Double tracking

[JT]

I always play it twice, the subtle differences are what make all the awesomeness! Panned hard left/right.

If I’m feeling really adventurous I’ll quad track it and set the panning 100/80/80/100 but depending on what you’re playing, it can be a b*tch to get every take lined up perfectly and those subtle differences start becoming nasty issues. It definitely does the wall of guitars thing great, though!

This was quad tracked (there’s a chorus on an expression pedal I pop in and out, that‘s not the guitars being slightly out of tune, I actually used an Evertune for this because quad tracking + tuning…..eek)


I particular love the sound of pick slides or just sliding your hand down the strings between chords when 4 of them are going at once, or pinch harmonics when they’re lined up right.

Some people prefer tracking two different guitar tones, one on each side, but I get really OCD about it and even if it adds to the stereo imagine, I don’t dig having a different tone on each side. I’m getting around that with a dual amp preset with each amp panned hard left/right, for the double track I reverse the cabs so each amp ends up on each side. (Can’t remember how I had this preset dialed in in the clip, it’s a dual amp preset but can’t remember how I had them panned)

This sounds great! Excellent tones and fantastic playing \m/

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

When double tracking or quad etc, do you all replay the part x amount of times or do you do the old nudge left and right trick to add the thickness.

Any pro or con to either way? Or am I just talking nonsense?

Play. Always. If it's a part where playing it twice is THAT much work for me, it also tends to be a part that is better off not being double tracked.

I think I'd just apply a doubler effect plugin on a single take before I'd copy/paste/nudge.


The more guitar tracks you plan to layer the more you need to back off the gain. For the styles I play, this is an exponential curve with quad tracking getting pretty close to "huh, almost clean actually gives the most crunch".

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I always play it twice, the subtle differences are what make all the awesomeness! Panned hard left/right.

If I’m feeling really adventurous I’ll quad track it and set the panning 100/80/80/100 but depending on what you’re playing, it can be a b*tch to get every take lined up perfectly and those subtle differences start becoming nasty issues. It definitely does the wall of guitars thing great, though!

This was quad tracked (there’s a chorus on an expression pedal I pop in and out, that‘s not the guitars being slightly out of tune, I actually used an Evertune for this because quad tracking + tuning…..eek)


I particular love the sound of pick slides or just sliding your hand down the strings between chords when 4 of them are going at once, or pinch harmonics when they’re lined up right.

Some people prefer tracking two different guitar tones, one on each side, but I get really OCD about it and even if it adds to the stereo imagine, I don’t dig having a different tone on each side. I’m getting around that with a dual amp preset with each amp panned hard left/right, for the double track I reverse the cabs so each amp ends up on each side. (Can’t remember how I had this preset dialed in in the clip, it’s a dual amp preset but can’t remember how I had them panned)

Yeah, this sounds killer, dude. Great job!

 

[Mongillo19]

I always play it twice, the subtle differences are what make all the awesomeness! Panned hard left/right.

If I’m feeling really adventurous I’ll quad track it and set the panning 100/80/80/100 but depending on what you’re playing, it can be a b*tch to get every take lined up perfectly and those subtle differences start becoming nasty issues. It definitely does the wall of guitars thing great, though!

This was quad tracked (there’s a chorus on an expression pedal I pop in and out, that‘s not the guitars being slightly out of tune, I actually used an Evertune for this because quad tracking + tuning…..eek)


I particular love the sound of pick slides or just sliding your hand down the strings between chords when 4 of them are going at once, or pinch harmonics when they’re lined up right.

Some people prefer tracking two different guitar tones, one on each side, but I get really OCD about it and even if it adds to the stereo imagine, I don’t dig having a different tone on each side. I’m getting around that with a dual amp preset with each amp panned hard left/right, for the double track I reverse the cabs so each amp ends up on each side. (Can’t remember how I had this preset dialed in in the clip, it’s a dual amp preset but can’t remember how I had them panned)

So when is DrewJD's Gift of Tone day for fractal?

 

[Fireproof]

So when is DrewJD's Gift of Tone day for fractal?

His gift is this forum! Heh.

 

[DrewJD82]

So when is DrewJD's Gift of Tone day for fractal?

I’ll post that preset when I get into my studio in a bit, I’m pretty sure it’s using York IR’s, but I’ll see if I can find something stock that’ll work. It’d probably work well with Leon’s IR’s, too.

 

[Fireproof]

I always play it twice, the subtle differences are what make all the awesomeness! Panned hard left/right.

If I’m feeling really adventurous I’ll quad track it and set the panning 100/80/80/100 but depending on what you’re playing, it can be a b*tch to get every take lined up perfectly and those subtle differences start becoming nasty issues. It definitely does the wall of guitars thing great, though!

This was quad tracked (there’s a chorus on an expression pedal I pop in and out, that‘s not the guitars being slightly out of tune, I actually used an Evertune for this because quad tracking + tuning…..eek)


I particular love the sound of pick slides or just sliding your hand down the strings between chords when 4 of them are going at once, or pinch harmonics when they’re lined up right.

Some people prefer tracking two different guitar tones, one on each side, but I get really OCD about it and even if it adds to the stereo imagine, I don’t dig having a different tone on each side. I’m getting around that with a dual amp preset with each amp panned hard left/right, for the double track I reverse the cabs so each amp ends up on each side. (Can’t remember how I had this preset dialed in in the clip, it’s a dual amp preset but can’t remember how I had them panned)

That was awesome Drew!

 

[Mongillo19]

I’ll post that preset when I get into my studio in a bit, I’m pretty sure it’s using York IR’s, but I’ll see if I can find something stock that’ll work. It’d probably work well with Leon’s IR’s, too.

That would be great! I have a few YA packs so feel free to say which one you used if/when you upload.

 

[DrewJD82]

That would be great! I have a few YA packs so feel free to say which one you used if/when you upload.

Axe-Change - Download Preset - Chugga Chugga! - by revdrucifer

Axechange - Fractal Audio Systems. The official source for presets and cabs for your Axe-Fx. Download presets and cabs, or upload your own creations.

axechange.fractalaudio.com

Hahahah this preset did not sound like it used to when I loaded it up. Totally forgot about the FW updates. I tweaked it a bit to get it back to where it was and added a couple extra scenes. The amps are blended in mono instead of panning them, think of the 5150 as your mid knob, you can raise or lower the amp volume to bring in/remove mids from the overall tone.

The 2nd wet patch, if I had any 'secret' thing I do in all my leads it's this dual delay thing, there's a ping pong doing 1/4 notes with a reverse delay set to 1/2 notes at the very end of the chain, you can play with the Input Gain to adjust to taste, but the idea is that when you're sustaining some notes, you'll hear the regular repeats, but a second later you'll hear some light reverse 'dancing' going on in the background. Just some ear candy. The flanger scene I had in there because I was going to do an overdub with it in that clip I posted, but I never got around to it.

There's 2 user cabs, a Framus cab on the 5150 that I have no clue where I got, but when I mute it, it doesn't really change the tone in a noticeable way because of how I have the 5150 set volume-wise. The JP has York's DV77 N-22 CNT on it and that's it. If you don't have that DV77 pack and dig heavy tones, get it! It's easily my favorite IR pack for heavy tones, regardless of the amp.

Dialed it in with my Solar, a med output pickup. That EQ curve is pretty much where I dial in all my metal tones for recording, there's not a ton of bass, but it works perfect in a mix! Oh, there's also a wah (slightly tweaked Petrucci wah) assigned to FC Pedal 2 auto on/off, you'll probably need to change that unless you happen to use that for your wah expression as well.

(This should work for the FM9, but I haven't tried converting III presets to the FM9 since I first got it, not sure how well it works. I can make an FM9 version if needed!)

 

[Mongillo19]

Axe-Change - Download Preset - Chugga Chugga! - by revdrucifer

Axechange - Fractal Audio Systems. The official source for presets and cabs for your Axe-Fx. Download presets and cabs, or upload your own creations.

axechange.fractalaudio.com

Hahahah this preset did not sound like it used to when I loaded it up. Totally forgot about the FW updates. I tweaked it a bit to get it back to where it was and added a couple extra scenes. The amps are blended in mono instead of panning them, think of the 5150 as your mid knob, you can raise or lower the amp volume to bring in/remove mids from the overall tone.

The 2nd wet patch, if I had any 'secret' thing I do in all my leads it's this dual delay thing, there's a ping pong doing 1/4 notes with a reverse delay set to 1/2 notes at the very end of the chain, you can play with the Input Gain to adjust to taste, but the idea is that when you're sustaining some notes, you'll hear the regular repeats, but a second later you'll hear some light reverse 'dancing' going on in the background. Just some ear candy. The flanger scene I had in there because I was going to do an overdub with it in that clip I posted, but I never got around to it.

There's 2 user cabs, a Framus cab on the 5150 that I have no clue where I got, but when I mute it, it doesn't really change the tone in a noticeable way because of how I have the 5150 set volume-wise. The JP has York's DV77 N-22 CNT on it and that's it. If you don't have that DV77 pack and dig heavy tones, get it! It's easily my favorite IR pack for heavy tones, regardless of the amp.

Dialed it in with my Solar, a med output pickup. That EQ curve is pretty much where I dial in all my metal tones for recording, there's not a ton of bass, but it works perfect in a mix!

(This should work for the FM9, but I haven't tried converting III presets to the FM9 since I first got it, not sure how well it works. I can make an FM9 version if needed!)

Fantastic! Thank you for uploading!

 

[Lopp]

That's a great mix with great drum tone and some tight playing! Unless I really focus on keeping things tight, my multi-tracked guitars sound more like a crowd of different guitarists, like the backing vocals on a Mutt Lange-produced Def Leppard album.

Axe-Change - Download Preset - Chugga Chugga! - by revdrucifer

Axechange - Fractal Audio Systems. The official source for presets and cabs for your Axe-Fx. Download presets and cabs, or upload your own creations.

axechange.fractalaudio.com

Thanks for the patch. I gotta remember to try it on my FM9 when I get home.

That patch has effectively the same name of a riff I recorded about a year ago (yeah, yeah... really original riff name). It was also double tracked. I think guitars were amped with an ANGLE Severe (ENGL Savage) model panned to one side and a separately played Recto model panned to the other, both on my old AX8. It's just the same chugging over and over with some variations in the drumming, so don't bother listening too long, but I liked the guitar tones and it has some of my favorite bass and drum tones (for all I know everyone else will think they suck).

 

[TSJMajesty]

 

[andergtr]

When double tracking or quad etc, do you all replay the part x amount of times or do you do the old nudge left and right trick to add the thickness.

Any pro or con to either way? Or am I just talking nonsense?

i always play it again.

 

[Mongillo19]

Thanks everyone! This has been super helpful

 

[TSJMajesty]

Here's a really cool way of tracking clean, arpeggiated guitars:

 

[Lopp]

Here's a really cool way of tracking clean, arpeggiated guitars:

That's inspirational because I'm starting to focus a little more on clean tone picking techniques... But dammit! That also gives me an urge to split my limited time between picking technique and that recording technique.

 

[DrewJD82]

That's inspirational because I'm starting to focus a little more on clean tone picking techniques... But dammit! That also gives me an urge to split my limited time between picking technique and that recording technique.

Hahahah well if you come up with something fairly basic to record, you’ll have to work on your clean tone picking technique; double tracking clean guitars/acoustic can be a pain in the ass because to get it right you have to play it perfectly, the transients on each are so sharp that the smallest differences stand out like “LISTEN TO ME!!! I’M NOT PERFECTLY PLAYED!!! HA!!!”

But it does sound great when it’s done. I’ve been stealing that from Petrucci for as long as I’ve been recording and it’s one of the main reasons I want a piezo-equipped guitar.

 

[TSJMajesty]

it’s one of the main reasons I want a piezo-equipped guitar.

Back when I was in an acoustic trio, our bass player showed up to rehearsal one day with a fretless. Of course, I was like, "We HAVE to do Hey You." I had bought a nice Taylor by this time, but still had my Takamine, so I re-strung it in Nashville tuning and we did the song. It sounded SO good, and was one our our most fun songs to play, and also went over really well. I came up with a solo using part of the recorded solo melody along with open strings, and it worked really well. Plus we had great vocals (all of us sang), so we covered those really well also.

 

[DrewJD82]

Back when I was in an acoustic trio, our bass player showed up to rehearsal one day with a fretless. Of course, I was like, "We HAVE to do Hey You." I had bought a nice Taylor by this time, but still had my Takamine, so I re-strung it in Nashville tuning and we did the song. It sounded SO good, and was one our our most fun songs to play, and also went over really well. I came up with a solo using part of the recorded solo melody along with open strings, and it worked really well. Plus we had great vocals (all of us sang), so we covered those really well also.

Man, I need an acoustic to put in Nashville tuning, maybe I’ll do that with the cheap 12-string I have. I just found a video on my phone yesterday of something I wrote with my buddy’s Nasvhille tuned-acoustic and I about sh*t my pants because it’s almost exactly an acoustic section of a song off the last Mastodon CD, which wasn’t even released when I filmed that clip.

Hahahaha and I’d probably say the exact thing if I had a bass player who bought a fretless!!!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Hahahaha and I’d probably say the exact thing if I had a bass player who bought a fretless!!!

Well knowing you, it was the first thing I thought of!
My first thought in stringing a 12-string with only 6 strings would be the lack of tension. Might work though.

Having a guitar in Nashville was nice, especially for that song, but the novelty wore off pretty fast, since it didn't really inspire me, so I switched it back shortly after. I can't remember if I had to mess with the setup, but damn did it sound great!