Quad-tracking Issue

[eʍʍy]

I can't seem to get quad-tracking to sound good no matter how tight I play and how well the tone might work for it all.

My issue is that I always get a chorusy sound.
I don't know how to keep my guitars in the exact same tuning 100% percent throughout. There isn't any noticeable difference, but it must go out a few cents or so every single time.

Should I just tune my guitar, record like a single measure or two and repeat that four times?

I don't know what else to do.

 

[P-E]

Tune at every take and play really tight, that's about it. You might have to edit stuff a bit too.

 

[derekmoffat]

Tune tune tune.

Or just dual track and stop pulling your hair out

 

[olif8]

Or just dual track and stop pulling your hair out

This.

 

[bryan_kilco]

This.

This.

I've only tried to quad track a few times just for shits and giggles. It takes much longer and you really have to be hitting every note the same every take for it to NOT sound ...effed up.

 

[drew_drummer]

Are you hard panning them, and lowering the volume of the 2nd dual-track? IE:

1: 100% Left 0db
2: 100% Right 0db
3: 80% Left -3db
4: 80% Right -db

???

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Are you hard panning them, and lowering the volume of the 2nd dual-track? IE:

1: 100% Left 0db
2: 100% Right 0db
3: 80% Left -3db
4: 80% Right -db

???

This

They must not all be hard panned and the second layer should be reduced in gain.

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Are you hard panning them, and lowering the volume of the 2nd dual-track? IE:

1: 100% Left 0db
2: 100% Right 0db
3: 80% Left -3db
4: 80% Right -db

???

This

They must not all be hard panned and the second layer should be reduced in volume.

 

[OneDaySky]

You might have to edit stuff a bit too.

Hell yeah, get every note to start precisely on the same beat.

 

[Jevil]

Quadtracking is overrated, best albums in Metal were doubletracked.

 

[Skinny Viking]

if you edit too tight the overall guitar sound will be smaller

if you play naturally very very tight against the 1st guitar track and the pan out like mentioned with the volume dropped a little on your 3rd & 4th tracks panned further in, you should be fine. And yes, tune after each take. Pick a section to track at a time ... a verse section all the way through for instance, and then tune / rinse / repeat

this is if you insist on quad-tracking. You may be overdoing it

 

[drew_drummer]

Yeah - so many guitarists think quad-tracking is going to get them the phattest sound. Bullshit.

Loud volume and slightly lower gain on amp, with some very in-phase positioning of two microphones, and a little saturation on the preamp (if it's a good one!!) gets you the phattnesses.

 

[OneDaySky]

When i quad track, the first Layer is recorded and edited robot tight ;p the i pan it hard right, and track a 2nd layer (panned left whilst tracking) over the first layer which is more cut and nudge in place.

 

[egan.]

Quadtracking is overrated, best albums in Metal were doubletracked.

Opinions supported by other nonspecific hyperbolic opinions are incredibly helpful.

 

[Damage, Inc.]

Quad tracking four of the same tone is kind of pointless. My whole reason for quad tracking is to get a tone that can't be had from a single amp. I usually have one tone that is scooped a bit, and double it. Then I have another tone with more mids and less gain, double that too. That way I have plenty of attack, but lots of sustain also.

Before I EQ very much, I try to get a balance between them so that the overall tone is close to what I'm looking for. Then I put them all into a bus and EQ the bus to taste. I don't have too much trouble getting tightness with four tracks, but I've spent lots of time getting my rhythm playing as tight as possible.

 

[eʍʍy]

Thanks for the posts everyone. Much appreciated. To clear some stuff up, I was usually doing two of them hard-panned at 0db, and two more at 70 left and right with about -3db.

I can seem to get a pretty fair sound out of some heavier parts. (typical metal riffs and breakdowns)
But when it's just strummy 5ths and whatnot then it seems to get that icky chorus sound.

I was thinking that maybe I should just raise the double-tracked volume parts (possibly copy and paste each track to the quad-tracked ones so I wouldn't have to worry about automating volume) and then leave certain parts quad-tracked.
So on the heavier metal riffs and whatnot, it'd be quad-tracked while everything else would be double-tracked.
Is that a decent idea?

 

[Leon--]

the trick is simple
tune tune tune tune tune tune tune tune and tune again haha.
always check all the guitars combined one with each other(A-B.A-C-A-D etc) because you might have 3 guitars in tune and 1 problematic