Panning guitars w/ and w/o solos.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ChristopherDawn
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ChristopherDawn

ChristopherDawn

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So I'm curious how people would go with this.

Say two guitars, panned left and right. Then one decides to do a solo.

Pan them both center? Or would you pan the solo center and duplicate the other track and pan that equal to the other side so suddenly the rhythm is stereo with the solo in the middle?

I'm working on a project with a lot of this, so I was just curious what techniques you use.
 
I would keep the rhythm guitars panned through out and overdub the lead (third guitar) down the middle or double lead, but panned less than the rhythm guitars. If I only had two guitar tracks, I might use slight panning during the lead, enough to get separation. Really depends on what else is happening in the mix.
 
I don't know if it's too late for this, but I'm a BIG fan of keeping both rhythm tracks going, but altering the playing style to open up some space (palm muting, power chords, etc.). Obviously, the leads need to be dubbed in this case...

When the space opens up naturally, it almost mixes itself.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
Yeah. In my case it was pretty much two guys that jammed through their parts and played the solos with them, so I'm trying to figure out how to get them heard without guitars jumping all around the sound stage or whatever and keeping them balanced while still having them be seperate guitars.

A guy over at recordingproject suggested copying each track and panning one guitar hard left and right and the other about 30% left and right. I tried it out and it sounds decent and also adds more of a wall of sound to the mix, which I like in this instance.

if you wanna check it out. You've heard my other stuff so you will probably hear the difference.
 
Can't listen to your mix right now. It sounds like a good plan for what you're working with.
 
yeap i'd say thats about right....the only thing that would drive me crazy is recording jam bands....i cant understand why they would want a recording of them jamming since they wont play the same way the next time they do it...has anyone ever recorded that?
 
I would usually have them overdub the solo later and just play rhythm during the first take.

There is no point in copying the tracks and panning them. That is the same as mono. Try putting a stereo delay on the rhythm track or just overdub a filler rhythm during the solo. If you cant do any overdubs now try taking a similar part from somwhere else in the song and paste that in as the other rhythm guitar. That will only work if you guys used a click track.
 
Whenever I have a rythmn that suddenly busts out into a solo, I just keep the panning where it was originally. No law that says a riff has to be centered.
 
<< ....the only thing that would drive me crazy is recording jam bands....i cant understand why they would want a recording of them jamming since they wont play the same way the next time they do it...has anyone ever recorded that? >>


i suppose you could call my band a "jam band", although we really bristle at that label. we're a rock band, but one can't ignore our (obvious) influences from the dead, neil young, the allmans, etc. one of the things we like best about our music is that we DON'T play things the same way twice. it keeps the music fresh for us (god, how boring playing the same songs the same way every time?!?) and the audience digs it b/c they never know exactly what's coming.

as for recording us, it's pretty easy. we're a 5 piece--rhythm and lead guitars, bass, drums and harmonica. mixing is also pretty easy. rhythm panned right, harmonica panned left (although neither is hard-panned), lead guitar, bass and vocals are in the center. i play drums in this band and always mix drums from my perspective.

originally i panned the guitars left and right with the harp in the middle, but i've found that the harp and the rhythm guitar really play off each other timbrally, as our harp player fills more of the role of an organ player. switching the position of the harp and lead guitar REALLY opened up the middle for the bass, too, which kind of surprised me, as well as allowed the rhythm guitar to cut through better.

but as for jam bands in general......ever listened to any allman brothers? how cool is it to have one guitar on each side, playing off each other, echoing each other (call and response), etc? i love having a guitar panned to each side, both handling rhythm and lead chores. really spices it up from the regular separate "rhythm and lead" guitars. however, if the "standard" roles are the case, then i do a rhythm track on each side with the lead overdubbed in the middle.


YMWV,
wade
 
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