Doubling guitars

  • Thread starter Thread starter dmikulinski
  • Start date Start date
D

dmikulinski

New member
Ok, I have read everything I could find on this topic, but I still don't know what to do in my situation.

I am recording a band with two guitarists. Generally, there is no stand up lead guy. I don't want to just go right and left with each player because that will sound pretty dull and lousy after a while.

What parts should I double and how should I pan them?

Also, when there are lead riffs here and there, what should I do with them?

Thanks in advance,
Daryl
 
Well, we propabaly need to know how many tracks you have to work with......but I would say, give one the left channel and give the other the right channel. Pan only 45 (9 o'clock and 3 o'clock). If you have extra tracks, let both of them play the rythem part to the solo and then have them go back later and do the solo over that with all the fixins.
 
Get ready.......in 10 minutes there will be over a hundred other ways to go about this. Plus you will findout that all your equipment sucks..............
 
haha... thanks for the reply, and the warning.

i am using cool edit, so the number of tracks is really limitless. I tried panning the seperate guitars left and right, but the mix still seems thin because they are occasionally playing two very different riffs.
 
Okay........

Unlimited........or close........

If they are playing live or whatever for the bulk, let them do that, but tell them to try playing just rhythemically. Leave all the leads and fancy stuff till the end. Have them re-play their parts again and record that onto seperate tracks. Put one live track panned left and one panned right. Then pan the over dubs to the opposite side at say, 10 and 2 o'clock, maybe a tad more....just gotta listen........

Now let them each go over all that with their snazzy licks. Put those in the mix where ever they sound good.

Maybe just DI the bass. That will add a lot of fullness to the overall sound. Depending on your setup, he might have to sit out on the live jam...........

WARNING!!!!!!

HE WILL BE PISSED!
 
True that everyone will have a different opinion.

I would suggest that you have the guy that plays the best (maybe flip a coin) play the background guitar twice as close to exactly the same as he can. Pan one of those all the way left and the other all the way right.

Then let them both play their usual tracks with leads etc. Pan one a little left and the other a little right. Fade up the lead parts as necessary and down as necessary for achieving the right "sound". For an extended solo... pan it to the middle.

If you do this I can guarantee you that you can mix it so that it doesn't sound thin.


That's my humble opinion.
 
dmikulinski said:
I tried panning the seperate guitars left and right, but the mix still seems thin because they are occasionally playing two very different riffs.
Click to expand...

That is one of the all-time best ways to pan guitars! Listen to the Scorpions or the Eagles and you will hear many great examples of different guitar parts panned seperately. It really gives each guitarist his own identity and space. RATT did it too, as I recall. I'm sure a lot of other recordings as well... a little band called the Beatles, maybe.

There are two issues that a LOT of recordists fail to differentiate between, and they are: arrangement, and production. I would argue that a song that is well-arranged will sound good regardless of where you pan the guitars. Production choices are different. They relate to how the recording "sounds": i.e. panning, doubling parts for an aural effect, EQ, reverb, etc.

Take that little band the Beatles for istance. Supremely arranged songs. George Martin was an absolute genious when it came to that. Those songs are so well arranged that they can be panned any which way, (including drums all on one side and bass on the other) and they are still great songs.

Now, I'm not saying that arrangement is everything and production means nothing..... I'm just saying that so many recordists look at the latter and figure they can fix anything, when instead maybe the song needs a better arrangement.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Oh...

Uh.....

Panning is only one of the issues. Here is one thing I do.
I record the rhythm guitars only..no fills or leads. Then I make the guitarists double track that. Then I have the guitarist do the fills, then double track those and then the solo's double tracked. I pan the rhythm tracks hard left and right, eq'd a little, then I pan the next 2 rhythm tracks to 11 O'clock and 1 o'clock, about 3 to 6 db less than the other rhythm parts with some reverb and eq'd differently (boost what was cut on the 1st 2 or vice versa). Then the fills are panned to hard left and right and the solo's to 11 and 1 o'clock if they are harmony solos, 12 oclock if they aren't. This fill the stereo field and keeps the listener from hearig too much in the same place.
One way of thousands!

SoMm
 
Aaron Cheney said:
There are two issues that a LOT of recordists fail to differentiate between, and they are: arrangement, and production. I would argue that a song that is well-arranged will sound good regardless of where you pan the guitars. Production choices are different. They relate to how the recording "sounds": i.e. panning, doubling parts for an aural effect, EQ, reverb, etc.
Click to expand...

That's a great point. It's hard to polish a turd. Not that the parts are necessarily crappy. However, it sounds like the guitar parts might not compliment each other.

The tough part is if you're not the songwriter or the producer. Thus, it would be difficult to tell a band their parts suck and they should rewrite them.
 
Thanks to all that responded, and Aaron thanks for reminding of that little band named the Beatles ;)

It had slipped my mind that at one time it was actually acceptable to pan drums hard left and guitars hard right :)

Daryl
 
First off record the song live as a reference track.

Two Guitar Players:

Record each guitar player, twice.
Pan guitar player 1's tracks hard left/right.
Pan guitar player 2's tracks not quite hard left/right.

Problem solved, Phat guitar sounds! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top