Metallica ...Creeping Death... Now that's more like it.

DanTravis62 said:
I experimented with a powered Kemper and various axefx rigs for a while, but eventually went back to tube amps. If I used an axefx now, it would be as a rack effects processor in 4cm or something, and as an emergency backup. I love the scope and breadth of the time based effects.

I just personally don't care for the feel, and it didn't "do it" for me tonewise, as far as the amp modeling goes. I have pretty specific tastes and needs.

But that doesn't mean they can't be dialed in to sound great; they most certainly can. And I mean ALL the major modeling players Kemper, axefx, line 6, QC, etc. Plenty of bands I've seen live, like Accept and testament, get fantastic tones out of their modeling gear.

It just seems insane to me that the biggest metal band in the god damn world sounds like complete ass with a whole crew to help run sound and dial those axefx racks in.

And, for better or worse, it happened when they publicly switched to modeling. So now that's going to be correlated in people's minds.
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Haha yep I get it. I love the Axe-Fx and personally I think the modeling is great, but I totally get it if it's not your thing. I will say that amp modeling aside, I've never used anything, digital or analog, that comes anywhere close to the quality and breadth of customization of the effects it can produce. It almost goes beyond just providing your standard effects and instead gives you more like a creation lab for any effect you might want to design. It's insane. So even when I'm not using its modeling I'm still plugging a head and reactive load into it for the IR's and post effects.

And yeah you're right about the Metallica thing. I don't get it either. Like, they have ears, right? And not just that but they should have a whole bunch of dedicated-to-good-sound ears on staff, that are paid to make stuff sound good. If me and my dumb "prosumer" setup can easily tell how immediately worse their new tones are than their old stuff, what the hell is going on? Do they just have a bunch of yes men around them 24x7 telling them how great their new honky tone is? I know how much better the Axe-Fx can sound than that so what's the deal?
 
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TheGreatGreen said:
Haha yep I get it. I love the Axe-Fx and personally I think the modeling is great, but I totally get it if it's not your thing. I will say that amp modeling aside, I've never used anything, digital or analog, that comes anywhere close to the quality and breadth of customization of the effects it can produce. It almost goes beyond just providing your standard effects and instead gives you more like a creation lab for any effect you might want to design. It's insane. So even when I'm not using its modeling I'm still plugging a head and reactive load into it for the IR's and post effects.

And yeah you're right about the Metallica thing. I don't get it either. Like, they have ears, right? And not just that but they should have a whole bunch of dedicated-to-good-sound ears on staff, that are paid to make stuff sound good. If me and my dumb "prosumer" setup can easily tell how immediately worse their new tones are than their old stuff, what the hell is going on? Do they just have a bunch of yes men around them 24x7 telling them how great their new honky tone is? I know how much better the Axe-Fx can sound than that so what's the deal?
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Yeah that's the strongest selling point of the axefx to me. The effects stuff is fucking amazing. I just prefer using volume and real mics to dial recording tones in, so I ended up only using it for the fx.

And the "yes men" hypothesis is just about the only thing I can think of that makes sense - how the fuck else do the richest band on the planet not have people on retainer/staff to make sure their tones don't sound like my first guitar rig ever?

Literally that video sounds like my Ibanez slam punk into peavey ss keyboard amp rig when I was 11.

And especially compared to the massive sounding live rigs (the diezel era holy shit!) they used in the past. With all the staff, they HAVE to have someone capable, right?
 
TheGreatGreen said:
And yeah you're right about the Metallica thing. I don't get it either. Like, they have ears, right? And not just that but they should have a whole bunch of dedicated-to-good-sound ears on staff, that are paid to make stuff sound good. If me and my dumb "prosumer" setup can easily tell how immediately worse their new tones are than their old stuff, and I know good and well the Axe-Fx can sound way better than that, what the hell is going on? Do they just have a bunch of yes men around them 24x7 telling them how great their new honky tone is?
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Metallica started having really awful tone around the St Anger period. Then it was still all tube amps. Perhaps their Axe-Fx units are perfectly replicating the crappy tone they purposely want to achieve? Maybe decades of decibel abuse has forever screwed up their hearing so they need a very obnoxious mid honk to hear anything at all? Case in point; rumor has it the reason the original 5150 amp is so buzzy and piercing in the high end is because EVH's hearing was shot in the high end, so the amp sounded 'normal' and balanced to him. Also consider Brian Johnson's recent struggles with hearing issues. After a while he said he couldn't hear the guitars on stage anymore and those guys are literally blasting a dozen cabinets each on stage.
 
RaceU4her said:
I don’t know but I do know that most bands that sound shitty year after year lose fans, metallica fans though seem to embrace and defend the shittines and will call you jealous and whatever other mean things if you mention they don’t sound good.
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Yeah I got a taste of that in the last Metallica thread

I'm a "jealous hater" because I don't like their low effort songwriting for the last 30 years or their incredibly dogshit live guitar tone
 
thegame said:
Metallica started having really awful tone around the St Anger period. Then it was still all tube amps. Perhaps their Axe-Fx units are perfectly replicating the crappy tone they purposely want to achieve? Maybe decades of decibel abuse has forever screwed up their hearing so they need a very obnoxious mid honk to hear anything at all? Case in point; rumor has it the reason the original 5150 amp is so buzzy and piercing in the high end is because EVH's hearing was shot in the high end, so the amp sounded 'normal' and balanced to him. Also consider Brian Johnson's recent struggles with hearing issues. After a while he said he couldn't hear the guitars on stage anymore and those guys are literally blasting a dozen cabinets each on stage.
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lol it's my exact thought as well that Metallica's Axe-Fx's are simply accurately recreating their post-St Anger, Diezel and Randall centric tones, which are some of the worst tones they've ever had I think.
 
RaceU4her said:
I don’t know but I do know that most bands that sound shitty year after year lose fans, metallica fans though seem to embrace and defend the shittines and will call you jealous and whatever other mean things if you mention they don’t sound good.
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Metallica died with Cliff Burton. All downhill after that.
 
No matter how bad Metallica's music is for the past couple decades ...

They're giant cucks with bad guitar tone now

Kind of hard to enjoy all the good shit
 
DanTravis62 said:
It just seems insane to me that the biggest metal band in the god damn world sounds like complete ass with a whole crew to help run sound and dial those axefx racks in.
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Indeed Dan.

I put it down to two things... in-theory of course:

1) Too many cooks spoil the broth. Going back to basics and pretending they're a new band just starting out would theoretically actually improve their sound.

2) Studio / band / employee politics.
 
Monkey Man said:
Indeed Dan.

I put it down to two things... in-theory of course:

1) Too many cooks spoil the broth. Going back to basics and pretending they're a new band just starting out would theoretically actually improve their sound.

2) Studio / band / employee politics.
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Those are indeed plausible options for something that seems inexplicable
 
Sounds like they're in the "maybe using HPF and LPF will fix the tone" phase of modeling usage. By my calculations they should be back to amps in 1-2 years.
 
I’m at the point. I don’t pay much attention to the tone as much cause I watch it on my phone. A sad performance is what gets me. They seemed on fire for that one. Hard to compare tone unless your standing in front the stage to me honestly.
 
DanTravis62 said:
And especially compared to the massive sounding live rigs (the diezel era holy shit!) they used in the past.
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Actually, IMO their Diezel tone wasn't that great to me either. Bloated low-end and this funky chewiness in the high-end that Diezels are known for. They can be saturated beyond measure, but they do it with some (to me, unwanted) over-polishing of the growl/kerrang, that their old Mesa's and Marshalls were known for.
YMMV of course.
 
Speeddemon said:
Actually, IMO their Diezel tone wasn't that great to me either. Bloated low-end and this funky chewiness in the high-end that Diezels are known for. They can be saturated beyond measure, but they do it with some (to me, unwanted) over-polishing of the growl/kerrang, that their old Mesa's and Marshalls were known for.
YMMV of course.
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It depends which diezel tone - the later St anger diezel didn't sound good, James' blueface vh4 Triaxis boogie rig around the load era sounded amazing live.
 
I think Metallica sounds great today in contrast to what most of you guys are saying. I think you guys are mistaking your personal preferences for good versus bad. Same for those who think Metallica went down hill after Cliff died, or since the Black Album, or whatever.
 
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