doubling guitar

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Newbie dude

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how often and when do you guys[ and chicks.] double your guitar part? Every song or just sometimes? On just the heavier songs or softer songs too? Just on choruses, or also verses and bridges? Just when you're playing chords or also when you're playing individual notes?
 
I always double, and then hard pan when its metal.
If its blues you dont need it IMO.
If its jazz you dont need it IMO.
If its country you may want it.
For general rock id do it (double it) and then decide later if i wanted it.
 
Just because you recorded a double part doesn't mean you have to use it. If it works in the verse but ends up being too much in the chorus or vice versa, you can mix the tune accordingly. Still nothing wrong with printing a double for the whole thing.

I think it's usually more of a rhythm effect than a solo thing, but there aren't any hard & fast rules. Some people have even done multiple layers if it fits the style of music.


sl
 
I occasionally even triple track my rhythm guitar track and pan one slightly left, one slightly right, and one dead center. With varying degrees of effect on each one, I get a very full sound that's quite impressive.
 
I will usually do 4 tracks of rhythm guitars for rock or metal, two panned left and two panned right with a slight variation in sound on each track. Two electrics panned for country or softer rock. Three acoustic tracks, slightly varied, for country or rock ballads.
 
Two left and two right? When I pan two guitars hard left is sort of overloads the pan position and causes distortion.
 
Newbie dude said:
Two left and two right? When I pan two guitars hard left is sort of overloads the pan position and causes distortion.
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Turn it down.
 
Newbie dude said:
Two left and two right? When I pan two guitars hard left is sort of overloads the pan position and causes distortion.
Click to expand...

I don't pan them both to the same amount. I might put one hard left and the second guitar about 90% left and then just bring it up until I notice a change in the tone.
 
Most of the time, I use 2 performances with 2 different mics. That makes 4 tracks of rhythm guitars. I pan the mic that will handle the sheen of the guitar hard and pan the one that has the girth towards the center. This helps with mono compatability (which is an important part of a strong guitar sound) and gives you that wall of sound without taking all the space.
 
Farview said:
Most of the time, I use 2 performances with 2 different mics. That makes 4 tracks of rhythm guitars. I pan the mic that will handle the sheen of the guitar hard and pan the one that has the girth towards the center. This helps with mono compatability (which is an important part of a strong guitar sound) and gives you that wall of sound without taking all the space.
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Every time I try that I loose distinction in the guitars. What's your secret?
 
For most rock stuff I will have the guitars at least doubled. Sometimes I have parts quadrupled if it needs to sound "heavy".
 
7string said:
Every time I try that I loose distinction in the guitars. What's your secret?
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Turn the gain down. The layers of guitars is what gives it the gainy sound. Think crunchy, not saturated. Also use 2 different mics that complement each other. A 57 is great for picking up the grainyness in the upper mids and the knock of the lower mids. A 421 will give you smooth highs and a ton of lows with an almost scooped sound. They are almost the opposite of each other and fit together well. You can use condensers as well. You just need to pick 2 mics that work together.
 
Just a note for those readers who are intersted in more than Black MetallaBack... ;)

Now that the hard rock/metal/Gibson/Marshall contigent has been heard from, allow me to throw in a minority report here and say that for me, the better the guitarist, the less likely I'm going to double anything.

IMHO, doubling is more for the power chord set and for rhythm guitar arrangements. But even for rhythm guitar, doubling can be way too much salt in the soup if you want to hear the lead properly.

How often do you hear (in alphabetical order only) Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendirx, Mark Knopfler, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, or Stevie Ray Vaughn doubled?

And equally important, just how often do you hear doubled rhythm behind any of these guys?

G.
 
I wanted to post this question in this thread earlier, but accidentaly put in a different thread I started...

If I want to double or triple or quadruple my guitar to make my guitar sound more full, but not neccesarily to make it sound like there's two[ or three, or four] guitars playing the same thing, should i give both the tracks different EQ curves or the same?
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
How often do you hear (in alphabetical order only) Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendirx, Mark Knopfler, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, or Stevie Ray Vaughn doubled? G.
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How often do you hear a wall of guitars in any of those styles of music. Doubling isn't appropriate no matter how good the guitar player is.
 
Farview said:
How often do you hear a wall of guitars in any of those styles of music. Doubling isn't appropriate no matter how good the guitar player is.
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That's the point I wanted to make. With the exception of xfinsterx - who got it right - nowhere in this thread has the genre of music been addressed. There tends to be an assumption in many threads on this board that either a) everybody is a metalworker, or b) what applies to one style of music applies to all.

Since the original question was how often do we double guitar parts - with no reference to music style - I thought a reenforcement of xfinster's mostly ignored post was in order.

Contrary to what many readers may think from reading the forums on this BBS, metal and hip hop are only two relatively middling-sized bays in the ocean of music recording. ;)

G.
 
We have both kinds of music, country and western.



Point well taken.
 
Farview said:
We have both kinds of music, country and western.



Point well taken.
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Jeez, I thought my Dad and I were the only people who still made that reference.
 
Newbie dude said:
I wanted to post this question in this thread earlier, but accidentaly put in a different thread I started...

If I want to double or triple or quadruple my guitar to make my guitar sound more full, but not neccesarily to make it sound like there's two[ or three, or four] guitars playing the same thing, should i give both the tracks different EQ curves or the same?
Click to expand...

When I want to do that, I'll re-amp the single performance using different amps/settings/microphones/whatever to layer different sounds. Then I'll mix the sounds to suit without using any EQ. You might want to try re-amping.
 
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