Tracking Guitars for HUGE sound

The most common mistake is thinking that more distortion=bigger sound. There is a point of diminishing returns. I often have my clients double their driven guitar tracks with a LESS distorted tone. They usually balk at first, but in the end they live the result. Less driven means less compressed. More attack. More balls- can I say balls? I don't mean clean, mind you, just less than fully driven.

Also, when you record a take into 2 tracks, you may want to experiment with nudging one a little later. Watch for phasing, but it can really thicken the sound compared to 2 tracks perfectly in sync.

All that being said, if you are loving the results, you ARE doing it right :)

My recipe is this :

Record one good track.

Clone it 3 times, so you get a total of 4 tracks.

Pan 2 of them hard left then nudge one of those tracks by a couple of milliseconds.

Do the same fot the other 2 tracks, only panning them hard right this time.

Add reverb (to taste) to one track to one of the left tracks and to one of the right tracks.

My two euro cents !

Cheers,
Jerry

Cloning tracks will only give you the SAME gtr in the SAME amp. What works for me and the gtr albums I listen to is this formula. To achieve that Wall Of Sound gtr sound you hear on Queen, Def Leppard, or any of the metal bands out there is really a combination of DIFFERENT gtrs thru DIFFERENT amps. Try laying the first track with your primary sound. Then overdub from there with different amps or sims with different cabs and different pedals and preferably different guitars and different mics. Pay close attention to the mix and panning of the tracks. Hard left for a couple and hard right for a couple. Mix them up! Don't put all your dirt tracks on one side and all your slightly overdriven tracks on the other. Mix and match until you get a good blend for both sides. I prefer to assign all those tracks minus the solos to a GTR WALL BUSS. That way when you get your mix sounding right, you can turn all those tracks up and down with the buss volume.
BEWARE! You want to cut these tracks with no chorusing, delay, or reverbs. Chorusing is usually not used at all because you achieve that sound by mixing all of these basic tracks already. I prefer dry as possible and add reverb at the buss. Nothing sounds worse than 4-10 gtr tracks that sound like they were recorded in completely different rooms! It sounds much more authentic to add a nice room reverb on the buss!
Again, this advice is aimed at getting those power chord sounds. Solos are a little different.
I hope this helps you and is not too confusing. It is a little more trouble and takes a little more time but it is well worth the extra effort. I promise you.
 

Jim Roseberry
 
If you're looking for a big/fat sound, start with the instrument/amp.

Agreed.
Expanding a bit on that from my experience, string / action height and pickup height can have a great deal to do with the sound of the guitar and how it drives the amp or virtual amp.
The higher the action the more room the strings have to move.
The lower the pickups the less magnetic restriction on the strings = again ... more string excursion.
Of course the action height thing is also about a physical comfort zone but I'd always recommend don't be afraid to step out of the comfort zone and let it grow on you a bit.

I usually find a place with the action /setup where it begins to be high enough that I start to really relax and play more calmly, and with a lighter touch. Too low of an action always makes me struggle and want to dig in too much, probably because I'm not getting the sound from the strings.

When it feels like there is airy space under the strings and it all gets easy is when I end up getting the sound onto the (virtual) tape.
 
I also agree there's no substitute for a "real" double track. It's also a great way to tighten up the performance, as like,
cut the first one, cut the second while listening to the first, and the second one "adapts" a bit.

Now mute the first one and cut a 3rd while listening to the second.
The listening mix and balance / panning can be critical in this process but what I look for is letting the track I'm monitoring tell me how to fit with it. It's find the magic. When I hit that spot I'm just letting it happen as opposed to controlling it.
Sometimes I'll try 4, 5, or 6 to see how far it can go.
For me the trick is not getting too cold, and knowing where the heart and or guts of the performance wants to be for this particular part.

I'll be the purist in a sense here, since I routinely track a massive, but punchy-sounding Les Paul through and old 5150 half-stack, and I'll make a recommendation that I have tested and tested, and tested over and over:
Get a loud amp with fresh tubes, and plug the guitar directly into it on the Overdrive or distortion channel. I have never ever heard a guitar that comes close, and that's not a scrutinizing ear, that's just a notably discernible difference that can be heard in the final recording. Even the common listener can tell a difference if you A/B different guitar tracking methods. 
 
Get in the room with the guitar amp, and tweak it until it really does what you want in the room. If you track multiple cabs, I personally recommend putting each cab in a different room. Use one decent condenser mic, even a tube mic (I use an Avantone cv-12 often), Find the right distance by listening and mic the upper speakers, if you can. The lower speakers will give you reflections from the floor. Listen, tweak, listen, tweak, and so on. Once you get the tone you want, I'm serious, there's no EQ you'll need afterward.
 
For copying takes over and playing with the phasing to create a thicker, stereo effect, you are better off tracking twice instead of copy/paste/phase. However, in a 20-year old session I'm remixing, where there was only one guitar, and I need two, I've learned to copy it twice. Put two of them on the far left/right, and one in the center at a lower level so that when they collapse you're more likely to save some tone in mono. Play with the phase, but run the signal through a tube amp and re-mic it to allow yourself some variances on how well they sound when panned left/right.
 
I've tried re-amping each one through a different head/amp, and I've even re-amped a guitar through another guitar's pickups by either tapping into the coils, or blasting the signal across a single string on a guitar plugged into an amp cranked up and mic'd. Mixing some of these weird elements into the mix, you can open up some interesting opportunities with a single guitar track!
 
NOTE! If you are going to phase a copy of a guitar track to create a stereo effect, not only is mono a challenge as to not cancel out the tracks, ensure you're not exactly 180-degrees out of phase between the two waveforms. BUT, don't overlook headphones vs. monitors. You will often find the left-right balance relationship changes drastically between monitors and headphones.