quad tracking/double tracking tracks?

[Nathan1984]

I am using a line6 ux2, for modeling of my guitars, and bass. I was wondering, guitar tracks, should they be quad tracked, double tracked? Also, the bass, should it be double tracked as well? I was messing with a mix earlier, and it seems like my bass is lost in the mix, maybe I need to eq differently. Maybe I need to double track my bass, what do you guys think. I wanna know all your opinions for double and quad tracking, vocals, guitars, bass? What do you guys think?

 

[kidkage]

Multiple tracks of guitar are pretty common and do add a certain depth and "reality" to the parts. Although I personally don't like going beyond double tracking the same parts. No quad tracking for me things get too middy and muddy imo for me.
I don't know about double tracking bass though. Most people that I know of, including myself (not that it means anything) prefer to split the bass signal of the original tracks somehow. Either differents mics on the same cab or different cabs, or a d.i. source and a mic on amp source, or sim models mixed with sttuf, etc.
things like that to keep the orignal one solid rhythmic track recorded in different ways to enhance presence and volume and achieve a different sound.


But nothing and no one says you cant multi tracks bass parts. I'm sure someone somewhere has done it.

 

[Nathan1984]

Yeah, I was gonna just take two guitar tracks and double track them. I play death metal/technical metal, so the bass is just there, not really audible to the consumer's ear anyway lol. I will just trial and error this till it turns out.

 

[grimtraveller]

It's good to experiment in all kinds of different ways. Whatever thing you'll try really depends on what you're trying to achieve. For example, I'm a lousy pianist, beyond lousy really, but by double, treble and quadruple {and more} tracking piano parts, and using different parts of the piano, what might otherwise have been a tinkly high or a muddy middle or bass clashing low part carries nice fruity overtones and doesn't sound bad at all. On the other hand, trying that on an electric piano or organ produces a thick soup that few can stomach. I remember Legionserial that used to frequent these pages saying that he quad tracked his guitars so I tried it on electrics {I'd done it with electro~acoustics and the effect was sometimes nice} and it was indeed pretty meaty, but hard work. I'm not sure if I could be bothered each time !
As for the bass, I've often treble tracked, but not separate performances, all together. Using a Y box, I'd have the miked amp, line out from the amp for some growl and DI straight from the bass. Then I'd blend the three into one track. Sometimes I'll just do it with two. Most of the time I loved what I got. The sky really is the limit.

 

[clivus]

Yeah, I was gonna just take two guitar tracks and double track them. I play death metal/technical metal, so the bass is just there, not really audible to the consumer's ear anyway lol. I will just trial and error this till it turns out.

I think that if you adjust the levels and the EQ of your instruments and voices accordingly, the bass will actually be audible!

 

[Stereo Steve]

My experience is the same as what I think most would say. Play one rhythm guitar track, pan hard right, play the same identical thing again, pan hard left. That's about all. I've tried doing it four times, (two hard right, two hard left... one hard right, one hard left, one 50% left and one 50% right) but it just gets sloppy and really hard to listen to.

Bass though, I do double track; two stereo tracks that is. I pan one 50% left and the other 50% right, EQ them slightly different and get a nice sound blended with the two, and only two, rhythm tracks. This also leaves room in the center for my lead guitar which I only ever do one take, never double track that. At least for me anyway I'm not good enough to play a lead/solo good enough to do the same thing twice.

I've tried a few variations of this but have not had any CONSISTANT success. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Phase issues are most often the cause for both and I have not had any luck finding out precisely what works so I can repeat it. I once recorded four bass tracks from four mic's, one sitting in front of each of four speakers in a 4 X12 cabinet and it sounded great.... ONCE!!!!!!!! And only once. Never have been able to get that to happen again.

As has been said, experiment and if you like, start from where I do as mentioned above. Good luck and be sure to post some of your recordings here.

Cheers,

 

[benage]

I am using a line6 ux2, for modeling of my guitars, and bass. I was wondering, guitar tracks, should they be quad tracked, double tracked? Also, the bass, should it be double tracked as well? I was messing with a mix earlier, and it seems like my bass is lost in the mix, maybe I need to eq differently. Maybe I need to double track my bass, what do you guys think. I wanna know all your opinions for double and quad tracking, vocals, guitars, bass? What do you guys think?

As has been touched on, you may have to EQ other instruments to make room for the bass i.e. Low cut your guitar tracks and let the bass guitar and kick drum (usually just those two) fill the bottom end, otherwise the the bass on your rhythm guitars could mask the bass guitar and if you turn that up so you can hear it, the mix is too bassy.

Also you could play around with the upper mid-range content of the bass, which could help the ear pick it out if it was too quiet there before.