How to Mix Acoustic and Electric Guitars With Heritage Audio Plugins

Acoustic and electric guitars share strings, but they rarely share the same mix problem. Acoustic guitar is often fighting boom, pick attack and vocal masking. Electric guitar is usually fighting density: too many harmonics in the same midrange as the vocal, snare and keyboards.

Heritage Audio works well here because the processors encourage broad musical decisions. The priority is to preserve the character of the instrument or amplifier and make it fit the arrangement.

Quick Flow

Stage	Plugin / Role	Purpose
Acoustic	BritStrip → TUBESESSOR → HA 240 send	Filtering, body/pick balance, gentle level control, natural space
Electric	HA-81A EQ or BritStrip → optional compression	Place the amp in the midrange and retain pick/amp personality
Guitar Bus	SUCCESSOR	Glue doubles or layered rhythm guitars without flattening them
Effects	TAPEoPLEX	Slap, rhythmic depth or vintage movement

1. Acoustic Guitar: Start With BritStrip

Use the filter first. Remove low-frequency information that does not contribute to the part, but stop before the body disappears. A thin acoustic guitar may sound clean in solo and completely insignificant in the mix.

Next, check roughly 120–250 Hz for boom and 250–500 Hz for boxiness. If the guitar is overly percussive, listen through the 2–6 kHz region before cutting the entire top end.

BritStrip’s console-style EQ is useful because you can make quick, broad moves. Avoid trying to turn an acoustic recording into a perfectly flat spectrum.

2. Compress Acoustic Guitar Without Destroying the Strum

TUBESESSOR is a good second stage when the player’s dynamics need help. Aim for enough reduction to keep strong downstrokes from jumping forward while preserving the initial pick or finger transient.

On fingerstyle parts, use even less compression unless the performance is genuinely uneven. The microdynamics are often what make the instrument feel expensive.

3. Electric Guitar: Place the Amp Before You 'Improve' It

A recorded amp already contains EQ, saturation and compression. Before adding anything, decide whether the guitar needs to become brighter, thicker or simply less competitive with the vocal.

Use HA-81A EQ or BritStrip to carve a defined midrange position. If a dense rhythm guitar is obscuring the singer, a small strategic midrange reduction is often better than a large high-frequency boost on the vocal.

For clean or edge-of-breakup guitars, modest TUBESESSOR compression can add sustain. For layered rhythm guitars, consider leaving the individual tracks relatively dynamic and using the bus instead.

4. Glue Layered Guitars With SUCCESSOR

Route doubled or stacked guitars to a stereo guitar bus and use SUCCESSOR for cohesion. Start with modest gain reduction—often around 1–3 dB on the loudest hits.

Preserve the front edge of the pick attack. If the whole guitar section becomes smaller when the compressor is active, lengthen the attack, reduce the amount of gain reduction, or lower the input.

5. Add Depth With TAPEoPLEX or HA 240

TAPEoPLEX is ideal for electric guitar when you want a discrete vintage echo, slap or rhythmic repeat. HA 240 Gold Foil Verb is better when you want the guitar to feel placed in a darker space.

For acoustic guitar, keep the spatial effect shorter and quieter unless the arrangement is sparse. Long reverb can make strummed transients blur into the next chord.

Useful Starting Points

• Acoustic: high-pass by ear; examine 120–250 Hz for boom, 250–500 Hz for boxiness and 2–6 kHz for hard pick attack.
• Electric: use the midrange to establish placement; do not automatically brighten the track.
• TUBESESSOR: moderate gain reduction with the initial transient preserved.
• SUCCESSOR bus: start around 1–3 dB of gain reduction and match output level before deciding whether the bus sounds better.

What to Listen For

• The acoustic guitar still has body after filtering.
• Electric guitars retain amp character rather than sounding EQ-polished.
• Doubled guitars feel like one section but still have width and pick definition.
• The vocal does not need extreme EQ just to survive the guitar wall.

Common Mistakes

• High-passing acoustic guitar until it becomes all strings and no wood.
• Boosting electric guitar highs when the real problem is midrange masking.
• Compressing every guitar individually and then compressing the bus heavily again.
• Using long reverb on every layer.