Double Tracked Leads Sound Lifeless, help.

ethan_hanus · 10-01-2010, 05:34 PM

Today I decided to redo this song again for the 100th time, and I think I have it written close to the way I want it, thing is, I decided to double track the leads, which I know has always worked well with other people, but when I did it it sounds lifeless, which kinda pisses me off, I even put a slight reverb on it to give it more air and even boosted the high mids and highs.

Here's the clip for those of ya'll who want to hear exactly what I'm talking about. Keep in mind the song is structured for vocals, it's just I can't sing and I haven't written any vocals to it, but if you interested in helping with vocals for it then you can PM me about it.

PS: Yes I do know the cymbals are insanely loud, I'll fix that after I get this problem fixed

**Rainer.** · 10-01-2010, 05:51 PM

How are you recording it?

I'm guessing that you might boosting high mids, on a recording that might not even have any high mids there to boost (beside general good recording policy to cut rather than boost whenever possible). You're right that the problem is a lack of presence, though.

**surferdude9375** · 10-01-2010, 06:58 PM

Its missing the 8k range. Could have to do with mic placement when you recorded.
When you double the tracks how are you panning them? You could place them both at R30 and R10 and then pan the verb over to R30, put a boost in the EQ on the R30 track at the high end and it would probably give you that epic lead sound you are asking for.

(The cymbals actually sound decent where they are. I would only slightly turn them down.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rainer.

(beside general good recording policy to cut rather than boost whenever possible).

The rule I have always heard is cut (narrow Q) to make it sound better, boost (wide Q) to make it sound different.

**Rainer.** · 10-01-2010, 07:07 PM

Well, yeah, to make it sound better. In any case, you're not gonna get anything back that wasn't existent in the original recording.

ethan_hanus · 10-01-2010, 09:00 PM

Line in with Impulses, so ya'll telling me I prolly need to rerecord the lead with more mids and highs EQed on my amp right? Maybe more of the A power channel will help. It's strange though how it sounds so dull in the recording, yet extremely bright on my amp, and the impulses are of the exact speaker I have, so...

When I double the tracks I pan them hard right and left, cause I'm recording two separate tracks of the same progression. I'll play around with what I got right now and give ya'll an update here in like 20 minutes.

Edit: Not quite 20 minutes, but whatever, ok, so boosted the 8000hz range on all the leads and for the master mix, also applied a clean tube preamp sim that I like a lot for helping stubborn tracks to sound better.

**surferdude9375** · 10-01-2010, 11:23 PM

Sometimes looking at sound in a visual manner (spectrum analyzer) helps me to learn from massive productions and see how my mixes compare. Maybe you can relate. I pulled a part where your lead was playing and then pulled a similar sounding line from Anberlin's song Paperthin Hymn.

In Anberlin's song you can see a nice gentle slope downward toward 20kHz and there is a little blip in the 8-10k range, that is the lead's intelligibility poking through the rest of the mix.

In your mix you can see there is a lack of that 6-8k range. Take your boost down to 7k and give it a lot higher Q. It might be what Rainer is suggesting, you can't boost what isn't there. (time to re-record!)

ethan_hanus · 10-02-2010, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surferdude9375

Sometimes looking at sound in a visual manner (spectrum analyzer) helps me to learn from massive productions and see how my mixes compare. Maybe you can relate. I pulled a part where your lead was playing and then pulled a similar sounding line from Anberlin's song Paperthin Hymn.

In Anberlin's song you can see a nice gentle slope downward toward 20kHz and there is a little blip in the 8-10k range, that is the lead's intelligibility poking through the rest of the mix.

In your mix you can see there is a lack of that 6-8k range. Take your boost down to 7k and give it a lot higher Q. It might be what Rainer is suggesting, you can't boost what isn't there. (time to re-record!)

That's awfully strange that the 18-20k are missing. Idk, I'll try using a different pickup selection this time and boost the mids and highs on the amp and give it more A power and see what that does for it.

Edit: Ok, so I retracked the leads using my neck pickup instead of the 4th position, boosted the mids and highs a good bit on the amp, and pushed the A power almost all the way on the texture control, also took the reverb off and went for a little bit of modulation effect. I think it sounds much much better now, but ya'll be the judge of that.

**surferdude9375** · 10-02-2010, 11:55 AM

The 16kHz dropoff comes from the mp3 compression. LAME decided there is nothing useful in that range.

I think it sounds better but not because of a different sound but because the reverb is no longer making it muddy.

ethan_hanus · 10-02-2010, 08:19 PM

Sweet, at least I got it somewhere decent. I'll have to fix that lame thing, which would explain alot as to why my MP3's are sounding quieter than when it's in reaper.