how I am suppose to know that it's super insane profile inside a mix.share your tips and tricks cheers
Hi !
I had the same problem as you. One day I decided to record one of my song so I learned how to program drums and I recorded bass. I took my favorite guitar tone, tracked to guitar, 1 left - 1 right. Boom, it sounded horrible! Haha. Well in fact, it was not so bad but there was way too much bass and no mid.
I solved this by copying the sound of August Burns Red in the beginning of "Meridian" when there's no drums or bass. The sound was horrible alone but sounded really great in the mix with 2 guitar tracks.
If you want an example of the difference between alone and in-mix guitar tone check (at 1min) this from Ola Englund. You'll find more videos of him where he lets you hear the guitar tone alone and without EQ.
So here's my tips to have a "better sound" in a mix (or when you play with a band) :
1) As said before, try to find a separate guitar track of a song you like and imitate the sound. But there's a best way in my opinion which is :
2) Find Stems files of a song you like (or that sounds like what you want to play). By "stems" I mean "separate files of a song". You can sometimes find them when a band makes a "mixing contest" and gives away (for free) the tracks of a song separately (for exemple : Bass/Drums/Gtr Left/Gtr Right/Lead) or on deluxe versions of albums (Ola Englund for example, again) etc… Instead of taking only the guitar track and try to imitate it : Make your OWN sound. When you like it, learn a riff or two of the song and record them, replace the original guitars with yours and check how it sounds. Tweak your sound until it sounds good to you IN THE MIX.
And for this I have some more tips :
- It seems obvious but : record a really precise and clean track.
- Record some different riffs. One with power-chords, one with scales, one with palm-mutes for example to see how it sounds in different situations. Be aware that in records they often have different tones for each part to make them sound better. (Obvious example : Guitar solos have more reverb/delay etc…).
- Ask another musician or audio engineer (which listen to the kind of stuff you're trying to achieve) how it sounds to his ears. Sometimes, after a long tweaking session you don't know anymore what sounds good and what don't. Listen to it another day with fresh ears (as said before).
- Took the time to learn how to reamp. It's really easy with a kemper and it will avoid re-record each time you tweak a bit.
- Don't hesitate to try the "extreme" (like No bass at all) to figure out how it changes the sound.
- Listen to you mix on an audio device you are used to first.
- Always double track (or even 4 track!) : It will sound way bigger and more powerful.
- Try to make it sound great without processing (EQ/Compressor…). If it sounds good without it, it'll certainly sound huge with it 
- One of the most common error is : Too much bass. When you play alone you like to have lot of bass but when you play with a bassist, it's his job, let the bass to him, it'll sound way better.
I'm just an amateur and that's some of the things that helped me achieve a greater guitar tone.
Maybe some are totally wrong and that's why my first tip is : Try and use your ears, maybe some things won't work but you'll always learn from it
If you've got a question about this, don't hesitate to ask.
I really hope that some of this will help you.
Cheers !
If you do something similar don't hesitate to show it to me !
