Recording solos in metal

[Nightcrawler]

Hey everyone, i'm new to this forum and basically a newbie in recording and mixing, although i have been playing around with that for a half a year now.

I read a topic here in about recording metal tracks, but i'd like to ask a bit different question or at a different angle.

So, from what i heard and read i have learned that the most dense and "thick" sound comes from a lot of tracks per side with gain lower than for a live show (here comes all the stuff about reamping or playing all those tracks live etc). This is all cool as far as the rhythm parts are concerned. However, what are the best practices regarding solo guitars? I mean, i'm not a guitar player myself, i played bass for 4 years and now switched to vocals, but i can see that most guitarists have little problems playing the same riff over and over and staying in time with themselves, but solo is kind of different. And when i tried to reduce the gain on the amp to the levels when the riffs start sounding better - the solo became DEAD.

So my question is - how different is the approach to recording solo as opposed to riff?

Thanks in advance and pardon my english, i'm not the native speaker...

 

[legionserial]

I tend to use a lot more gain for solos. For me that's usually a case by case thing depending on what sort of solo it is and how I feel about the sound at the time. I still wouldn't want to use so much gain that it starts to sound mushy but that's probably a given.

I definitely don't layer them. As far as solos go my playing style is too sloppy to be able to layer without making a huge mess, and I don't think it's neccessary anyway. Although, I might harmonise a few phrases in a solo now and then. Sometimes to make things it sound a little 'bigger' I might pan it ever so slightly to one side and send it through a reverb panned slightly to the other. Sometimes, might use a touch of flanger (usually afterwards in mixing rather than through the amp during recording). Again, it's a case by case thing.

Oh, and your english is very good.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I tend to use a lot more gain for solos.

I definitely don't layer them.

thanks a lot legionserial! that definitely addresses my question and i will be looking into other options to improve the way my records and mixes sound