studio tricks to make a fatter guitar sound

[overlookfran]

ive heard many tricks to do this:
dupe the track and all delay...dupe the track and add reverb
compression, etc...

Does anyone have a tried and true way of doing this? I have a pretty "airy" song with some crunchy gtrs in the choruses...but they sound weak and thin compared to the rest when they hit.
i had major ear fatigue last night so i gave up...

id love to try some techniques when I tackle it again tonight.

many thanks in advance...

Fran

[J-MADD]

Play the part 2 times panning 1 hard left and 1 hard right.

[ybmvox]

Don't duplicate and then add effects to it. Always track at least one for each side. The bigger and crunchier you want it record more. On my band's last recording we triple tracked guitars on each side, plus accents placed closer to center. Plus when you do that you can EQ certain tracks to be more bassy or with more high's or mids.

[iznogood]

yes and then some Manley comp/eq to really fatten things up!

a vari-mu set to limit and a massive passive feeding some lo mids into them... (and some 2.5k) :twisted:

[ybmvox]

iznogood is right about the compression, tons and tons of it done right will make it sound massive

[idiophone]

tune down to Eb and get the amps off the floor

~id

[JBsound]

It does help to stack tracks but make sure that you get pretty dang close as far as rhythm. It gets sloppy sounding fast if you can't stay on with the other track(s). I've gone through sometimes and used VocAlign to line up the attacks a little better when they were so bad that it was distracting. I guess if you did it too much with the vocalign it could get too aligned but I have yet to have that problem.

It's pretty common though that I come across guitar players that can't double themselves.

If you have different amps/cabs, try double tracking into different ones. Usually works pretty nice. I also agree with the deal about getting the amps off the floor...it can help. Try a mic close and one further away. Try a room mic in the corner of a room - even try facing it into the corner. If you're experimentative and you have time you can come up with some really cool stuff.

I've also found sometimes that a smaller amp sounds bigger on the recording. Something to do with quantum physics I think. I'll get back to you on that one.

Also, try tracking a couple of the tracks with less distortion than you think you need. It can add some nice body to it. Compression is occassionally a lifesaver but a lot of times that electric guitar is so compressed coming out of the amp that there is no point.

I guess the best way is to is to use a md421 and a Royer 121 through a Neve preamp sent to an 1176LN compressor and then into the massive passive or an API EQ. Then make sure you are tracking with a vintage amp and it is going directly to 2" tape. And also, if you have all that gear...just go ahead and send it to me. Thanks.

[TheArchitect]

iznogood is right about the compression, tons and tons of it done right will make it sound massive

Perhaps, but all that compression removes all of the dynamics and leaves a big mass of white noise ala many of the nu metal acts. It gets difficult to listen to. "Hugeness" is created as much if not more with dynamics. I offer John Bonham's drums on Zep albums as example. On When the Levee Breaks his drums seem massive in that track because of the space in the track, not the compression. Same with Page's guitar. The guitar tone itself isn't over the top massive but because it has space in the mix it has a lot of power.

[Jeemy]

I usually use Waves Doubler which if you use subtly doesn't go too chorusy, or track the parts twice on seperate passes.

Can anybody tell me why I can't make duplicating & then shifting one part slightly work?

It just goes out of phase immediately and horribly. Which is what I would expect it to do. I've never managed to make it sound anything other than terrible..dumb I know

[Reggie]

Try flipping the polarity on that track when the phase gets too goofy. May help. I wouldn't really do the duplicate track scooting trick on rhythm tracks, though. Sometimes it can sound OK on leads that are too difficult or random to doubletrack. Perhaps you should try pitch shifting a few cents instead of scooting the track in time. Or both.