Blending two amps together recorded seperatley

  • Thread starter Thread starter Metalhex
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Metalhex

Metalhex

Well-known member
I have a novice question...

I'm recording my metal material. I know that generally for rythymn you would record two tracks and pan left and right. But what if you wanted to record two amps and blend them together, would you record two tracks of each amp and pan both tracks of amp A, left. And pan both tracks of amp B, right? Or just one track of each, Amp A left and amp B right? Or...?
 
When I’ve done it, I get “the sound” of the blend and then that’s “the tone”. Then quad track of course. Remember though there are no rules. If it sounds good, IT IS GOOD! Good luck!
 
Tone Monster said:
When I’ve done it, I get “the sound” of the blend and then that’s “the tone”. Then quad track of course. Remember though there are no rules. If it sounds good, IT IS GOOD! Good luck!
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this....+1000
 
I'm having such a terrible time recording I'm ready to pull out what little hair I have. Working on a project with a bud and he only uses audacity. I have reaper but don't know how to use it. Getting latency out the ass. Can't use my equipment at all. Better off using my iphone.
 
JackBootedThug said:
I'm having such a terrible time recording I'm ready to pull out what little hair I have. Working on a project with a bud and he only uses audacity. I have reaper but don't know how to use it. Getting latency out the ass. Can't use my equipment at all. Better off using my iphone.
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Audacity really isn't a bad program. You can do a lot with it, especially if you treat it like like a 4 track.
 
japetus said:
Audacity really isn't a bad program. You can do a lot with it, especially if you treat it like like a 4 track.
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it's what I have the most experience with......but I have no experience really....lol...No way can I do what Metalhex is doing...
 
JackBootedThug said:
it's what I have the most experience with......but I have no experience really....lol...No way can I do what Metalhex is doing...
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I also don't really know what I'm doing...I thought that what I'm doing is the bare bones most basic thing, but you're making it sound like I'm miles ahead when I'm not at all lol
 
your miles ahead of me dude. I need a recording for dummies book.
 
JackBootedThug said:
it's what I have the most experience with......but I have no experience really....lol...No way can I do what Metalhex is doing...
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I was thinking about selling this package...
1484740C-D2AA-4245-867D-14F6A508E9E1.jpeg
 
I usually just start with one amp panned left and the other panned right.

If that isn't giving me what I want, I'll try recording another track of each amp, and having both on either side. Going that route, I usually dial the gain back just a hair.
 
There’s no really right or wrong way, sometimes I do just a left and right track, sometimes I’ll add a center, sometimes I’ll quad track. Sometimes it’s only certain parts of a song I’ll add a track for emphasis. You just gotta get fucking wild with the shit
 
it's so frustrating dude. but when something comes out nice it's so worth it.
 
JackBootedThug said:
I'm having such a terrible time recording I'm ready to pull out what little hair I have. Working on a project with a bud and he only uses audacity. I have reaper but don't know how to use it. Getting latency out the ass. Can't use my equipment at all. Better off using my iphone.
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Try upgrading your ASIO driver.

 
JackBootedThug said:
it's so frustrating dude. but when something comes out nice it's so worth it.
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Yes. I am currently recording my scratch tracks with such an u conventional way of recording that basically no one would recommend, but I'm quite satisfied with the tone to the point where I would consider using it at least in part for my final tracks. So you're right it really doesn't matter how you get there as long as you are happy with it
 
I agree with there’s-no-rules, but, for me there’s only 2 ways to track 2 amps: quad tracking (2 tracks per side, as in 4 takes) with both amps blended on both channels, or you need to split your guitar signal into two amps and at least double track then blend (you’ll need a splitter, and know that cheap splitters will swallow your tone).

Double tracking if you want a more direct sound with plenty of attack, quad tracked if you want a wall-of-sound with dense lows and a softer/warmer attack.

One thing that’s helped me greatly with finding a good recorded tone is mic’ing four different speakers at once and choosing whichever sounded best.

I’ve got speakers that are easy to mic (EVM12L, Scumback H75) and speakers that sound great in the room but I just can’t seem to mic them for shit (ET90, Redback).
 
I've had luck with the simple two-tracks-total panned hard left and right method. I find the more tracks you add, the more "distant" and washy your sound gets. Whether you want that depends on what you're going for. Everything has its place.

If you're going for double tracking, just know that recording each line twice tends to sound the largest and widest. If you don't want to do that, you could always record your guitar direct and reamp that guitar line through whatever amp or number of amps you want after the fact and then pan them however you want. However, manually playing the line twice will sound bigger just because of the human element and variance each time you play, while a reamped signal will sound a lot more mono. Again everything has its place, it's all about what you want to do.
 
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This is certainly where personal taste/tonal goals meet the road with production/mixing and can lead to some frustration in the beginning, especially once you start mixing the other instruments in. There’s not a ton of advice to give in this area except to be patient, there’s no YouTube vid or site to read that’ll give you THE answer, it’s time and experimenting. The guitar tracks might sound KILLER on their own/solo’d, but adding in the drums and bass and they all of a sudden sound like shit. Getting them to blend together is not an easily teachable thing.

I have an OCD thing with metal stuff; it drives me nuts hearing one ballsy, rippin’ guitar on one side and one not-as-ballsy guitar on the other side, even if I really dig the blend of amps, so I end up quad tracking and putting each amp on each side, like the left side will have a Mesa and a Marshall, as will the other side. For other genres it doesn’t bother me at all, rock/hard rock I actually prefer hearing different tones on each side, but for the metal stuff I do, I generally want it sounding like one giant machine.
 
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