Tips and tricks for double tracking
Double tracking is one of the more commonly used methods of thickening up a track and giving the overall sound greater depth. Vocals and guitar tracks are the two things that benefit most from double tracking in my opinion. When double tracking the guitars, you really want to try and make it seem like there are two guitarists playing the same guitar part.
The best option is almost always to record a track twice, then pan one hard left and one hard right. This is often referred to a 'true' double tracking.
If you have the time and the gear, try using two different guitars and vary amplifiers or settings to give a slightly different tone. Another important aspect of 'true' double tracking that some people overlook is that you should record the second take using the first take as the guide track. This helps you keep up with some of the subtle nuances you may miss if you try and record the second take cold.
When it comes time to mixing your double track, once you have the relative volume levels as you like, it's worthwhile sending the two tracks to an Aux send. That way you can apply volume changes, EQ, compression and other effects to the doubled track as if it were one single take.
Sometimes 'true' double tracking is not possible. That's when a little creative audio manipulation is required. Here are a few ideas that can be used to take one mono guitar track and simulate double tracking, because sometimes it's just easier to fake it.
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The Delay Trick
This is the technique I employ most often when I'm feeling lazy. You take your single audio track and duplicate it. Pan the original hard left and the duplicate hard right. Now you either have two options, you can either run the duplicate through a delay set to a delay of 5-30 milliseconds (trust your ears) set to 100% wet, or simply nudge the duplicate track so it is 5-30 milliseconds behind the original track. The second option is the easiest and saves some processing power (depending on what plugin you use and how you use it). Using this method you'll occasionally encounter phasing issues, so have a listen through to make sure it's all ok.
Another handy trick is to tweak the EQ of the duplicate track to create a little difference between the original and duplicate. Play around cutting and boosting frequencies, until you find something that compliments the original. This just adds to create some difference between the two tracks and help build the illusion that it's actually two guitars.
If you've got a POD XT Pro or the POD X3 Pro record a source track dry and then play around with 're-amping', or running the source track back through the POD using different amplifier and tone settings.
If you're doubling a vocal track using the delay trick, it can also sound pretty cool if you play around with some very very subtle pitch shifting as well.
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