Double Tracking Guitars

[scorpio01169]

I'm about to produce/record a band in a few weeks, I went to listen to them and I have their demo so I can get an idea on how i wanna track them. I am tracking real drums, bass and mic'ed guitar cabs. my question is....when you guys double tracking guitars, are you having to reverse phase one track? Also, This band is kinda like Sevendust/COC.....would you even double track the guitars?

 

[Contra Studio]

You mean quad tracking? Two left two right?? Or one left and right? The only issue i get from phase on a quad tracking is if the performer is not tight so it does sound like it has some phase issues.. As for using the phase switch play around with it. Example, record one of the gtr then have him play it again then start hitting the phase button. Which ever side has more low end that's the one you want.

 

[scorpio01169]

yes I meant quad tracking, Thanks for the advice, The guitarist in this band is a great player....we were in a band back in the mid 90s....anyway. What I think I will do is go ahead and quad track him, there will be at least 7 guitar tracks going on at certain points....mixing this will be a challenge,

 

[Fandus]

In my experience the phase switch is dependent on the amps you use. For example if you quad track through one amp you shouldn't need to flip the phase at all. However if you do the first 2 through one amp and then swap the head for something else for the other 2 tracks, sometimes a phase flip is needed. I put it down to different amps putting out different polarities.

 

[scorpio01169]

Our plan is to use the same amp (Marshall JCM 800) but different guitars per side. I mean I'm gonna eventually have to try this stuff. I've been recording for around 10 years and have never quad tracked....yea crazy huh? but this band is trusting me to get them the best sound and trusting me to give them direction as far as production. Based on stuff I've heard here from the years since I joined this site quad tracking is something I wanna try with this band.

 

[RedDog]

Depends on the amp, if you're quadding with the same amp then probably not, but say you have two heads with differing internal gain stages. Amp A has 4 stages, Amp B has 3... whole mess of crap quad tracked, flip polarity and boom super grind. I personally hve had no luck with combining amps when quad tracking.