How To Record Perfect Guitar Every Time | Make Pop Music

In this video, Austin goes over how to properly record perfect, clean guitar DI. He goes over how to get everything from getting rid of unwanted noise and setting gain levels, to using the right guitar, pickup selection, playing technique, and more! There is no excuse for noisy, thin, clipping, or problematic guitar DI anymore!
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DAW / Program I Use:
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My Gear:
DAW: Cubase 11 Pro
Desk: AZ Studio Workstations
Monitors: Focal Shape 65s with Focal Sub6
Interface: UAD Apollo Twin USB
MIDI Keyboard: M-Audio Code 61
Keyboards: Roland Juno DS88, Roland Juno 106, Arturia PolyBrute
Guitars: Fender American Professional Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Taylor 214 CE Plus
Preamps: Heritage Audio HA81A & Audient ASP800
Microphones: Advanced Audio 251, Slate ML-1, Shure SM7B, JZ BH-1, JZ V67, Lauten Audio LA-320, Lauten Audio LA-220, Lauten Audio LA-120, AKG P170, Sterling ST59
Camera: Panasonic G7
Lens: Rokinon 12mm f2
Camera Lights: Neewer LED Light Panels
Timestamps:
Intro 0:00
Tuning The Guitar 1:28
New Strings Vs. Old Strings 2:44
Getting Rid Of Noise, Hiss, and Hum At The Source 4:53
Handling Noise With Gates 6:12
Setting Input Levels 8:00
Gainstaging Into Amp Sims 9:28
Picking The Right Guitar 10:55
Selecting The Right Pickup 13:42
Using The Right Playing Technique and Style 16:58
Recap 20:02
Outro 20:48

[@woo3710]

Also want to share, as a bedroom producer, if you dont wear slippers on your room, take your feet off the ground, that should take some hum off just like how touching the strings take some hum off. That is what works for me anyways. Thank you for this video!

[@MakePopMusic]

Oh shit never even tried that. Hahaha

[@baileymaloney1961]

The new/old string comparison was a great demonstration.

[@MakePopMusic]

Could've cut my hand for that so ur welcome

[@piyushkhanna9554]

Can I be honest? I was 13 yrs when I wanted to make a track, a commercial track... and now I am 22yrs old and I haven't learnt much from anywhere... But this channel.. made my music production grow... All those ear candy stuff... layering and huge drums Adding lower vocal layer and choosing right sound... all those commercial tips, tricks and skills ... Now I am a huge fan of my production because of this... channel. There might be some people who new everything.. but for me this channel is one of the biggest reason of my growth!! Specially in dark pop and chart based songs... I am really thankful and I hope so you and your wife grow more.. P.s. your 3 years old freebies.. still hits harder and do magic in my production... but in all of the samples mine fav. Is dark pop and weeknd style !! ❤❤ wish you all the very best!!

[@MakePopMusic]

I really really appreciate those kind words. Congrats on your journey and I am so glad we've been able to help!!

[@M.Holland]

For me it’s kinda the same. I’m a fulltime musician, who learnd audio producing during covid. At least improved my skills. I‘m more in to rock and metal when it comes to producing, even if I play in a HipHop Band. This channel gave me a lot of tips and ideas. :) thanks a lot :)

[@countjackula1149]

Ive been playing guitar for 14 years and had to watch a beginner video on how to change the strings on my strat yesterday...had to call my old friend from my first band, knew he would get a kick out of it. Great video as always appreciate the content, Austin. Honestly my favorite youtube channel. You kick ass. Excited for the new single too!

[@ApeSlayer]

I needed this badly. Thank you!

[@basscase78]

best video on guitar fundamentals I have seen yet!!! thx

[@avivwaiz]

Thanks so much!!

[@willskookogey5232]

Very helpful tips! especially the last one. playing style really influences whether it'll work in the mix

[@DanYannay]

Amazing vid bro thanks 🔥

[@directive-4]

You covered some really great and useful points in here Austin. One thing I would like to add is: where your picking hand sits adjacent to the strings makes a huge difference to the tone as well.

[@NundeeGuitar]

Thanks for the tips man !

[@GlossyMoss]

This is gonna help a lot when I next use guitar in a song, thanks!

[@antoinenioi6863]

Wow wow …super video ! Lot of thanks from France 👍🙏

[@hasanparhizkarmusic78]

Thankyo austin

[@floris7552]

Thanks! This was really helpful! :)

[@daveosoriomusic5421]

Great tips! 🤙🏼

[@HyperNova137]

A few years ago I splurged and got the most expensive Mogami guitar cable I could find, and I was honestly impressed by how much of a difference it made in sound quality -- I used to think that was one of those gimmicks where you're just paying extra money for a brand name when there's really nothing special about the product itself... But once I plugged it in, it's like my guitar tone suddenly had a percussive attack that I had NEVER heard before, and a lot of the unwanted noise was mostly gone... Still gotta use a gate when I go for that nasty hi-gain metal distortion, but it just sounds a whole lot cleaner all-around.

[@bhaveshtochabbra6853]

Bro the timing is so perfect. I just got my guitar yesterday.

[@MakePopMusic]

Congrats!!!

[@bhaveshtochabbra6853]

Also, just got to know that I haven't subscribe yet. I'm hooked to this channel for 2 years. Done subscribing!

[@MakePopMusic]

@@bhaveshtochabbra6853 Let's gooo!

[@darkbridgedb9463]

Thanks

[@MakePopMusic]

Thank you!

[@somleesong]

Austin, I love your videos. I learned a lot from you. I bought cubase because of you and so far loving it. Can you do a video on your thoughts on panning. I noticed that alot of your pop songs you make that the synths tend to be dead center.

[@sorbetprod]

I would like to hear that song when it's finished !

[@carlpleasant]

Your videos are making want to switch from Pro Logic X to Cubase.

[@rivenlikemakar]

Loved this video man, would be cool to see a video where you dive deep into the processing side of guitar production. Like the different things to build your chain for the different tone(s) you're trying to accomplish etc. Also I'm gonna be ordering that Artiste studio desk very soon :D

[@MakePopMusic]

We have a couple guitar tone videos that go over how I build tones :D

[@rivenlikemakar]

@@MakePopMusic oh shit lets gooo im gonna go check those out, thanks!

[@PoorTom]

Been using that Cory Wong vst for a while and its one of the most pleasing sounding amp simulations vsts Ive heard. Theres this one called BIASamp that sounded damn good too. Also, Neve 1073 sims are great for percussive playing styles (thats how Nile Rodgers does it).

[@MakePopMusic]

I run through a 1073 style outboard preamp 😁 I’ll try the Bias amp though!

[@astreetmusic7186]

Great video! I was wondering what mouse you're using.

[@MO-fb8oh]

Awesome tutorial, thanks. We need guitar rig presets from you! I'd buy them immediately

[@MakePopMusic]

We have a bunch for free download! Hit the freebies section of our site!

[@baileymaloney1961]

God thank you for this. I have been wanting professional advice on this forever. My guitar recordings just sound okay, but I hope this helps me clean up some mistakes.

[@MakePopMusic]

So many people have issues getting a clean guitar DI, and tbh getting a good tone and clean signal is 99% of getting a good final tone in my opinion!

[@user-xk6bs8vs4f]

Hi I’m noob at guitar and I have question Which chords that you've played at 4:00 I heard this tone from many indie pop songs, but I don't know what to look for Btw Thanks for good videos

[@miladnadirali192]

Could you make a chris brown type beat tutorial?

[@erin79]

Probably not your M.O, but man do I wish you would do a vid like this for distorted/heavy guitars. I find those so much harder to get good tones on. I find with clean, being smart with signal/capture in and adding the right VST is mostly all it takes. But for some reason, VSTs and sims just don't sound as good on the distorted stuff. There's so much fuzz and crackling and just a loss of tightness I can never seem to figure out. And when you layer several takes, rather than a dense and powerful sound, I find it starts to get sludgy and indistinct. Anyway, love your vids. Great info, no useless rambling about other stuff.

[@elikamin5678]

Love u bro!First like After watch🙃 Can I ask about the slate digital microphone it is a Gold microphone???

[@MakePopMusic]

I'm honestly not sure! Their site would have more info than I do.

[@MiketheNerdRanger]

Whoa. What kind of song is this and how do I make it??

[@KirbySings]

So what input setting from your daw are you typically going for, like -10db? I know its personal choice, just curious.

[@MakePopMusic]

idk or really care about that. Just don't clip and don't have a ton of noise

[@vonosiss]

@@MakePopMusic -20dBFS to -10dBFS is ideal for most production. Its the sweet spot between clipping, eating up your head room, or recording too low and too close to the noise floor!

[@lukeGGlee]

its not the computrr that causes that buzzing. Its the UAD interface sittin on your desk!

[@MakePopMusic]

No. It’s the computer. I have a different interface now in a sidecar. The buzzing happened when I got this new computer. It’s fine. I just work around it.

[@kiliankraus]

Any advice on reducing the pick sound? I always find I have a super apparent pick 'scratching' sound on my DI. It's not very apparent in real life but suddenly becomes so loud when run through an amp sim! Anyone got advice to fix this either in the daw or how to play with less scratch?

[@MakePopMusic]

Use a thicker pick and play with a softer attack! Also, try using a transient designer before the amp sim where you reduce the transient a little

[@kiliankraus]

@@MakePopMusic damn you are on it with replying to your audience, thanks Austin! I'm literally about to get tracking now so I will try those things

[@slomellos]

5:41 I noticed that when you stopped the playback by hitting spacebar the playhead returned to it's last position but usually it when it stops it stays at the same position. How did that happen?

[@MakePopMusic]

I have it set to go back to the start point. Saves me tonsss of time.

[@slomellos]

@@MakePopMusic But how did you set it up like that? I don't know where that setting is. Please help me with that.

[@prodbyrt1956]

Umm what about native instruments session guitarist 😅?! I mean does that work in songs?

[@saidign]

this song is just so vibey. what's the name of it?

[@MakePopMusic]

Just a demo I made for the video!

[@aliaskarpour6609]

What was amp sim?

[@MakePopMusic]

Neural DSP - Archetype Cory Wong

[@ryanw9307]

Do you always play a clean DI without processing or amps so you can hear how you’re playing exactly?

[@MakePopMusic]

Yeah! Sometimes I will monitor with a UAD amp or my Line 6 pod but I'm always just tracking DI

[@ryanw9307]

@@MakePopMusic Nice! Which UAD amp do you like to use for a clean pop sound? Or do you just monitor with those for latency purposes and then use guitar rig once you have the performance you want? I have both of these as well.

[@YoureNowOnTV]

4:17 thunder ? 😲 ⚡️🌩

[@MakePopMusic]

Yep! Knocked my power out once too!

[@YoureNowOnTV]

@@MakePopMusic Yikes! Hopefully none of your equipment emanated the magic blue smoke afterwards? (Ps. It was interesting to receive your birthday special email. I thought for a moment when I opened it, that it was super clever direct marketing as we share the same birthday. Happy Belated birthday.) Pps. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the World, you're an asset to the community.

[@MakePopMusic]

@@YoureNowOnTV Nah, backup systems baby!

[@MakePopMusic]

@@YoureNowOnTV Also, happy belated birthday!!!

[@brennenwilliams9560]

Me who changes strings EVERYTIME I record guitar

[@MakePopMusic]

That's ideal!

[@scruffyyyjin]

"Change your strings every couple months" ...looks at bass players

[@MakePopMusic]

I played a song a couple months ago and my bass strings were 2 years old lololol

[@miladnadirali192]

Could you make a chris brown type beat tutorial?