Stereo, stereo or mono for distorted guitar?

[to_see_me]

I'm going to record a 'light' or 'poppy' sword metal band which has a great distorted tone figured out. My question is, is it best for the rythym track to be doubled and split, double mic the amp to two tracks and split or just a solid down the middle mono track?

 

[Mark7]

Sword Metal!?

Like Tenpole Tudor, or something?

 

[Kramer]

My best results have came from playing the part twice(double)and panning one track left and the other one right.

 

[to_see_me]

haah yeah, sword metal. I guess what I mean is they sing about castles and dwarf armies and dragons and stuff. They are awesome if a little weird. But they aren't heavy metal sounding----

 

[Mark7]

Isn't that Prog Rock?

 

[Wireneck]

I believe the correct term is

"MAJESTIC" metal hahaha. Anyhow, i always track the same part twice and pan left and right as someone stated previously.

 

[to_see_me]

cool, i'll try the double and pan method and see how it goes. Thanks, guys!

here's a link to a demo of theirs:

http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/blowchain/wreckingbalss.html

 

[mojew]

when i record distorted guitar i always do two tracks. i like a warm sound with a little punch, so i set up my amp's eq with a lot of mids and medium highs and lows. then i record one track with the neck pickup of my tele, and one track with the bridge pickup.

i think it sounds great when you have a distinct sound on each side, rather than the same sound. although the pickup thing woudn't work for metal because neck pickup for metal guitar is usually a no-no. also, metal is big on scooped mids. what i'd do is do one track with very little mids, and another track adding enough mids to make it sound distinct from the other track.

if it still isn't heavy enough... do two more tracks!