Dual and Quad Tracking

[Sean in Silence]

So I've read on here that quite a few of you do a mixture of dual tracking and quad tracking in your mixes.
I'm trying this out on my band's most recent song
but find that the parts I quad track are significantly louder than the dual tracked parts.
Is this how it's supposed to sound?
Or are you guys compressing/limiting the guitar buss to even it out or what?
Thanks

 

[devouredremains]

Automation?

 

[Sean in Silence]

So the goal is to have the quad and dual tracked parts be at an equivalent volume?

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah dude, quad-tracking isn't for more volume, but rather more fullness, so just automate all 4 down when the other two come in

 

[Sean in Silence]

Sweet
I'll test that out and see how it turns out
haha
I may not even like this partial dual partial quad tracking thing
lol
We'll find out
Thanks!

 

[Morgan C]

Depends.. of course quad is going to be louder because you've got twice as many tracks.

Either automate it if you want it at constant volume, or leave it (you might want guitars softer in the verses, or when there are vocals, and loud in instrumental bits).

 

[Fox Mulder]

Sweet I may not even like this partial dual partial quad tracking thing
lol
We'll find out
Thanks!

Let me tell you, just in case. Be careful with the difference in tones. If the 80-80 or so tone is way too different than the one at 100-100 you may end up not liking the idea of this partial dual and partial quad tracking thing!

Cheers!

 

[fade_2_black]

Little off-topic, but figured I may as well put it in here rather than start a new thread. I know this has been answered before, but with double/quad tracking, do you all normally change tones between gats? I never have in the past, but Im about to do a band that has only one guitarist and Im wanting him to double track all takes - would you recommend two different tones? Im thinking if theyre the same tone it may not be as effective.

 

[sash poask]

yeh im gonna give this ago again today, i tried it aaaages ago, but i was completely clueless back then, btw sean, you recording a new e.p.?

 

[RiF]

When listening to some Unearth songs, it seems as if they use quad-tracked parts to make choruses and such thicker than the verses. I like that idea, because it gives at least some dynamics to today's overly compressed and static metal mixes.
Just running quad-tracked through the whole song only makes sense to me when I am using different amps where I can mix the resulting sound of.

And as already said, you have to automate the levels, so that the quad-tracked parts don't get louder than the double-tracked parts of your song. Or if you hate fiddling with automation (like I do most of the time), record 6 tracks (2 for the double-tracked stuff and 4 for the quad-tracked stuff), so you can get rid of automating the levels.

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Little off-topic, but figured I may as well put it in here rather than start a new thread. I know this has been answered before, but with double/quad tracking, do you all normally change tones between gats? I never have in the past, but Im about to do a band that has only one guitarist and Im wanting him to double track all takes - would you recommend two different tones? Im thinking if theyre the same tone it may not be as effective.

I'd also like this answered as well...I'm toying around with some covers and I want to dual-track each channel but I don't know whether I should change the tones for each channel's respective tracks or just leave them as it?