Tips for single guitar in metal recordings?

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wishtheend

New member
Hopefully this in the right spot.

Anywho, I'm getting ready to start recording the metal project in which I play bass. When the band formed a few months ago, we orginally had 2 guitarists. Since then, we've dropped down to just the one. We are really enjoying the freedom in not having another voice to conflict with ideas (sometimes 2 ideas are better than 5). But all the recordings I've ever done have been with two guitarists (each panned about 90% L & R respectively).

I'm curious if there are any experiences you guys have had that certian things just worked better? Tricks when tracking? Panning tricks? I'll take any advice I can.

Style wise, this is pretty brutal stuff. Lamb of God/Unearth style guitar work (mesa dual rec) with some Black metal /death metal drumming. So lots of double bass, rhythmatic guitar, bouncy metal leads, everything pretty tight. I know it's typical of this genre, and most sub-genres of metal to have the two guitars. But we really think the band sounds good with just the one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thanks in advance :cool:
 
I'm assuming that overdubs will be cool with everybody in the band?
If so, I wouldn't worry about there being one guitar or four, I would still do seperate guitar tracks on left and right, maybe doubled on each side as well if not more. It kind of depends on whether you are trying to keep a really articulate sound or just a really heavy sound. Multiple performances with something like Lamb of God's newer material would sound muddled up with too many different takes, but I would still want the sound from several different sources, such as 2 or 3 different amps or tones. Re-amping is a good way to achieve a filled out sound without having to do alot of seperate performances. That way you can record one take from your guitarist along with a DI'd signal, then re-amplify that a few times to layer up different sounds and get it really heavy, but you don't run the risk of muddying up the clarity because it is still only one clean performance.
The next issue with this would be whether or not you want to sound as you would live, meaning no extra guitar stuff going on, or if you want to have a filled out and complex sounding album with guitar harmonies and overdubs that would not be possible live with one guitar.
 
chadsxe said:
Should not be a problem at all.....double track and pan to flavor....
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I've thought of it, I just fear the mix might get bland with the exact same riff panned over the stereo field for the whole duration of the song. Anyone know if it would work to do a stereo pan on some parts and more centered on others? Or would that just be too distracting.

I've been trying to find some bands that are heavy but with only guitarist, and it always seems they have added electronics filling up the space (keyboards, samples etc). Any band suggestions that are metal but with only one guitarist?
 
Or you could run a very short delay with a single repeat, with the repeat having the same gain as the input. Pan the input to one side and the delayed signal to the other.
 
metalhead28 said:
I'm assuming that overdubs will be cool with everybody in the band?
If so, I wouldn't worry about there being one guitar or four, I would still do seperate guitar tracks on left and right, maybe doubled on each side as well if not more. It kind of depends on whether you are trying to keep a really articulate sound or just a really heavy sound. Multiple performances with something like Lamb of God's newer material would sound muddled up with too many different takes, but I would still want the sound from several different sources, such as 2 or 3 different amps or tones. Re-amping is a good way to achieve a filled out sound without having to do alot of seperate performances. That way you can record one take from your guitarist along with a DI'd signal, then re-amplify that a few times to layer up different sounds and get it really heavy, but you don't run the risk of muddying up the clarity because it is still only one clean performance.
The next issue with this would be whether or not you want to sound as you would live, meaning no extra guitar stuff going on, or if you want to have a filled out and complex sounding album with guitar harmonies and overdubs that would not be possible live with one guitar.
Click to expand...

That reamping sounds like a great idea. My guitarist is pretty tight on all of his riffs, so I think he could layer the track. But I'd probley only wanna do it once. But now that you mentioned reamping, I might look at have him to two DI'ed tracks of the song and then reamp so I could blend two tones, and still have the layered track for panning L & R.

Now, I'm recording through the Firepod and I don't have a DI pedal. But the Firepod has "instrument level" on line 1 & 2. Is that in essence the same thing?

The band is totally cool with overdubs, but they'd want it to be as close to the live version as possible. Maybe a little thing here or there, things that wouldn't really pull away if not present live.
 
wishtheend said:
Now, I'm recording through the Firepod and I don't have a DI pedal. But the Firepod has "instrument level" on line 1 & 2. Is that in essence the same thing?
Click to expand...

yeah, should give the same result. However, with a DI box of some sort you could record a DI and the amp at the same time. (Most DI boxes also have a thru feed to the amplifier.)
 
metalhead28 said:
yeah, should give the same result. However, with a DI box of some sort you could record a DI and the amp at the same time. (Most DI boxes also have a thru feed to the amplifier.)
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks for the tip. That would make things alot easier. :D
Thanks to everyone who posted the suggestions. I felt kinda stupid for such a simple question, but in a world where 2-guitars are the norm, I wasn't sure which way to head.
 
Yeah double track each guitar part. Also record slightly different versions of the same riff. By this you could maybe play the chorus chords at a higher octave, or play the same chords at a different position on the guitar neck, or subtly add or remove certain notes form chords. The last one will really only be of a benifit to your sound if the chords are a bit more complex than just three string power chords.
Layer using different amps and different guitars, different amp settings, different guitar settings etc.
 
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