Massive Dual Tracking Guitar Sound?

[klw7890]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum just have a couple of dumb questions:
1) How do bands like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwHShpoqwI) get their guitar sounds? Is it super heavy compression or what?
2) I double track when I record my guitars (Pan 100L 100R) but they just lack the huge sound. I can link a demo of one of our bands tracks without vocals but it's pretty basic stuff... I like the sound I have it just needs tweaking and I'm not sure what to do to get a bigger sound at this point.
Thanks in advance! peace.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

A lot of it has to do with other instruments too, try getting the stems for songs you like. I know you can find the Lamb of God ones on youtube. Compare the solo guitar tracks to final mix or any other instruments alone to the mix and be amazed at what happens.

 

[klw7890]

Jessie Gave Me a Frowny Face by klw7890 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Here's the song for critique. The writing is done I'm just looking for advice on the sound. This is my first metal song so... :/

 

[TRENCHLORD]

If you don't already, try double micing your speaker cab.
Place one mic in the normal primary spot (usually closer to the center/dust cap, and the other farther outside).
Getting them in phase can be tricky, but they do make phase correction devices now so that the mic placements don't have to be phase alligned.
Can't remember the specific brands/models though (seen it on youtube).

 

[klw7890]

If you don't already, try double micing your speaker cab.
Place one mic in the normal primary spot (usually closer to the center/dust cap, and the other farther outside). Getting them in phase can be tricky, but they do make phase correction devices now so that the mic placements don't have to be phase alligned. can't remember the specific brands/models though (seen it on youtube).

The funny thing is, I don't own a nice cab, amp, or even mics. I record DI into guitar rig 5. I think the tone our guitarist decided to use included some cab models in guitar rig itself but I'm not quite sure.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

The funny thing is, I don't own a nice cab, amp, or even mics. I record DI into guitar rig 5. I think the tone our guitarist decided to use included some cab models in guitar rig itself but I'm not quite sure.

I guess that puts a damper on my advice then .

 

[klw7890]

Yea.......... I mean I'm pretty new to this so anything is beneficial. Next time we record I'm thinking Ill record our rhythm guitarist dual track 100L 100R and our lead guitarist with a different guitar (his) and different tone and go like maybe 70L 70R and eq as necessary for each?

 

[Zeth]

In my experience (and probably some others) the bass guitar is incredibly vital for making "huge" guitar tone. Without a powerful bass holding down the low end, the guitars always sound kind of empty. A big part of my mixing is figuring where my bass will sit (in what frequencies) in comparison to the guitar. So that's where I would start.

And after listening to your song, which I like , I would suggest trying less distortion. Too much distortion has a fuzziness effect, that type of over saturation reduces attack definition.

Once again this is all just my experience recording, I'm not the gospel of metal... though that does have a catchy ring to it ^______^

 

[shnizzle]

Zeth is right. the bass guitar probably adds the most to the fullness. but also, with guitar rig it´s kind of tricky to get a good distortion sound. i suggest instead of using its cab simulations, try to put an impulse response behind guitar rig. those usually sound better. and using EQ to boost the low mids of the guitar (around 200-300Hz) helps to make them sound bigger as well.

 

[klw7890]

Zeth is right. the bass guitar probably adds the most to the fullness. but also, with guitar rig it´s kind of tricky to get a good distortion sound. i suggest instead of using its cab simulations, try to put an impulse response behind guitar rig. those usually sound better. and using EQ to boost the low mids of the guitar (around 200-300Hz) helps to make them sound bigger as well.

Thanks! I will try that!

 

[KingAenarion]

Here's my 10 tips for mixing guitars that I keep posting

1) There is no such thing as "guitar mixing". You mix the guitar tone for the whole mix. If making good guitar tone for a mix is what you want to know that's a different question.

2) Good bass tone is between 25% -> 50% of good guitar tone in a mix.

3) Use as little gain as possible.

4) Roll of the low end depending on your tuning.

5) Roll off the high end

6) Just re-iterating. LESS GAIN.

7) The midrange is where the body of your guitar tone is. So don't scoop the mids if you want clear guitar tone.

8) You don't need much compression on guitars as high gain guitars are naturally compressed by the distortion.

9) Double track, quad track, do whatever you can while still being tight with lower gain for bigger sounds.

10) Remove frequencies rather than adding them. Find the sweetspot of the guitar tone and remove a little of that from other instruments.

 

[bhakan]

^KingAenarion's list is basically all of the key points.

I would also use Lepou plugins and impulse responses over Guitar Rig for distorted tones. They are free but tend to sound better than almost any other software amp sims available.

 

[Jordan Djenital Warts]

^ Last two comments are spot on.

Important parts (for me):

Quad track - ALL rhythm guitars (2x L&R)
Gain - no higher than 1 o'clock
Reasonable amount of mid - for clarity (no more than 3 o'clock (max) otherwise it will sound too narrow)
Multiple Mic positions for cab (you can allocate these in Guitar Rig. I often do both on and off cone)

BASS TONE - Most do not realize this, but the bass tone is often left for last thought. It plays a huge part in the overall guitar tone, therefore you need to dial a fitting Bass tone to accommodate

EDIT: Guitar Rig 5 (better than LePou IMO) is awesome when used with cabs impulses. The built in are weak. That is all.

 

[Ben.Last]

I guess that puts a damper on my advice then .

Not necessarily, he could get a similar effect with impulses for differently placed mics.

 

[McBonez]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum just have a couple of dumb questions:
1) How do bands like this () get their guitar sounds? Is it super heavy compression or what?
2) I double track when I record my guitars (Pan 100L 100R) but they just lack the huge sound. I can link a demo of one of our bands tracks without vocals but it's pretty basic stuff... I like the sound I have it just needs tweaking and I'm not sure what to do to get a bigger sound at this point.
Thanks in advance! peace.

That guitar sound isn't that amazing.

Sounds like typical LCR.

 

[Rotten Deadite]

I'm still new to this myself, but the one piece of advice I've been able to apply to nearly every project is to never slam two guitars to 100% Left and 100% Right. You should be using 30%, 40% at the most, and less than 30% for most of the songs you'll mix.

100% both ways is for crazy effects and even then, as I've been told, most producers just go to 80% both ways, never 100%.

Give it a shot and see if it tightens up your sound.