Quad Tracking & Layering....urghhhhhh

[dan weapon]

regarding leads, you could always try making the main lead say 40% L and the harmony 60% R and a tad quieter in the mix... and then tweak so it sounds balanced.

I've found this can work sometimes.

 

[nwright]

Along with the other suggestions (automation, compression, HP, EQ), I'd push the harmonized leads about 25-40% out from center on each side and then also automate the 80% panned rhythms to drop a wee bit to give the leads some additional room in the chorus or whatever...Or, you could automate them to pan to full 100% on the chorus, opening up the area between hard pan and center a little bit. Automating the pan might also give a bigger sonic weight to the sides, making the stereo image open up a bit, which could have a nice dramatic impact.

 

[ruckus328]

But it's a harmonized lead, why would he leave the harmonized lead out?

Lol, you guys all beat me to that one.

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I think what might be adding to the issue is that the guitars were all done using an emg85 in the bridge - sounds great for the rhythms but I have a sneaky suspicion that might be what's making the lead too dark (or it might have nothing to do with it). If I don't have any luck with this soon I might try to re-do the leads with an 81 and see how that sounds.

I'm gonna mess around with it some more tonight. Last night I tried some aggressive compression and messed with eq, and tried some tape saturation and sonic maximizer as well. Got me a little closer to getting it to sit in there right. Definitely brightened it up but still not sitting in the mix right. And when the lead stops it sounds odd. It's like there's this huge rush of high end guitar so when the lead stops it just seems too drastic a change. Would maybe trying to do an automated dip in the 3-5kHz range on the rhythm when the lead kicks in work possibly? Also going to try a different panning arrangement and see if that helps. This is also a rather busy song. There's keyboards in this area of the song as well that I haven't even recorded yet. They're going to be right in the lead area frequency wise, so that's going to conflict with them as well...urgh....

(again he wishes there was that "banging your head against the wall" icon)

I'm having this all re-amped with a 5150/mesa cab so it was all done DI. Right now I just have it all running through amplitube with impulses but have a surprisingly good tone and it's actually pretty close to what we want, so don't think I'm too far off from what the finished product will sound like. I don't think I'm getting too far ahead of myself though. I want to make sure everything's working and playing nice sorta speak before I have it re-amped so there's no surprises when I get it back.

As much as I don't want to yet (and don't take that the wrong way, I can't wait to post the finished track) I guess I can post a few clips so you guys can hear exactly what it is I'm talking about. Let me get a somewhat presentable clip together. Will post in the next day or so.

Thanks again!

 

[Line Level Recordings]

Yeah. I love songs where the leads are hard panned (makes it easier for me to make tabs )

you tabbin son'v'a bitch!

 

[AudioPhile777]

yea same
i just wish i could remember some of the fucking names to share examples haha i suck

Check out the newest Machine Head album... leads are panned to the sides...

 

[vespiz]

(again he wishes there was that "banging your head against the wall" icon)

 

[Demonstealer]

Dont all Slayer albums have solos panned?

 

[Line Level Recordings]

YESSSSSS

+2000000000000

 

[ruckus328]

YESSSSSS

+2000000000000

DAMNIT! You beat me. That's exactly what I was gonna say.

 

[Line Level Recordings]

DAMNIT! You beat me. That's exactly what I was gonna say.

 

[Dexter_prog]

you tabbin son'v'a bitch!

It's so cool when I am tabbing a song and a harmonized riff kicks in, I pan it and I realize guitars are hard-panned. Almost gives me a boner (?) haha

 

[Line Level Recordings]

It's so cool when I am tabbing a song and a harmonized riff kicks in, I pan it and I realize guitars are hard-panned. Almost gives me a boner (?) haha