best tube amp for recording metal?

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:29 pm

i record melodic death metal and i need a good amp. kinda similar to in flames colony-clayman era (and somewhat their newest album), i think they use a peavey but im unsure of the model? like what sounds really clean, high gain, but not a dead mess of fuzz? (please dont say marshall..)

btw where can i look for real amps, the only place i can find around here (bakersfield ca) is guitar center and the extend to recording amps is crate tube amps, marshalls, or fenders, all mainstream brands everyone buys. some are pretty good but nothing what i need em for.

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:24 am

i would go with a mesa.

expensive, but so worth it.

mesa dual rectifer, mesa 3x rectifier, or the road king

all sound great, but all are outragously expensive.

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:34 am

There's a band called "in flames" that has a colony-clayman era? Or any era?

Very Happy

I'm afraid for most people you're going to need a more familiar example; however, Mesa is a pretty safe recommendation for most metal tones.

Certainly not the only contenders, though. There are still plenty of high-gain amps out there.

---

[edit: So, I guess this band is actually more well-known in metal circles than I thought. My bad. Wink

The same round of Googling revealed that they've endorsed the Peavey 5150 (now known as 6505+) at some point in time in their career.]

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:40 am

In Flames use the Peavey 5150 i believe.. that would be the amp you were thinking of. Or the mesas that have already been mentioned would do you very well.

twon

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:33 pm

Yo.

Resident metal head here who happens to be a gear geek.

In Flames rocks a couple 5150's. The part I don't agree with is that Bjorn puts an Evil Line 6 pod in the in chain before it (for live work anyway). If you want an insane pure metal tone, try this setup:

Guitar (most metal guys go for EMG's, I'm not a big fan personally)

Volume pedal

Wah (have to say the Zakk Wylde wah is pretty sweet)

*some like it before the distortion, some after, currently I'm using it before

Distortion (I use the Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde, it's great and dual channel)

Delay (Nice to kick in on the occasional solo)

Phaser ( lots of depth, slow rate, we're adding dimension here!)

into the amp.

The lead channel on the 5150 sounds great, the rhythm channel as well. I believe the patent/copyright (whatever it is) on the 5150 and Van Halen has ended and Peavey is re-releasing the amp as the 6505, but it's the same thing.

Dual recitifiers are ok for that tone as well.

You might try an Engl, they are nice.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
-Ryan-

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:58 pm

my man the boogie tri axis is your answer. if your not willing to fire that kind of cash,you would be stupid if you didnt at least listen to the POD
modern high gain setting. especially plugged straight into the line in of a recorder. theres a switch on the back of those that needs to be set right though.
rock your face off, J Rock

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:48 pm

where would i be able to try most of these out anyway? i can try mesas at guitarcenter but as for the other amps.. where would i be able to jam on a 6505 to try it out? or is there a site that gives pretty good ideas of what the amps sound like recorded before mastering and all that good stuff?

and as for the in flames thing, thats pretty funny, but sorry it was the closest example i could give other than 'i use to use a trace elliot super tramp but i want something with a LOT more gain but the same clairty and liveleness to it'

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:44 pm

young brother, you should definatley be able to try boogie stuff out at G center. i have the tri-axis,a simul class 2-90 and two recto cabs. a really ass kickin set up. but for simplicity sake, i used the POD(modern high gain setting)to record my cd,and it absolutely shredded.

im not tryin to sell you the damn thing but i've been playin guitar for 22years why would i substitute the POD over the other amp if it didn't sound good????? crazy i guess.

we should get together and write some scandanavian metal sometime. i hope your guitar sound ends up sounding like absolute shred bro.

regards,Willjrockstar

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:30 pm

hah that would rock but im on the other side of the country im affraid :\

as for pod i would have to try one again. ive tried a few line 6 stuff before including an older pod and ive never been impressed. it sounds as real as a guy trying to sing like a girl honestly.

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:29 pm

well heres how i ran mine just so you know.
one PRS guitar into the input. it has a left and right out,but i only used one out coz i was doubling my traxx anyhow.go straight into your recorder via 1/4inch cable.set the EQ on the pod and your recorder to taste.
and thats it.big time simple.are you feelin me player? a couple of other things though.there is a switch on the back of the POD,one setting is used for operating it in a guitar amp set-up.(like when your playin live),and the other setting is for when you use it like im tellin you.big time important on that cuz.
the other thing is studio monitors.head phones dont quite do it justice.as a matter of fact when my main rig goes down, i'll use it for rehersal right through the monitors.sounds great.

finally,record your first track, then rercord a second track identical to the first one, and at playback pan one hard left and the other hard right and stand back.

i think youll dig it. lemmy(motorhead)know what you end up doin or if you even tried it the way im sayin
good luck! keep it real real,
JRock
PS if you cant get ahold of one,you
kin rent one from just about any music
store with a rental dept.

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:22 am

heh i can do fine recording the guitar (thanks for the effort though). ive got a 57 beta that made my old guitar sound amazing with overdrive in front of it (i have an eq pedal now to replace that but im thinking of getting an old school tbe screamer for punch now). too bad my old amp is gone. great drive and had real character but almost no gain to it.

and ya i do hard pan my guitars. add a bit of eq here and there. im pretty simplistic recording it most of the work comes from amp settings and mic placement. im wanting to get a 2nd mic going though or possibly a condinser but thats in the future, i just make do with what i have for now. that is except my amp. if my tone doesnt match what im playing i just dont get into it, thus my huge delima. and i go way against the grain in that i take a different approach to writing. i started writing with reason then started writing live pieces with my guitar so im use to writing by tracking, it just lays it out better for me to see the different pieces than just jamming it out with my guitar in my room.

so yeah where can i try out some amps. also whats peoples thoughts on b52? it sounds kinda decent but its hard to tell without a mic in front of it and running through monitors, ya know?

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:08 pm

i got around to looking up the tri axis and it looks like something i looked at about a year ago (the recording pre i think it was). do the 'recording out' plugs on the tri axis do like the recording pre (appears to) do? simulate a miked speaker cab? and does anyone have any recording clips they can display with it? other than 'james hettfield used it' 1) when? and 2) ya but what does that sound like BEFORE the engineer and mastering got to it?

and why is it so hard to find good equipment anyway even google is having trouble coming up with places that sell mesa boogie. im even surprised guitar center carries them (when i first started playing GC didnt even have them mars music was the only decent store but went out of biz).

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:31 pm

for my recording purposes I use the Triaxis also, the chain is like this Ibanez RG--Triaxis--BBE sonic Maximizer--Mesa Boogie 20/20 power amp--Randall Isolation cab with a Rode NT-1 condenser mic--Mixer (just in case I want to add some eq)--then to Mbox. I might be getting a Super Hush C to supress some of the hiss/noise and I used to use my G Major effects rack just for the noise gate.

I did try the record outs of the Triaxis and it doesn't give me the tone I really want which is why i opted for the Isolation cab method.

I will post just the guitar recordings later.

and finally I also have a Hughes and Kettner Triamp MkII, now THAT"S my ultimate guitar amp! I'm trying to tame it so I can get some good recording tones out it thru my usual setup.

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:39 pm

no rider,unless im missing something the recording outputs on the tri axis really sucked.i thought it was kinda funny that such a high end unit would boast those outputs and they are terrible.my chain looks like this,

plug guitar directly into tri axis out to simuclass2:90 out to 2 stereo recto cabs. the best mic ive found for recording my set up is a sennheiser 906e.
later willjrockstar

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:46 pm

i was a fraid of that. well if im opting to pay for a pre, power, and a cab i might go with the 6505, i tried the half stack at guitar center and WOW is that some seriously crisp tone. of course the guitar center guys arent much help what with the ramblings about studio recording and such (when i tried to explain the tone on albums). ya i know what i hear from the amp isnt what ill hear in monitors but ive recorded amps before hah. anyway what they told me is they dont carry the triaxis, they would have to special order it and id pay full price (doh!). there goes any specials i could get on it.

so ya tone. the 6505 h/stack sounded awesome, its got the same huge drive sound youd expect but without the muddy deadness. with good mic placement and a db or two of eqing i could get that thing sounding great. its got a great clean channel to it as well. not too bad price either, i think 1200 for the head, might be able to take that down another 50-100 with them, or wait if there happens to be a special deal on it. that would come out to less than 2,000 for a half stack, not bad IMO.

but as far as the triaxis, how much am i looking at with it, a decent power amp, and a cab?

oh and does anyone know a good bass with solid tone from price range 200-400ish? not looking for anything spectacular, just something with okay low end and a pretty clean sound. thats kinda my short term goal as far as equipment since i dont need something amazing just something that sounds decent enough to not make my recordings sound like a pile of mud.

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