Members steve_man Posted September 19, 2016 Members Share Posted September 19, 2016 Always wondered how some of these guys got such an amazingly huge sound... did not occur to me in all these years that it was most likely doubling. TC Electronic just came out with a new doubling pedal... How many of you guys have tried using these in a live setting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted September 19, 2016 Members Share Posted September 19, 2016 http://www.tcelectronic.com/mimiq-doubler/ I couldn't listen to it much since I'm just takin a mini-break at work, but I'm curious if it has any worthwhile application for those of us that play more on the clean to OD crunch side of the scale. [video=youtube;2JH67reYgoo] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members steve_man Posted September 19, 2016 Author Members Share Posted September 19, 2016 Yup, me too. Want to just try one out to see if it works for anything other than heavy stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted September 19, 2016 Members Share Posted September 19, 2016 It can work OK for certain types of music where the parts are precisely repeatable. If you cant nail the parts time after time it can sound like a train wreak just as easily. I used to do allot of tight harmony work too which can found fantastic as well. Play the same riff in harmony a 3rd, 5th, 7th, or even octave above the other (or even switch voicings strategically) and it can sound really cool. Takes a little while to figure out the flats and sharps used in inversions but it can sure be fun when you get it. The Allman Brothers used to do allot of that stuff very effectively. There are other techniques you can use too. I usually track my guitars with dual amps having different settings and I split the signal using stereo chorus and echoes/reverbs to get some really big sounds using a single guitar. I can then pan them within the stereo field at different positions to get a more three dimensional sound. Having a dry guitar on one side and adding some reverb with pre delay on the other makes it sound like your bounding off a wall on the other side of the room. You can also EQ the reverb differently to bring out stronger reflected tones to create different room environments. Then there's the old trick of using a pitch shifter. You can either record two tracks at once or simply copy the track. Pitch one track up 6 cents, pitch the other down 6 cents for a fatter tone. I have one cool chorus plugin where I can do this combined with the chorus which sounds very realistic. Of course the one that overlooked the most is using less drive. The more drive you use the smaller the guitar speaker sounds and vice versa. Allot of recordings you hear and think have huge amps are actually very small low wattage amps simply cranked up without drive pedals. Natural amp drive can sound as big as you need it and you can always add more drive mixing. If you use too much drive tracking you're screwed. The only fix is to re-track the part. Mainly its a matter of comfort vs playability. Most players like the sustain and compression of drive to hold notes out and they can ease up playing. When you dial it back the dynamics increase and consistent picking becomes hyper critical. Hitting a string lightly with allot of drive sounds the same as when you hit it hard. When you back off the gain light and hard picking stands out like s sore thumb. Getting just enough gain so you can still play well and not oversaturate is always tough. I did a recording just the other day, thought I had it dialed back enough and played a fantastic lead for the song. I go back a week later to mix it only to find I had too much friggin drive for the song and I knew I couldn't salvage the part and have it fit in the mix properly. If I dial down the volume it simply disappears behind the cymbals. If I leave it up it gets irritating and melts your ears. Sometimes I can ride the volume and make it work but not this one. Its obvious my ears were fatigued when I tracked it and I just didn't hear that much gain when I tracked it. I did another song that day with nearly clean tone. It needed a little more gain to be just the right size so I used a Voxengo plugin called Lampthruster which can emulate a slightly cranked amp tone, tweaked a little 5Khz up and rolled off a little bass and bam - I was done. You'd think I was playing a Strat through a Marshall stack if you didn't know otherwise. The key is - with cleaner tones its the size of your playback speakers that wind up giving you the large size.If you have 12" monitors, and the track is fairly clean its just like plugging into a guitar amp through a clean 12" cab. Big tones. Add drive and the speaker gets smaller and smaller till its the size of a pocket AM radio barely audible and mostly white noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bucksstudent Posted September 20, 2016 Members Share Posted September 20, 2016 I just copy the track and put each in separate channels (one left, one right), and slightly alter the pitch of the copied track. Works quite well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ski219 Posted September 20, 2016 Members Share Posted September 20, 2016 If you're talking live performance, then I think it is using more than 1 amp. I have used 2 and it sounds great. Usually have 1 clean and 1 overdriven. I hardly ever do this because I am mostly playing club gigs and it ain't worth hauling my heavier amp around, plus sometimes there isn't a ton of room for stuff.The guy in Black Keys uses 3 with one being a bit delayed. He has a super fat sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Out of the Past Posted September 27, 2016 Members Share Posted September 27, 2016 didnt randy rhoads double and triple track his solos? crazy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarvelUndies Posted September 30, 2016 Members Share Posted September 30, 2016 In the studio, I have been known to double my rhythm tracks using different guitars for each and panning each to either side to get a "fuller" sound. With leads, at the most I'll harmonise with a fifth and an octave to flesh it out a bit, or just use a fourth or fifth for effect. I'd be completely stumped on stage since I have one multi effects unit that I've stuck with for a few years now. When I was in a band, I opted to employ a second guitarist to beef us up. It worked and the sound was definitely better, but the drawback was that he had a poor work ethic and a huge ego. So with regard to the subject of this thread, machines are for the most part better than people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bucksstudent Posted September 30, 2016 Members Share Posted September 30, 2016 I was putting together an album with a friend of mine, a bassist, who suggested that we get a second guitarist for live performances, and I immediately knew we couldn't because of my hybrid picking style and the way I structured the chord progressions. Yes, I'd love to play with another guitarist, but I sincerely didn't believe any of the players in the area could reproduce many of my songs. It wasn't that I think I'm that good. I considered that no one could duplicate my style Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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