How to pan harmonic guitars

[dasbuchi]

I´m wondering, how to pan quad tracked guitars in harmonic parts?
two tracks of the grounding riff left and two tracks of the harmony right? or pan them to both sides?
And no..its not a lead melody just riffing

 

[Jaymz]

Im curious as to this too, Ive got a song coming up where its a harmonised main riff, what im going to try *guessing* is....

1 guitar playing one part panned hard L/R then the second doing the second part panned 80% L/R.

This should work well....I havent tested it yet so im curious to other peoples replies

 

[flytrapx]

I guess whatever sounds best for the song. Normally, I would have one part left doubled and the harmony on the right doubled. That seems to be what you might hear with the bands nowadays.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

I guess whatever sounds best for the song. Normally, I would have one part left doubled and the harmony on the right doubled. That seems to be what you might hear with the bands nowadays.

This is what I always do. It just sounds stupid to me the other way, I think it makes it sound like one guitar playing two notes and the other guitar doubling it, not one guitar harmonizing with another. That is, if I understand the question. Then again, never say never.

 

[joeymusicguy]

i hard pan guitars, then i used a mid-side gain of about 3 db's during mastering which puts more of the far side stuff in the center, making harmonies fully for mono compatibility in case of radio play or music video.

there's a plugin available to do this on voxengo's site, its called MSED

 

[Jaymz]

One side playing one thing/the other playing the other? I would have thought that would sound very un-professional Havent noticed that on albums.

 

[GuitarHack]

One side playing one thing/the other playing the other? I would have thought that would sound very un-professional Havent noticed that on albums.

Huh? You haven't listened too closely to too many albums then. Think of it in a LIVE sense, one guitarist each side of the stage. They wouldn't be playing their own harmonies now would/could they.

Time to check out some Iron Maiden dude.

 

[lepersmeesa]

Harmonies I always thought were panned one to the left and one to right. Thinking about bands like Lamb of God, Nevermore, Sikth, Machine Head, etc etc. They have each guitarist part on each side. I would of thought it would be non-sensical to do it any other way.

 

[dasbuchi]

thanks for your advice

I´ll give it a try...

 

[Jaymz]

Huh? You haven't listened too closely to too many albums then. Think of it in a LIVE sense, one guitarist each side of the stage. They wouldn't be playing their own harmonies now would/could they.

Time to check out some Iron Maiden dude.

I cant rememer who I was I was taking notice of but the harmonies were coming out each speaker as a whole. Well I guess if I record my 4 tracks I can just pan them about and see what works.

BTW I do mean in a riff sense not a harmonised solo section.

 

[lepersmeesa]

If you have it so that two different guitar parts are on both sides you are destroying the sense of harmony and stereo spacing between the guitars. Mess around with it, but I would keep to doubling both parts and panning each pair to one side.

 

[Jaymz]

Yeah, Its basically just one chord I have, but instead of each guitar playing the full chord I want to seperate the notes. Ill give it a bash when ive got my new rig. Both playing the same riff but one being slightly higher....3rd to be exact.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

One side playing one thing/the other playing the other? I would have thought that would sound very un-professional Havent noticed that on albums.

Not at all, just listen to Arch Enemy in Headphones.

 

[Jaymz]

Not at all, just listen to Arch Enemy in Headphones.

One side is bust sadly, will try when ive got a new pair.

I best say that my quote was wrong, im gonna get every forum member telling me who to listen to lol

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

sorry man.

 

[Jaymz]

Ah no worries! Ive got some Arch Enemy on as we speak Savage Messiah!

 

[Razorjack]

I've tried lots of different panning positions for harmony parts but the best is simply left and right, that's how I'm panning all the demos for my new band and it's most likely how the album will be done too.

 

[JBroll]

That was one thing I noticed about records when I started really listening for production standards, and one thing that stuck out because there are a bloody lot of harmonies in the new Machine Head - putting them on opposite sides (not shoving them together) makes it sounds less like a cheesy 80s effect and more like coherent parts played by different people.

Jeff