Is it best to stick to one amp setting when tracking?

[dandan]

hi there fellas

If I wanted to just use my Splawn QuickRod for 4 rhythm tracks - Sticking to Gibson Les Paul with a Suhr Aldrich pup. Boosting at least 2 tracks with my maxon 820.

Would it be a bad idea to make 1-2 of those tracks a different setting or is it best to stick to mainly one amp setting in a recording?

I was thinking about making one track a bit more mid-heavy than the other track - which would be bit more mid-scooped.

Would this widen the tonal range a bit more kind of like what you get from using a 2nd amp or is it best to stick to 1 really good amp setting?

hope to hear back! thanks

 

[Metaltastic]

Tough call there tbh - I'm a pretty firm believer in most amps having just one really good sound (at least for my style, obviously for different guitarists/genres it's another story, but I never record anyone other than me ), but experimenting with sounds that wouldn't be too great on their own but compliment each other might be cool. However, what I'm planning on doing (or at least trying out) for my upcoming EP is recording one guitar track with one speaker in my Mesa cab, and then recording the other guitar part with another speaker, while keeping the amp settings the same! They're both V30s (or rather, all 4 are V30s), but they still sound slightly different!

 

[iamdunker]

this is exactly why i use reamping, i can do as much amp tweaking as needed to get that perfect sound and not have to do a million guitar takes,

 

[dandan]

hmm.. i've got 2 splawn 4x12's with green backs - maybe ill bring them both and do what youre talking about for getting a slightly different sound

 

[Metaltastic]

hmm.. i've got 2 splawn 4x12's with green backs - maybe ill bring them both and do what youre talking about for getting a slightly different sound

Yeah dude, though really, you wouldn't need to - just using two different speakers in one cab would have the same effect, unless you really wanted to record all 8 with the mic in the same spot and pick the best two!

 

[James-Doolan]

Record 2 tracks on a high gain setting and 2 on a lower gain setting for greater note clarity but still giving the crushing tone of quad tracked

You can of course mess with differnt eq settings for different takes but in that case id just use differnt amps i.e mesa dual rec blended with peavey 6505

 

[Metaltastic]

Record 2 tracks on a high gain setting and 2 on a lower gain setting for greater note clarity but still giving the crushing tone of quad tracked

Hmm, interesting idea James! Though I don't quad-track, so it's not too useful to me

 

[slashvanyoung]

I really usually have like 3 different amp sounds going for each take as far as amount of gain but also tonality/EQ goes. Might be always the same amp/sim, but usually a mix of at least two (or different channels on - let's say - recto). Blended to taste...

 

[dandan]

Record 2 tracks on a high gain setting and 2 on a lower gain setting for greater note clarity but still giving the crushing tone of quad tracked

You can of course mess with differnt eq settings for different takes but in that case id just use differnt amps i.e mesa dual rec blended with peavey 6505

ahh hah! thats exactly what I was doing right now while I was just doing some practice settings in my room.

I plan on doing 2 tracks boosted with my Maxon 820 on my 2nd Gear of the amp (its a bit looser and thicker) *with a bit of a mid scoop in settings

and 2 tracks on 1st Gear with less gain and bit more mids for more clarity for for the full chords - more than likely non boosted and not using the 2nd overdrive option the amp has

I feel like the Maxon 820 on the 2nd gear gives the amp enough of a different sound so that I don't need to use another amp. Its a lot more saturated (amp is quite a stiff one if not used to it but great for clarity)

I figure I might just fuck things up if i use another amp im not as familiar with cause im quite familiar with my quickrod for this time around.

The type of rock I play is Three Days Grace / Chevelle / Breaking Benjamin / Linkin Park 'esq

*gets on flame suit* lol j/k

so it's not hard to track the music itself at all because its mostly big chord progressoins, but i do want a quality tone

thanks fellas you've been very helpful - If anyone has any more to add i'm all ears!

 

[Metaltastic]

Splawn calls their channels "gears"? Oy...

 

[crosstalk]

Splawn calls their channels "gears"? Oy...

So one can shift into overdrive I assume...

 

[Metaltastic]

Ooh, well played! *tips hat*

 

[TravisW]

The "Gears" aren't really channels per se. It's basically a notched control that allows you to select different levels on the crunch channels. I'm not totally sure how it works, but an example would be that 1st Gear is more Vintage Marshall, 2nd Gear is more 2203, and 3rd Gear is more modded 2203.

 

[JBroll]

I'm concerned about two things with identical guitar tones, but it probably doesn't mean much as I'm probably just overthinking one stupid part of the whole mix.

First, I'm concerned about the guitars sounding too similar because of the whole image collapsing business... but I usually change gain instead of EQ for that because I hate fiddling with EQ knobs.

Second, rarely is the rest of the mix identical in the left and right channels - just out of silliness I'd be tempted to have the track on the same side as the floor tom a bit thinner in lower mids, and reduce the other track as necessary to play with the other toms.

That's about all I can think of that hasn't been covered over and over elsewhere, and I don't even think it should be too much of a concern for anyone who doesn't just sit up all night thinking of how everything could go completely wrong.

Jeff

 

[GarethSE]

Quite often when mixing quad tracked guitars I'll use say
2 tracks of Revalver mkIII's 6505 sim on the first 2 guitar tracks, really gainy and beefy
The other two tracks Wagner, going for a more crunchy, more vintage-y sound with a fuck ton of string attack and twang in there

Revalver tracks panned hard left and right
the other two tracks turned down by like -10db each (cos wagner is one loud motherfucker,) and panned out 75 each way.

Tend to use the same cab sim on all guitar tracks though, and keep the settings identical on all guitar tracks using the same amp sim.