Best way to get a "heavy" guitar tone

Everybody

Everybody

Hail Santa
Im going to be recording some death metal, metalcore, hardcore, whatever you want to call it bands soon with an SM57, what mic positionings can I use to get the best tone. Also should I double mic?

Is there any good guitar software to get this type of tone, or is it all in mic placement, amp type, and what you do with comp/eq/all that?

Thanks!
 
Everybody said:
Im going to be recording some death metal, metalcore, hardcore, whatever you want to call it bands soon with an SM57, what mic positionings can I use to get the best tone. Also should I double mic?

Is there any good guitar software to get this type of tone, or is it all in mic placement, amp type, and what you do with comp/eq/all that?

Thanks!
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Honestly, you just asked a lifetime worth of questions. But the answer is pretty much as subjective as what "best tone" is, so only YOU really know what gets you hard.

You could always do standard close mic SM57 with a room mic further back and mix these two to taste. It's a staple for a reason. But I've had the best guitar tone from a ribbon mic, pretty much right in front of the quad and that's it (in a big room).

My best advice is keep it WAY cleaner than you think it should be. Much much much cleaner. Some of the heaviest tones are actually really clean. Especially when stacking guitars. Its a bit contrary to what you'd think but it does sound better, honest.

Personally, I like turning my amp up so it's hissing (it's a 5150 so it hisses a fair bit hehe), mic it up, then put on some headphones and while you're listening to the hiss, move the mic around until you get a "sweet" spot in the hiss. It seems to me that when you get a nice sounding hiss, you get a nice sounding guitar sound too, but it's also interesting seeing how mic placement changes the tone.

Also if you're going for real amps, use the best cabinet you can - particle board cabs sound really mushy and undefined, whereas ply (the thicker the better for heavy sounds methinks) is nice and clear.

Oh yeah - and if you're stacking guitar tracks on top of each other, you might want to record with a fixed bridge guitar - no floating floyds! See when you play a floyd equipped guitar, palm muting it changes the tuning ever so slightly just because it floats (even if you're really careful)... it's not a big deal if you're just doing a few guitar tracks or solos, but if you're piling heaps of them up onto each other you need rock solid tuning or it'll get weird and chorusy (not in a good way). Speaking from experience.

Good luck!
 
Awesome!

Wow man thanks so much for all that info.

Im a drummer so I know nothing about guitars and cabs, so im hoping the bands that come to record with me will have good equipment to make my job easier, and get them real good sounds.

Ill keep the clean advice deffinatly in mind!

This is basically what im really hoping to get close to someday

http://www.myspace.com/wretchednc

guitars sound heavy, and precise!
 
ermghoti said:
Google "slipperman." Read that mess for a couple of weeks.
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+1

If you can, quad track the guitars - 2 takes on each side, and play with panning. Start with them panned 100/80/80/100 and move the "inside" guitars to taste.

While recording, LAY OFF THE GAIN! Like Slowmotion said, good recorded tone is a lot cleaner than you'd think. Play with the mic placement a bit until you get a solid tone without a lot of fizz when the distortion is kicked in, and you should be able to get some very solid usable tones. You might want to try starting with the SM57 pointed halfway between the dustcap and cone, just off of the speaker cloth, and go from there.
 
Alright sweet, im about to go check out slipperman right now!

russtopher which four mics should i use?

2 dynamic, 2 condenser or 4 same type?
 
I record the guitar clean through the EFX sends on the preamp side of the Amp then add my effects during editing this is the easiest way to experiment around with my MIDI, VST and DX arsenal.
when you mic the amp you are pretty much stuck with the effect that was recorded not to mention you loose all of your head room and is a lot easier to clip a track using a lot of distortion when recording a miked cab.

you have a whole lot more options recording direct and clean... JMO
 
slowmotion said:
Nah I'm pretty sure he means recording the guitar parts four times over, not with four mics.
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You got it :-)

Obviously, for some types of music that won't work, especially if it's uber-fast metal shredding riffs and the guitarist(s) can't accurately track multiple times. But if it's chunky chording, going that route goes a long way to getting that thick "wall o'guitars" sound.
 
I hate to hijack the thread slightly, but regading the 4 tracking of guitars, could you copy and paste the one track four times, or will that not give the desired effect.
I've been playing with ideas on getting a nice thick guitar sound for the punk songs I record, and I'm just wondering if I should be recording the tracks more than once, as at the moment I tend to copy and paste the track so I have two copys, pan on left and one further right and with a bit less volume, a bit more verb and a bit less bass (my bass guitar is panned slightly left, so thought it'd be best to keep the lower freq clear on that side) just to add power to choruses.

Any info would greatly be apprciated, and again, sorry for this brief hijack, but i didn't think it was worth a new thread.
 
twsknight said:
could you copy and paste the one track four times, or will that not give the desired effect.
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it will not. a large part of the heaviness comes from the subtle differences between the takes. if you copy/paste the same track 4 times, it'll sound like the same guitar, only louder.

Another solution is use a multi-speaker cabinet and a mic on each speaker (say 2 mics). Put mic 1 from each take panned left and mic 2 from each take panned right (or do that 100/80/80/100 thing). That should work real well.

You can also do mic 1 from take 1 and mic 2 from take 2 panned left......and mic 2 from take 1 and mic 1 from take 2 panned right. you know what i mean? i like doing this with an sm57 and sennheiser 421. that way you get a 57 and 421 on each side--and both takes on each side. huge guitars this way and you only need 2 good takes. but they have to be GOOD takes. that's the hard part to heavy guitars.....good takes.

but the key is a LOT less gain than you otherwise think. gain thins out guitars.


cheers,
wade
 
Im actaully glad you asked that question cause i was wondering the same thing.

If you do the 100/80/80/100 thing on one guitar, can you do it for the second guitarist, or will that cause problems? cause originally what i was going to do is record a lead and rhythm guitarist, and pan left and right.

one more thing, when you say less gain...do you mean on the amp itsself? or in the recording program...sorry im super nub haha
 
Less on the amp. If you really, realy listen to well-recorded heavy guitars, you can tell they're not tremendously distorted, for the most part. If I had 2 guitarists, I'd stick with 4-6 tracks, and stagger the panning. So L100%=guitar1 L80%=guitar 2 R80%=guitar1 R100%=guitar2. I'd probably also use at least two different mics, not at the same time.
 
Everybody said:
If you do the 100/80/80/100 thing on one guitar, can you do it for the second guitarist, or will that cause problems? cause originally what i was going to do is record a lead and rhythm guitarist, and pan left and right.
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the answer is "do what ever works and sounds best". there is no gospel answer. but typically, less is more.

if they're tracking "live", i'd put two mics on the rhythm guitar amp, and pan em hard left and right and have the lead right up front in the middle and fat.

anyway, do it til it sounds right. there's nothing wrong at all with rhythm guitar on one side and lead on the other. go listen to some live allmans . ;)

Everybody said:
one more thing, when you say less gain...do you mean on the amp itsself?
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on the amp itself. the guitars/amps should be a LOT cleaner sounding than one would tend to implement, say, on stage.

also, a lot of "heavy" guitar comes from overdriving the power tubes rather than the preamp tubes. go listen to some ACDC. that's power tube distortion you hear--not preamp distortion. those guitars are pretty clean sounding too.


cheers,
wade
 
alrighty!
looks like i have a few good techniques to try out and mess with
ill prob be recording, in about 2-3 weeks hopefully, so maybe i can come back here and post something, ive never recorded in my life so its gonna be ROUGHHHHH

thanks for the support guys!
 
slowmotion said:
My best advice is keep it WAY cleaner than you think it should be. Much much much cleaner. Some of the heaviest tones are actually really clean. Especially when stacking guitars. Its a bit contrary to what you'd think but it does sound better, honest.
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Enough said.
 
In the words of SSG...



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
 
slowmotion said:
My best advice is keep it WAY cleaner than you think it should be. Much much much cleaner. Some of the heaviest tones are actually really clean. Especially when stacking guitars. Its a bit contrary to what you'd think but it does sound better, honest.
Click to expand...

will you please elaborate about CLEAN.

please post an example of HEAVY that is CLEAN.

I'd like to hear some other examples... a lot of talk but hearing is believing.
 
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