Tip for recording Death Metal guitar on a Tascam 414, I discovered

Death Metal Guitar

It is in my experienced opinion, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this one, that Metallica, Pantera AND Slayer could play circles around ANY "Death Metal Band" and do so while playing an all acoustic set. I liked the comment on the vocals of most death metal bands being likened to The Cookie Monster, which is probably a great injury of offense to The Cookie Monster, and besides............ "T is for Talent, that's good enough for me, Talent, Talent, Talent starts with T!!!!" Of which most death metal bands are in a great lack thereof. Just setting y'all straight!!! :cool:
 
I was gonna quote a bunch of people, but I am too wiped at the moment, but here are some responses and thoughts.

I would dig death metal if most of the singers were not so boring. There is a lot of really cool stuff from the Black metal scene though.

I gotta chime in against the Pod. It really is such a pitiful excuse for a guitar sound. People that have them say you can dial in great sounds with them. I have yet to ever hear proof of that, but I am open minded. Boogies are not the most versatile amps in the world but the Dual rectifiers really are about the best option for extreme metal stuff. I hate almost everything Peavy has ever made, but the 5150 is a decent choice as well.

The funny thing about modern extreme metal is that its really not heavy at all. There is rarely any low end on the albums. Its mostly about being edgy and abrasive. For those not familiar with extreme metal www.blackmetalradio.com is a good start to check some stuff out.

I just did the new Ulver album. Heavy as hell but no guitars on it.
 
Nobody should really be slagging any style of music such as death or black or grind metal or any other form of music. Everyone has there own opinions on stuff and lets face it, if there wasnt a market for it....it wouldnt be available. Im not an advocate of the style as it is far from my favorite but I can apreciate what they are doing as "artists".

Anyone that says it is not musical should get out of the business. Music is in the EAR of the beholder. Some people find dump trucks musical but I dont.

To sit on this forum and say any band "can play circles" around another band is a joke. I know drummers and guitar players that could kik the crap out of Kirk or James in speed, intensity and accurasy but couldnt play a country lick or a 4/4 beat to save their lives just like Kirk or James could play perfect rythms and harmonies but couldnt play a kids tune to save their lives.......get it???

It's all subjective and as the engineer or producer, your job is to make it sound good whether you like it or not so suck it up.
 
Sorry 'bout this, but I can't resist. I don't think the guys that started this thread 4 1/2 years ago are going to respond a whole bunch.

On a side note, I'm reading "Lords of Chaos" again. Good times.
 
Ronan said:
I just did the new Ulver album. Heavy as hell but no guitars on it.
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No shit? Hey, cool. Always did want to check those guys out based on the idea that they seem to play around outside their genre every now and again without ever really leaving it. I haven't checked out much in the way of Black Metal, but I've heard their name along with Emperor as having some pretty talented stuff.
 
That is toooo funny!!!! Thats the second time Ive posted on a thread more than 3 years old!! DOH!!

I will learn to start looking at the dates one of these days!!
 
BlerpBlerpDurpyDurp!!!!

I guess I should have clarified what I meant by "play circles around" blah, blah, blah........ I have not seen the level of integrity nor musical composition present among many of the "death metal" bands that can more easily be found, without too much looking, in so many other "harder" and "heavier" bands, and I know comparing a band like Cannibal Corpse to Metallica or Slayer is the old apples and oranges thing,as comparing ANY band to another is, and yes, I know that music is interpreted and experienced differently by Everyone, and it really IS up to the listener to be the sole discriminating factor in whether or not it works for them, BUT, I just can't, and I know this is MY way of seeing it, I can't for the life of me see how anyone could say or really actually Feel that the kind of music that most death metal bands create is "better" or "harder" or "heavier" than other great "metal" bands, regardless of prefix (Black, Death, Grindcore, etc.) nor can I see there being much variety or challenge in it. Sure, I agree it takes a great level of stamina and endurance to play a lot of the stuff that death metal encompasses but.......... WOW, how offbase has this thread become????? It started out about how to get a great recorded sound on the 414 and look, it's gone a bit askew. We're just a bunch of argumentative fucks, that's it, gotta be it!!! :(
 
Whenever I try to record my friend's death/thrash band, I have to fight with him to turn his gain down. He runs a 5150 through Marshall cabs and plays Jackson and BC Rich guitars with EMG 81s. His tone is great, but a little too high gain when we record. So yeah, watching the gain would be my biggest suggestion. At my new job I listen to a lot of music over my headphones (Sony 7506s) and I get to hear a lot more than when I'm listening to my shitty car stereo. One thing I've noticed on all metal records is that the guitars aren't at a blisteringly high gain like you'd expect, but they still manage to sound amazing.

In terms of talent in death metal, I look at it like this: shitty metal bands are almost painful to watch or listen to. Good metal bands are like witnessing the second coming or something equally amazing. A good metal band on a good night totally blows my mind. I saw Dying Fetus (with John Longstreth behind the kit) last Friday and it totally blew me away. And if you think that it doesn't require at least a little bit of talent to sing whilst playing riffs that consist solely of taps and sweep arpeggios, you're crazy. Another band that blows me away recently is Cattle Decapitation. They're amazing as well, especially their guitarist, and in speaking with him I discovered that he's about as humble and down to earth as person could be.
 
Im not a Death metal advocate but I would love to see James or Kirk from Metallica try and play circles around Muhamad from Necrophagist. I am laughing my ass off right now just thinking about it. If you've heard their latest release Epitaph, you know what Im talking about.
Hell I would like to see Lars try and keep up with the guy in Origin. Yeah like thats going to happen haha.
I agree though that everyone has their own style that they are good at and theres no real point in arguing about it. Like most genres, for every good Death Metal band there are probably 10 really bad ones. Unfortunately most people here the 9-10 bad ones and automatically become death metal experts.
 
Lucifer Gabrielle said:
Nothing pains me more than people complaining about recording non-death metal guitar tones.
Granted that any form of music is kinda "wussy" when compared to Death metal, but the fact remains that retaining that "crushing" tone on to a low end-414 (tascam) is the most difficult by a long shot (p.s. if your are afended by this and haven't heard/proformed/recorded death metal, please don't complain. It truely is impossible to compare true death metal to anything without hearing it)
Here are a few things i've learned from experience:
-On the 414 low freqs will constantly "fuzz"
up. When you record (guitar) make sure you turn the bass on the console it's self all the way down. I have no idea WHY this works,
but it does.
-Opt for a shure 58, rather than the 57. It handles lows better in my experience. alot of people would argue about this though.
-Turn DBX off!
-NEVER....NEVER go direct! The Line 6 POD,
while a great piece of equiptment, is suitably ONLY for "light-in-the-ass" music,
I.E. Craptallica, Pantera,slayer (hahaha) the modern wuss metal, anything from the 60-90's. A good amp (mesa boogie, of course)
driven by a Boss Metal zone,with a Shure miking it is the ONLY way to go for Death metal.
-The "head on", with a little off to the side
micing approch, is the most perferable.
-Reverb, Midrange and effects ARE your enemy
-On a stranger note: try wrapping the mic in a sock/piece of cloth, to dampen the high freqs.
- anybody else have any good tips?
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Why in the hell are you using a metal zone?! Doesn't a seasoned death-metal player like yourself have a decent rig by now?! Maybe your Mesa sounds good without that piece-of-shit pedal you're putting in front of it! I'm sure you play an AWESOME Jackson or perhaps a BITCHIN' B.C. Rich!

Have you ever played a guitar before? The guitar wasn't made for metal; It was made for music.
 
Have you ever played a guitar before? The guitar wasn't made for metal; It was made for music.
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What an ignorant thing to say. So your implying that metal isn't music? I would love to see how you support that argument.
 
Controlling palm mutes

I actually did a search on Google for 'Recording death metal' and a link to this thread popped up. Didn't realize I had revived a 4 year old thread.

Anyways, how do you guys go about controlling palm mutes? Here is my problem: when I do palm mutes my signal tends to go out da roof meaning I cant really adjust my gain on the mixer to get a decent signal. I try to roll off the bass a little bit then I think I get a very thin sound. Any help?
 
Molocono,

This is where filters come in. Engage a high pass filter and cut out everything below about 90hz or so (your actual guitar rig will determine the frequency.....use your ears!) and if you have an adjustable slope, try not to set it any sharper than 12db.

Start there and see where it gets you.

My reply is based on my assumption that you are reffering to the "woof" when doing sharp palm mutes?

Cheers!
 
Thanks Toy Room! I think one of my problems is my sound input device. I'm currently using an iMic to get sound into the computer. What I realize is that when I check levels I do so through a pair of headphones and adjust mic placement and all that other stuff until I get a decent sound. But when I record a track I notice that the sound I heard through my headphones does not translate to DP 3. It seems that some frequencies get dropped in the process. Does this sound right? I'm thinking about getting an MBox or a Digi 001. What are your thoughts on this?

With regards to the palm mutes...when they get recorded they tend to produce some digital clipping (if that is what you call it). I get these crunchy pops on the palm mutes but everything else sounds alright. Well actually my track tends to sound dull because I can't really pump up the gain all that much on my mixer since I have to make sure that the palm mutes don't clip. I hope this is making sense. It probably would be good to post some tracks.

About the high pass filter, does this get applied in DP 3? Thanks again!
 
Death metal is the one sub-genre of metal that depends almost exclusively on retards & posers for album sales. One of the cheesiest & stupidest trends to ever occur in the history of metal was cookie monster vocals.
 
tom143 said:
Death metal is the one sub-genre of metal that depends almost exclusively on retards & posers for album sales. One of the cheesiest & stupidest trends to ever occur in the history of metal was cookie monster vocals.
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Nice........Someone always has to go out of their way to be an asshole. Someone comes to the forum to ask a question about recording death metal. Nobody asked you to like it, nor are you expected to. What music do you listen to? I'm sure that whatever it is that someone thinks it blows! Try having an open mind. That's where musical diversity comes from. At least try to make your first and only post something useful. Obviously you have nothing constructive to contribute!!
 
tom143 said:
Death metal is the one sub-genre of metal that depends almost exclusively on retards & posers for album sales. One of the cheesiest & stupidest trends to ever occur in the history of metal was cookie monster vocals.
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You truly know nothing about music or metal.

Sad, really.
 
Behold! Much like the discussed genre, this thread will never die! Haha

When it comes to calling anything with "cookie-monster" vocals "not music," you've gotta keep in mind most people that get into this type of metal, didn't start out listening to Bloodbath or Opeth, they started with something like Led Zeppelin/Metallica/Iron Maiden. Some people just have a deep desire to hear something "heavier" or "more metal", it's just built in! So naturally one progresses from Metallica to something heavier but still mainstream, like for instance Slipknot or a semi-similar route, Slayer. It's really pretty easy to see how it goes from there. But you have to take that route and have that built-in craving for ridiculous heaviness to ever even start down that path. Trust me, I used to think bands with screaming were all just terrible no-talent noise machines. But once you get into the culture, you begin to understand it. Now, in my band, I'm trying to mix bands like Opeth/Bloodbath/Between the Buried and Me, with the older bands like Metallica, and it should be sweet...
 
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