I read this article the other day about the guitar production of My Bloody Valentines guitars on their album 'Loveless' As I am recording my EP at the moment and wanting to capture and wall of sound effect with my guitars. I used something their engineer did in order to make a tonal difference in they sound of guitars with out over dubs. Of course, there were many over dubs but this technique really captures the conflicting guitar tones in a way I would have never thought to try.
Here is a the little quote that inspired me:
So I read a little more into system splitters and found out that you needed a specific type of A/B/Y pedal to make this work most effectively. Most of the sources I found were referring to playing live like stacking two different amps for a more or a line array effect on stage (Allen, 2012). I knew that wasn't going to be able to source my own system splitter or A/B/Y DI box before I wanted to record. So after reading about some alternative ways that can sometimes be less effective I decided that I would at least try. I had access to some stereo DI boxes and figured that by using the Left and Right sides for each amp that it would work.
I pretty much did this through a little bit of research and through trial and error. I read that people had used Y cables to split the DI out into the two amps. This is more of a daisy chaining effect and can sometimes kill the tone of the amp (doorknocker, 2011). However some people were stating that after using daisy chaining and then comparing it to using a system splitter that the daisy chain actually had more tone.
I had only access to a really low quality one of these and needed to use an AUX to TRS to convert the end so it could plug into my pedal board.
So, after plugging out of my pedal board I then had two TRS cables I was able to then plug in to a stereo DI box in to the L and R Inputs.
Then, I plugged tow more TRS cables out of the L and R and into the two amps.
Of course my guitar was plugged then into my tuner in my pedal board.
Here is a little diagram showing the signal flow.
So as far as my experience went with this technique it sounded great. I unplugged the DI when everything worked and played the amps separately to make sure the tone was not compromised.
Here is one of my reference tracks for the guitars for one of my songs:
I had a vision for the tone I wanted to get from these amps and using this set up. I had two amps of different tone and quality to be honest. I used a Fender Deville and a Conrert amp. A huge difference is quality but I really really like the old shitty amp and I was stoked that I was able to use them both. The cool thing with the coronet amp is that it has this amazing tremolo efffect built in. I love the rich and dusty tone that is produces.
As far as the position of the amps I decided that due to the power difference in them that having them facing each other might not be the best place for them. In stead I treated it as if I was recording two guitarists and how best I would capture them at the same time as well as getting some room tone. So I placed a baffled between the amps and faced then away from each other. This allowed the room to have space for the sound to bounce of the walls and hit the room mics. I pretty much was thinking that if this didn't work I'd try putting the amps side by side. To come to these conclusions I read a few forums about how people have gone about recording two guitar amps at the same time (Pike, 2012).
My Bloody Valentines Producer Alan Moulder inspired me to close mic the amps. I was thinking more along the lines of more ambient and experimental mixing until I saw this quote. All I needed was to hear this from Alan Moulder and I was for sure going to try it.
I used similar mic set ups on both these amps. On the Fender I used a C414 and an Sm57 right in the middle of the cone to grab some of the brightness. I also used a Royer 121 tapped in a sweet spot that I found to be at the top of the cone slightly off the centre. On the Coronet amp I ned a c414 and sm57 in a slight different way the sm57 I found a sweet spot of just off axis and had the C4141 just to the right of the cone. I also used two room mics. I found the positions for these by just moving around and playing my guitar until I found a place I thought sounded good then placed the other mic in the opposite position. Here are some pics.
Sorry about all the tape on this amp I literals couldn't find gaff anywhere.
I decided to mic up the bottom speaker of this amp as it had more resonance than the top one. I just found this out by listening close to the cone on a low level and moving the mics around. I then double checked the tine in live room that the tone was good and I didn't need to adjust any microphones.
As for the sound I used my pedal board through both amps that consisted of a reverb, phaser and a distortion pedal. I also got a DI signal of these sounds which I can layer in to the microphone recordings. I didn't use to many effects as I want to be able to play around with some re amping this week as well. I just wanted the tone to be fat and to be able to experiment with some sounds.
So that is how I recorded the guitar section for my EP. I will be giving some more updates on the other recording sections such as drums and vocals in the next week!
REFERNCES
Allen, P. (2012). Tone Stacking with Two Amps. Retrieved from https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Tone_Stacking_With_Two_Amps
Tracking with 2 guitar amps in the same room? - Gearslutz. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/714653-tracking-2-guitar-amps-same-room.html
One guitar through two amps? - Gearslutz. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.gearslutz.com/board/geekslutz-forum/587678-one-guitar-through-two-amps.html
How To Use Two Amps At The Same Time?. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?154535-How-To-Use-Two-Amps-At-The-Same-Time
Muscato, D. (2019). Why Do So Many Touring Guitarists Use Two Amps?. Retrieved from https://reverb.com/au/news/why-do-so-many-touring-guitarists-use-two-amps
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