Doubling/Quadrupling tracks

R

ryan_c57

New member
Hey all,

I'm fairly new to this forum. I've been playing the guitar for almost five years now. For about two years now, I've been experimenting with digital recording on my computer, recording a nice riff now and then. A couple of months ago, I joined one of the local bands as rhythm guitarist. We're looking to record some of our material with my computer.

While experimenting with my own riffs, I'v been using Apple's GarageBand 2. I know it's not nearly as sophisticated as Pro Tools or Logic (or *insert yet another sequencing program*). But that'll have to do for now, my budget is low. For the guitar parts, I use Native Instruments' GuitarRig.

When it comes to mastering a song, I'm a complete newbie. I have no knowledge about any must-knows of the business. I guess I'm just really a trial-and-error kind of guy.

I've watched Metallica's Some Kind of Monster movie recently, and in one scene, James or Lars (either one of the band's two master minds) suggests "quadrupling" the guitar track(s). What is the effect of "quadrupling"? I've tried it out, duplicated my guitar track in GarageBand, but other than my guitar track getting a lot louder, I don't notice any difference. Maybe my ears aren't attuned to what the effect's supposed to be? Or maybe making the track louder IS the desired effect?

Thinking about it, I kinda assumed my guitar sound would get fatter. But frankly, I have no idea. Can anybody please help a newbie out?

Thanks.
 
When they say that, they are implying that you would actually perform the guitar part multiple times, not just duplicate the single performance. For alot of guitar sounds that will really fatten it up. It helps to use different tones each time you double a track too.
 
you can also cheat too, ... copy your guitar track to a new track and offset it by just a little bit ( i last offset one by .003 ) .
.. you might want to try different offsetness, some will give you different phase and chorus sounds, while some will just make it 'sound' fuller

gl
 
seismetr0n said:
you can also cheat too, ... copy your guitar track to a new track and offset it by just a little bit ( i last offset one by .003 ) .
.. you might want to try different offsetness, some will give you different phase and chorus sounds, while some will just make it 'sound' fuller

gl
Click to expand...


Serious...if you can't play the part twice then don't bother....this method will produce results but in my mind its just half assing it....
 
seismetr0n said:
you can also cheat too, ... copy your guitar track to a new track and offset it by just a little bit ( i last offset one by .003 ) .
.. you might want to try different offsetness, some will give you different phase and chorus sounds, while some will just make it 'sound' fuller

gl
Click to expand...

I second you Chad, this method is terrible compared to really double tracking the part. If you don't want to play the part again, I would look into re-amping. I do that all the time for doubling or quadrupling a guitar part that is very articulate and doesn't lend itself to physically double tracking it. Lead guitar for instance. It's also useful for incorporating multiple amplifiers and tones into one performance. In fact, that's probably the best way of fattening up a guitar sound. Re-amping to multiple amps.
 
A stereo chorus will also synthesize a fatter doubled track.

But I'm with the rest, there's no substitute for layering multiple takes. We've all seen or heard bands with a black-boxed single guitar playing a line as well as bands with two guitarists playing the same line. We all know which one sounds better. :)

G.
 
I want to thank everybody who replied so far. You're a great help!

Re-amping sounds good to me. And with me using GuitarRig to model all the different amps, I think that would be the easiest way to fatten the guitar track, since I record the guitar parts pure (as in unprocessed) anyway. I will try this method out. Thanks a bunch!

I've tried stereo chorus once, but I ended up with a really synth sounding metallic track. So I immedeately gave up on that method.
 
metalhead28 said:
When they say that, they are implying that you would actually perform the guitar part multiple times, not just duplicate the single performance. For alot of guitar sounds that will really fatten it up. It helps to use different tones each time you double a track too.
Click to expand...


I highly agree. For one guitar bands especially, it'll sound a lot better if the guitar rhythm is actually played twice and panned out a bit. Simply doubling it doesn't sound half as good to me.
 
chadsxe said:
Why are you not micing your amp....
Click to expand...
I don't have the necessary mics to do that. I know the standard are SM57s, right? I guess I really just haven't looked into that. I've always been content with the results with GuitarRig (until I heard of the doubling/quadrupling method).
 
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