How can I get the widest possible guitar stereo image with one mic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jndietz
  • Start date Start date
The tape speed trick is a cool old trick to get more impact with less tracks. It is important though to remember that the tape speed needs to only be changed while you are tracking that part. Generally, this is easy to remember since with tape, you can't just change the speed of one track. If however you were to do this digitally, you can't just change the pitch a little of one track or else the problem that Glenn mentioned would definately exist. The longer the track, the more the parts would be seperated by the end of the track. Digitally, you would want to use an algorithm that changes pitch without shifting the time. Usually plugins like this start to degrade the sound in a way that is noticable, but by only shifting a small amount like mentioned, it would most likely be virtually unnoticable, especially on a guitar track. A sustained string solo however might reveal it.
 
The reference to our tape technique was merely an explanation of the effect. If you recorded one take of guitar with delay, with the tape slowed, sped up or back to front it wouldn't make a ham sandwich of difference to the timing or the tuning, assuming your delay is bang on in the first place.
To get this effect on computer you would probably have to use pitch shift to avoid timing problems and sacrifice some quality but hey some things sound great even when they sound shit ... lol.

Here's another thought ... anytime we had a drummer in with bad timing we used to slow the tape right down, record him or her, bring it back up to normal and hey presto!!

or even a vocalist who cant quite reach that last note :)
 
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There were a lot of great tips in here, but I got the best results just playing the lick a few times again and panning accordingly. Thanks a lot guys!
 
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