Double tracking guitars TOO tight?

[lekteri]

I think you're overthinking it. It sounds great, it's really tight, move on with your life.

+1
Yeah! Sounds good.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Josh Middleton is an absolute freak of nature on guitar. Dude would sound tight if he fucked the loosest slut while simultaneously tracking his guitar parts.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Harry! By nuances... do you mean I should keep small mistakes or what? I don't really understand what you're saying.

Not so much mistakes, but rather, perhaps slight alterations in picking technique each take could work. Just moving your fingers/hand enough that it still feels comfortable to play and to pick properly yet having the pick on a different angle can change how it sounds.
To me, when someone says "Tone is in the fingers" it's not so much about it being quite literally in the fingers, but more so because individual players always pick slightly differently from each other and of course as a pick hit the strings at a different angle it has the potential to affect the tone.

 

[Jevil]

I can hear the bauoowww... i think our mind porcess that tight playing as one. Even though it is impossible to play exactly the same bit by bit, being so fucking similar makes thta mind fail.

It is only 50 milliseconds mono-like effect, I see no problem on that. Nobody will notice.

 

[Ola Englund]

Haha to prevent this problem, just suck a bit on one of the takes

 

[Aaron Smith]

This has happened to me several times, but it has always been when using amp sims. Normally I'll just track it again to get rid of it. I'm not sure how to explain the occurrence, though...

 

[muckypup1]

Damn man, its nothing! You should be pleased you can play this tight! It just makes it seem cooler when its so tight that some notes are the same!

 

[KillFrenzy]

It has already heappened here twice. First time it almost switched to mono and the other time I got a "beautiful" phaser effect in a long sustained note. I had to do what "mick thompson" said - set them slightly out of time.

 

[StefTD]

One of the scorpion guitar players said that this happened to him from time to time, too.
When I recorded something with the lead player from my old band it happened on one part.
He practiced that part for like 3 months, everyday and was really really tight, and the last chord
sounded really strange, we recorded it again, and again, everytime, but it was a little
bit different everytime, and than I played the last chord, no problems

And I didn't use any amp sim, guitar-amp-cab-mic.

 

[Erkan]

Haha it's awesome to read that more people have encountered this!

I find it a really really interesting topic to be honest. Thanks for the tips on different picking etc to avoid this from happening. As I said though, I only get this on a couple spots per song so it's nothing that a little editing won't be able to solve but it's still an awesome phenomenon

 

[Morgan C]

Why don't you just delay one side by a couple ms? Shouldn't make a difference to the tightness of the track and will stop you having to edit individual notes.

 

[Erkan]

That doesn't feel like a very good idea. I don't like static changes to a whole track like that, as in delaying everything when the problem is only at a certain place. Sure, it probably wouldn't be noticable in terms of performance but why treat your whole body when the pain is only in your right index finger?

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Nah, I hear ya dude, but the thing is, even if it's perfectly on time, the chances of you hitting the string with the exact same attack in the exact same place are so unbelievably miniscule that there are always differences - just humor me, try it with a different ampsim (SoloC or something) and see if it's still doing it!

This
Last week I had rythm guitar session with a local band H&C and guitarist from this band is just tight at hell Each songs was quad tracked and now problem like your.
Even in the case your DI are perfectly align to the grid you can't optain what you say. exept of course if you play with a dremmel like Paul Gilbert

 

[joshwheelermusic]

I think you're overthinking it. It sounds great, it's really tight, move on with your life.

+2

Not only will the tightness of your wonderfully played parts cause this, but combining that with the exact same guitar sounds will also cause this "mono effect." Find two slightly different tones and do a little EQ-mixing.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Thus why I record with two radically different guitars!

 

[EETFUK]

I think there's no "too tight". I'd try to make the guitar tones a little different e.g. different guitar, different amp, EQ settings...

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Are you using a real amp? I've only had this problem with my pod.

 

[ahjteam]

I just play so sloppy that this never happens.

 

[David Lee Hasselhoff]

Steve Vai's rhythm tracks are so freakin tight that it makes you think it might be one guitar mono quite frequently. His tone definitely contributes to this, but dammit! Listen to Skyscraper. IMO that's the most over-the-top tight double tracking ever... kinda defeats the purpose.

I can proudly say I've never been guilty of playing too tight. ^^

 

[Metaltastic]

Skyscraper is definitely one take panned left, then delayed a few milliseconds and panned right