Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

[75lespaul]

I don't know if I said that right, but here's what I want to learn how to do. I think a good example is what you hear in the Duncan Palladium demo video where the guy is playing a couple of different seven strings in an obviously recorded, doubled video, and they when they demonstrate the control knobs, it is now also obvious that it is just a single guitar recorded to show how the tone can be shaped. What I want to learn is how to get that big recorded sound. What are the effects, how many times to record the same part over, etc. I assume they key is to play the part to get those natural time differences, and not just to copy/paste the first track recorded.

Thanks everyone! Looking very forward to doing this. By the way, I do not use plug ins. I mike the speaker cabinet. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, that's my usual way of recording.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

The core of it is quite simple really. Record the same guitar part a couple of times. Choose the best two, pan them left / right and that's it.

What really makes a difference is the hidden part. All of the guys who post these killer youtube videos like Ola Eglund, Keith Merrow or Fluff are very skilled in mixing / mastering. So, even if they use L/R guitars in the mix and they note that there is no EQ on the track, you can be sure that the raw guitar tracks are routed to some sort of bus where they are ironed further gently in a way then into a summing track where everything is slammed together, re-shaped a little and lawn mowed with some sort of mastering processor like iZotope Ozone 7 or the like, maybe an analogue chain of mastering tools.

It is best to check all the know-how videos of these guys. They teach you everything about really, all the rest is about experimenting and finding your balance.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

DOn't forget that many modern recordings have those guitars re-amped a bunch of times through different actual amps as well as software emulations. On some recordings, there can be dozens of copies taking up a whole ton of EQ frequencies, which makes it sound massive.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

Reamping is good but you want to mess with the phase a bit, too. The result is something in between re-recording and re-amping.

You should look into how people do to make voices fatter.

High-end reverbs are a bit like the above, too. They don't randomly echo things around, they deliberately "mess up" the phase of some copies of the sound, because that is what happens with real life reverb.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

That's some good stuff to check out. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

 

[Lampy H]

Re: Recording guitars for that massive "seven string" recorded tone.

I've been looking into getting a Digitech Luxe pedal, which is essentially a sweepable detune either up or down, along with a blend control. At really subtle settings, it has a pseudo-double tracked sound that almost does this effect with a single guitar track. The Strymon Deco and Keeley 30ms hit the same sweet spot, I think. I know your question was more oriented towards studio stuff, but those pedals were the first that came to mind.