I realise of course that multi-tracking guitars has been an employed studio technique for many many years and I dare say ALL modern (rock + metal especially) rhythm guitar tracks are layered but I didn’t really understand why the individual tracks “should” be recorded at a lower gain and I also wasn’t sure when enough is enough when it comes to multi-tracking.
The general consensus for “big” sounding dirty rhythm guitars is Quad Tracking. Ok, so 4 tracks recorded individually is somehow going to sound WAY better than a single track? I wasn’t sold…I figured, yeah, it would be “louder” wouldn’t it? But how could 4 “low gain” tracks turn into a “high gain” tone?
Sooooo…..experiment time! I busted out one of the 6-string flock, tuned her up, plugged her into my interface and opened up Reaper.
**warning** - this wasn’t an experiment on how tight I could record a track so please excuse the sloppiness. I just did 1 take of each track, regardless of flubs.
I dialled up a very basic tone in Guitar Rig 5, not using anything fancy. Just a boost (OD808) into a Boogie (Dual Rec model) into a 4x12 (V30) cab model. I ran the gain VERY low (it will still sound very gainy to most folks, but it is far less gain than I would normally dial up if playing live)
Opened a new track and started jamming on the first thing that my fingers felt like playing, a basic little riff, but suits the purpose of this experiment….don’t judge me! Haha
Anyway, so below is the link to the single recorded track. The only post processing is a basic EQ with a cut of everything below 30Hz, a 2db boost at 220Hz and a 1db boost at 1K.
**FOR BEST EFFECT, LISTEN ON DECENT SPEAKERS**
https://soundcloud.com/craig-klopper/riff-single
Pretty MEH sounding!!!
Then I recorded 3 more tracks. All the same amp. I panned the first 2 tracks hard left and right and the second 2 tracks 75% L and R respectively. I fiddled around a little bit with the treble, presence and mids on the guitar sound of the 3rd and 4th track, just to get a slightly crispier sound for those two tracks, but I didn’t touch the gain.
When I clicked play and all 4 tracks started playing together I was blown away! Sounded SO much bigger, way more gainier and just made the single tracked guitar sound anaemic!
https://soundcloud.com/craig-klopper/riff-quad
So yeah, tl;dr…..moral of the story……multi tracked guitars sound way better! I think the main reason you run the gain low on each track is that its cumulative when they are all played together and the small differences between each track with timing, helps create a “smear” effect and you get that “wall of sound” thing going on. If each track was recorded at higher gain levels it would be easy to turn the mix into mush and lose all definition.
Cool to put something basic like this into practice and hear the results so clearly!
and actually started to get really thin sounding. Now I do one track with artificial doubling per channel and then a centre track of a second guitar (so 5 tracks all up but you only physically play 3)
