Let me start by saying, I almost never do this trick, but it is a good one to know. The delayed guitar trick is when you have one guitar track and you simply double the track and add a very slight delay onto it in order to make a second guitar track. The advantage here is that you only need to record the guitar part once to make a wide stereo image. So, if you have a guitar part or musician who is struggling with doubling their parts… this may be the trick for you.

This guitar trick can work well on almost any type of guitar track. Your delay track will sound slightly off… so the more transient the part is the more you will hear the delay of the second guitar track. I would recommend using this on guitar tracks that have a full chord strummed instead of power chord or finger picking parts. If you have an acoustic guitar or rhythm guitar with some overdrive on it you will probably have success with the delayed guitar trick.

Just like the previous doubled guitar tricks, phase is an issue. You certainly need to make sure you are listening in both stereo and mono to check for phase boosting or phase cancellations (This was discussed in depth with our exact doubled guitar tracking trick). Even though you are using the exact same guitar parts, the application of the delay on the second part will help with phasing issues. Keep in mind, they are the exact same guitar part. So you will really need to pay attention to how these tracks are working together after the delay is applied.

As I mentioned before, I never use this trick. I almost always use delay and reverb effects to create depth and space in my mixes. So, adding a delay to a guitar track in order to make a wider stereo image gives me the feel of pushing the guitar track further back in the mix. However, it is a very effective way to make a doubled track with players or parts that will be difficult to physically double track. Additionally, sometimes you are working on projects where the musicians are just not available to make a doubled track. If you find yourself in the situation where you need to make a guitar track a little wider, but don’t have the ability to physically make a doubled guitar track, then this may just be the trick you need.

Last week we looked at making an exact double guitar track. This week we will look at making two similar guitar tracks. Two similar guitar tracks function very similar to the exact doubled guitar track. You will be using two guitar parts to make a wide stereo image of the guitar sound. The difference is the similar guitar track is not tracked as the exact same guitar part… meaning, you don’t have to play the guitar parts exactly the same. Infact, little variances is what this tracking trick is all about.

So what is the goal here? Remember, with the exact doubled guitar tracks we are using time aligning tools to make sure both guitar tracks are exactly the same. With the similar guitar tracking trick, we are actually looking for the two guitar parts to act as one guitar part, but play off each other. I often will track both guitar parts with the exact same main rhythm… then I will make sure that one of the two guitar parts has slightly more; motion, rhythm, feeling, whatever you want to call it. This will give you one rock solid guitar track that is a little stale and one guitar part that is interesting, while still having the overall feel of one guitar part.

I have found that it can be a little tricky to have two similar guitar parts that still make the overall impression of one guitar part. Because of this, I almost always use this trick on acoustic guitar parts that are full chord strum parts. This trick works well when there is a lot of harmonic information going on. Overdrive tracks, distortion tracks, or powerchord parts seem to be a little too transient to make this an effective trick. Trying this trick on the wrong kind of track can lead to the impression of two tracks that were poorly recorded together, be careful!

Just like with the previously discussed exact doubled guitar track, we are dealing with phase here. So be careful to avoid the previously discussed phasing issues. Phase build up or cancellations can still occur with this trick. Make sure to listen in mono, stereo, and/or use a spectrograph to determine if there are phasing issues that come up. Luckily since we are not using the exact same rhythmic material phasing issues seem to be a lot less present with this trick, but should still be a serious concern.

If I find that these tracks are going to be somewhat buried in the mix with a lot of other exact doubled guitar tracks I will often take this a step further. Too many exact guitar tracks can make the overall sound of a recording a little stale. This is because of all the exact same material that is being presented. I will sometimes take the two similar guitar parts and re-record each of them a second time. This time I will try to make both of the guitar parts full of; feeling, rhythm, motion, whatever you want to call it. I will often let these tracks stray away from the original main rhythm a little more, while still trying to maintain the sound of one guitar. When done right, this can really bring the overall feel of the entire song to life while making a very wide stereo image for the guitar parts. Be careful to maintain the sound of only one guitar, but don’t get stuck in the exact doubled guitar part mindset.  

Check back next week for how to make one delayed guitar track.

The exact double guitar track is a great trick to use when you need to make one guitar sound really big. This consists of playing the exact same guitar part twice in order to get a wide stereo image. Although today it’s not enough to just play the exact same guitar part twice. I often find myself using a time align tool to ensure the guitar parts are exactly in sync between the two guitar parts. I then take the two guitar parts and hard pan them left and right to make a wide stereo image. The difference in phase between the two guitar parts is what creates a wide stereo image.

Although you can do this trick with any kind of guitar I typically find I do this with overdrive guitars or heavily distorted guitars. Since I often have my lead guitar parts straight up the center in my mix, this trick is almost always used exclusively on rhythm guitar tracks. It is a great trick to make one guitar part sound really big in the stereo image.

There are, however, some things you need to be careful with when creating the exact double guitar track. Phase is your biggest concern. Phasing issues happen when you have two signals that are either canceling each other out, or are amplifying each other. When you are listening in stereo, you may hear a build up of certain frequencies (often your low end), or when listening in mono you may lose certain frequencies (often your high end). If you don’t have an optimal listening condition, or if your are not sure what to listen for, you can use a spectrograph to visually show you when frequencies are canceling or building up.

If you find that you are having phasing issues, you are going to need to change something. To escape phasing issues you will need to make sure you have different harmonics between the two parts. Harmonics are the overtone series that is created from any instrument. While being conscious of maintaining the same tone, you can change your harmonic structure by; changing pickups, use a different guitar, change your microphone on the guitar cab, or change your microphone preamp. As I mentioned before, you want to make sure you are maintaining the same guitar tone (this is an exact double guitar), but you will need to make sure the harmonic structure of the two parts are slightly different.

After you have recorded your two guitar tracks you can then hard pan the tracks left and right and record them into one stereo track or just leave them as two mono tracks. Having your doubled guitars in a stereo track may make production easier as you move along to other parts of the song. Even if you have a stereo recording of each guitar part, you can still bounce each guitar into a stereo track. Just make sure to pay attention to where you are panning each guitar part and microphone. Make sure to watch your phase! This will give you an easy to work with and very big stereo guitar sound:)

Check back next week for how to make two similar guitar tracks.

When tracking guitars it’s important to consider how many guitar tracks you need. Of course when you’re onstage you have one guitar, but when you’re in the studio sometimes you need that one guitar to sound like two guitars. This month we will dive into double tracking guitars. Below are three common methods for creating double-track guitars. This month we will go in-depth on each one of these three methods.

• The exact double guitar track. These are two guitars that are tracks to sound like one guitar.
• Two similar guitar tracks. These are two guitars that are tracked to sound alike but are not exactly the same.
• 1 delayed guitar. This is only one guitar that has a delay effect on it.

Check back in on Monday for an indepth look at the exact double guitar track.