Double Tracking

[TelePaul]

Hey guys, heres the deal:

I've set up two mono tracks to record my acoustic and have used an X Y micing pattern. Will probably pan one right, one left - nothing new here.

Now, I wanna overdub a rhythm part - different pick, slightly different micing pattern, but again, two mono tracks. Should I pan these the same way as the first two tracks, one left and one right? Or should I invert the panning, i.e have the first take bridge mic and the second take neck mic on the left, and the second take bridge mic and the first take neck mic on the right?

Your help would be great.

[SonicAlbert]

First think about how you want it to sound.

Do you want the rhythm part to sound like it is behind the other part? Wider? Narrower?

It all comes down to your concept of how your music should sound, and you need to have an idea of that before you set up your mics and go for takes.

There's more than X and Y, also consider distance. For example, you might want to use the same positioning but just move it further back so that the rhythm tracks sit behind the other track. Or widen the angle, or narrow it.

There are so many ways to do it, that's why you need to have a sound in your head that you are going for.

[TelePaul]

Originally Posted by SonicAlbert

First think about how you want it to sound.

Do you want the rhythm part to sound like it is behind the other part? Wider? Narrower?

It all comes down to your concept of how your music should sound, and you need to have an idea of that before you set up your mics and go for takes.

There's more than X and Y, also consider distance. For example, you might want to use the same positioning but just move it further back so that the rhythm tracks sit behind the other track. Or widen the angle, or narrow it.

There are so many ways to do it, that's why you need to have a sound in your head that you are going for.

I want it to sound like two guys kinda playing together. I'm actually having a hard time getting it to sound good - I can't get the phrasing right at all, sounds out of sync. I want it to sound like two people playing tight together, you know? But kinda full sounding.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

+1 on What Sonic Al said. Geat post .

I'd add that before I threw the two stereo parts together, that I'd do just a little differential EQ to sonically seperate the two guitars just a bit more than they are raw.

You said you'd be using different pics and mic technique, this will give each git part a slightly different apparent timbre, which is a very good idea. Listen to each git part and listen to which part(s) of the spectrum where that part sounds sweetest. On the *other* git, gently pull back on the EQ in those bands by a couple of dB. Then do the same for git 2, where git 2 wants to shine, pull back on get 1 just a couple of dB. Not to heavy of a cut or too narrow of a notch, just some gentle shaping to let each git give the other one a little more room to breathe. This will usually not only let them sound better together, but will open up your pan options as well.

Then as far as panning, that all depends upon just how they sound and how the arrangement plays them. All you can do there is throw the faders up and start playing with the track panning and see what works. Don't be afraid to divorce yourself from the idea of stereo L-R on either one of them, either. Sometimes just stacking the stereo tracks in order to get a complete sound, and then panning each stereo stack seperately works very well as well; this is especially true if even after EQ the two parts are just too sonically simialr. And full hard pan is not written in stone either. While that often works great, there are a dozen other options which can also work very well. Play around, you'd be suprised at what pan images will work "k3wl" with two acoustics.

G.

[TerraMortim]

Originally Posted by SonicAlbert

First think about how you want it to sound.

Do you want the rhythm part to sound like it is behind the other part? Wider? Narrower?

It all comes down to your concept of how your music should sound, and you need to have an idea of that before you set up your mics and go for takes.

There's more than X and Y, also consider distance. For example, you might want to use the same positioning but just move it further back so that the rhythm tracks sit behind the other track. Or widen the angle, or narrow it.

There are so many ways to do it, that's why you need to have a sound in your head that you are going for.

yep! Just what he said! He beat me to it! hahaha That's the way to approach it.

[TelePaul]

Thanks all for the very helpful comments. First thing I'm gonna do is move the mics back (they're MSH2s) and point one at the neck and one at the bridge this time. I might also move around my gobos to see if that helps deaden things - the first track is kinda 'live'. Compressing one guitar's tracks a good move?

[Creep]

Cheers - helped me also. Thanks!

[Wish14]

If I'm double tracking guitars, I just record each take in mono and pan hard left and right. You still get the big stereo spread that way.

Recording each take in stereo will definitely add complexity to mixing and possible phase issues, but it can also work depending on what kind of sound you are trying to achieve.

I just think recording multiple guitars in stereo is a little overkill in most situations...but whatever works for you.

[TexRoadkill]

When I double mic two acoustics I like to pan the bridge mics closer to center and the neck mics to the outside. For instance guitar 1 Bridge 20% L and neck 100% R. Pan the other guitar opposite of that. It gives you a nice fat sound with a lot of stereo effect.