Doubling Tracks. Any Other Way?

[joswil44]

Any situation where I have had a guitarist not want to double their guitar parts, I have done one of the following.

Plug 2 cabs into a head. A mic on each cab.

Or 1 mic on the cab, and a condensor mic from a few feet away. I also move the track a little to compensate for the mic distance for phase issues.

But its really the variations that help thicken the sound which is why doubling sounds better.

Alot of times I find that I can make the 1 guitar sound as good or better than trying to use 2 mics.

I avoid copying and pasting any tracks to make a double.


Another thing I have noticed with doubling.

If a person can double their part right away, great.

If they are having trouble, try this.

Record the double track.

Mute or delete the original track.

Then have them double to the double track.

The Brain seems to repeat better when in a doubling state of mind than trying to match an original performance again.

Especially with vocals.

 

[Raw-Tracks]

Delaying or nudging a copied track is not a very effective way to achieve "doubling". Generally the best way is to actually record 2 passes. Meaning, have the player play the part once. Then go back and record him playing it a second time on another track. Then pan the tracks apart. Anywhere from just a little panning to hard left and hard right.

Just delaying a track isn't very effective because it only addresses one aspect of what doubling actually is. The doubling effect is a combination of the timing and pitch differences between 2 different performances. The best way to achieve a fake double is to use a chorus type effect. Chorus is a modulated delay that introduces both timing and pitch variances.

 

[Squirps]

Delaying or nudging a copied track is not a very effective way to achieve "doubling". Generally the best way is to actually record 2 passes. Meaning, have the player play the part once. Then go back and record him playing it a second time on another track. Then pan the tracks apart. Anywhere from just a little panning to hard left and hard right.

Just delaying a track isn't very effective because it only addresses one aspect of what doubling actually is. The doubling effect is a combination of the timing and pitch differences between 2 different performances. The best way to achieve a fake double is to use a chorus type effect. Chorus is a modulated delay that introduces both timing and pitch variances.

Ok. I always record guitar twice but I was talking about something that's hard to record twice the same way. For example, In the middle of one of my songs, all of the instrumentation stops and there is a flute solo lasting about a minute long. It would be near impossible to replay flute solo exactly the way I improvised it the first time. That is the kind of track I would like to double but I'm a little stuck on how.

 

[ermghoti]

I'm sure you already know, but you're not doubling anything after the fact. If you really want to add some dimension to the track, you might play the offending track in a good room with a couple mics in a couple of sweet spots, and mix the resulting tracks back in.

In the future, use more than one mic on anything that would be a candidate for doubling, and you won't need to fiddle around so much mixing.

 

[eeb]

Ok. I always record guitar twice but I was talking about something that's hard to record twice the same way. For example, In the middle of one of my songs, all of the instrumentation stops and there is a flute solo lasting about a minute long. It would be near impossible to replay flute solo exactly the way I improvised it the first time. That is the kind of track I would like to double but I'm a little stuck on how.

hrmm it's hard to tell without hearing it. But juging from the tone of a flute recorded all by itself with no other instrumentation.. It might be really good to just leave it alone (unless it was poorly recorded and doesn't sound right) My general rule (which i do break when it calls for it) is to shy away from doubling or too many effects on a solo intrument part... it usually will stick out like a sore thumb... but that's more of a preference thing.. I can just picture everything kicking back into the song and sound much more powerful if you stuck with just the single voice.. (again i could be WAY off without hearing it) could you maybe post something in the mp3 clinic?

 

[gcapel]

You can get that retro slap back effect recording two takes and then offset one a smig'n panning one left and one right. You need to be "in the pocket" reproducing the same guitar track though. I wouldn't do it on a complex rythym part. Melvins did it on there latest album "A Senial Animal". You wouldn't want that effect on every sond you did though. Only if it calls for it.

 

[makeasound]

no no,

They're suggesting to do 2 seperate guitar takes. You'd be surprised how well this will work... actually i'd suggest trying this over using plugins or effects.

This will give you a chorus sound only because we are human and cannot do the exact( I mean the exact) same thing twice. So each take will be slightly different. Also you can copy and paste. Also you can try... for a thick choruseeeee sound, doubling/copy & paste whatever... the two seperate tracks. After nudging or sliding them they are slightly off (not much) then pan the one to the left or right and depending on where you want them put more of the sound on one side or the other.