Mono Vs Stereo Guitar

[brianinogang]

HEY GUYS!!! i have some samples here. those samples are made solely for comparison of mono and stereo guitars. im no pro on this recording stuff but i've learned a thing or two from you guys and i think that the best way to thank you all is to pay it forward to the people that need info on guitar widening because when i was just starting, it took me long to figure it out and this problem got me going in circles up until i joined recordingreview.

here's the story, 2003 was the year i first started using a daw (and it was probably also the year that i first learned how to use a computer.hahaha). anyway, i was a rhythm guitarist in my band called "fulcrum" and i wanted to incorporate the same stuff that was goin on with pro metal recordings with my own material. for me, i think i got the tone that i was goin for (well at least for my own taste). now the problem is whenever i record, it sounds different. its all crap!!! the tone was there but there but it still didnt cut it. i tried using plate reverbs, excessive eqing, pan expansion and other widening techniques but nothing changed. it just made my recordings more complex and unreal. i ended up stopping to create recordings till i joined here.
this site helped me a lot.
now here are the things that i've learned so far and the things that might help you incase you havent tried it yet..
-i get a good guitar tone using my monitors or headphones before recording the guitar track. eventhough it sounds good to my ears, it would sound different when i record depending on the mic and its placement so i make sure i place the mic where it hears the best tone for my taste
- for rhythm guitars, i record 2 tracks. and then pan hard left and right. some do it 90 left/right. its alright. but for my taste i hard pan em. i dont just copy and paste tracks. i retrack them all because thats what gives you the separation that you need for making it stereo. at times i quad track. the fist two tracks having mids and the last 2 tracks concentrating on the highs and bass i pan the "middy" tone and "hissy tone" hard left and i do the same for the right. for lead guitars i leave them on the center.
- i then clean up the track. reduce the hiss and then put compression on the guitars. compressing tracks really brings out the power of an instrument. and then i eq to my taste and apply reverb if needed.

now here are the demo's.
for the mono: guitars are all panned on the center. double tracked no compression and eqing.
for the stereo enhanced: guitars are panned on the center but i used a plugin called fruity stereo enhancer. double tracked no compression and eqing
for the quad tracked: 2 guitars panned (middy and hissy) hard left and 2 guitars (also middy and hissy) panned hard right. no compression and eqing.

the difference would be very noticeable if you use headphones so i suggest you use one if you have. Well I think thats about it. That would be the best that i could offer. i hope this helps guys. As ive said, "im no pro" here so keep us posted if you have something.
thanks for the learning experience!!! im sure there are tons more to learn.
ejoy the short samples. CHEEERS!!!!

[brandondrury]

Great job dude! This is as good of illustration of the effects of doubling and panning as I've seen. The guitars sound great!

I also like how you included the quadrupled tracks. It illustrates just how gigantic two guitars can be and how after than another two tracks doesn't add a whole lot more.

Brandon

[brianinogang]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Great job dude! This is as good of illustration of the effects of doubling and panning as I've seen. The guitars sound great!

I also like how you included the quadrupled tracks. It illustrates just how gigantic two guitars can be and how after than another two tracks doesn't add a whole lot more.

Brandon

thanks brandon. just paying the knowledge forward to others that want to create their own records through this forum. if anyone else is willing to contribute to this little thread, it would be very much appreciated.

[captainL]

sounds cool. My conclusion that I am coming to realize:

Mono - sucks

Double tracked - HUGE improvement from Mono

Quad tracked - slight improvement from double.

Double track wins it for me for effectiveness vs time.

Anybody mess around with TRI tracking. Maybe do a double track and then throw a track down the middle with different EQ maybe boosted highs or something. One more thing to experiment with if I ever get time....but it sounds cool.

[sherone]

Brandon thx for your sharing. This is a very good example of the effects of doubling and panning.