free to use characterful equalizers for this, like the PSP E27 (there are big promotions from time to time, so keep an eye out) or a Neve-type EQ such as EQ84 from Overloud.

However, proceed with caution: it is very easy to go too far, while sometimes 1 or 2 dB is enough to highlight a pleasant characteristic of the sound.

Don’t forget, also, that the volume fader of your track is also an equalizer, in a way: depending on whether you raise or lower the volume, in the mix, certain frequency ranges of your acoustic guitar will be brought to the forefront.

Step 7: Saturation

Of course, everything will depend on the musical style you are in.

But adding a little analog-style saturation can be useful to give character to your recordings.

Especially if these recordings were made with neutral or even cold preamps, which is often the case in home studios since we use the built-in preamps of our audio interfaces.

For example, I tend to enjoy adding a “tape saturation” effect on my acoustic guitar tracks: sure, it can give a slightly vintage feel depending on the settings, but if you go easy on it, it will mainly provide a slight warmth and a gentle musical compression that can really make a difference.

Step 8: Placement in the space of the acoustic guitar

After all the treatments mentioned earlier, it’s only at the end that we add reverb.

Although, if from the beginning you have a clear sound vision, you can possibly add it a bit earlier, but I find it preferable to focus first on processing the “raw” sound before positioning the instrument in space with reverb.

Again, it will depend on the role of your guitar track in your piece. Hence step #1 from earlier.

If the arrangement is not too complex, you will have the option to go for a dense reverb that will help fill the mix and that will be noticeable.

If, on the other hand, the mix is dense, I advise you to go easy on the reverb and to equalize it well, to avoid drowning out the rest of the mix.

It’s up to you to see, each time, which reverb does the job best among your arsenal — but by default, I recommend testing “plate” and “room” type reverbs, which often perform quite well.

Feel free to also play a bit with the predelay setting of your reverbs, to detach them from the raw sound, as well as to test convolution reverbs or delays which can be useful tools for positioning your acoustic guitars in space.

Congratulations! 🙂

You have reached the end of this article.

You now know the main steps of mixing acoustic guitar.

It’s time to put it into practice! Before mixing your next track, quickly review this article to keep all the elements in mind, and try to apply these tips!

And to really have the overall vision “from A to Z” on the mixing process, feel free to take a look at this training ideal for beginners.