Blending two amps together recorded seperatley

[Spaceboy]

bus em, both amps each side, fader to taste

but generally i end up just choosing one amp stereo instead of a blend tbh

i especially hate the l and r channels having totally different tones

 

[VESmedic]

If you are dead set on using two amps and are a newbie, you are going to be in for a world of disappointment…. This is much more complicated to get right than people think. If you want to record only two tracks and use both amps At the same time for each track left and right, you should absolutely forget that idea until you thoroughly understand what PHASE means, and how much it sucks to deal with . Trust me, recording two amps at once is going to be an absolute buzzkill for you until you get some knowledge under your belt. And even then, it’s ungodly overrated.


Stick to one amp on each side, double tracked ( not quad).

 

[JackBootedThug]

I love using two different amps....at home....wanking.....not recording....after I spend about 40 hours dealing with all kinds of dumb issues to finally get them sounding good. Then I realize I'm going to spend about ten minutes readjusting everything when I switch channels. But when they're dialed in fuck....gat damn watch out....

 

[Greazygeo]

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 have the Redback and ET65 and have the same findings.
What works for me and the Redback is to mix it with a V30. Since the Redback has no midrange to speak of but lots of lows and highs, the V30’s has no lows or highs with only midrange, they mix pretty well.

 

[phil b]

The MAJOR thing to consider when putting 2 different amps on each side is your tracking. If you are not 100 percent accurate it will not sound like a mess. I owned a 16 track 2 inch studio for years and it was basically one amp left, one amp right..panned usually at 3 and 9 for a nice wide spread. If needed we would go back and add tracks. Sometimes just one more track, different amp, in the middle. but down in the mix. That filled things out pretty nicely. For leads I would do double, triple, or quad tracks and play with the panning, MS delay on one or two, verb on one or two. Just basically experiment for what YOU think sounds best.

Remember though... if you decide to go with quad rhythm tracks for a bone crushing metal tone... just watch your eq with the drums and cymbals..
Sometimes as guitar players we step on the other instruments and dont even realize it... I mean after all... the GUITAR TONES are really the only thing that matters anyways!! LOL Just remember, when quad tracking each guitar, less gain = more in the overall mix. Have fun with it and go nuts!! Good luck.

 

[Metalhex]

Lots of great advice here!!!

So some people quad track rythymn and leads too? Like if you have a lead and you want to harmonize that lead also, you can have 4 lead tracks? Nice!

I have to research what a "bus" is too because I've seen the term before but no idea what it means ? ?

 

[DrewJD82]

Lots of great advice here!!!

So some people quad track rythymn and leads too? Like if you have a lead and you want to harmonize that lead also, you can have 4 lead tracks? Nice!

I have to research what a "bus" is too because I've seen the term before but no idea what it means ? ?

A bus is almost like an effects loop for a mixer/DAW; you’ve got your main track and you can put all the effects and shit you want on that track, or you can Send the track to a Bus and apply the effects there, giving you a lot more control over the signals of both the track and the bus track. The main track stays untouched, but it’s signal is being sent to a bus track where you can add in the effects.

It’s especially helpful if you have more than one track you want to apply effects to but don’t want to open an instance of that effect on every individual track, so say I had 5 vocal tracks I want to have the same compression and reverb on, I’d send all 5 tracks to the same bus and slap the compression/reverb on it, only using 1 instance of each effect and saving a whole lot of CPU.

I prefer working with bus tracks for automating effects since I’m almost always setting the effects for 100% wet and at that point it’s just automating the bus channel’s volume slider. I do this with snare reverbs a lot; less reverb during fast sections but for choruses/less busy sections I’ll crank the verb up a bit. Or with vocals, getting a delay for just one specific word, you CAN put a delay on the main track and automate the Input Level, or you can slap it in a bus and just automate the volume slider of that bus. No right/wrong way in how you want to use them, whatever works!

As for quad tracking shit, I love doing it for rhythms but for leads I generally stick with 1 track per pitch unless I’m going for the effect of having each pitch doubled. This is the one time I’ll say more isn’t always more, shit can get messy really quick stacking stuff up like that. A lot of times if you feel something is missing, it can be resolved with EQ more efficiently than adding more tracks, but it’s all contextual!

 

[Metalhex]

A bus is almost like an effects loop for a mixer/DAW; you’ve got your main track and you can put all the effects and shit you want on that track, or you can Send the track to a Bus and apply the effects there, giving you a lot more control over the signals of both the track and the bus track. The main track stays untouched, but it’s signal is being sent to a bus track where you can add in the effects.

It’s especially helpful if you have more than one track you want to apply effects to but don’t want to open an instance of that effect on every individual track, so say I had 5 vocal tracks I want to have the same compression and reverb on, I’d send all 5 tracks to the same bus and slap the compression/reverb on it, only using 1 instance of each effect and saving a whole lot of CPU.

I prefer working with bus tracks for automating effects since I’m almost always setting the effects for 100% wet and at that point it’s just automating the bus channel’s volume slider. I do this with snare reverbs a lot; less reverb during fast sections but for choruses/less busy sections I’ll crank the verb up a bit. Or with vocals, getting a delay for just one specific word, you CAN put a delay on the main track and automate the Input Level, or you can slap it in a bus and just automate the volume slider of that bus. No right/wrong way in how you want to use them, whatever works!

As for quad tracking shit, I love doing it for rhythms but for leads I generally stick with 1 track per pitch unless I’m going for the effect of having each pitch doubled. This is the one time I’ll say more isn’t always more, shit can get messy really quick stacking stuff up like that. A lot of times if you feel something is missing, it can be resolved with EQ more efficiently than adding more tracks, but it’s all contextual!

This is incredibly helpful! But is this for mainly when recording DI tracks and/or applying digital effects after recording? For example, if you mic'd an amp with high gain and also using your delay pedal, then you would just record every track like that and call it a day, negating the need for using a bus? I have no idea really.

Strangely enough what I'm currently doing is such an odd method that I'm sure few people use. I'm recording my boss katana combo plugged straight into the USB into my DAW! Not mic'd or slaved or DI.....it's the brown channel, plugged straight into the PC and using that sound, and I happen to really like it alot! Maybe I'm not picky or easy to please, call me crazy but it sounds pretty good to me! Slap some DAW boss reverb and delay on there and that's what I'm doing.

Now when I finish everything else I will go back and record my tube amps and compare the sounds or mix them.

 

[DrewJD82]

This is incredibly helpful! But is this for mainly when recording DI tracks and/or applying digital effects after recording? For example, if you mic'd an amp with high gain and also using your delay pedal, then you would just record every track like that and call it a day, negating the need for using a bus? I have no idea really.

Strangely enough what I'm currently doing is such an odd method that I'm sure few people use. I'm recording my boss katana combo plugged straight into the USB into my DAW! Not mic'd or slaved or DI.....it's the brown channel, plugged straight into the PC and using that sound, and I happen to really like it alot! Maybe I'm not picky or easy to please, call me crazy but it sounds pretty good to me! Slap some DAW boss reverb and delay on there and that's what I'm doing.

Now when I finish everything else I will go back and record my tube amps and compare the sounds or mix them.

The choice is yours, mang! There’s no right or wrong.

A lot of people prefer adding the effects in after recording a dry guitar track because if you record with the effects on, you’re ‘stuck’ with them. Personally, I prefer tracking with the effects on but I keep a lot of things similar to how I used to record before DAWs were a thing. Petrucci always records his leads dry and adds the effects after the fact, it does make things easier when approaching a mix, but if you’re just fuckin’ around in your house, do whatever ya want man! This is where the experimentation and learning process comes into play and you’ll develop your own preferences after a while.

My buddy does the same thing with his Katana, just records it straight into his laptop from the USB so he can put song ideas down. Once you start getting into practicality/ease of use/finding out what actually gets the job done, you’ll find a lot of the shit you read on forums doesn’t fuckin’ matter. Hot takes on what’s “legit” or spoken as gospel is often just a bunch of chest thumping bullshit, whatever works, works. A mic’d up Pignose can sound huge on a recording given the context it’s sitting in.

Home recording gear, these days, is all aimed at delivering a pleasing sound really quickly, from the Katana’s USB out to amp plug-ins and the ease of getting them into a DAW. You can spin your wheels for days questioning “Does this really sound as good as I think it does?”, just go with it, have a fucking blast and create shit. The more time passes the more you’ll learn about it, before long you’ll be running from your jam room to your car to check mixes and figuring out how to dial things in better. It’s a really fucking fun time to be a musician with all the shit we have at our disposal if we want to be creative!

 

[Metalhex]

The choice is yours, mang! There’s no right or wrong.

A lot of people prefer adding the effects in after recording a dry guitar track because if you record with the effects on, you’re ‘stuck’ with them. Personally, I prefer tracking with the effects on but I keep a lot of things similar to how I used to record before DAWs were a thing. Petrucci always records his leads dry and adds the effects after the fact, it does make things easier when approaching a mix, but if you’re just fuckin’ around in your house, do whatever ya want man! This is where the experimentation and learning process comes into play and you’ll develop your own preferences after a while.

My buddy does the same thing with his Katana, just records it straight into his laptop from the USB so he can put song ideas down. Once you start getting into practicality/ease of use/finding out what actually gets the job done, you’ll find a lot of the shit you read on forums doesn’t fuckin’ matter. Hot takes on what’s “legit” or spoken as gospel is often just a bunch of chest thumping bullshit, whatever works, works. A mic’d up Pignose can sound huge on a recording given the context it’s sitting in.

Home recording gear, these days, is all aimed at delivering a pleasing sound really quickly, from the Katana’s USB out to amp plug-ins and the ease of getting them into a DAW. You can spin your wheels for days questioning “Does this really sound as good as I think it does?”, just go with it, have a fucking blast and create shit. The more time passes the more you’ll learn about it, before long you’ll be running from your jam room to your car to check mixes and figuring out how to dial things in better. It’s a really fucking fun time to be a musician with all the shit we have at our disposal if we want to be creative!

I already do that, haha. Every time I sit down and make tweaks I send it to my Dropbox and listen in my car on my long drive to work; and listen to it many times!

 

[DrewJD82]

I already do that, haha. Every time I sit down and make tweaks I send it to my Dropbox and listen in my car on my long drive to work; and listen to it many times!

Hahaha since I do everything via my iMac it all goes to my Apple Music account after I bounce it out of Logic so one song will end and I get some random bullshit of me putting an idea down, like poorly singing a guitar part into the mic except now it’s blaring in my truck and sounds like someone on the spectrum trying to sing a guitar solo.

 

[Markedman]

I was the recording King of the quick demo on the cheap. I had many magic boxes like, gates, compressors, aural exciters, PEQ's, etc. good stuff. Anyway, I had a Lexicon delay set up with a super short delay to send the guitar track to the right dry and to the left wet. When I hit that button, all the eyes would widen, mouths open, "whoa,... cool!". Quick, cheap, instant, easy and effective super stereo.

All bands had to play through their own amps, they just insisted, but the drums were mic'd up so they were in and out in 3-4 hours and had a 5 song demo (cassettes) for $50 and a 12 pack of beer.