Guitar Duet

H

HearClear

New member
I'm doing some tracking today and I was thinking about using 2 mics on the dirty guitars so I can have stereo without having the guitarist play the parts twice. Will this sound weird? Could I use 2 different mics or should I go with a stereo pair? Or should I just have him do it twice?
Thanks
Adam
 
Doing it twice would be a good option . That way you get a good natural double .And you dont have to worry about phase cancelations!If hes good at doubleing himself the thats the easiest way to do it IMHO...Have a good session..

Don
 
No it will NOT sound weird. If you think there might be phase cancellation of the mics then hit the phase button on your preamp, if there is one. Mic the amp in front and then in the back of the amp, or in the front and 5 feet away with a condensor.
 
Do you really want stereo or just a big,wide sound?Stereo implies one signal placed L-R in a stereo field.I'm guessing you want a bigger sound.
The previous suggestions about miking are good ones.Also interesting is to take the guitar track,split into two left and right with a slight delay on one side.
Doubling the line sounds like chorus when panned up the middle but sounds like two guys doubling when split (check out old Beatle records for some weird hard panning).
Also try clean panned one way and distortion the other side.Helps articulation on heavy distortion guitar.
Modern pans leave at least some of the signal in both sides.
Also I urge you to sum to mono to check for any phase problems before you button it up.

Tom
 
If you're using a DAW (computer) setup then you NEVER have to worry about phase cancellations when you're recording, because afterwards in the editor you can zoom in really close on the waveform and slide one track one way or the other to get them to line up "perfectly".

But if you're not then one little trick to minimize phasing is to reverse the phase on one mic (so that the sound gets really quiet) then move the mic around to get the absolute quietest signal that you can, then when you switch the phase back again they should now be (just about) perfectly in phase.

And the guitar player for my old band couldn't play the same thing twice to save his life. But it would have been interesting to watch him try to double track himself. :D

Hope that helps.

-tkr
 
Originally posted by Tekker
Click to expand...
If you're using a DAW (computer) setup then you NEVER have to worry about phase cancellations when you're recording, because afterwards in the editor you can zoom in really close on the waveform and slide one track one way or the other to get them to line up "perfectly".

That doesn't always work, since you might have multiple phase cancellations.

But if you're not, then one little trick to minimize phasing is to reverse the phase on one mic (so that the sound gets really quiet) then move the mic around to get the absolute quietest signal that you can, then when you switch the phase back again, they should now be (just about) perfectly in phase.

Wow, now that's a great idea!! :D

Hope that helps.

-tkr

Absofuckinglutely cool idea, Tekker.
 
Thanks Tekker that is a great idea. But I already tracked the guy 2 days ago he went with the do it twice method. But now I've a way to save time.

Harvey or Anyone Else
I'm going to be tracking his vocals tomarrow and I just got an AKG c3000b and a studio projects c1. I don't want to waste his time and money farting with the mics on his session. Which way would you go? I'm running through an Aphex 107 straight to an lx20 adat.
Thank You
Adam
 
That doesn't always work, since you might have multiple phase cancellations.
Click to expand...

Harvey, can you illiterate on that? Are you reffering to using multiple mics or just two? Because I always thought that lining them up in the DAW got rid of most of the phasing problems.

Wow, now that's a great idea!!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I like that one too, I got that from one of the links off of the Studio Covers page.

Absofuckinglutely cool idea, Tekker.
Click to expand...
Glad you liked it. :D

-tkr
 
Originally posted by HearClear
Click to expand...
Harvey or Anyone Else
I'm going to be tracking his vocals tomarrow and I just got an AKG c3000b and a studio projects c1. I don't want to waste his time and money farting with the mics on his session. Which way would you go? I'm running through an Aphex 107 straight to an lx20 adat.
Thank You
Adam

I'd go with the C1 first. Unless he has no top end in his voice, it should work fine. If it doesn't, then I'd try the C3000.
 
Originally posted by Tekker
Click to expand...
Harvey, can you illiterate on that? Are you reffering to using multiple mics or just two? Because I always thought that lining them up in the DAW got rid of most of the phasing problems.

Just two mics. While it's true you'll eliminate one major phasing problem, the sound of a guitar doesn't come from just one spot and both mics will pick that up, making perfect phase cancellation impossible. That's why I liked your second suggestion so much - it finds the best spot to avoid almost all the phase problems you're likely to run across as you place the mics.
 
Just two mics. While it's true you'll eliminate one major phasing problem, the sound of a guitar doesn't come from just one spot and both mics will pick that up, making perfect phase cancellation impossible. That's why I liked your second suggestion so much - it finds the best spot to avoid almost all the phase problems you're likely to run across as you place the mics.
Click to expand...
That's cool, so you get the phase good while tracking it, then you can "fine tune" it with the audio editor.

I imagine that that little trick would be "extremely" useful when recording drums. I'll have to give that one a try sometime. :)

-tkr
 
Do the track again with more emphisis on the mid bas of the guitar part and pan it at the left but not hard left. It worked great on alot of classic recordings. and it really widens the soundstage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top