Big guitar tones

80's_Metal

80's_Metal

Underglazed Hair Metalologist
Was listening to this song this morning. And at the end, this song gets huge. Wide. Sounds great.


Was wondering what you guys think they did to get the guitars so big and wide.

I would assume both guitar tracks were just doubled and then panned left and right?

What do you think?
 
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Re: Big guitar tones

Multi-tracking guitars, not doubling. Doubling the same part and then panning left/right sounds exactly the same. Multi-tracking gives slightly different sounds which can add up to sound really big . . . especially if you multi-track with different amps, players, effects, etc. Sometimes people play stuff on electric guitar, then track the root notes of the same part on the D string of a bass to make the guitars sound like a baritone/7-string.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

That's multi tracking + having a solid pocket bassline adding depth to the lows

Importantly, it's because the rest of the song is pretty much devoid of big rhythm guitars. The contrast makes it seem huger

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
 
Re: Big guitar tones

multi tracking and a lot of spectrum planning for each mic on each cab etc.

If you grab the best part of what each mic is doing on mutiple style cabs and layer it in with the other mics doing a different parts of the spectrum and attack/sustain, also using some "strategic bleeding" of mics for the presence/sustain, and then multiple upon multiple takes with one take being the real articulation, and rest being the fat and resolve and the wide stereo panning and squash it hard on the way in to the console you get this somewhat 90s alternative guitar production sound.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

If you search 'Produce Like a Pro Wide Guitar' in YouTube you will get some great tips from Warren Huart. His guitar tracks sound great, and he's a very good guitar player in his own right.
 
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Re: Big guitar tones

In addition to multi tracking, I like to use a couple mics on a cabinet. One right on the center and another halfway to the edge. That also works pretty well live.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

TwilightOdyssey said:
If you search 'Produce Like a Pro Wide Guitar' in YouTube you will get some great tips from Warren Huart. His guitar tracks sound great, and he's a very good guitar player in his how right.
Click to expand...

I watched 5 of his videos today, picked up a couple tricks! Thanks!
 
Re: Big guitar tones

The posts above nailed it, but one more tip I can add to the conversation is to try combining multiple amps while multi-tracking. A British gain for the upper mids and a Boogie to fill out the low mids can sound absolutely crushing.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

TwilightOdyssey said:
If you search 'Produce Like a Pro Wide Guitar' in YouTube you will get some great tips from Warren Huart. His guitar tracks sound great, and he's a very good guitar player in his how right.
Click to expand...

Sure, Warren is a gem. It is amazing to have someone high profile like him making a baseline youtube channel. Amazing tips all around there.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

AmirH said:
The posts above nailed it, but one more tip I can add to the conversation is to try combining multiple amps while multi-tracking. A British gain for the upper mids and a Boogie to fill out the low mids can sound absolutely crushing.
Click to expand...

So great point. not to brag but just to reinforce this approach, in the 90s I worked on some of the biggest alternative rock albums (as a engineering intern slave primarily so once again -not taking credit) with the guys who invented or were known for this style guitar production 80s Metal posted

mixing inheritly scooped amps for the bottom (mesa, Fender etc) in with classic British style amp mids and then maybe a North American (Fender, Traynor) or Solid State Roland or a British Voxy chime for some special top end charm together was a real effective way to get a giant sound.

There is a small downside to this though -in filling the mid range spectrum with an entire thick wall of guitar tone, vocals become harder to place effectively (especially for vocal featured sogs like Top 40 style mixes), and also it's hard to find a place for keys as well if your guitars are giving so much information.

Good news is I happen to be confident 80s Metal owns all this kind of stuff to pull it off... :lmao:
 
Re: Big guitar tones

Lol. Fair point. Though it's worth noting that for someone still getting their feet wet, all these principles translate over to modelers and impulse responses. With the latter, he can experiment with mic combos and placement, and even different "speakers," and with the former he can blend models based on American and British style amps, or whatever real amp he owns plus a corresponding model. It's a compromise, but a useful one for someone with limited access to expensive gear. Your points about the difficulties that can be introduced by devoting too much frequency space to guitar are totally on point though.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

Mincer said:
Which had to contribute to the fall of guitar in popular music.
Click to expand...

Before Dial norm type regulations, these 90s TV and FM stations would compress and expand and excite the crap out of all those songs that were already redlined on the recording and I hated the way they sounded doubly or triply compressed and processed.

Whoever was louder won the war on FM and TV
 
Re: Big guitar tones

NegativeEase said:
Before Dial norm type regulations, these 90s TV and FM stations would compress and expand and excite the crap out of all those songs that were already redlined on the recording and I hated the way they sounded doubly or triply compressed and processed.

Whoever was louder won the war on FM and TV
Click to expand...

It was really hard to listen to, even as a guitar fan. Also, I can only listen to big sounding power chords for so long.
 
Re: Big guitar tones

AmirH said:
The posts above nailed it, but one more tip I can add to the conversation is to try combining multiple amps while multi-tracking. A British gain for the upper mids and a Boogie to fill out the low mids can sound absolutely crushing.
Click to expand...

So true. Ever since I learned to effectively blend different amps for each guitar track, I've never looked back. I'll use a minimum of two per guitar track. I've gone a little crazy lately blending as many as 3-5 amps (and that's with multi-mic setups) which is really fun for experimenting but it can get a bit much and I'll scale it back to make room for everything else in the final mixes. Lately the winning combo has been a modern sounding preamp with really clear mids for the "main" tone, some boogie for the big low end and a dash of Marshall for some rattier high mids.
 
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