wpb does BYCU Hard Rocker

Well played WPB, most importantly timing on both rhythm and lead sounded pretty good and fitted well together. I've listened to it twice and not found a lot to nit pick. Tone on the lead guitar part is perhaps a little thin as you yourself thought but that's all a matter of taste really. The volume balance between the lead and rhythm sounded about right but I might suggest experimenting with left and right panning to try to achieve a separation of the two instrument parts, they both sounded on centre to me. Jack and Phil are both getting good at multi tracking maybe they can expand a more on this .

Nice recording, wpb. You're starting 2015 in good style! You're almost through BYCU - doesn't it feel great?

WPB,

Good way to start off the new year - you are the 1st to upload a recording this year. The playing, in general, is darn good. I noticed the same thing Jack did on the double stops slightly lagging. I don't think anyone not real familiar with the tune would notice something like that. This is one where it would be interesting to record again in 3 months or so for a comparison. You are making serious steady progress and that's the most important thing.

I agree with you that the lead sounds kind of thin. I have a tendency to like a cleaner sound, but this is one tune where I think more distortion actually sounds better and fits the style better. Plus, I felt in the case of my uploaded version that the distortion covered up some minor errors. The cleaner the sound the more obvious any small errors become.

Yeah there are all sorts of methods you can use to keep the lead and rhythm guitars separated and distinct from each other - it really depends on the song. If they don't interfere with each other then no problem, leave them as is. But if they do get in each other's way, then you can pan them away from each other, or make a duplicate copy of the rhythm guitar track and pan it left and right while leaving the lead in the center, or you can put a high shelf EQ on the rhythm guitar to get rid of the highs that are encroaching on the territory of the lead (I usually just use the "move to the back" EQ preset in Reaper), etc. You can also look at the frequency peaks in the lead guitar and EQ corresponding dips in the rhythm guitar frequencies.

I see that in my version of Hard Rocker I had the lead panned 9 degrees to one side and the rhythm 9 degrees to the other. I also put a low shelf EQ on the lead to get rid of the lows that were getting down into the territory occupied by the rhythm guitar. I also put some compression on the lead guitar. Like I say it totally depends on the song - in that one I wanted a sort of harsh sounding lead to give it more of an edgy rock n roll feel, so EQ'ing out the lows seemed appropriate.

These days I'll usually use one of Reaper's compression presets on the master track, I find that helps to balance everything out and keep everything separated.

Of course the most important thing is to start out with sounds that don't interfere with each other, and that you're happy with, and then record them.  Production techniques are great for making little tweaks to the overall sound, but if you're trying to make major adjustments to the sound via equalization, the results probably aren't going to be all that great.

I know a couple of us have signed up for this free class which starts in February: www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction Hopefully that will be helpful.

I've never played around with compression or EQ on the master track. I'll have to try that. Is there a particular preset that you like?

I looked at that Cousera course. That looks very interesting. As a teenager I actually wanted to be a recording engineer. When I was around 18 I walked into RCA recording studios in Chicago and asked if I could apply for a job thinking they might have had some kind of apprenticeship program. The lady asked me if I had a degree in engineering! I thought the term "recording engineer" was just a figure of speak.   I did have a reel-to-reel, some good mics, and a cheap mixer which I used to record our garage band. I don't know why I never pursued it. I guess the engineering degree question made me think it was just a pipe dream way out of my reach.

3 questions if you know the answers:
    1). Is the course really free? 
    2). How many hours per week is it?
    3). Do you have to be logged in at a certain time or can you download the lesson and work on it when you have time during the week.

For compression on the master track, I usually just go through the presets and see if one jumps out at me as making it sound better.  Looks like  "hardness remover" is a favorite of mine for the More BYCU stuff and I've used "super smooth 3 band", "spectral control" and "mastering 3 band electro" for the last few R&B songs I've done.  I don't know if those are stock ReaXcomp presets or if I downloaded them from someplace.  Maybe this place?  stash.reaper.fm/v/447/girz_reaXcomp1.RPL  It was quite a while ago and I can't remember where the heck I got them from.

For your question:
1)  as far as I know it's really free.
2)  it says in the description that it will require 6-8 hours a week of study for 6 weeks.
3)  I don't know if you have to watch the instruction videos at a certain time or not.