doubling tracks for..

[Dumby]

Being limited to 8 tracks, I double my rythm guitars, one all the way left and one all the way right with a slightly different tone, I don't usually double my solo because or room. I do record that guitar though a little louder and all.

 

[orksnork]

and obviously...you don't want to use your rhythm sound for the lead...
wipe your knobs and start clear...

i always find it best to have someone else who knows what they are doing around...so you can play along and adjust with your EARS and find what sounds good with the rest, and cuts

 

[Micter]

The two mic technique works well. I will pan one left (-75) and one right (75)and add delay and reverb to the right side. It will sound a lot bigger because of the time and space. Meaning the delay changes the time and the panning takes up more space in the mix.

 

[metalhead28]

I might try doubling if it was a slower or more emotive solo that didn't involve crazy fast runs or anything that was gonna get muddied up by doubling. Most of the time I would harmonize some of it if I was doing that just to make it that much sweeter and more interesting.
As far as any other solo, I would just do one take and pan it in the center just like the lead vocal. Put some delay on there. I like to put a delay on a effects bus and automate the level so there isn't too much delay going on when it doesn't sound right, but I pile more on during notes that are held out and things like that. I might even use 2 delays on 2 different effects buses to accomplish that.
A neat trick that I have done a couple times (and I stole this dirrectly from a posting by Ford Van but he was talking about mixing vocals), Take your solo track and duplicate it twice. Take the two duplicates, pitch one of them up a few cents, and one of them down a few cents (try 12) and then delay both of them about 25 ms. Pan them them hard left and right. Don't turn them up much, but just enough to give it a sweet sound. It's sort of like chorus but sounds much better in moderation and really widens the sound.
It won't sound right everywhere but it's worth a try sometimes.

Sometimes I do a DI split when I record solos so that I can re-amp them. If I do that I can record multiple amps with different tones for a single solo. Sometimes that can really fatten up a lead sound. Most of the time I just like to get it right with a single amp, but it's nice to have the option.

 

[Farview]

A neat trick that I have done a couple times (and I stole this dirrectly from a posting by Ford Van but he was talking about mixing vocals), Take your solo track and duplicate it twice. Take the two duplicates, pitch one of them up a few cents, and one of them down a few cents (try 12) and then delay both of them about 25 ms. Pan them them hard left and right. Don't turn them up much, but just enough to give it a sweet sound. It's sort of like chorus but sounds much better in moderation and really widens the sound.

You can just use a stereo pitch shifter and set the pre-delay for 25ms.

 

[cephus]

One thing I've always enjoyed with digital recording is how easy it is to record another take. I will generally play the solo through once and immediately record the solo again on the next track. Sometimes I'll do it 5 times. Then you can pick the best sections from all the takes to make one good one. I recorded this one song and had an acoustic solo in the middle that I'd worked out. I knew what I was going to play and tracked it 4 times. I was going back through to figure out where the warts were and accidentally had 2 tracks turned up instead of one. The first 8 bars were absolutely verbatim and I couldn't even tell it was doubled at that time. But I started the next lick a beat behind on one track and it was the coolest harmony. Then there was a slower figure a few bars later where I was again a couple beats off. It made the sweetest little harmony lines serendipitously. I recorded it with my laptop and the sound is shitte, but that little magic that was captured has kept me from re-recording it. I just feel like it would never be as good if I did it on purpose.

 

[metalhead28]

You can just use a stereo pitch shifter and set the pre-delay for 25ms.

If I had a stereo pitch shifter.

I'm curious though, would most stereo pitch shifters allow you to pitch one side up and one side down? I'm thinking plug-ins here, and I've never used something like that.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

I'm curious though, would most stereo pitch shifters allow you to pitch one side up and one side down? I'm thinking plug-ins here, and I've never used something like that.

Waves Doubler does this.

 

[Farview]

If I had a stereo pitch shifter.

I'm curious though, would most stereo pitch shifters allow you to pitch one side up and one side down? I'm thinking plug-ins here, and I've never used something like that.

A stereo pitch shifter would, that's the point of it. Then you would set the wet/dry control to taste. One of the best sounding set of plugins for cheap is the DSPFX line of stuff. The interface kind of sucks but the stuff sounds great.

 

[David Katauskas]

Yeah...it really depends...some solos are single tracked, some are doubled. I even have triple tracked (L-C-R) solos to give them a 'larger than life' sound. If you are tight, then it shouldn't sould sloppy at all.

 

[metalhead28]

A stereo pitch shifter would, that's the point of it. Then you would set the wet/dry control to taste. One of the best sounding set of plugins for cheap is the DSPFX line of stuff. The interface kind of sucks but the stuff sounds great.

.

 

[grindpaul]

thanks for the replies.

i dont have delay or any effects at all, so i left my solos single and unpanned, except for one of them, and i dont see much difference. i'll post the stuff up once the vocalists stops slacking off.


to the guy who was slammin his head at a wall or something, i understand that guitar is a mid range instrument, and i know i should listen to a bunch of old school rock'n'roll, but thats not what im recording, and i found that for the style im playing it is much better to cut the mids.

 

[grindpaul]

i posted a rough mix without bass or vocals (just good ol g and drum machine), it has 2 mini solos in it, the first one is doubled and panned (horribly)

keep in mind this is my first ever recording (that i actually tried to do well on). not everything is finished, i still have to cut some parts out, like the noise in the beggining and stuff.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=4514

 

[Farview]

It would sound better if you backed off on the distortion and put some of the mids back in the guitars. You can always scoop the mids during mixdown if you have to. It sounds like you are scooping the mids at the amp (processor)