Doubling guitar tracks

  • Thread starter Thread starter P-J
  • Start date Start date

What's your preferred solution?

  • Play it again, sam!

    Votes: 105 76.6%

  • Copy it, paste it, offset it

    Votes: 8 5.8%

  • Neither, or maybe both

    Votes: 24 17.5%
  • Total voters
    137
There's a technique that someone posted that involved widening vocals. I haven't tried it with guitars, but...

1) Copy the take into its own track
2) Apply a pitch shifter to both tracks
3) Hard pan one track left, the other right
4) Put the pitch up 12 cents on the left channel and down 12 cents on the right channel

And you're done. It worked well on widening vocals.
 
jndietz said:
There's a technique that someone posted that involved widening vocals. I haven't tried it with guitars, but...

1) Copy the take into its own track
2) Apply a pitch shifter to both tracks
3) Hard pan one track left, the other right
4) Put the pitch up 12 cents on the left channel and down 12 cents on the right channel

And you're done. It worked well on widening vocals.
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That's similar to a great technique that I use for vocals a lot. A couple other things I do:

1) Copy the orginal twice--so the origninal, unaltered track stays in the center.
2) I pitch shift (one up 12 cents, one down, like you said) the two new panned tracks
3) The panned/shifted tracks should both be delayed relative to the original, center track. Like 25 ms.
4) The panned/shifted (& now delayed tracks) shouldn't be at the same volume of the original. I start with 'em all the way down and bring them up as the song is playing--you'll hear the sweet spot. Too much will sound like, well, too much.
 
WhiteStrat said:
That's similar to a great technique that I use for vocals a lot. A couple other things I do:

3) The panned/shifted tracks should both be delayed relative to the original, center track. Like 25 ms.
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Yes, this "fattening" works very well even without a pitch shift.
 
legionserial said:
Play it again. In my eyes it's the best option. The other way seems a bit lazy to me. I can't see why you wouldn't want to play it again. Unless you don't actually like playing guitar or the tune you are recording. :p
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I agree. I think it's fun double tracking things.
 
I voted play it again too, I think pasting it sounds too sterile.
 
copy and pasteing is for secretarys and college students thesis papers.

Your an artist. Play it again.

One more time with feeling.....


I love the sound of doubled guitars. When done right. I try to make a habit of using two different guitars as well. But i just got a POD X3 so i think the dual guitar days are done. havent plugged it into the laptop yet so i may eat my words but.....yes.


Double stuff your tracks. Its worth the effort. plus keeps you away from the honeydew list that much longer.
 
Play it twice, hands down.

Funny, I just got into a big discussion about this very thing with the other guys in my band. We were recording some tunes and I kept taking it upon myself to double-track the guitars. They'd keep saying stuff like "oh, so I see you really like using studio trickery", as if to imply that it's a cheater's approach. I say that's total BS--for many situations it just sounds bigger and better, period.

The frustrating thing about the dispute was the fact that these guys have no idea that probably 99% of the bands they idolize stack their guitars and vocals during recording, but since they aren't present to witness it being done, they are oblivious. :rolleyes:

Like somebody already said, watching a live band has so much more energy and provides so much more of a stimulus to your senses. Much of this is lost in recording so you find other ways to buy some of that power back.

Recording is an entirely different medium than a live setting for presenting your work. That being the case, why would anybody find it unreasonable that entirely different approaches can and should be used?

If you want to take a stubborn 'purist' stance and go with single tracks on everything, I wish you luck. Just pray that your double-tracking buddy doesn't play his CD right before or after yours at the party.
 
Generally I double track everything. Or quadruple track. Or octatrack.

But, there's a nice little trick using a cut-and-paste method which I employ every now and then. It works really well for overdubbed tracks, not the main lines.

What you do is this:

Record a track, pan it left 100%.
Copy and paste the track to a new track.
Pan that track 100% to the right.
Invert the phase of one of the tracks.

The result will make it seem like the tracks aren't coming out of any of the speakers. They seem to be coming somewhere inside your heard. If you fold them to mono they completely cancel one another out.

Overuse of this trick can result in listener fatigue, dizziness, headaches, etc. But during the climax of a song, when the stereo field is at it's widest and busiest, this trick can make it even wider. It's like driving a motorcycle in the breakdown lane of a superhighway. Good when it's clogged, but you'll get arrested or hit an abandoned hubcap and flip over and die if you do it all the time.
 
My buddy has a nice studio and records his band, he says the same thing every time someone finishes a take:

"That was GREAT,FANTASTIC, PERFECT! Now get back in there and do it again..."
 
tsswitch said:
This was an issue for my band as we were recording. We only have one guitarist, and I felt that double tracking is kind of lying.
Especially when you've got a "ghost" guitar playing rhythm during a lead portion.
Bah, studio tricks.

So we eventually settled on using two mics. Both right in front of the cab. One pointed at it and the other flipped backwards. Then we panned the two tracks hard. It sounds pretty good.
Of course it will always sound better to double track it, but I'm much happier having a recording that at least sounds like it could've been recorded live as opposed to piece by piece in a studio.
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I say to double track it as well.For one thing you don't have to use the extra track in the final mix if you don't want to but it gives you another option come mixdown time.I say take the time to do it twice since your already set up and warmed up.

As far as having the ghost guitar during a lead? Don't record guitar parts under the lead.Keep it realistic and your fans won't be disappointed.They will be disappointed with a crappy recording though and doubletracking the parts that your guitarist normally plays will only make a better sounding experience for them.

I feel the same way that if you only have one guitarist and have no plans of adding another then play it the way it's normally played.I seen pantera and cemetary gates just sounded empty during the lead parts without the rythm guitar parts.Even dimebag couldn't pull that off live.I say record a live a show for the fans and get them involved.This gives your fans the best of both worlds.Your giving them a well recorded studio album and a personal experience.Put it all together and release your cd with "bonus live tracks"

For me it's really all about how i want the song to sound.I'm no longer in a band & just recording my stuff at home but i always write my songs with two guitarists in mind.I like harmonizing parts so i'll probably end up doubletracking on the parts where where two guitars are playing something entirely different.

I'll end up with two tracks for each guitar.I'll have four tracks to play with then but like i said i may not use all of them come mixdown if it doesn't sit well.I like having options
 
You guys are such musicians!

What's up, guys? I do everything by a rule. If I am recording something for myself, I do what I want. If I am recording something for other people, I do what they are used to. The commonality is doubled guitars. Pantera, Sublime, Green Day. They double. why? Because that's the only way to get true stereo. Doubling behind a solo can go either way, but the big picture is that you're not giving people CDs so you can listen to them, you want the listener to like it, and the average music listener isn't going to pick apart your doubled tracks, or notice your recording has keys and strings, but WAIT! They don't have a string section or a keyboard! The average person listens to the vocals anyway.
 
I record pretty casually and have never doubled guitar tracks. I've always avoided since I've seen people do it with vocals and the final product being really cheesy and out of sync.

I might have to give this a try though. Do you guys usually EQ each of the doubled tracks differently?
 
If you have good guitarists, it'll sound perfectly sync'ed. Vocals might be tougher to get sync'ed perfectly, I don't double main vox cuz it sounds more like an effect to me. But with guitars it's easy for the most part, as long as you can play tight.. Then again, I'm not a very good vocalist, so maybe a great vocalist could double it and nail it, and make as much of an improvement as I think doubling guitars makes.

If I'm doing 2 tracks I eq em about the same. More than 2 guitar tracks (for me) means I'm using a different amp / settings / guitar / fx, something different. So the question doesn't really apply there.. I wouldn't do 4 tracks of the same exact thing..
 
play it as many times as you have to until it is recorded right then re amp the track if the tone is not right.
 
I like the natural chorus effect of doubled tracks. They can be tricky to get synched. I also like to double 2 stereo guitar tracks. I have 2 Marshall Plexi reissues that I set a little different and are fed from a Vox ToneLab SE. The stereo effects sound great in the 2 seperate amps. I put each amp on a seperate track and hard pan them in the mix. It can sound incredible.
VP
 
undrgrnd studio said:
Why not just stereo record and heavy pan? I do this all the time for acoustic stuff and it gives a great overall rich sound. Heck if you have the time you could even throw another mic on the other end of the room and use it as ambiance or a natural reverb.
Click to expand...

This is what I do.

+1
 
My opinion is that anything remotely heavy rock, and pretty much all metal is recorded with double tracked guitars.
 
chamelious said:
My opinion is that anything remotely heavy rock, and pretty much all metal is recorded with double tracked guitars.
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I agree. A big part of Tony Iommi's sound is double tacked guitars. That is what inspired me to use it.
VP
 
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