ATTN: Guitarists/guys that record lots of bands

[colonel kurtz]

last project i did, there were 2 guitarists who played the same thing probably 80% of the time, and here's what i did...

i had the "better" guitarist track his parts 1st, everything double-tracked

then i double-tracked the not-as-good guy's parts. for the spots where they both play the same shit, i used the 2nd track from the 1st guy...for the little harmonies and other shit that differed, i spliced in the best take from the other guy. this way i got the tightest tracks possible, both guitarists are on the recording, but they don't know that one of them is on there way more than the other.

ignorance really can be bliss sometimes!

 

[abigor731]

Really? I'de have to question what type of "metal" you're listening to.

death metal:Smokedev:

 

[zackpennington]

In the metal band I recently finished, I just told the tighter guitar player to play all the rhythms and the other guy to play his leads. The good thing was the other guitar player was the "singer" so he had plenty of me time in the choruses and shit.

Also, their bass player sucked ass so after he left, the good guitar player and I laid down the bass tracks. One thing I did have to keep an eye on was him doing guitar only stuff like speed picking. I had to remind him it was a bass because he was making a lot of string noise and not thumping with the kick.

 

[colonel kurtz]

it always kills me when someone's so bad that they can't tell their own performacne on a recording from someone else's!

 

[Aaron Smith]

it always kills me when someone's so bad that they can't tell their own performacne on a recording from someone else's!

Definitely!

I'm in the "one guy playing at a time" camp too (for anything doubled), no question. And sometimes even the "one guy playing the whole album" camp too.

 

[Niol]

Professionalism leaves no room for "i want to hear myself in the album" teenage/childish syndroms .Whatever gets the best result (depending on music genre/direction) is what sould be done .If you want to succeed in the music industry of course...

 

[bryan_kilco]

Thanks for the responses guys! I'll try to talk to the guys about it. We are going to be recording ourselves again probably within a few months. On our 3 song demo we did ourselves, I tracked most of the guitars....other guy did 1 track on 1 song, and you can instantly hear the difference in pick attack/pickups/tightness. In the end, it came out ok...but could have been cleaner.

 

[MetalSound]

Professionalism leaves no room for "i want to hear myself in the album" teenage/childish syndroms .Whatever gets the best result (depending on music genre/direction) is what sould be done .If you want to succeed in the music industry of course...

i´m afraid there are also professionals that have this behaviour. it´s all about egos. as a producer it is often required to help the small egos in the band and to keep the big ones down.

i guess with maiden for example, bruce dickinson must have had a very hard time "convincing" steve harris to not record/produce their albums anymore.

 

[El_Gato]

a producer it is often required to help the small egos in the band and to keep the big ones down.

words to live by

 

[Harley Barley]

what about, say the band has 2 guitars, and bass player and one of the guitar players writes most of the song(and is the obviously better player) should he record both guitars and the bass?

or leave the bass to the bass player?

or hey what if the guitar player is a better drummer than the drummer they have should he play the drums to:S?

... this is geting out of hand

 

[Force666]

what about, say the band has 2 guitars, and bass player and one of the guitar players writes most of the song(and is the obviously better player) should he record both guitars and the bass?

or leave the bass to the bass player?

or hey what if the guitar player is a better drummer than the drummer they have should he play the drums to:S?

... this is geting out of hand

Basically, yes. The only thing that would stand in the way of recording the best (read: tightest) album, is people's ego.

Does Alex Skolnick suck because he doesn't record rythyms?

Why is the second guitarist in Behemoth not even considered part of the band?

If you want the BEST album, you would choose the BEST players in any situation. I mean fuck, if your drummer can't tune drums, but your guitarist is super good at it, who are you going to have tune the drums? A band is like a team, and to not do what's best for the team is only to serve one's own ego.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Well, I'm not saying I'm the better player; I don't like to think that way.

But I feel that I am tighter when it comes to rhythms. How would I go about asking or telling them "I'm gonna track all guitars and bass?"

Or should we record me playing all tracks to a song and record the other guy playing all tracks, and see which performance the band likes better? The guys arent stupid, but I'm sure it will cause some sort of an issue or stink. I don't think they fully understand how much goes into recording and how a really tight performance is necessary.

 

[jval]

Only one guy doing all the main rhythms. Beyond that, they can switch up if they want... but it always sounds tighter if the same guy does everything that's doubled.

 

[drew_drummer]

What happens if one guitarist is obviously better at everything than the other guitarist... do you guys just go with one guitarist for everything? Seems a bit overkill to me. The vibe between two guitarists is important, even if the playing isn't as tight as it would be with one guitarist.

I'll say it again - get the whole band tight BEFORE you go in to record.

 

[cent73]

Does Alex Skolnick suck because he doesn't record rythyms?

The same about Jeff Hannemann. Kerry King prefers recording himself all the rhythms because, as he said, the work is faster and it comes out tighter in the end.

 

[Dexter_prog]

The same about Jeff Hannemann. Kerry King prefers recording himself all the rhythms because, as he said, the work is faster and it comes out tighter in the end.

Well, I bet there's no fight about who records the solos in Slayer, because they both suck at soloing.

 

[P-E]

 

[Fox Mulder]

This can be helpful if you're dual tracking:

1. Tell them you're quad-tracking.
2. Take 2 takes from each guitarists, therefore 4 takes in total.
3. Choose the tighter 2.
4. Charge by time.

 

[DanLights]

This can be helpful if you're dual tracking:

1. Tell them you're quad-tracking.
2. Take 2 takes from each guitarists, therefore 4 takes in total.
3. Choose the tighter 2.
4. Charge by time.

I'm gonna do exactly this, except no charging cause it's my own band, best way to not hurt any feelings. who knows, if both guitarrists prove tight enough between them, I might even use the 4 tracks

 

[bryan_kilco]

I'm gonna do exactly this, except no charging cause it's my own band, best way to not hurt any feelings. who knows, if both guitarrists prove tight enough between them, I might even use the 4 tracks

I will also probably do the same. I discussed this topic a bit last night with the singer and drummer. They didnt really seem to care much. I guess I can see, like, if the other guitarist came in and was like "hey, im tracking all the parts", Id feel a little shitty....but if it was like "hey, we think YOU should track all the parts"...haha...I dunno. Just seems like a shitty thing to go about.