Taming the "guitar chugs" low end....

A

asi9

New member
This is a question about those good old metal guitars.... how do you treat a guitar track so that the low end produced by chugs (think right after "No more head trips....." in "This Love" by Pantera) makes the speakers groan, yet still not bury everything in the mix. What I've done is used a multiband compressor to even out those bassy peaks around 100-150hz, and pretty much roll-off below 100, letting the actual bass guitar fill in that bass. However, to make sure the "chug feel" gets through, I boost like around 200-300hz, which not only adds a harder, beefier sound to chugs, but adds a lot of tone and note recognition to the sound as well.

Another something I thought about doing is overcompressing the track (the low end, possibly with a multiband again), so that you actually get that "pumping sound" but it makes it sound as if the bass is subdued, almost oppressed... and that you can hear that it WANTS to be louder. Think I may try that tonight, not sure if it will do what I want, but you never know.

What does everyone else do? I'm curious. I just love that deep, beefy chug-chug that makes you go, "Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhh...." gives you the feeling of air being sucked away from your chest and ears.

We get decent chugness on our recordings, but it's not quite there yet. The best chugs I think I've heard are definitely Pantera chugs, Meshuggah chugs, Machine Head chugs, Deftones chugs (on Around the Fur), and Fear Factory chugs for sure.

chug, chug, chug-chug-chug, chug, chug, chug-chug-chug..... ahhhhhh........
 
wasting bandwidth here, cuz I dont have hte answer.

I like your email, but dont waste your time on Pantera Chugs. those are sissy boy chugs IMHO. dont forget those guys were a lipstick wearing hair band before they decided to go Bad Boy. thay aint tough. just posers.
 
Track it well......

This might or might not be useful:

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33141

Compression on an already compressed sound (distorted sounds are compressed from the simple fact that they are distorted, which clips off the top of the sine wave....added eq after the preamp will give a bit of dynamic that is dependent on the notes played obviously....) tends to sound sort of weird to my ears.

Track it well......

Ed
 
I can often tame that overbassiness from palm muting either by:
1) Reducing the bass on my head
2) repositioning the mic can help alot, too. The closer you are the more the proximity effect will increase the "chug" as you call it. Maybe move in towards the voice coil or turn the mic a little off axis. Sometimes a larger diameter speaker will increase it, too. I've run my head through a 2/15 cabinet before and it was too much, had to turn down the bass and turn it back up for my 4/12 cabinet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top