recording with 2 amps - any methods ?

[pifos_2]

hey guys,

On friday, we are doing the guitars. Some very good friends of us are lending a 6505 and a dual rectifier !!! Knowing that those two can nicely blend (and unleash the flames of hell ), we'll try to get as much as we can out of these 2 .

Yet, I'm still wondering how to do this. I used the search function this morning and I haven't found the answers to my questions. Obviously, we are gonna quad-track every rhythm. 2 takes with one amp, 2 other takes with the other amp.



TRACKING METHOD

What is "the best" or "your" method ?

1 : Do you make 2 takes of the song with AMP A. then swtich to AMP B and do all the riffs 2 times again ?

Or

2 : Do you make 2 takes of the riff on the AMP A and then swtich to AMP B for 2 takes again. Then go to the next riff and so on...

Or

3 : Do you record simultaneously the 2 amps, blending them to make 1 unique sound. and record 4 takes of this.



TUBES WARM-UP, "COOLING"

Personally, I think I prefer to make the 4 takes of a riff in a row. Since you keep "in your fingers" like this. But I'm worried about the tubes behaviour. If I drive Amp A for 10 minutes then switch to B and put A in stand-by.... The sound may change and not deliver its full "power or colour" when I go back to A.

What about driving continually the 2 amps by splitting the guitar signal in 2 parts ?



PHASE

If I use one amp per cab, a sm57 on each cab... Should I drive a test signal into the amps and try to put the 2 sm57 in phase ? Would there any phase relationship ? If not I guess I don't have to care about phase at all ??...


PS
I know that a lot of this will be answer by testing and experimenting. But unfortunatly we will not have enough time to experiment everything. I'm still only part-time musician :S

Note that we have 2 cabinets and 2 sm57, and a signal splitter, od808 so "everything" is possible.



Thanx for even reading this long shit
Any help is welcome. I already have read some presets from Kamao and others around.

 

[Downtime]

I´d either recommend to play all tracks with both amps simultaneously (using a splitter) and then dub it with another mic-combination or stuff, or first track Amp A for all songs and then take Amp B for all songs.
Switching between the riffs is a) not necessary (in any case I don´t see a use for it), b) not healthy for your amps and c) makes a lot of work.

 

[Polpotkin]

I am in the exactly same situation (tomorrow)... We will probably play either one song or all songs with Amp-setting A and then switch to setteng B. I will just have to rely on my playing skills, that I will play the riffs the same way again

 

[Downtime]

I will just have to rely on my playing skills, that I will play the riffs the same way again

I think if you´re heading some serious recording you should allways be confident with your hand´s work and be able to do the riffs you need.
And to spare your amp and to prevail a continuous I totally recommend tracking everything with setting A and switch afterwards to set B!

 

[pifos_2]

so I guess I'll try to drive the 2 amps together.

any opinions on phasing ??

 

[Polpotkin]

That's exactly how we do it now, the whole song with setting A, two tracks, and then two tracks with setting B. If I weren't confident with my hand I'd spend another month rehearsing.

 

[Student]

Seperate rooms, A/B/Y splitter pedal. Mic identically, and or nudge for phase, for tape you better mic it right to begin with, get some heavy duty isolation cans on your head and move the mic until it's nice.

 

[VengeanceIsMine!]

Once you split the signal make sure you dont have any ground problems. If you have that annoying hiss when you connect the two amps, try lifting the ground and you can eliminate a lot of that noise.
But definitely record both amps simultaneously; overdubbing the exact riffs, is difficult because any change can make your riff sound like crap.

Record the two amps at the same time, playing one riff, then to boost your sound, take that track and delay it around a mili-second and youll have a tight fat sound.

 

[Metaltastic]

Hmm, I'm not too sure how well the "slapback fattener" technique would work for quad-tracked metal, cuz as I understand it, that technique is only used for one guitarist, especially the 80s stuff (the biggest example I can think of is Vai, especially in the David Lee Roth's "Eat 'em and Smile"), and in that case, the take was panned left, and the delay right. If you had them both panned the same way, there'd probably be phase cancellation (slight delay is what causes that, after all), but hey, it's worth a shot!

 

[VengeanceIsMine!]

If they both played different rhythms, I could see this. But if they both were going to play the same version of the same riff, dont you think it would be much tighter just to record one version and delay it?
Not to mention they are already using two amps simultaneously.

 

[pifos_2]

finally we played the whole twice on 1 amp. and then switched to the other to play twice again. here is the result : http://www.myspace.com/forcedevolutionmusic

 

[RKelly]

A bit late... But whenever I'm using multiple amps I usually will record them at the same time with each amp EQ-d differently, ie one set for a low sound and another for a higher tone. Record one pass, change all the settings then do another until we've got a solid couple layers.

Cuts down a lot of processing later, can turn up one amp or the other for you EQ-ing