Recording guitar tracks?!

[BrettMckinney]

Hey..just thought i'd chime in and see what you guys do for recording guitar tracks. When i first started home recording, i would record my track..be it acoustic or electric and just leave it centred. I found this really hollow and crap. So then copied the track and put one to the left and one to the right..this made it sound just the same

SO..then i recorded a track, put it left, then recorded another track playing exactly the same and put it right. This sounded much better! So i've been doing this all the time now. It does make it harder though..coz you have to play exact timing as the other track..very hard! I dont know if this is what other people do..so just seeing if im wierd!

 

[Cyrokk]

Yep, that's basically what I do.

First I record a sample of the song of just bass and drums. Then I play that sample using different amp combinations to determine which one sounds the best. I then add that guitar to the original sample and repeat the process for however many guitars I wish to add (usually between two and four). Typically I don't use the same amp settings for each track, which often beefs up the overall tone. Once I get the best sound I can in the sample, then I'm ready to record for real.

I record all the guitar tracks individually. I don't copy or cut and paste (though I may punch in if there are breaks in the song).

Afterwards, when doing a rough mix, I typically pan at 3 and 9 (for two guitars) or hard left, hard right, 3 and 9 (for four guitars). I also lean a bit towards recording guitars with more midrange, and I find that I only have to cut the mids on the eq slightly after tracking, while the rest remains flat.

Cy

 

[wjgypsy]

I do the same thing. But one time i recorded a guitar stereo through my pod and it sounded good, but i mostly record 2 guitars. it's not too hard to record the same guitar part if you have a good monitor of the guitar and know it well.

 

[tdukex]

Or if you are going to clone a track and pan it opposite the original you need to put about 5ms delay on it to make it sound stereo. This technique is used a lot.

 

[BrettMckinney]

Thanks for your suggestions guys..glad to know i'm not doing something silly! Its usually songs with lots of picking that i get fustrated having to record it twice. I also do the double or triple up on voice too..sounds much better for some reason.