Doubling up guitars is always a great option to enhance your recording and make it sound wider. You can even triple or quadruple-track them! However, knowing how to process and place them in the mix will allow you to take the technique further.

In this article, we will show you how to get the most out of your guitar tracks using Sonimus plugins. Let’s start at the beginning!

Why doubling guitars?

In the world of recording, double is always better. Having two tracks with two recordings of the same part thickens the sound of that instrument. Plus, when panning them to opposite sides, it creates a very particular widening effect of the stereo field.

But if I have a nice guitar take, why can’t I copy it on another track, pan it opposite and be done with it? As tempting as this might be, the reality is that you are only making the guitar louder. The key to the technique is the actual timing and performance differences between the different takes. The slight imperfections that make every take unique create the natural stereo effect.

What if I only tracked one guitar?

There might be scenarios when you only tracked one guitar, but you want to make the record sound big and wide. In such cases, it’s time to get creative.

For these scenarios, it’s always better to work with the DI signal of the guitar when possible to increase the processing flexibility. We want to make two copies of the guitar signal, pan them left and right, and process them differently to create two distinctive guitar sounds.

Make one cleaner than the other; use different amp simulations or impulse responses for their cab simulation, or create a room sound using a reverb plugin on the track processing chain. On top of that, instead of only delaying the guitar, use a doubler or modulating plugin to synthetically add the nuances we were talking about and increase the differences between both sounds.

Add Presence with Sonimus’ A-EQ

Once you have your guitars doubled, it’s time to process them, and what’s better than adding the sound and versatility of A-EQ! The modularity of this plugin allows for tailoring EQ configurations to the source material, whilst still delivering that classic ‘in-your-face’ 550 and 512 preamp sound.

The key to increasing the widening effect of the doubled guitars is to process them separately and with opposite moves. While you boost specific frequencies in one guitar, try cutting that same frequency in the second one. The idea is — whilst being the same part — to keep separating their sounds apart. With this philosophy, thanks to A-EQ’s different preamp modes, you can apply the line saturation to one guitar while pushing the mic saturation on the other, or filtering them slightly differently. You will instantly feel how the track opens up with a ‘bigger-than-life’ effect.

Create contrast

If you read our last blog post, you will be familiar with the importance of using automation in your productions to add contrast throughout your song, and in terms of making guitars sound wide, it couldn’t be more essential. To make your choruses explode with size, make the verses narrower and simpler. Keep only one guitar playing in the verses in the centre of the spectrum, and then unmute the rest of the guitars for the choruses, with their pannings spanning both sides of the stereo field. This contrast will enhance the already established widening effect, and make your choruses sound huge.

Were you familiar with these techniques for mixing guitars? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

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