How can I get that massive upfront metal guitar sound?

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 9:44 am

mimosa why would you mic the krank head?

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 12:52 pm

One thing that hasn't been mentioned...

If you're recording to digital, you can copy the track, pan one hard L, the other, hard R and delay one by a few milleseconds. Play the amount of time until you get a big fat tone. It has to do with the 2 waveforms being in or out of phase with one another. If they're way out of phase the tone will get thinner.

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:20 pm

you can't get it, stop asking!=)
no thats mean, just find a song with just the guitar in a section, then try to aim for that, give more mids and search the forum b4 posting=)

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 2:38 pm

If you want clear crunchy guitars. You need to use as little gain as you can. All you will do is record a pissy "DISTORTED" sound that you wont be happy with.

Drop all the gain out of the amp. Crank it up. Get your tones set up real nice. Then let the speakers break up. This is what "distortion" is doing anyway. So let it happen natuaraly. Add in a little gain to beef it up but not too much. LESS IS MORE!

LET THE SPEAKERS BREAK UP..!

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:38 am

Get amplitube 2! Very Happy

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 12:23 am

I found this on the net posted by Colin Richardson. May be handy, he knows how to get a gtr sound or 2!

I usually find when mixing that i nearly always put a stereo Massenberg GML 8200 EQ across the rhythm guitars, if the sound has been recorded cleanly ie no strange fizz or bottom end boom, then the same type of frequencies tend to be boosted on most of my mixes. Frequency wise it's usually around
8-10 khz for the air 4-6 khz for the bite area, usually 1.5 khz for the in your face effect, 400hz for the note of the guitar, and around 70-100 hz to pick out the weight of the cab.The boost amount just depends on what has been recorded, just turn it till it sounds good. This method has worked on many albums i have worked on including Heartwork Carcass, Burn my eyes Machine Head, Chimaira self titled, Bullet for my valentine, The Poison.

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:40 pm

I really like the frequencies being mentioned.....as to most of us having a George Massenburg mastering EQ just laying around.....well, at a shade over 5K its probably not going to happen. But the use of the frequencies with any good digital EQ program can be sweet .

Notice also the ' recorded cleanly with no strange fizz or bottom end boom' point.

Kinda says it all.

LESS IS MORE.

Earlier there was a post mentioning speaker breakup. This is why I reiterate a small amp with properly matched speaker(s)......Its amazing how much krank and drive you can get from a 5 or 10 watt tube head with a great gain stage.

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:03 pm

Hi,
What a great thread! I'm learning a lot. Smile

Just more input...
A lot of times I use a tiny little 10" speaker in a small sealed cab close mic'd with an Audix i5. The i5 actually has what I perceive to be a pretty good sound for micing small amps. It has a bump in the low end that gives the guitar more body and the highs are tight and crisp. I do use 57's too, but I have been liking the i5 for guitars a lot lately, which is weird because it's mostly marketed as a snare mic, and I like the 57's on the snare better. Just another suggestion in the pile. Smile

I also read somewhere that Smashing Pumpkins got their guitar sound by layering chords. For example, do the low strings, double them, and then record high string doubles over that... kinda like a Barre Chord. This probably wouldn't be the route for Metal, but it's another idea to toy around with.

As far as I know, less gain more tracks seems to get that larger sound... like an army of shredding guitars. As someone already mentioned, just make sure all layers are meticulously timed to perfection.

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:37 pm

If I might give some suggestions... I find that it doesn't really matter how much distortion you have, the important thing there is EQ. I hope you own a good analog 10 band or something along those lines. If you really listen to the metal tracks, you'll find that the guitars really have minimal low end, and no subs. If you want your guitar to sound up front, the first step is cleaning out any mud in the sound, so that means: take out the sub frequencies, run your lows so you can barely hear them, carefully adjust the mids; I'd say lower 300-450, and carefully start boosting 500-900, and turn up 1,000-3,000 until you can really hear a difference. 4,000-7,000 are pretty nasal frequencies, but can be useful with beefy humbuckers and a fuzzy amp, and boosting 8,000+ tends to add sparkle and sizzle, so adjust that to taste, although the guitars on metal records seem to not boost the really high frequencies very much if any at all. That's where you should start.

I'd say toss the SM 57; Shure's are quite dark sounding, and unless you want to sound like James what's-his-name during Metallica's mid scoop phase, I'd suggest picking up a more commonly used metal mic. like a Sennheiser e609. When micing, keep the mics right up against your cab, heck, tape 'em there if you can, and aim so the mic face is about halfway across the cone. The further you back the mic away from the cab, the more distant your guitar will sound. Instead of using two mics, I'd suggest doing two separate takes of the exact same thing, one through the bridge pu and one through the neck pu, and then panning them hard left and right, maybe R93 L87 or something like that.

And I agree with everyone else that trying to record with a 4x12 is bad idea. I'd say invest in a Rocktron velocity cabinet: those things really sound fantastic and let you crank your power tubes and really drive the speaker.

I hope some of these suggestions are helpful; they're just what I've learned form my DIY experience so far. Good luck.

Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:48 pm

Also remember that sometimes bass guitar is distorted for some metal acts, so take that into consideration. For more of the modern metal acts it sounds like they thin out the guitars more and beef up the bass to make it hit harder, but each his own...

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:34 am

get into the habbit of recording a "dry" D.I. gtr track as well as the mic'd signal. You can always re-amp the D.I. track later if the original gtr sound isnt working in the mix. This simple step can save your life! Saves arguing with a guitarist who wants the gain pot on 11!

cheers,

SammyG

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