Deathmetal tone?

Can anyone give me suggestions on obtaining the perfect deathmetal tone? Clarity is the major issue, but I don't want anything too mid-rangy...Maybe it's my technique that's the problem. I need BALLS and CLARITY!!! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Turn your treble up to full and your bass up to full, turn your mids down to nothing. Now wind your gain right up as far as it will go !

Originally Posted by: mahukillI need BALLS and CLARITY!!![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Dr_simon]Turn your treble up to full and your bass up to full, turn your mids down to nothing. Now wind your gain right up as far as it will go !

Doing that will give you everything BUT balls and clarity.

You might not like a mid-rangy sound when you're playing by yourself, but in a band situation mid frequencies are your best friend. The mids is where the guitar belongs, don't try overpowering the rest of the band or you'll all end up sounding like crap.
Try keeping your EQ very flat, not too much bass, not too much treble, and use your mids to poke through in the mix. When it comes to gain/distortion, less is more. The more technical music you play, the less distortion you'll want in order to remain clear.

Remember that a lot of metal albums use tons of layering of guitars with support from the bass, there is no way you can recreate that kind of sound by yourself. What it comes down to when playing live is achieving a tone that simply works with the music/songs, which means filling up your part of the spectrum, and making sure whatever you're playing is being heard not because you're loud, but because you're clear.

If all you're doing is playing by yourself in your bedroom, then Dr_Simon's advice is all you need.

Good advice from SPL.

Death metal was all I used to do with my Peavy Bandit combo (nasty tranny thing) and it sounded as death metally as a big bad deathmetally thing.

In fact it was the only thing the amp could do !

And yes, at the time I was playing in a bedroom which was probably a consequence of playing death metal.

I do remember using that amp as a standalone PA plugged into a cd player at a friends outside party...damb it was loud !

Thanks. That's very helpful.

Death Metal bands don't sound heavy just due to their distortion settings , they also tune down at least one whole step.

Cranking the bass and scooping the mids (not too much) is a good idea , but I think the trebles should always stay around 5.

Bass: 8
Mids: 3
Treb: 5

Gain: low enough that you can play a three or four note chord (depends on your prefence) and hear every note fairly distinctly.
Tuning: Down. If you have to ask it's not low enough.

Play like you've got a pair. Grab a 2mm pick and dig into those strings. If you pick fast enough and rape the wah pedal anything you play will sound hardcore.

The last two posts say that scooping the mids is a good idea. I dare you to ask any mixing engineer(live, or studio), and I dare to claim that 9 out of 10 times they'll say it's a very bad idea for any kind of music.

Originally Posted by: SLYDeath Metal bands don't sound heavy just due to their distortion settings , they also tune down at least one whole step.

Not true. "Heaviness" comes from making the guitars, bass and drums work as a team. Tuning down has very little to do with it.
Just listen to a band like Opeth, they play in standard tuning, music doesn't get much "heavier" than their stuff.

You could try tons different amps to make sound you want - you know It's software emulators, like Line 6 POD but free or shareware.
http://guitar-software.info

Personal I like freeware from http://GuitarFX.Net - you can do deep experiment with multi-stage distortion and multi-unit EQs

List of combo making metal sound with mp3 examples:
http://guitarfxsoftware.com/combo.htm

I don't know what are you arguing for , you've already made your point clear in your previous post ... I personaly use lots of mids for my tones now (both lead and rhythm) , but back in time when all I used to play was stuff like pantera I used to put the mids a little below 5 (with bands !) and it sounded good.

And tuning lower does makes your sound heavier , and that's why most death/new metal bands do it ... Tune low, and play a Led Zeppelin and it will sound heavy ! :rolleyes:

If heaviness comes from making the guitar,bass,drums work as a team , could we conclude then that slow rock bands sound heavy , or they don't play as teams ? :confused:

Originally Posted by: SLYI don't know what are you arguing for , you've already made your point clear in your previous post ... [/QUOTE]

What I'm arguing against is the "myth of scooped mids", hell, you could even say I'm on a crusade against scooped mids. I keep going to gig after gig, cringing from hearing the awfully painful guitarsounds from guitarists who don't know what they're doing. I figure if I can talk some sense in to some of em on here, I've made this world a better place. ;-)
A lot of guitarists listen to an album, and think a guitar has its mids scooped because of the way the mix of an entire band sounds. This is a very common and understandable mistake for untrained ears. But in reality things are very different.
Equalization is more a matter of physics than it is about preference. Some things work, some thing don't, it's as simple as that.

[QUOTE=SLY]If heaviness comes from making the guitar,bass,drums work as a team , could we conclude then that slow rock bands sound heavy , or they don't play as teams ? :confused:

This is not at all what I was implying. What is was implying is that heaviness in a band does not come from overly heavy sounding guitars. You looked at my statement from the perspective of a musician, as if I was saying something about how well a band plays together as musicians. My statement, however, was made from the perspective of a mixing engineer, saying something about how well each instruments frequency response mixes/compliments/blends with the other instruments.
It may be a surprise to you, but a guitarsound that works best to get a massive sound as a band will probably sound remarkably disappointing just by itself. Whereas a massive guitarsound (the stuff that sounds so good playing by yourself in your bedroom) most of the time is not what works best in a band situation.
So yeah, tuning down might make a guitar sound "heavy," but it's not a guarantee for sounding "heavy" as a band since you'll still get lost in the mix if your eq'ing is off.

Anyway, SLY, I know I keep going on and on about this, but I only do because I know I have a good point. But I guess you can't really judge the validity of someone's advice on here since there is no way to check the background of someone's knowledge. Some metal head who's only been playing for 1 year will probably have different advice than someone who's been playing for 10+ years, has played in bands of many styles of music, has experience in recording as a musician, recording-, mixing-, mastering engineer,... Who's advice is more likely to be effective? I guess we'll never know... :rolleyes:

Sorry, I didn't know you had that scooped-mid-o-phobia. ;)

Anyway , wether you like it or not , young guitarists will always find it cool to scoop their mids while their learning their fav heavy tunes in their bedrooms ... I haven't done that for years now since I don't like this sound even for bedroom anymore , but it did the trick back in time.

I still don't get your point against tuning low for heaviness , since over 90% of death/black/nu metal bands do it to sound heavy, if not using a 7 strings (which they also tune down oftenly !).

Don't misunderstand me , I'm a standard (occasionaly half step down) 6 string old school guy , not a one year old metal head . ;)

It's not as much a phobia, as it just hurts my god damn ears! lol

Whatever guys do in their bedroom is their business. Like I said previously, if that is all they plan on doing, Dr_simon's first reply is all the advice they'll ever need.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why bands detune. It can be very effective, and most recording artists seem to pull it of. I guess my point was that tuning low isn't a guarentee for sounding heavy, since a big part of it depends on how the guitarsound works with the rest of the band.

I've got the Marshall Jackhammer JH-1 pedal...bitch of a pedal. Has the choice of Distortion and Overdrive, so you can go from Blues to Deathmetal in a flick.

To answer your question, I find having high mid's, full bass and 8 on the treble gives a good metal sound, great for palm mutes etc.

i know im the last to post on this, but the METAL MASTER pedal by DIGI-TECK well give you clarity and the biggist fattist nastyiest ronchiest grungyist any thing you want you can achive on this beautiful work of art!!! Im not one for using effects pedals or pedals at all for that matter but this pedal will blow your balls off and rock them all the way!!! Give it a try its a good pedal at a great price.

Originally Posted by: davehammeti know im the last to post on this, but the METAL MASTER pedal by DIGI-TECK well give you clarity and the biggist fattist nastyiest ronchiest grungyist any thing you want you can achive on this beautiful work of art!!! Im not one for using effects pedals or pedals at all for that matter but this pedal will blow your balls off and rock them all the way!!! Give it a try its a good pedal at a great price.

Beautiful metal runs like the sacred animal through the forest.

Originally Posted by: davehammetfor that matter but this pedal will blow your balls off and rock them all the way!!!

Well, Holly has one, so I guess it DOES do that!!!

LMAO @ Jolly!

My band has played in standrd tunning since I joined. (well, half the songs are in standard and half are in drop D). So, in the quest to try to settle on one tunning, we tunned down a whole step just for kicks. I was actually impressed with the sound. We have a female singer, so I was kind of worried it might be a little too low for her, but it was perfect for her vocal range. I wouldn't say it made the band sound heavier, but maybe fuller/thicker sounding. And no, I don't scoop my mids. I keep them between 12 and 2 o'clock (but mainly depends on the amp I use).

Originally Posted by: davehammetthe METAL MASTER pedal by DIGI-TECK well give you clarity and the biggist fattist nastyiest ronchiest grungyist any thing you want you can achive on this beautiful work of art!!! .

Yep, that's true! Pair it with an Eq. (Boss or MXR), humping some mids and you're ready to crush heads!! I think that a distortion pedal alone is not enough, you need an additional Eq. And yes: DON'T LOSE YOUR MIDS!!!!! You want clarity, at any distortion level, any speed, any low tuning?? Have MIDS, man! The lower you tune and the faster you play, the more mids you'll need, that's a fact. I learnt this when I began playing with a band :rolleyes: . If you're a bedroom-only player, a mids-humped sound is just an new acquired taste, just give it some time.

P.S: Hello, I'm new to the forums. Greeting to you all, hope we can share some knowledge!!! See ya' :cool:

Originally Posted by: PRSplayaLMAO @ Jolly!

My band has played in standrd tunning since I joined. (well, half the songs are in standard and half are in drop D). So, in the quest to try to settle on one tunning, we tunned down a whole step just for kicks. I was actually impressed with the sound. We have a female singer, so I was kind of worried it might be a little too low for her, but it was perfect for her vocal range. I wouldn't say it made the band sound heavier, but maybe fuller/thicker sounding. And no, I don't scoop my mids. I keep them between 12 and 2 o'clock (but mainly depends on the amp I use).

I did the same when the songwriter told me he wrote in Drop D ..... I just took it all down a step, and while it requires some creativity seeing as he used some open chords and open note riffs, I've never regretted it.

My settings usual look like so: Bass: 6 Mids: 8 Treb: 8 ..... without mids, you're LOST live .... and while playing with a big bassy "heavy" sound in your room sounds like the CD.... if you play with alot of bass, your bassist WILL overpower you. I am completely a fan of increasing the mids.... it doesn't sound PERFECT without a band, but with it you blend surpemely well