Reamping?

[Rusty123]

Hi everyone,

I have couple of questions about reamping guitars and bass.

1) If there are two guitarists in band, how many tracks do I record to reamp for rhythm tracks and how many for lead tracks?

2) How many tracks do I track for the bass?

Are there any tips for getting a good thick crunchy sound, how much gain should I use on the guitar tracks when reamping, should I lower the preamp gain for example?

Cheers

 

[Unavailable]

1) Do one for every track you plan to reamp

2) One track is common for bass.

As for tips, there is a guide in the sticky section of this forum. (The production tips area)

 

[Rusty123]

I hear some guys do quad tracking. Does this mean 4 tracks of everything, I mean if there are two guitarists in band and they both have rhythm parts that harmonize in sections of the riffs; does that mean 4 tracks of each guitar part?

 

[sparkyness]

If you're quad tracking rhythm guitars it is a total of 4 different tracks. Usually 2 tracks are panned left + 2 tracks panned right or thereabouts.

 

[Torniojaws]

And there's also two ways you can mix them:

100% left = Guitarist 1, guitar track 1
80% left = Guitarist 2, guitar track 1

100% right = Guitarist 2, guitar track 2
80% right = Guitarist 1, guitar track 2

That way the overall sound is balanced, but it's easier to lose the sense of which guitarist does what - if that's what they want to be heard ("I do this, and s/he does that").

Or this way:

100% and 80% left = Guitarist 1, two tracks
100% and 80% right = Guitarist 2, two tracks

You hear exactly what each guitarist plays, but the mix balance can go heavily off. Especially if the other guitarist uses a completely different sound than the other (ie. one has trebly and sharp tone, the other more lowmid/bassier tone).

Edit:
Oh and of course the pan percentages can be set to whatever you like, doesn't have to be 100% and 80%.

 

[JeffTD]

And there's also two ways you can mix them:

100% left = Guitarist 1, guitar track 1
80% left = Guitarist 2, guitar track 1

100% right = Guitarist 2, guitar track 2
80% right = Guitarist 1, guitar track 2

That way the overall sound is balanced, but it's easier to lose the sense of which guitarist does what - if that's what they want to be heard ("I do this, and s/he does that").

Or this way:

100% and 80% left = Guitarist 1, two tracks
100% and 80% right = Guitarist 2, two tracks

You hear exactly what each guitarist plays, but the mix balance can go heavily off. Especially if the other guitarist uses a completely different sound than the other (ie. one has trebly and sharp tone, the other more lowmid/bassier tone).

Edit:
Oh and of course the pan percentages can be set to whatever you like, doesn't have to be 100% and 80%.

I personally go 100/100 with each guitarist on their own side. Otherwise, things end up sounding really weird to me. If you're going to blend tones, do it with one track from each amp on each side; 5150/Mesa on left, 5150/Mesa on right, but still with guitarist 1 on left, and guitarist 2 on right.