Getting a good black metal guitar tone.

[Hafsteinn]

Any ideas on how to get clarity from the mid to upper strings when recording distorted gtrs , -open strings and whole chords(so that the notes are audible)?.

I am currently using a ms10 metal charger and a metal zone straight into the audiocard, I do have a palmer junction but the level seems to get really low and muddy.


Something close to this guitar tone is ideal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0InWjNDZkQ

 

[Jormyn]

Uh... are you using any kind of cabinet simulation?

 

[Hafsteinn]

I tried using the palmer junction but that was did not pan out, thats why I am kind of reaching out to find what I could do. I am most concerned with losing the higher strings.

 

[Terminus]

Hah.

I'd just go straight into the interface with no pedal, then just use LePou's LeGion amp with no cab sim loaded and maybe a bit of eq. Add reverb.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

Wrest spends a lot of time recording, but I honestly don't think he puts a huge amount of effort into deliberately shaping his guitar tones. It just sounds like a 5150 with an SM57 in a shitty room with lots of mids and treble hahah. The guitars on The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide sound better than on Massive Conspiracy, and that shit came out in like 2003.

Generally speaking for the genre though, I try to shoot for something like this:



It has some real high-end fizz that rounds out the "wall of sound" and glues the guitars together but isn't too harsh, and that comes, I think, from having the appropriate amount of mids. Having a thin tortex pick (.60 mm maybe?) tends to help, and quad-tracking is ideal.

Basically, I would just use a 5150 sim of some sort or, if not, then a Rectifier sim like the LePou Lecto for the high-end emphasis, use lots of mids, and find a nice, balanced SM57 --> Rectifier cab impulse. The TMS Recto impulse that comes with the TSE X50 is great for that kind of tone.

And it sounds like you're going to have to invest in some decent gear hahah. Going into the sound card with a metal zone is absolutely not what you want. I don't think many black metal bands even use a Metal Zone- that's more Disgorge/Entombed-y death metal, and it's actually going to kill your note separation and clarity.

 

[Ericlingus]

Ulver went straight to the board with a pedal. Burzum used shitgear on filosofem.

 

[Hafsteinn]

Thanks for the help! I will definitely try all those out.

"find a nice, balanced SM57 --> Rectifier cab impulse."

I have a sm58 for vocals, but I dont understand quite how this works? Could explain it to me?


So ideally you would quad track it , L-R and then the third and fourth 50 or higher? Also what would be a good sound for the third and fourth if the first two are high freq. ?

 

[SocialNumb]

By the looks of it you need to read up on some basics, sorry if I'm wrong. I'm just going by what you've written.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/262441-useful-links-faq-please-read.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_response

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

Thanks for the help! I will definitely try all those out.

"find a nice, balanced SM57 --> Rectifier cab impulse."

I have a sm58 for vocals, but I dont understand quite how this works? Could explain it to me?


So ideally you would quad track it , L-R and then the third and fourth 50 or higher? Also what would be a good sound for the third and fourth if the first two are high freq. ?

Yeah, use the links SocialNumb provided. Your signal chain should be the following:

Guitar --> audio interface of some sort, which is connected via usb to your computer --> Amp simulator plugin in your audio workstation --> impulse response loader with an impulse response that simulates an SM57 into a Rectifier cabinet. Read the links above to get to know what impulses do and how they work.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

Hah.

I'd just go straight into the interface with no pedal, then just use LePou's LeGion amp with no cab sim loaded and maybe a bit of eq. Add reverb.

That´s too modern dude. He just need to plug the guitar into a metal zone pedal and then direct to a pc soundcard and voila, an a instant burzum tone, ok probably a bit better.

In all seriousness, you just need to work a tone you really like and add some high frequencies that´s very common to the style.

 

[Terminus]

you are correct sir!

in general, and this is just from a production perspective, I'd go more for this tone in the BM style:

 

[DanLights]

you are correct sir!

in general, and this is just from a production perspective, I'd go more for this tone in the BM style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PsrVLoy388

Now that guitar tone is black metally delicious, and the low end from the bass really fills it up. Love those guys, great stuff altogether.

 

[rapucore]

Choosing guitar tones for black metal is like choosing tones for any other material - it depends on the style you're representing. Using old fuzz pedals with a home stereo setup proved to work excellently for Burzum's minimalistic and atmospheric "Filosofem" while it wouldn't have worked on Mayhem's technical and intricate "Grand Declaration of War" or "Chimera" (then again on "Ordo Ad Chao" their then-guitarist Blasphemer did use his crappy POD for all tones IIRC). It's all about stylistic choices and observing your chosen style of representing the songs and riffs.

Clarity of the strings has much to do with your playing and accenting certain notes with your picking hand. You could run an EQ pedal in front of your distortion to adjust its character to your liking. If you happen to post a sample of your material it would be easier for us to help you.