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Hi guys,

I've recorded 2 guitar tracks (true double
parts), one panned hard left, one hard right. Sounds allright, but when the
song is played mono the 2 parts almost nullify. Actually I was quite
surprised since the parts are ''truely doubled''
How do I deal with this in a mix: ignore, phase reverse 1 track? Other
suggestions?

TIA,
Macmod

Comments

vinniesrs Tue, 06/10/2003 - 07:24

There is more than one way to skin a cat!(kind of a sick saying huh?)
There are a few ideas that may get you the result you want.
It sounds like you could have some phase issues, so try the 180 flip and see what happens.

Also are you using fx? If you are that could be causing an issue.

You could also try to offset one track by a few frames.

Maybe mono the mix and pan inward until you get a good level, then go back to stereo and see if it sounds good.

Finally, if the studio gremlins win, you might consider dropping to one track and put a stereo chorus on it, or re-do the second track again.

It might be a good idea, after you get it right, to figure out why you had this problem in the first place so you can avoid it in the future.
Are you using a computer to record?(latency issues perhaps?)

Long live huge guitars!

vinniesrs Fri, 06/13/2003 - 12:11

Macmod. It is probably a good idea to stay away from eq's as much as possible. I always look at eqing as a last resort. Particularly if you have cheap eq's. If your guitars are dissapearing in mono I would bet money that eqing won't fix it. What is happening here is that while audible in stereo the guitars cancell each other out when combined. This will be occurring at certain frequencies, as I'm sure that at least some part of the guitar remains audible. I don't proclaim to be an expert on phase, but I don't see any other way this could happen to you.
Eq's work by disrupting phase. In that context an eq might help, but I would try other means to solve things first.
one last thing. you could find the cleanest of the two takes, and copy the track. Then offset the track in small increments until the sound gets bigger. 0 to 5 ms. As the offset increases you will notice kind of a flangy sound you might not like. Apply fx to taste.