Metallica Rig Rundown 2017 tour

[BYTOR]

Also did you see the size of those rigs?! How is that money savings over a couple heads in a rack?!

Not to mention they bought a total of 76 Meyer monitors at $4,000 - $5000 each to run the AxeFx rig thru.......it's not a cost cutting move at all to go 100% digital for them. They could easily tour with amp heads & cabs, but they love the consistent tone they get every night with the Fractal. No fussing with blown tubes, maintenance, plus each replacement amp head sounds different than the other etc...etc......techs can spend their time on other important shit.

I saw them a couple months ago & folks were raving about the sound...."best tone in years" blah blah

Metallica shits out money.....sells out stadiums worldwide.....tours go on forever.....they wouldn't use the Fractal stuff if they didn't love it.....

 

[kalt]

I know it may be different live and in person but all the vids i see of their distorted sounds have no life to them. They sound like all the edges have been rounded off and it has no bigness to it. Was watching a recent vid of Ktulu and the clean intro sounded sweet and the band kicks in and it just sucked the life out of it. Rob's bass tone was carrying all the aggression and balls. The guitars should have been roaring. Especially with those RTL tunes.

Shit, after seeing the AC/DC rundown those AxeFX rigs suck balls.

Exactly.

Look, I love Metallica. Been jamming to them since 1986. Seen them close to a dozen times.
Also, love the Fractal stuff. I've got an Axe and an FX8.
Would I trade them for any one of my tube amps? Not on your life.

I saw the show at the Rose Bowl a few months ago. No, doubt they were good, actually seemed to be a lot tighter than I remember at any previous shows. But I was very, very disappointed in the sound/tone. It was absolutely missing something. It felt kind of sterile to me. Lacked the typical life/aggression of the shows I remembered. OF course, it could be that I'm 45 now and maybe it just doesn't do it for me like it used to, or maybe that they are in their mid-50's, or it could have been that the show seemed more about the "show" than the music. Not sure......

Not hating on Fractal or Metallica, just wasn't impressed. Metallica is still one of my all-times.....All, of course, in my humble opinion.

 

[riffsfordaze]

Ya, not down with all the digital B.S. When i go to a steak house, i don't order a profiled, modeled F'in steak. I want the REAL thing Dammit!! All this sterile, lifeless, 1s and 0s stuff sucks!!! Fifteen years from now the landfills will be overflowing with this digital crap!!!

 

[riffsfordaze]

Get pissed and turn up the Boogie C++, and CH 3 on the Diezel VH 4 and be done with all this nonsense!!! This digital garbage sucks the life out of their guitar tones!!!

 

[riffsfordaze]

Like skoora just mentioned, looks like the Metallica camp could learn a thing or two from the AC/DC rig rundown!!!

 

[jlb32]

Tube amps just have more character and life to the tone. More personal feel to the playing IMO.

Even if production model tube amps sound slightly different from model to model, Metallica's older rigs used to be all tube amps with one back up. It's not like they had 50 back up tube amps that they had to worry about the tone of the models. They were tested before hand and had a main and a backup.

Going to the Axe FX systems is a cost cutter, even if some do not believe that. Yes, they sound ok. I'm not a Axe FX hater. It's just that their tube amp rigs sound much better overall and money is the big factor on them going away from their tube rigs.

If they loved the Axe FX systems so much tonally they would be using them in the studio but it's all tube amps in the studio for recording.

 

[Badronald]

Also did you see the size of those rigs?! How is that money savings over a couple heads in a rack?!

techs can spend their time on other important shit.

 

[riffsfordaze]

I guess i will never understand : Golly Gee this kinda sorta sounds like my Boogie C++ and my Diezel Vh 4 and my Roland Jazz Chorus but not really!!! WTF??? Armageddon is near i swear!!!

 

[riffsfordaze]

Metallica isn't the only band guilty of this! The best tone Fear Factory's Dino Cazares ever had was through his Metalhead modded JCM 800s, i would bet his Fortin amps sound like God! Let's model them and kinda sorta but not really sound close!? And the list goes on and on and on........Rant Over!!!

 

[BYTOR]

Before they went 100% digital for their live shows, tons of folks were saying for years that they sounded pretty shitty live compared with their amps from their earlier days.......

 

[mdc1mdc11]

AxeFX etc are fine for this kind of music. Not sure I would want to hear acts that do not use so much distortion in concert with AxeFx though.

 

[thesockmonster]

To be honest, I don't think Metallica really gives a shit about what we think. Probably why they've survived and thrived over the years.

 

[skoora]

Before they went 100 digital for their live shows, tons of folks were saying for years that they sounded pretty shitty live compared with their amps from their earlier days.......

and you're not wrong...Now I'm only going on video's but their live sound has not been good to my ears well before AxeFX. I think it's just James's taste in sound has changed and this is what he dials in. It's not too dissimilar to his Diezel centric tone he had before. Like a lot of us aging metalheads he's gone classic rock in his tonal tastes but the difference is, we play classic rock with it. I'm not trying to play metal with it! ...Actually I wouldn't play classic rock with his tone either...

Maybe the Axe could actually sound a lot more like their old school tones. They just don't want that sound anymore.

 

[halebox]

I'm all for digital. Ive never played an axefx but if they are consistent and reliable it really lets you concentrate on the show instead of tweaking your amp sound for every show. Im guessing it sounds better than ever and you have less chance for weird tones when your going direct. Must be great having someone control your switching and effects. They have huge audiences to deliver to and the less you have to worry about the better the show can be

 

[RaceU4her]

My bet is that it is an effort to slim down assorted costs for the band, I'm sure it saves them at least some amount of cash in freight / space to have two smaller racks per member versus multiple fridges. Probably takes less set up / tear down time as well as sound check time. Genuinely wouldn't surprise me if it isn't a decision from the business side of things.

all of this.

 

[Norton666]

I thoroughly enjoyed that vid. Hate on the digital stuff all you want , but it makes sense when you are at that level. Consistency is vital in a touring situation. I spent many years on the road as a tech , and equipment has a way of changing from day to day.
I saw Metallica on this tour and their tone was as good as it has ever been. I have seen them 17 times over the years , and I didn't feel like the show suffered because they were using digital rigs. My opinion of course

 

[BYTOR]

I saw Metallica on this tour and their tone was as good as it has ever been. I have seen them 17 times over the years , and I didn't feel like the show suffered because they were using digital rigs. My opinion of course

Truth!......I saw them a couple months ago in Miami & there were a ton of long time Metallica fans in attendance who were all raving about the awesome tones/tight performances/setlist/stage etc...

We all love tube amps....in perfect conditions when pure tone is the only factor that is taken into consideration & 'Nothing Else Matters'(pun intended), tube amps still rule but it's quickly changing...anybody can be fooled on recordings now & it's been that way for a while...

In the real world of touring, digital units like the AxeFx that have all amps & effects built in & are now at a seriously impressive level of realism(especially for those like Metallica that have access to the best tweakers in the business)....digital just has an all around advantage of being 100% consistent every night/stores every tone & effect of every song section/no mics to setup/zero maintenance etc...etc...

It's the future.....tubes won't completely disappear, but digital will win the day for most situations more & more going forward. We'll have the greatest pure tube amp tones in history available in an app on our iphones

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Also did you see the size of those rigs?! How is that money savings over a couple heads in a rack?!

Not to mention they bought a total of 76 Meyer monitors at $4,000 - $5000 each to run the AxeFx rig thru.......it's not a cost cutting move at all to go 100% digital for them. They could easily tour with amp heads & cabs, but they love the consistent tone they get every night with the Fractal. No fussing with blown tubes, maintenance, plus each replacement amp head sounds different than the other etc...etc......techs can spend their time on other important shit.

I saw them a couple months ago & folks were raving about the sound...."best tone in years" blah blah

Metallica shits out money.....sells out stadiums worldwide.....tours go on forever.....they wouldn't use the Fractal stuff if they didn't love it.....

Another thing I think that plays in to it is laziness of the tech. If you got a couple of lazy ass techs that are simply tired of replacing preamp tubes, and biasing new power tubes... Hey James... you know these tube amps keep breaking... you should just go all digital. Also less buttons for said lazy ass tech to push during shows for song changes too. I understand that it's one less thing to break during a tour... but that's what techs get paid to do. Do your job!!!




... and bottom line that someone else mentioned... if they loved the sound of the SnaxFx sooooo much... why are they still using tube amps in the studio to record with???

It's either being cheap, lazy, or a combination of the two.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

I saw Metallica on this tour and their tone was as good as it has ever been. I have seen them 17 times over the years , and I didn't feel like the show suffered because they were using digital rigs. My opinion of course

Truth!......I saw them a couple months ago in Miami & there were a ton of long time Metallica fans in attendance who were all raving about the awesome tones/tight performances/setlist/stage etc...

I was there at the Hard Rock for that show... and actually liked their tone when I saw them about 5-6 years ago in Ft Lauderdale at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise. Especially James's tone... Kirk's tone has never been anything special/memorable for me personally.

Tone wasn't bad... but didn't make me go wow either. Performance and playing were spot on though. I agree.

 

[Purpleibby]

Aside from the digital/tube preamp/amp debate.....axefx rigs are just fuggin' boring.