It's not just that the effort of multi-tracking discourages me. It's that I feel there should be a way to get a 'proper' tone that will fit in the - any? - mix.
this has got me thinking...
you have a variety of possibilities open to you..
the following suggestions only require you to record a single performance of your part
- you can record the performance dry and reamp the part two or more times...
this is significantly less effort than playing and recording two independent parts
once you've nailed your performance, each reamped recording only takes the duration of the song's length to record..
so it's low effort..
this is how I record..
- you can create a preset with either:
-- two amps through a stereo cab [pan them wide]
-- one amp through a stereo cab with a different cab type, each panned wide
this does not require reamping as you are recording the tone directly generated from the Axe
the prob here is that you now have a stereo recording with a slightly different tone each side..
if you need to eq / compress them each a little differentlly you'll need to mess with aux channels to sort this out..
if you need help / suggestions with this.. shout..
- you can record your single amp / cab, and then in the DAW:
-- set the channel strip's output as you would normally and pan this one hard left
-- add a 'send' on this channel strip to an aux panned hard right [the aux has the same 'normal' output set]
-- on the aux, insert a sample delay and set it to between 200 and 600 samples
this will give you nice stereo imaging from a mono recorded performance
alternatively...
you just have a snigle mono recording of your tone and you love it just as it is..
in the DAW send to an aux with a stereo reverb [short ambient] to place your tone into a "room" with the rest of the band..