Correct Metal vibrato

[Harry Hughes]

^Umm, it's heard in every song
Zakk from a technical standpoint has good vibrato, but sometimes, as was pointed out above, he has a habit of using it in the completely wrong musical context so it ends up sounding like total shit.
Zakk is not exactly a guy known for restraint in his soloing. If anything he's become even more of a parody than Malmsteen now

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Personally, I think the speed is more important than the range. Unless it's an obvious clash, half- and whole-tone can both work on a lot of things - but too fast always sounds bad. It's a particular annoyance with the whole deathcore scene - every time they do a pinched harmonic it's accompanied by a really fast vibrato that makes me want to strangle the guy doing it.

If you want to hear great vibrato listen to solo cello pieces. Although the technique doesn't totally translate to guitar, the principle does: most cello vibrato is far less than a half-tone, but it sounds great (though they do have the advantage of going up and down from the note). When you use it on virtually every note, you're going to be pretty damn good at it, and you use it very musically. On bass I normally use the same technique (rocking rather than bending). I tend to not like the typical OTT metal vibrato on the end of a solo.

Steve

 

[Harry Hughes]

Personally, I think the speed is more important than the range. Unless it's an obvious clash, half- and whole-tone can both work on a lot of things - but too fast always sounds bad. It's a particular annoyance with the whole deathcore scene - every time they do a pinched harmonic it's accompanied by a really fast vibrato that makes me want to strangle the guy doing it.

If you want to hear great vibrato listen to solo cello pieces. Although the technique doesn't totally translate to guitar, the principle does: most cello vibrato is far less than a half-tone, but it sounds great (though they do have the advantage of going up and down from the note). When you use it on virtually every note, you're going to be pretty damn good at it, and you use it very musically. On bass I normally use the same technique (rocking rather than bending). I tend to not like the typical OTT metal vibrato on the end of a solo.

Steve

Use it on virtually every note?:zombie:
If you ever listen to a good vocalist, you'll hear they apply vibrato to certain notes, and not others.
It's all about contrast and balance.
If a guitarist were doing vibrato almost every note, I'd be inclined to believe their soloing capabilities aren't highly developed and they are amateurs.
A good soloist, like Mikael Akerfeldt, Michael Amott or Jeff Loomis for some examples know when it's good to apply vibrato and when it's better to hold back from doing it


Here's a good example of what I'm talking about.
Note how he carefully applies vibrato to certain notes and sometimes not applying it.
[youtube]VlEtMxfkcS0 [/youtube]

 

[John_C]

Classical musicians have a tendency to use vibrato a LOT. Just listen to opera for example. Every fucking note, so wide and fast you can't tell where there original note was supposed to be!

A little bit of subtle vibrato on a string instrument really warms up the note, it brings a totally different sound. However, a lot of classical musicians still over use it massively.

 

[Harry Hughes]

^Yeah I'm not really a fan of opera because of how excessively they use vibrato. It just really grates on my ears rather quickly and I have to turn it off. It's a shame, because I can see their talent and see the merit in what they do, but it just isn't for me at all.
Give me someone like Warrel Dane or Mikael Akerfeldt any day of the week for good, appropriate use of vibrato on clean vocals

 

[kev]

bend it til' it sounds good I say

 

[Jind]

To me - the man with perfect vibrato is Michael Schenker - when I think of perfect vibrato for a solo it him. When Michael Amott is asked of the guitarists that influenced his playing, one of the tops of the list is always Michael Schenker.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2VcFI--W1w&=[/ame]

 

[Notuern]

My favorites as far as vibrato goes:



(2:40)

 

[John_C]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSpbuFSr2o

like the original, but without the subtlety, phrasing and inspiration and a whole lot more "angry rockstar". I quite like SRV sometimes, but def. not here.

Good examples of vibrato though in general

 

[SocialNumb]

This is how you test them.

If it feels good, you're doing it right.

 

[Notuern]

like the original, but without the subtlety, phrasing and inspiration and a whole lot more "angry rockstar". I quite like SRV sometimes, but def. not here.

Good examples of vibrato though in general

I love SRV, but i agree, this is not one of his finest moments.. but it was a good example of his vibrato.

 

[Jind]

You know who else has excellent vibrato - John Sykes (I was just listening to Blue Murder yesterday and it was one of the things that caught my attention). I'm also surprised no one has mentioned the flawless vibrato of Yngwie J. Malmsteen - despite being a complete douche - he has great vibrato.

 

[K Odell]

You know who else has excellent vibrato - John Sykes (I was just listening to Blue Murder yesterday and it was one of the things that caught my attention). I'm also surprised no one has mentioned the flawless vibrato of Yngwie J. Malmsteen - despite being a complete douche - he has great vibrato.

Yngwie is definantly a good example of great vibrato.

 

[Jind]

Yngwie is definantly a good example of great vibrato.

Absolutely!

 

[azistenostora]

 

[The Unavoidable]

Hahah, oh holy shit that video is great. Immortal classic.

 

[Force666]

Me and the OP both mentioned Yngwie already. And yes...the Shred Durst videos rule!

 

[D.Vial]

Friedman, Skolnick, Amott brothers are the definition of a good vibrato to me.

 

[ahjteam]

So what is it suppose to be, prefered or most common- half tone (one frett) or whole tone (2 fretts)?

Someone care to make audio examples of both?

 

[Metaltastic]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/332050/Vibrato eg.mp3

To be honest, I never thought about it until now, but I guess I would say I always do half step vibrato when the pitch I'm centered on is the one I'm fretting, and whole-step vibrato when the pitch I'm centered on is the one I'm bending to (in other words, notice how it sounds like I'm focused on the higher note in the second half, unlike in the first)