Also...

How are cars made?

Is it just some tires and some metal thrown together, or what's the deal there?

lol :)

That wasn't really necessary was it?

I mean, of course not every song's recorded the same way. but what is the most common way of recording main guitars?

It was actually. Here's some more sarcasm for you.

For a main guitar part, I slap a mic in front of it- but wait. I record acoustics.
Are you recording an electric, or an acoustic? Or an acoustic electric? Or a twelve string?

If you really must know, a one size fits all solution would be to slap an SM58 a few inches in front of it and shift it around a little until it sounds fine.

I'll assume you meant electric might want to read this thread running now {old-link-removed}

While your question is valid, there is no single answer that will actually tell you the reality of this process.

It is as different as the days of the week for any particular setting or song.

The style of the music will have a huge impact on it.

Korn doesnt record the 'main guitars' in the same way as Asleep At The Wheel.

If you want a specific answer to a very very general question, you are going to have to endure some snickering.

Think about what you are really trying to find out and then rephrase your question to reflect this.

Hey, When you record a major album, how do they record the mainguitar.
Do they just do one take and with effects and copying the track so that it'll sound "fatter" and wider? Or do they record several takes and pan it to right and left?

That really depends on the band. If you want huge, fat guitars then double, triple, quadruple, etc... tracking is the best way to go. Not everyone wants a wall of guitars, though. Sometimes one take is all that is desired. But if you're talking a basic rock band, then if there is only one guitar, it is almost always panned hard left and right.

music293 wrote: Also...

How are cars made?

Is it just some tires and some metal thrown together, or what's the deal there?

lol :)

there is coffee coming out of my nose.

haha!!!!

it all depends on the style of music and what the artist wants if its a hard rock or even a metal band and you want thick heavy guitars dubble mic the cab, i like to use a sm 57 a few inches away and off-center of the cone and a sennheiser 421 about the same distance as the 57 and in the center of the cone and eq accordingly, some people like to use one mic or the other depending on what they want, another thing i like to do is to plug the guitar into a di box then link the di box to the amp and record with the mics on the amp and having a clean guitar that i can put an amp simulator on if i need or want it. i also have a sennheiser e609 that i'v been want to try out in the studio but haven't had the chance yet.

and for a band with 1 guitar have them dubble their main parts then pan hard left and hard right.

but yea thats what i like to do when recording electric guitars

this is how commercial studios get there pro sound

here me out

they direct input the guitar, and/or dummy load it off of a tube head. either way they get that nice equalized and compressed clean guitar signal.

Then. then run the clean signal perfectly edited from the out puts of your interface, into the front of a fat tube amp, in an extremely great sounding room. single microphone in mono. Then play the clean signal though the amp and record the performance on a live cabinet.

After you got the tracks recorded, you eq the tracks, do your bass roll off and try to bring out the mids. do that by cutting out what ever is over powering the other frequency's. compress it.

Take your direct clean tones. run them through some kind of guitar amp processor. aux bus them over to a room simulator, like ir1.

and there you go. The biggest in phase guitar tracks you could ever imagine.

http://www.cdmasternow.com