The End of Heartache

[commandante]

What is so "overkill" about quad-tracking guitars using two different tones?

 

[Kazrog]

Seems like overkill does it not?

Then I supppose overkill is the way to go sometimes :Spin:

Dude, have you read nothing of what James has posted on these forums??? 4 tracks is ideal, and mixing two sounds is a great thing to do.

 

[Nitronium Blood]

What is so "overkill" about quad-tracking guitars using two different tones?

My mistake guys, I thought they were using 4 different amps!

I just realised its 2 heads and 2 cabs. All the different names confused me

 

[Fabbio]

After a while I'm becoming a little tired of the quad tracking.

Is it me or using only one left and one right makes room for a more spontaneous feel and it's more easy to differentiate parts? (sort of like the Gallery or Mind's Eye by Dark tranquillity).

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

You hear the pick attack more so it's more defined with less tracks imo

 

[Exsanguis]

I used to quad track everything, but these days I'm getting a much bigger sound by double tracking the basic rhythms, then augmenting the tracks with splitting to and layering various amps, etc. Gets me a bigger yet clearer sound faster. And this is with tight players. To each his own.

 

[Fabbio]

I definitely prefer the two guitars only right now.
Otherwise when quadtracking if you haven't 90% of what you are recording written down very precisely it ends up in mud. Without naked women inside (hehe, see the complaint thread, the enormous one).

 

[Kazrog]

I saw Lamb of God last night, excellent show by them and all other bands, most notably Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, and last but not least Devildriver!!

Lamb of God had a wall of Framus cabinets. No heads anywhere in view. I didn't get a chance to talk to them after the show about their rig, so I will have Mike from DevilDriver ask them for me at some point. It looks like they've left Mesa though, considering they had a wall of 18 Framus cabs behind them!!

 

[James Murphy]

well, there are tight players.. and then there tight players. and with tight players, 4 is often the way to go. of course this really depends on how heavy and thick you want it to be.. and that's sometimes a functtion of the style of music that band pays, or just the band itself, like this band Artension. I tracked the guitars and keys on their first 4 albums back in the 90's and they were definitely a "2 tracks only" type of gig. as for just using different amps with the same performance, i've said this until so many times on here i can't count ... but i'll repeat it one more time for you guys: this is just blending amp tones and while it can help 2 wimpy sounds combine to one good one(or not if you have phase problems), it won't have the same, or even similar effect as tracking 4 times.. it s just wont. you guitars will still sound like 2 performances done with a decent tone. this is not a bad thing to me.. i think only using 'quad" tracking for everything, always, is just as silly as always only using double tracking would be... it's all about context to me.... same as anything else, do what's appropriate for the music.

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

How many tracks did El 'Hefe (Jeff Loomis) use on the new Nev?

As an aside, I've seen Nev live 5 times, every time they come through Arizona and play Mason Jar. Its a total shiite-hole. NeWayz.. last time they were here, I hung with Jim and drank pitchers.. that guy is the COOLEST!! Jeff was wearing a full on hockey jersey and just slayed... that guy is super human.

 

[James Murphy]

4

 

[Enmity]

For James or anyone else... For this method, would that be 4 tracks per guitar riff? Lets say you have a section where the two guitars are playing something different or harmonized, would that be 4 guitars per 'riff'? Or two guitars playing one riff and two playing the other?

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I think generally we're talking about 2 riffs, one panned left and one panned right. If a third riff is necessary, you could double that as well and probably pan it center--obviously you're going to lose some clarity the more guitars you add, but that can work to your advantage as well....i think a lot of that depends on your style of music...if you're doing a lot of stuff with 3 riffs at the same time, you might be better off with 3 guitar tracks, one L,C,R...I'm kind of going off on a tangent...anyway, i think the answer to your question is no, not four tracks per guitar riff. four tracks period, with one riff L and one R....