Stereo guitar??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jamesie
  • Start date Start date
J

Jamesie

New member
Hi all!

I was wondering how guitars are recorded in stereo.Songs that I've heard this technique being used are a lot of Queen's songs, where the same guitar piece is being played in left and right, but they sound like two separate guitars. Does this work by using the same recording of the guitar piece, and copying it to two channels (left and right), and then maybe delaying one of the channels ever so slightly compared to the other one? or do the left and right channels have different EQ's? any ideas??

Is it also right, to record an acoustic guitar in stereo then two mics are positioned at a certain place around the guitar?

Thanks to anyone who replies! :cool:

Jamesie
 
Just record the same guitar track twice and pan it. There's nothing really special about it. I'm sure there are some stereo micing techniques, but I don't they'd make much of a difference.

Stereo mic'ing an acoustic guitar is done often. There are many techniques.. look it up.
 
you can get some really nice sounds using stereo micing on acoustic guitars... double tracking the guitars will help thicken up the sound (i think)... i dont think ive understood your question... very tired. :confused:
 
no you cant past it into the other channel. in order to get a stereo image they have to be different.
 
The sound your hearing is likely two different amps mic'd for the same take and then panned. This way the character of amp1 will shine durring a certain part of the track then amp2 will shine at a different time challenging your ear back and forth. Which would be a constant reminder that your hearing a cool stereo gtr track. Try it out, I'm not saying Brian May was doing this but I wouldn't put it past him.
 
I'd say geet got it right.

Playing simultaneously through two different amps will give you different sounds on the left and right, but it won't sound very full. For kicks try that first and listen to the result. Then do what geet suggested and record two separate takes. Better still, on the second take use a second amp, or use different settings on the same amp, or a use different model if you're into amp modeling, etc. Then pan each of those two takes left and right and listen to the result.

If you compare both versions, I'm sure you'll find the version with the two different takes to be much fuller and thicker. This is because no matter how perfectly you play it both times, there will be subtle variations in the two and it's those variations that will give you the stereo effect I think you're looking for.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your idea. It's been used many times. One trick you can use to go a step beyond it is to slide one of the two different tracks a few milliseconds (10-15?) to the right. That way you're not hearing exactly the same thing being played at exactly the same time, kind of a lazy way of doing multiple takes. I've used that myself many times when I was having trouble getting two good takes of a guitar track (happens often since I suck. :D ). But I still think multiple takes will get you closer to where you want to be.

But most importantly, have fun experimenting!
 
Yupper. Record different takes for each stereo side. If you want it really full, record multiple takes for each side.
 
Or use a stereo guitar (e.g., Gibson 345) with two amps...
 
Thanks everyone for your replies!

AGCurry said:
Or use a stereo guitar (e.g., Gibson 345) with two amps...
Click to expand...

If you do this, then does it have the same effect as a stereo keyboard-the lower frequency notes are heard in one side of the stereo field, and the higher frequency notes in the other side?

Jamesie
 
Jamesie said:
Thanks everyone for your replies!



If you do this, then does it have the same effect as a stereo keyboard-the lower frequency notes are heard in one side of the stereo field, and the higher frequency notes in the other side?

Jamesie
Click to expand...

On the 345, I'm pretty sure that the bridge pickup output is on one line and the neck pickup is on the other.
 
I just tried out the multiple takes idea and got a nice FAT guitar sound. 2 electric clean sounds to each side and 1 acoustic (playin the same thing) to each side. Total of 6 tracks but the left guitar and the right guitar play different rhythms. I panned the electrics to about 2 and 4 oclock and the acoustics panned hard. Also, with each one, I cut eq frequencys in different places. Like if I rolled off some low end on 1 track, I'd roll off some hi end on the other.
Course, this song doesn't have vox yet so the pans will probably change......??? dunno.
Just some food for thought..................... ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top