Free Stereo Enhancer?

[gorath23]

Ok guys, I've been screwing around with my Guitar tracks now for a bit and I'm pretty happy with the results, unfortunately I'm using the same track doubled up each side (4 tracks in total, I'm too sloppy to have separate takes for each side). Soloing left or right sides sounds awesome but as soon as I have them running together the stereo field is being pulled back to the centre and I'm losing that really in-your-face tone. Anyway I can get round this? - will a Stereo Enhancer/Expander help and if so could you recommend me a good one? Preferably free!

 

[Metaltastic]

I can't think of a clever analogy to illustrate what a poor idea that is, but why not just try and not be sloppy and have just one take on each side? I mean, if you know what the problem is, why try do some psycho-acoustic roundabout way to fix it?

 

[TheDude]

+1 Come on. If you're sloppy, your sound will suffer. As simple as that.

 

[gorath23]

Ahh, ok thats cool. It wasn't a case of being lazy, but I'm kinda new at recording so I have no idea what is standard practise. So If I were to record separate takes for each side, what would be considered enough difference in tone to push those tracks wider again? I was thinking that having one with presence lower than the other might do it? Presumably Post-EQ might help. I've noticed that depending on how I set the low-mids and Hi-mids I can achieve a really thick growly tone or a very tight but thinner tone. Would the combination of Presence and EQ be enough, or will it just sounds crap?

 

[Kazrog]

This has been covered many times, but I'll say it again for emphasis. You may as well center-pan your one track and boost it +1.5 db, because that's all that's happening when you double it up.

You'll never get the double-tracked sound without performing 2 separate takes. All you can do by fx processing a duplicated track is create phase problems for yourself.

And remember: garbage in, garbage out.

 

[R-Stuur]

iTunes?

 

[deLuther]

If performance is sloppy some editing can help
And practice can help too.

 

[gorath23]

This has been covered many times, but I'll say it again for emphasis. You may as well center-pan your one track and boost it +1.5 db, because that's all that's happening when you double it up.

You'll never get the double-tracked sound without performing 2 separate takes. All you can do by fx processing a duplicated track is create phase problems for yourself.

And remember: garbage in, garbage out.

OK, so for a Rhythm section that has 4 tracks in total (2 each side), which seems to be the general consensus, exactly which method is best, or at least, worth starting with. Considering I am using 1 mic currently. Duplication of tracks is a no-no, right! So am I looking at recording 4 separate tracks? Of those four, should they all have separate EQ settings/ differences etc, or will just the act of recording again have the desired effect?

As this is turning into something more complex than I imagined is there a tutorial on multi-tracking and panning/mixing rhythm guitars? I'm pretty happy with the quality and mic-placement of the recordings I'm getting but obviously the methodology behind achieving that 'big' sound is something I haven't really learnt yet. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[gorath23]

If performance is sloppy some editing can help
And practice can help too.

When I said sloppy, what I really mean is that because I'm not playing Tech/Death Metal that level of accuracy and rhythm proficiency isn't integral to the sound and thus part of my playing. I'd like to retract any inference of sloppy playing, just that the nature of my music Dark/Doom Metal is slightly looser feeling! Which I guess could help or hinder multi-tracking depending on how you see it.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

You can achieve better results with two takes (one left, one right) than with four if those for are not tight (and depending on the music you're playing or sound you're after). If you're recording 4 guitars, what you must consider is considerably lower the gain on your amp. About panning usually it's L - L80 - R80 - R but it's up to you to experiment and find what works best. You can also slightly change the Eq on one of the sides (not too much though, you don't want it to sound uneven) or use different amp settings. If you have 2 different amps you might want to use one for the L and R and one for the L80 and R80. Using different amps on each side can be done too but is a bit trickier as one of the amps will more than likely take over the other one, so that's complicating things for you and you don't need that at your point yet.

 

[Metaltastic]

I never found quad-tracking to be necessary, and it's such a hassle - I always do one take L, one take R, same amp, same settings

 

[gorath23]

I never found quad-tracking to be necessary, and it's such a hassle - I always do one take L, one take R, same amp, same settings

Using single mic, or dual?

 

[Metaltastic]

Single mic, but only cuz I only have one 57 When I get more, I'll experiment, but I've heard plenty of great tones with just one, and the phasing issue with two can apparently be a real pain

 

[Sloan]

If your just doing a quick demo or something and don't want to mess with tracking a whole load of guitar takes, you can pan your guitar to one side then buss it to a delay that's panned to the opposite side. turn the wet signal up all the way and turn off the dry signal. i find a 14ms delay is a good place to start.