Scott Henderson Discussion

[Yusstyna]

Hi Scott,

I've been trying some of your studio delay settings and I have a few questions
:

1. Do you run delays and reverbs on separate bus tracks and do you have separate busses (different effects) for every guitar part?

2. I've been playing around with 20ms and 30ms delays that you described earlier, how do you pan them and what are your feedback levels?

3. After you've tracked your guitar what is your usual signal chain (compressor, eq, reverbs, delays etc.)?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions!

All the best!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

I put all FX on separate busses, but if more than one guitar track uses the same FX, I send those tracks to the same bus.

No feedback on delays that short. If you listen to SRV Texas Flood, you'll hear dry guitar panned all the way to one side and about 20 ms delay panned all the way to the other. Both sides are the same volume, and there's not much in the middle, so it kind of sounds like an effect. I would have put a little more in the middle, but that's personal taste. I think the engineer was going for a really wide sound.

Allan Holdsworth puts the dry guitar in the middle, and adds about 30ms panned all the way to one side and about 60ms panned all the way to the other. He brings the delayed L & R up just enough so the stereo image is heard.

Both ways are cool if you want a mono guitar to sound stereo. On Well To The Bone, I sometimes used 12" speakers on the L and 10" speakers on the R. This created a different kind of stereo image, but it also sounds a bit like an effect, because different frequencies shift from L to R all the time. It sounds cool, but a little weird.

Lately I do it the old fashioned way - guitar panned a little to one side and delay panned a little to the other. (400 to 600 ms depending on the tune) Add some stereo reverb and this sounds more natural to me, like hearing the guitar at a gig.

The signal chain (order of FX) is the same as on stage - any EQ or coloring FX like chorus first, then delay, then reverb.

[Yusstyna]

Hi Scott,

Thanks so much for your reply. Having fun experimenting with the settings!

How are you panning the reverbs and are there any specific reverb types that you prefer?

Are you using compression on your guitar tracks at all?

Thanks again for your time!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

I don't use compression that often, because tubes and distortion kinda have that built in already. I might use a compressor for a totally clean sound, but I recorded Footprints on the HBC album with no compression at all and it sounds pretty even. If your picking varies a lot from soft to hard, you might need a compressor.

The type of reverb really depends on the part. Different reverbs on different guitar tracks is one of the factors which keeps them separated from each other. Jimmy Page was such a genius with reverbs. For my main melody track and solo, I usually use a dark sounding hall with about a 2 second reverb time, and the stereo split is usually from the factory preset. If there are guitar parts going on behind that I use a room with a shorter time, and sometimes it's moved to the side of the part and then it's not a stereo reverb anymore.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott thanks for the insight!

I like the effect of the 20ms delayed second track. Now I'm wondering how to go about reverbs... Do route both tracks through a reverb bus or both? What about if you want to add some depth with a longer delay for solos etc? Do you put that on one of the tracks and pan it somewhere in between or is this nit designed for that?

Thanks again!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

I'd use only the dry track to feed the reverb and long delay. The reverb will be stereo on both sides, but you could pan the longer delay wherever you want. 20ms isn't long enough to make a difference in where a long delay is panned.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott! Thanks so much for your help! Your answers are extremely helpful in getting my head around mixing guitars!

The more I experiment the more questions arise though... So here goes:

1. What do you do when you have some tight hits with the band? Do you make the delay softer or change the time or both so that the delays don't mess up the hits (or rather the space in between) but the fatness and depth of the guitar remain intact?

2. Do you also sometimes use a bus with the delay going into the reverb in series? Any settings like this that you particularly like?

Thanks again!
W.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott! Thanks so much for your help! Your answers are extremely helpful in getting my head around mixing guitars!

The more I experiment the more questions arise though... So here goes:

1. What do you do when you have some tight hits with the band? Do you make the delay softer or change the time or both so that the delays don't mess up the hits (or rather the space in between) but the fatness and depth of the guitar remain intact?

2. Do you also sometimes use a bus with the delay going into the reverb in series? Any settings like this that you particularly like?

Thanks again!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

My delay track is automated so if there's a hole where I don't want to hear delay I just turn it way down and bring up a little more reverb in it's place.

Sending delay into reverb or not is pretty subtile - in a normal setting you might not even hear the difference. When delay & reverb are turned up loud, like used as an effect, it's more noticeable - then I'd send the delay into the reverb.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott,

I've been playing around with the 20/30 stereo delays lately and really like how they make the guitar sound huge.

I'm wondering if when you are adding other guitar parts do you still keep those short delays on on the main guitar or do you bypass/turn them down to create space in the mix for the other guitar parts?

Thanks so much for your time!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

I don't use that sound anymore, not since the Tribal Tech records of the 90's. Sounds too much like Holdsworth to me. I never layered guitars much back then, so when I did use that sound, it was for only one guitar track. It's a very stereo sound, and would probably muddy up the mix if other panned guitar parts are going on at the same time.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott,

When mixing a record do you use the same type of reverb and delay for the main guitar for the whole record to keep the sound consistent or do you have a few types (if so how many) that you use depending on the tune or do you find different reverbs and delays for every track?

Thanks for your reply!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

I have a "most used" reverb and delay setting which is 400 to 450ms delay with five or six repeats, and a Lexicon plug-in dark hall. That can change depending on the tune. If it's a groove tune, sometimes I set the delay to be in tempo. If it's a ballad, I often automate the delay time for each phrase - it takes some time but the results are worth it. Sometimes I use a 100ms slap delay and no long delay at all, just reverb. It really depends on the tune.

[Yusstyna]

Hey Scott!

Thanks so much for your reply.

Do you have a set of go-to reverb patches and delays for guitar overdubs?

Effects that you use to get a nice separation between the parts?

Thanks again!

Merry Christmas!
W.

[Scott Henderson]

It all depends on what kind of part I overdub. The only thing which will help separate the parts is EQ, but having one part dry and the other with reverb or delay helps.

Happy Holidays!