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I am doing a guitar track that I want to put a reverse reverb effect on. In order to do this I record the guitar, put heavy reverb on it, bounce, reverse, put heavy reverb on that, then bounce and reverse again.

The problem is that the track is a guitar sliding up and down some notes, staying on each note for a while each time. I continuously pick the strings in order to keep the sound sustained and clear, but the issue is that no matter how softly I pick I can hear the brief break in the note as I pick.

So basically my question is: is there an effect or something I can do to overcome the brief break in the note so that it sounds as smooth and sustained as possible?

I use Logic 9, if that is any use.

Thank you for your time.

Ali
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    Do you have an example of the sound you're after? It almost sounds like you're trying to create a pad type sound out of a guitar performance, is that correct? Do you only want techniques that can be applied post-performance? Or are you willing to entertain answers that might involve re-performing the part? –  Feb 03 '11 at 21:41
  • An example of what I want to achieve can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfok1wztmVA (starts about 1:22 in), thanks very much. –  Feb 03 '11 at 21:51
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    You may also get a good answer on Guitars.SE. –  Feb 04 '11 at 21:43

6 Answers6

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Why don't you try an Ebow? or, if you don't mind having a short silence, an ADSR shaper? (or even manually with an expression pedal for that matter).

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That example was helpful.

That sounds very much like the mix, less like the performance, to me. I hear an almost crystal echoes type reverb on that guitar, certainly there's a lot of reverb on it, and the dry signal is mixed very low in comparison to the reverb signal. It's a long reverb with a lot of high frequency content.

It could also be some synth pads but if you don't want to break out the synths here's my suggestion for a homebrew crystal echoes.

You're going to need two aux busses.

One is going to have a pitch shifter set to +12 steps that feeds a delay on it set to a few hundred msecs. So it's pitch shifted delay. And the output of this aux is going to feed 100% in to the second aux buss which will have a huge reverb on it, set 100% wet of course. Try and pick a reverb for a long, narrow type room if you can. You want it long but you don't want it boomy. You don't really have to have dry pitch shifted signal in the mix.

Take your original guitar channel and use a pre-fader send to send some of the signal to the aux buss with the pitch shifter on it. Use a second pre-fader send to send some of the signal to the reverb.

Now comes the part where the ears take over: you want to balance the dry guitar signal (with that channel's fader), the pitch shifted signal in the reverb (which will give you some sparkly version of the original signal in the reverb signal), and the reverb signal. You can use those two new aux channels to create a washed out, but pad-like, version of your dry guitar signal that can get mixed in pretty heavy to take some of the edge of of things.

Ian C.
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That sounds like some strings/pads. You want to acheive that sound with a guitar?

One of the easiest ways to do that is to use a reverb effect 100% wet. So no dry signal. You'll need to tweak the reverb to get the sound you like. There is sometimes an initial wall response type setting which might have some quick attack. You want a really slow attack. There will be some delay, but that is the sound you are after. If you apply the affect post recording, the delay will not mess up your playing timing.

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Reduce the "Hi-mids" mids on the EQ (I'm thinking between 2-3kHz in this case); you'll probably need to play with the frequency depending on your tone.

  • reducing the mids will only let more space for the high frequencies which have all the pick and resence.. that's not actually soft.. – frcake Feb 04 '16 at 15:44
  • That depends heavily on what you are defining as midrange. I usually mean frequencies around 1-5KHz, aka Hi-mid. –  Aug 04 '16 at 04:41
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    Hi mids is a better term , try to be more specific so we can all understand better , you should edit your answer to make it better and more detailed for future reference :) – frcake Aug 05 '16 at 20:07
  • Good point; I edited it for posterity. –  Aug 05 '16 at 20:22
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Reducing the dry recording in the reverb effect is a good suggestion. You could also use a metal or glass slide for more of a portamento sound.

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I didn't listen to the example video but to create wall of sound with ambient guitars that have continuous sound you need 2 delays 1 reverb (a long one) .

There most used technique are the drone-style guitars in which you actually use "tremolo picking" but very softly (not with your nails but better softly with the nipples of your finger)

Delay wise i go first delay close to full mix and big feedbacks close to 4-5 and then on the 2nd delay you go full mix shorter time and more feedback.

Use a compressor in the end of the signal flow just to keep things at a certain level.

That's just a way tho! There are numerous, Check out this guy as he is showing very nice tips on ambient guitars , this particular video is about drones.

frcake
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