Quad track guitar EQ?

[exafro]

How do you guys go about Eq'ing on when you are quad tracking guitars? Do you have two distinct tones? One tone? I've been messing around with quad tracking recently and I can get one set of guitars sounding pretty good, but when I add the second set in, it just doesn't sound as right. I suppose I'm not setting up complimentary tones and certain frequencies are building up and sounding unpleasant. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the search function would help me, but I can never seem to locate what I need.

 

[ashgallows]

as far as two different tones go people usually use two different mics instead of eq. I would balance the two tones as far as volume and then eq the sum.

 

[MrBongo]

sometimes (or mostly) one of the tracked sounds becomes the "main sound", and the secondary tracks are just blended to taste.
try less bass and treble on the secondary sound.
try a medium-Q cut in the mids, could be anywhere from 400Hz to 2kHz.

quite often i find the secondary track to sound super crappy on its own. not just the usual "mix-ready crappy", but truly disgusting. if you mix these tracks well, it´s perfectly fine though.

my own sound comes from a 212 cab with two different speakers in it, different mics on each speaker, and a super cheap and antique stereo mic at 2ft distance. sounds horrible, but it´s like magic when blended in at -20dB.

 

[Heabow]

I used to track 4 guitar tracks with the exact same sound for my demos and it worked fine as hell. Now, in the same idea, I'd use less distortion on both pairs, cut lows on second pair and subtle different blending if using multiple mics. If I'm after really complentary tones, the main pair brings distortion and body while the second adds grit, "pick", definition (say a 5150 + VS8100 or 5150 + Dual Recto for example). That makes me remember I actually love quad-tracking but great guitar players are pretty rare in my place :/

 

[Jordon]

When I'm quad tracking, I refuse to use the same guitar for more than one performance. Same with amps and cabs if at all possible. I've found using the same rig multiple times significantly narrows the stereo image and can make unison riffing sound very weird (i've had it completely mono out when done that way due to playing that was "too tight").

Each guitar tracks gets some subtractive or "corrective" EQ. Then the Right and Left rhythm guitar busses get some color EQ, and a touch more corrective EQ if needed.

I try to have the recorded tone be 90% there before ever tracking. Each amp, cab and guitar is paired so that they compliment each other.