How to record electric guitars in stereo using Reaper

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eric V
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Eric V

Eric V

The Undertaker
Equipment:
Electric guitar, Behringer X1204USB mixer, Zoom POD

DAW:
Reaper

Questions:
I'm trying to figure out how to record guitars in stereo in Reaper using mono sources. How do I do that using Reaper?
I know I would record on one track, and then another track but ultimately, I want a guitar panned hard left (track 1) and another panned right (track 2). Do I do the panning on the Behringer mixer or in Reaper? Or does it matter which?
 
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Are you playing two guitars at the same time? Then you can do two sends from the Berry, and pan them left and right to a stereo track.

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But if you're like most mortal guitar player just track each guitar to it's own track, then pan them left and right in the DAW. Now, if you are only tracking one guitar, then it's meaningless to put it on two tracks and pan them left and right unless you're going to do something like a delay, reverb or some other processing to modify the track on one side. Two identical tracks panned left and right ends up as mono centered.
 
I think Rich's tongue was firmly in one side of his gob!

There are issues here. First of all, how are you getting the guitar(s) into the mixer? If you just plug them into say ch1 line input the very low (for a passive guitar) impedance will screw with the sound quality. Maybe you are mic'ing an amp? Or you can go in from a DI box or a "proper" pedal i.e. NOT one of those daft "True Bypass" piles of ****!

So, assuming you are not double handed, record one guitar as a mono track in Reaper and the second as another. On mix down pan taste.
N.B. this would not, strictly speaking be "stereo". Just two panned mono sources but then 99% of ALL modern music is like that.

Maybe you have two amps, two mics and two players? If so the same practice obtains.

BTW I 'think' you will find the Behrry will only record a 'stereo' track i.e. ch1 hard left, ch2 hard right and the pan control will have no effect on USB recordings.

Dave.
 
Or you could DI one track, Amp the other, or as stated just double track, or record two Amps and send each Mic'd amp to each side.

Main thing here is, you will need two tracks, then pan in the DAW to taste. Not sure what Dave is going on about, but it is pretty simple, but it does require two of something.
 
DM60 said:
Or you could DI one track, Amp the other, or as stated just double track, or record two Amps and send each Mic'd amp to each side.

Main thing here is, you will need two tracks, then pan in the DAW to taste. Not sure what Dave is going on about, but it is pretty simple, but it does require two of something.
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Which bit of "this old fekker's going on about" did you not understand DM? Perhaps I can 'splain it to you?

Dave.
 
The key is that you need two DIFFERENT tracks for stereo. Whether you double track the guitar parts, do different mics and/or amps on the same guitar, or add some effects, you need a difference between two tracks and then pan them in the DAW.

Some people mistakenly think you can take a single track and copy it to a second track and just pan them to opposite sides and get "stereo". It doesn't work that way.

BTW, I once saw Michael Batio at a Guitar Center, and he was playing his two neck guitar into two different amps. It was VERY cool to watch, and apparently quite a difficult feat.


... and yes, Dave. It was VERY tongue in cheek!
 
Thanks everyone. I recorded using a Zoom Pod on both channels, done separately and each panned hard opposite each other. And I did as @TalismanRich said. I panned them in Reaper. It sounds good, but not exactly what I expected. I thought they would sound more panned in the cans (Sony MDR 7506).
 
DM60 said:
Or you could DI one track, Amp the other, or as stated just double track, or record two Amps and send each Mic'd amp to each side.

Main thing here is, you will need two tracks, then pan in the DAW to taste. Not sure what Dave is going on about, but it is pretty simple, but it does require two of something.
Click to expand...
Well you can record a single track - then clone it - then manipulate it (slight delay - more distortion - EQ etc…) - then you have an artificial Stereo Track - but for all intents and purposes it’s a Stereo track - you can also use a stereo mic record the guitar - and play with each side of the stereo mic.

The thing is Stereo in its pure form is two distinct sounds recorded - but in it’s practical form it's just one sound recorded by two microphones.
 
Sometime you get a bigger sound if you change the phase on one of the tracks. Chances of you recording so well that it cancels is so remote. But you might try that as an experiment.
 
My old band used an old trick on our vocals (4 people singing) and lead guitar. We would routinely split all into two channels each, pan one 75 right the other 75 left and add a delay. The two of us on the left had the delay on the right and the two on the right on stage had their delays on the left. Made the four vocals seem like more people, and the guitar got extra width and a sort of chorus/phase sound. Just increased the delay until it sounded good, then it got saved with the show file.
 
Funny you should mention that Rob. I was listening to a recording, can't remember, but not a recent one, and they had used the same approach. Delay was on one channel while the dry was on another. I think this was done on Bob Segar's albums. Dry left, verb on right. I don't think it sounds a good on HPs, but sounds good on room speakers.
 
On Electric LadyLand, Jimi did the solo for Come On, Part 1 with the guitar split to two channels, and one channel flipped phase. The first time I played it at the radio station, which was AM mono, the guitar solo just disappeared.

Jimi and Eddie liked to play games!

Does anyone remember Duophonic - Mono Reprocessed for Stereo records? Apply different EQ curves to the original mono signal, and then adding a slight delay to give it a pseudo stereo effect.
 
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