Can you have 3 guitars?

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myhatbroke

myhatbroke

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I always record two tracks of the main riff and pan em hard left and right. Has anyone ever accomplished recording a third in the middle and mixing well?
 
I'm sure the intro to the first tune on the new tool album has that....I could be wrong tho...
 
The best way to learn is by doing, IMO. So go try it and tell us what you think! :cool:
 
I'm not sure about the panning

but I think the guys in Skynard would agree that you can.
 
I did try it that's why I'm asking if someone actually did it well. It sounded too saturated
 
myhatbroke said:
I did try it that's why I'm asking if someone actually did it well. It sounded too saturated
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Hard panning almost never sounds good unless you are going for some extreme psychedelic thing. And if you're triple-tracking the exact same guitar line using the exact same guitar sounds, yeah, it'll start to sound unpleasant.
 
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If you're doing metal headbanger stuff, then you might get away with it if the central guitar was actually a lead Tele where the panned stuff is the usual Gibson/PRS wall of power chords stuff.

But if you're just trying to add to the wall by filling it in the middle, you're probably just making a wide wall of mud plastered over everyting else. Ya gotta leave sonic breathing space for something other than sustain.

G.
 
Check out 'drain you' by Nirvana. It's got 5 guitar tracks, all playing the same thing, and it sounds awesome.
They're not panned, however, and they also have different sounds. Try a mixture of sounds to get something to mix against, and don't pan them - it can sound much richer and clearer...
 
Elton Bear said:
Check out 'drain you' by Nirvana. It's got 5 guitar tracks, all playing the same thing, and it sounds awesome.
They're not panned, however, and they also have different sounds. Try a mixture of sounds to get something to mix against, and don't pan them - it can sound much richer and clearer...
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I havent heard the song, but I cant imagine the guitars being in mono...something just does not sound right about that...
 
Well its not the exact same sound. I record two times and pan each one.But i know metallica did a third track in the middle in their black album. I have no clue how they made it sound good
 
I did it on my band's demo...JCM 800 tracks panned out to the sides a bit and a silverface Bassman track in the middle. I wasn't the one playing the guitar so I don't know if it was the same part each time. Does it sound good? I thought it sounded alright. You might disagree though.
 
i just recorded a metalcore band and we tracked two takes for each guitar and one more take that i recorded in stereo, put one side through a tiny sample delay, and hard panned them. so i actually had the third track panned further than the regular tracks which were panned at about 30 right/left. it sounded thick. but there was still enough room for a bass guitar. hardly. it is all up to taste and up to whether or not you can mix it correctly. not saying the way i did it is right by any means, but if you can make it work as well, go for it.

-surf
 
i think it just depends on the song. ive used as many as 5 guitar tracks - all basically playing the same thing but panned all over the place - and it worked well. was it overkill? maybe, but i liked the sound so i ran with it. it just depends on how you do it.
 
myhatbroke said:
Well its not the exact same sound. I record two times and pan each one.But i know metallica did a third track in the middle in their black album. I have no clue how they made it sound good
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I bet it would take less time to record the third guitar track than it took to post this thread and analyze the answers.
 
Why not instead play the third track twice to make fourth track, and pan the third and forth tracks like 50% or something left and right respectively, with the first and second panned hard left and right.

I would agree that all you can really do is experiment. I mean that suggestion I just made. I have no real idea how it will turn out, and I'm not about to try and find out because its of no real benefit to me right now first thing in the morning and I can't be arsed. But just give some ideas a try. That way, you might think of something totally crackpot that no one else could think of, and it might actually work.
 
I usually record 3 tracks for my gits...solos too.
 
I rencently recorded a local metal band and in one song, there was a rhythm track that followed the bass note for note, lick for lick, so I doubled it and hard panned, and the lead track I recorded one take but in a stereo track with a 57 and an e609 and let that take up the center...
 
ez_willis said:
I bet it would take less time to record the third guitar track than it took to post this thread and analyze the answers.
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LIKE I FUCKING SAID BEFORE! I tried it! It just doesn't sound good! God damn!It's ok I'm a dumbass too. :p
 
I think my Home Alone has between three and five guitar parts at a given time. I don't think I ever hard panned any of them, but did put a little separation between them. Dogman said the mix sounded very big, but I never knew what he meant by that.
 
if its the same guitar and amp combo doing all three parts, its probably going to sound muddy.

you need contrast!

get an ibanez, a fender and a gibson guitar, through a marshall, a crate, and a fender amp! that should be interesting.
 
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