What would you consider your biggest tonal realisation that has made an impact on the way you dial in gear?

[WizardAmpIphoneClip]

-Most Modern amps ( 90's onward) absolutely do not benefit from a boost for rhythms imo
-Only 1 guitar track a side is usually all you need
-Mids are annoying
-Your live tone needs more highs/presence than you think
-2 guitar bands live need the same amp/cab for each guy
-Gain is great turn the shit up

 

[SFW]

If you want to sound like fucking shit, that's well and truly up to you bud

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I've never been accused of having "sounds like fucking shit" tone. There are also tons of guitar tones that we all rave about that were recorded with high output pickups into high gain amps. Just sayin...

 

[rottingcorpse]

I realized early on that I don't give a rats ass if you like my tone or not. I'm not playing my equipment to impress you. I'm playing because I enjoy it...or not. For me, it a singular journey. Lick my taint, you judgmental bastards.

 

[Techdeth]

I said a million times . But you use a noisegate to make your tone better .,It’s a huge part of tone . Not just there to stop noise . My biggest lesson for metal tone

 

[crankyrayhanky]

It's high gain guitar, it's ALREADY going to sound compressed and aggressive in comparison to everything else in the mix - use those tools sparingly and where they are really needed - like using a multiband to make palm mutes more controlled, etc

+1, I never use compression on guitars (unless you count the one during the final mix/mastering stage)

Not even the one where it controls the palm mutes- I like my palm mutes to jump out at you lol. In fact, some metal pros add extra guitar tracks just to emphasize the palm mutes and make them louder.

I do like compression sometimes going into my amp on a clean/low gain sound, depending on the riff

 

[DanTravis62]

+1, I never use compression on guitars (unless you count the one during the final mix/mastering stage)

Not even the one where it controls the palm mutes- I like my palm mutes to jump out at you lol. In fact, some metal pros add extra guitar tracks just to emphasize the palm mutes and make them louder.

I do like compression sometimes going into my amp on a clean/low gain sound, depending on the riff

It's probably the biggest "tell" for people new at recording guitars, compression on compression on compression

 

[thegame]

The adage off less gain = more depends a lot on the player as well! I've had times where I've handed off my own guitar to someone else without touching any settings on anything, only to hear back much less clarity and a darker tone compared to when I was playing. And that's with a generous amount of gain dialed in. No, this isn't yet another tone is in the fingers debate but a reminder that some people's technique and attack allow for lots of clarity to still happen despite ample gain being dialed in.

 

[IHateRap]

It has to do with my penis and I'm not ready to share it yet. I'm sorry.

 

[thegame]

It has to do with my penis and I'm not ready to share it yet.

Then your wedding night will be extra special!

 

[Kagami]

the prs metal are medium output, btw, that's not a super high output pickup - IIRC they are like 15k on the bridge - the emgs are a little hot, but not even close to the pickups that i'm talking about

Have you ever played one of the super high output ceramics that people use for metal? Or are you calling the prs metal pickups "high output"?

I'm talking about the X2N and Slug from dimarzio, the Guitarmory patriot thats like 26k, stuff like that. Are you familiar with what a pickup that hot does to the signal?

Don't get lured into the resistance trap, you can have a lower resistance pickup higher output than a high resistance pickup. This is why Dimarzio as example doesn't use it on their site to determine the output.

 

[DanTravis62]

Don't get lured into the resistance trap, you can have a lower resistance pickup higher output than a high resistance pickup. This is why Dimarzio as example doesn't use it on their site to determine the output.

It's not the end all be all, of course, but when resistance differences are THAT huge it's a good quickhand to show we're dealing in non-overlapping magisteria

I mean, if you think a dimarzio the slug or x2n is doing the same sort of thing as a PRS metal, I don't know what to tell you bro

 

[Kagami]

It's not the end all be all, of course, but when resistance differences are THAT huge it's a good quickhand to show we're dealing in non-overlapping magisteria

I mean, if you think a dimarzio the slug or x2n is doing the same sort of thing as a PRS metal, I don't know what to tell you bro

I have an X2N in my pickups box, it measures 15.5k...

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

The importance of the presence knob on a marshall varient

 

[TheGreatGreen]

One of the best tone dialing tips I can give is to recommend that instead of dialing in your tone by going back and fourth between playing and dialing, try recording a direct signal of yourself playing and then only dial in your tone while reamping that signal back into your rig.

The acoustic sound of your guitar will influence your perception of your tone and as a result, the version of your tone you're hearing will be different than the version the recording / audience hears, and the version you're not hearing is almost guaranteed to sound worse than you'd prefer because of that. Reamping while dialing removes that element from the equation. Also, it's faster and easier to dial in the right amount of gain and low end for stuff like palm mutes and string attack when you can keep your hands on the knobs and not have to keep shifting your attention between playing and dialing.

I can almost guarantee you'll dial in a DIFFERENT tone than you otherwise would have, and that it will sound better than it otherwise would have. It will also sound and feel a little weird to hop back on the guitar and hear the acoustic sound of your guitar plus the better version of your tone, but you'll get used to it quicker than you'd think, and your tone will be better.

 

[DanTravis62]

One of the best tone dialing tips I can give is to recommend that instead of dialing in your tone by going back and fourth between playing and dialing, try recording a direct signal of yourself playing and then only dial in your tone while reamping that signal back into your rig.

The acoustic sound of your guitar will influence your perception of your tone and as a result, the version of your tone you're hearing will be different than the version the recording / audience hears, and the version you're not hearing is almost guaranteed to sound worse than you'd prefer because of that. Reamping while dialing removes that element from the equation. Also, it's faster and easier to dial in the right amount of gain and low end for stuff like palm mutes and string attack when you can keep your hands on the knobs and not have to keep shifting your attention between playing and dialing.

I can almost guarantee you'll dial in a DIFFERENT tone than you otherwise would have, and that it will sound better than it otherwise would have. It will also sound and feel a little weird to hop back on the guitar and hear the acoustic sound of your guitar plus the better version of your tone, but you'll get used to it quicker than you'd think, and your tone will be better.

This is a great idea for recording, but it's also directly related to the volume question - if you can hear your acoustic strings ringing out, it's going to change your perception of the tone coming out of the amp when you're jamming, as well

When people can hear the attack of the acoustic sound of their strings, they tend to dial more gain than they need because they misidentify the transient from the acoustic string as the transient of the "tone" in general instead of what is coming out of the speaker

 

[TheGreatGreen]

This is a great idea for recording, but it's also directly related to the volume question - if you can hear your acoustic strings ringing out, it's going to change your perception of the tone coming out of the amp when you're jamming, as well

When people can hear the attack of the acoustic sound of their strings, they tend to dial more gain than they need because they misidentify the transient from the acoustic string as the transient of the "tone" in general instead of what is coming out of the speaker

Yep, they'll perceive a whole bunch of gain as sounding just fine and plenty clear enough, because the acoustic sound of the strings is providing the clarity, dynamics, and definition, while the gain gives you a great feeling pad under the notes but no definition. Remove the acoustic element and you're just left with gained out mush.

And while we're talking about it, it's also a good idea to test out tones at all the volumes at which you think your music will be heard. Fletcher munson, etc. Full sounding low volume tones can get bloated and sibilant at gig volumes if not dialed well, and tones that sound big and balanced at rock concert levels often end up pretty small when taken down to room volume.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Yep, they'll perceive a whole bunch of gain as sounding just fine and plenty clear enough, because the acoustic sound of the strings is providing the clarity, dynamics, and definition, while the gain gives you a great feeling pad under the notes but no definition. Remove the acoustic element and you're just left with gained out mush.

And while we're talking about it, it's also a good idea to test out tones at all the volumes at which you think your music will be heard. Fletcher munson, etc. Full sounding low volume tones can get bloated and sibilant at gig volumes if not dialed well, and tones that sound big and balanced at rock concert levels often end up pretty small when taken down to room volume.

Sometimes I write riffs in reaper and think they sound great. Full volume is the test to see if they are real. But I have absolutely never recorded anything where I could hear my guitar acoustically. That would have to be sub 95 DBs

 

[CoreyW]

What helped me the most was getting my guitar sounds coming out of the same sound source that what I was playing to was coming from and getting my guitar volume to mix with my source volume.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Sometimes I write riffs in reaper and think they sound great. Full volume is the test to see if they are real. But I have absolutely never recorded anything where I could hear my guitar acoustically. That would have to be sub 95 DBs

Hah that would be great fun. I do that every now and then but the majority of my recording is done at relatively low volume, even if there’s a loud cab mic’d in another room. I still do the high volume test to make sure everything will sound good but for me recording is fairly quiet.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Hah that would be great fun. I do that every now and then but the majority of my recording is done at relatively low volume, even if there’s a loud cab mic’d in another room. I still do the high volume test to make sure everything will sound good but for me recording is fairly quiet.

I see. I had thought about doing the other room thing. I never considered that i would be able to hear my guitar acoustically..i guess only thing you could do is have monitoring in the room. That is interesting. It would be tough for me to get really into it. Part of the fun is the reaction of being in the room and the instant feedback.