I'm writing some rock/pop Kings of Leon type music for a client's promotional video. Even though guitar is my primary instrument, I've tried to stay away from using it in my compositions as I've always struggled with recording electric guitar, and getting it to sit well in a mix.
This time it seems unavoidable, so I was hoping for some tips and/or suggestions on doubling guitar parts. It seems to me, for this particular song anyway, that a doubled electric guitar part (nothing fancy, just some chugging slightly distorted eight note power chords) would be ideal. 
From listening to some curent pop/rock stuff as reference, it seems that often the guitar parts are doubled and panned left/right, but with different tones (one slightly less distorted sound for clarity, the other more distorted for filling up the sound). I've tried it myself but it seems like the "cleaner" guitar just ends up washing away the more compressed distorted guitar. I can't seem to get the levels right. I'm not sure how wide to pan them. And I only have one guitar at my disposal (though many amps sounds through VST sims). Thoughts?
 
I guess it's kind of a hard question to answer without having the track at hand, but any general tips would be appreciated!

me personally,
i loved doubled guitar parts,
panned hard left and right,
and actually played.
 
unless it's super tight metal,
i prefer the rhythms to be a bit looser, not super tight,
each with their own tone and personality.
 
i will typically change guitars, pedals, amps, speakers, mics, anything and everything to give the individual track what it needs to stand on it's own sonic merit.
 
i am a firm believer in real amps, real effects (that are guitar specific, such as distortion, vibe, wah, etc)....
prefer micing cabinets and getting room effect into the track,
but do use direct capture devices quite a lot, for blending with miced tracks and for increased clarity.
 
rehearse the parts until you can play them without thinking about it...
so when the red button gets pushed, all you are doing is channeling vibe.
 
do experiment with mic positions A LOT, 
and when double tracking, by all means, play in tune.
 

take any one of my mixes,
and it will be a lesson in this mix method.
 
 

I find doing my left and right pans for rhythm guits actually sounds a little fuller and nicer when I place the at 70% instead of hard left/right.
 
Also I've been playing around with some stuff and this is by no means proper (I am really still quite a hack as far as mixing but hey... it's something to play with) what I've been doing is creating my main rhythm using the dual out from my amp set to cleanish setting but one side is a little cleaner and hi end tone while the second is a little more bottomy with a bit of muddy grit/gain (just a bit). Then I'll apply sims to those to get the distortion in there and pan them to 70%. Then I'll record a second performance into one track maybe using outboard effects through a different amp or put a different sim on it, clone it (so I'm not creating a buttload of layers which can lose definition) then panning those to lesser degree like 50/50%. Each set of tracks goes to their own bus for EQ, compression, verb, whatever (and I just found a new trick of adding a sim instance with JUST a cab to mess around with mic settings and IR's while leaving the main tracks as mostly just the initial head and effects very close up and "dry").
 
Because I have so many distorted tracks going on I can pull back on ALL the distortion on ALL the tracks and let it accumulate across them which produces a nice result without the distortion overpowering everything and creating a mud/screechfest or overpowering everything else.
 
Also if I were to include a clean track I don't think I would allow it to only be on one side because that would be too much of a difference. I'm about to try something like that on my current project but what I think I'm going to do is clone my sim tracks leaving them panned where they are (70/70%) and then switch the sim to a cleanish tone, blend them in slightly and turn down the distorted tones. Kind of like a Wet/Dry mix.
 
This is just me experimenting though.
 
Another thing that seems to be kind of cool is have one guit track, whatever the source, set slightly of center and lower when there isn't anything else going on like solos or vocs or whatever. I say slightly of center so it's not interfering with my centered bass. If a lead part of something needed to be in the forefront (like a lead or vox) I'd probably turn it down or mute it.
 
Seriously... these are just my wacky experiments and not hard and fast recommendations. I just find some of that stuff sounds cool and thickens things up how I like. Kind of a "Wall of Sound" type thing.

batsbrew
rehearse the parts until you can play them without thinking about it...
so when the red button gets pushed, all you are doing is channeling vibe.

 
And this is EXTREMELY important. When properly doubling stuff you want it to sound like the same part with VERY subtle nuances to fatten things up. Then if you want it to sound like two actual players/performances do a second set of double tracks with a separate tone/technique.
 
That works best for me.

batsbrew
me personally,
i loved doubled guitar parts,
panned hard left and right,
and actually played.
 

 
Oh for sure! It never crossed my mind to NOT play both parts! 
 

batsbrew
unless it's super tight metal,
i prefer the rhythms to be a bit looser, not super tight,
each with their own tone and personality.

I think the issue might be that my parts have too much personality. As in I can't quite get them to mesh with each other. Also, I'm having trouble giving them some depth, and distance. But I guess that's a whole other topic!
 
Thanks to both of you! Such great tips and things to ponder over. And Batbrew, I will definitely be checking out your mixes, as soon as get back to my lair.

Monkey23
 
Oh for sure! It never crossed my mind to NOT play both parts!  

 
WELL, see a lot of engineers or producers, will simply copy a track, pan it opposite side, and shift it about 10 milliseconds forward or backwards, and call it 'doubling the track'.
it works, but for me, it's kinda lame.
 
 
 
 
 

Monkey23I think the issue might be that my parts have too much personality. As in I can't quite get them to mesh with each other. Also, I'm having trouble giving them some depth, and distance. But I guess that's a whole other topic! 

 
 
this is an 'artistry' issue.
 
how serious are you?
serious enough to get so f'kin good at your parts, that you can literally play in front of, or right on top of, or right behind, what you already tracked?
if not, then f' off!~!
 
LOL, just kidding, but making a point.....
 
the really good recordings, whether done by hard core players, or folks who are hard core but really don't have chops, but have great ears and a great sense of space and rhythm, all have one thing in common.....
 
someone worked their @sses off, to make their sh!t be special.
 
they have to mesh,
or you are wasting your time worrying about it.
 
 
 
if you have what it takes, to do take after take until you are so dialed in your @ss squeaks, 
well,
now we're talking

batsbrew
 
how serious are you?
serious enough to get so f'kin good at your parts, that you can literally play in front of, or right on top of, or right behind, what you already tracked?
if not, then f' off!~!
 

Lol. I's not my playing that doesn't mesh. I'm having trouble getting the guitar sounds to mesh. But I'm going to listen to the both of you, and see what happens.

I'm going to have to disagree with Beepster on the panning issue - all a matter of personal preference of course but I really like to pan things hard left or right as part of an LCR strategy. I just find it gives the track more width and leaves more space in the middle for the kick, bass and vocal (and anything else you want upfront). 

I guess there's loads of things you can do to differentiate the two sides and make them sound wider. Try using different pickup positions for instance - one with the neck, one with the bridge. You can also use opposite EQ curves on each part - for instance, a boost of 1kHz on the left complimented by a cut in 1kHz on the right. If you're sending them to a stereo bus and using an EQ that allows for L/R processing (for instance Waves Renaissance EQ) then this is very easy to do. Then of course you can try putting an effect like subtle flange on one side, or even put flange on both but use different (but related) modulation rates on each. This is in addition to what Beepster said about different tones (use different amp sims etc). 

Monkey23
 
Lol. I's not my playing that doesn't mesh. I'm having trouble getting the guitar sounds to mesh. But I'm going to listen to the both of you, and see what happens.

 
ok, gotcha...
a lot of times,
you will encounter 'masking'
 
or frequency buildups...
if you only have one guitar, 
and one amp,
you will want to eq the amp completely differently, different gain (less gain than you think is ALWAYS better),
and mic it up with a different mic and/or different position...
centered on cone, edge of cone, 45 degrees to center, etc....
 
this will force enough of a EQ change, that it should allow these guys to play better together.
 
 
think dark and light,
or bright and dull,
or deep and hollow.
 
 
even the individual tracks might sound a little gross when solo'd, but awesome when blended together.
 
 
if you are using sims,
all bets are off.
 
the sims (other than the top notch Axe FX Fractal or Kemper) all seem to have a sonic 'fingerprint' that will become more and more prevalent the more tracks you layer on.
 
think of it as individual thin layers of cloudy varnish on a nice clean piece of birdseye maple,
and the more coats you put on, 
the more dull it looks.