How To Create Huge Guitar Tones

How To Create Huge Guitar Tones

So you want to create huge face-melting guitars in your mix?

Here's how we do it...

This tip is actually a 'Recording 101 Technique' but I often receive tracks for mixing or mastering that simply ignore it or don't do it properly. We are talking about 'Double Tracking' and the more advanced 'Quad Tracking'.

The basic idea is to record your guitar part twice and pan one take to the hard left and the other take to the hard right. This can be a rhythm, lead or pad part, it doesn't matter. The subtle differences in timing and pitch will create a larger than life sounding guitar.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

1. Too often I see people using different guitars and pickups for their double-tracking and it creates an uneven balance in the stereo mix. (Yes this can be a cool effect but it's not what we are looking for here).

Make sure you use the same guitar, pickup, and amp for both takes.

2. Don't just duplicate one good take and pan left and right. This will just create a mono track and you won't get any benefit of stereo. (Yes you can slide one of the takes 10-20ms but when you sum your mix to mono the guitars will sound phasey)

Make sure you record two individual takes.

OK, so now you have 'huge and wide' but where's the face-melting action you were promised??

I hear ya!

The face-melting action comes from the addition of another two takes but this time around we want to use a different sound. The difference in sound could be a change in amp, a change in guitar, or a change in the tone. You still want to create two new takes and pan them left and right respectively.

Personally I like to change everything, the guitar, the amp, and the tone. This way we are building up the tones to create a thick sounding guitar.

How do you create your guitar tones?

Don’t forget to visit our blog post about how to mic your guitar cab.

Also watch our video on mixing guitars for Arcane Roots.