Opeth's Pedal Settings OR post your pedal settings

[Razed]

Was wondering if anyone can help me out.

I've got a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone guitar pedal, the same pedal Opeth uses (used?). Any of you guitarists out there know what setting they used, or have one that sounds close?

Or incredibly neat?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Ibsen]

I've been trying to figure out the Opeth sound for a very long time. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far. I can tell you what I use and I think it's a good setting.
First put your level to a 12:00 position. Then put all your lows and and highs all the way up. Then take out all your mids. Put your distortion to a 9:00 position. Unless your amp has good sustain, you will neded a sustain pedal for that rich sound. I wil; be getting one soon, as I have just recently discovered this sound. It also has a lot to do with the amp you are using. I have actually been playing out of a bass amp (donated-I'm broke) what has high and low gain inputs, as well as a pre and post amp knob. I do much the same thing with the equalizer on my amp as with the pedal (making sure to take down bass, as I play out of a bass amp) and crank the highs all the way. I plug into the low gain setting and crank the preamp all the way and control volume with the postamp afterwards. Like I said, it really depends on the amp, so just experiment.

 

[Thorns of Sorrow]

Mikael layers lots of guitar with very low gain in the studio, to get one big heavy distorted articulate sound...

as for live...Laney amps, the used the metal Zone a while ago, and If i am not mistaken, sparingly...I know Mike had a GT-5 for a while that he played live with...but now Im pettys ure its all Laney amp distortion...Mikael care to clarify?

 

[metropolis2k X]

I have a Laney GH100L which is basically the drive channel from the VH100R which is the amp Michael uses live. I can get a fairly similar sound to something like Opeth. I just boost a lot of bass and find the sweet spot on the mid control without using too much gain otherwise it will go muddy and you really want some clarity.

 

[StorTroll]

I´m currently using Laney´s TFX amp and it´s pretty good for Opeth sound....

 

[Punisher]

Originally posted by metropolis2k X
I have a Laney GH100L which is basically the drive channel from the VH100R which is the amp Michael uses live. I can get a fairly similar sound to something like Opeth. I just boost a lot of bass and find the sweet spot on the mid control without using too much gain otherwise it will go muddy and you really want some clarity.

what about treble?

 

[ham]

mikael uses a boss gt3 processor.

 

[enigma_nocurnus]

I use to use a boss metal Zone. I used to love it, but it still wasn't totally the sound I was after. I recently came across the finding that digitech had just released stomp boxes for the first time. Among the range was one called the "metal master". Without doubt the best sounding stomp box for distortion I have heard. I traded my metal zone for a good price and brought the digitech straight away. I fucking love it. The distortion is really heavy, yet incredebally smooth, which was something I was never able to find in a stomp box before. Because of it's smooth saturation sound it sounds so much more natural than the metal zone, and doesn't have that spikey element to it that the metal zone had. If you get a chance, check out the digitech metal master. I highly recomend it.

 

[ham]

@enigma_nocurnus
as much as i believe you, and don't want to detract credibility from your recommendation.. i wanna point out that the way you wrote that sounds so plugged haha

i was expecting you to post your self-owned online music store link afterwards looking for sales ;P

 

[Eternal_Pazuzu]

What Trent says is completely true. I've heard this pedal, and I've heard him talk about it. And in my opinion, any extreme black metal band using equipment made by Mormons in the blowjob capital of the world is pretty cool.

 

[metropolis2k X]

@Punisher: I keep the treble at about the 12 o'clock position because I use a crappy Marshall 4x10 which lacks a lot of bass so I have to compensate.

 

[Bubonic Chronic]

Pedals are good really only sparingly. The best distortion can be found the old fashioned way - by overdriving an expensive tube amp to saturate your tone with harmonics.

The idea about turning down the mids works very well when you're jamming alone, but TRUST ME, it will not work very well live because everyone will tel you to turn your guitar up until it can't go up any more, then you go for a solo and you've got people suddenly spilling beer all over themselves like "holy shit that's loud!!!" You need SOME mids, but yes, they are a bit less "metal" than the lows and highs. What you need them for is "presence" meaning how much your tone cuts through the other instruments. No mids and you will barely cut through at all - your tone will be brutal as hell, but you won't be heard. I turn my mids up to about 3 o'clock when I use the metal zone, and I play with that midrange sweep to give me some higher mid coloration to it. Then you can cut some of the highs, which will make your tone a little less harsh, more rich in the high mids, which is what you want for metal.

Still, I never use that pedal anymore. I bought a $900 tube amp (5150) and just crank it up to about 8 when I play heavy. The bad thing is it has to be that loud to sound right (that way the tubes are really suffering, which is what you want.) If I want to jam metal in an apartment or if I don't want to go deaf, then I use a pedal, otherwise none at all.

 

[AddeJ-Skinfected]

I am simply using a POD Line6 (Soldano sound) and a power amp both private and in our band. I used a Metal Zone pedal earlier but couldn´t get it to work good with my Peavey amp I used then.

Agrees with Bubonic Chronic. The mid is a critical frequence for the guitar, at least when playing live. It´s better to use a good mid frequence sound and letting the bass/drums handle the "bottom" frequencies. At least I experienced it like that...

 

[Ozzman]

ummm...I use lots of mids, it' gives it that creamy full sounding tone, I don't really like the cut mids thing, sounds to blended together or something

 

[Misanthrope]

Originally posted by AddeJ-Skinfected
I am simply using a POD Line6 (Soldano sound) and a power amp both private and in our band. I used a Metal Zone pedal earlier but couldn´t get it to work good with my Peavey amp I used then.

Agrees with Bubonic Chronic. The mid is a critical frequence for the guitar, at least when playing live. It´s better to use a good mid frequence sound and letting the bass/drums handle the "bottom" frequencies. At least I experienced it like that...

I agree, i rather have clarity and i found that mids give me outstanding clarity.

In fact im currently working with 2 dist settings, a lead and a rhytmic tone, the difference is that the lead ( besides a little delay ) has little and no bass, moderate to low high and it busts out mid to high or max settings. My rhythmic dist also has a lot of mids ( but not as much ) because i use very dissonant chords ( mayor and minor 7ths, tritones, 6ths and etc ) so i want clarity.

 

[TravisW]

For recording, I've tried a few different things. I've used 5150s, the Peavey Ultra Plus, a Peavey Classic 50, a POD, a Fender Princeton, a Digitech RP7, and a Peavey Bandit (yes, the Peavey dealer loves me)
At any rate, the best recorded results I've had were with the Bandit, which is an 80-watt transistor amp with Peavey's TransTube circuit. I ran into it with either a Kramer Nightswan with a Duncan Full Shred in the bridge, mahogany body, maple neck with an ebony fingerboard, and a Floyd Rose Tremolo, or else a maple-bodied Kramer Pacer. I recorded with the amp's gain set at between 12:00 and 1:00 and the gain boost on.

The big thing I'm always careful about with cutting mids is that it can vary a lot from guitar to guitar. Summarily pulling out the mids isn't always the greatest answer, because really, the midrange frequencies are where the electric guitar exists and if you suck out all the midrange you can lose a lot of the "meat" of the tone. I prefer to set the amp so it has a good lead tone, then selectively pull out a few ugly lower-midrange frequencies, around the 400hz area and maybe give a bit of a high and low end bump in a couple spots for the rhythm tone.

 

[metropolis2k X]

Originally posted by Bubonic Chronic
Pedals are good really only sparingly. The best distortion can be found the old fashioned way - by overdriving an expensive tube amp to saturate your tone with harmonics.

The idea about turning down the mids works very well when you're jamming alone, but TRUST ME, it will not work very well live because everyone will tel you to turn your guitar up until it can't go up any more, then you go for a solo and you've got people suddenly spilling beer all over themselves like "holy shit that's loud!!!" You need SOME mids, but yes, they are a bit less "metal" than the lows and highs. What you need them for is "presence" meaning how much your tone cuts through the other instruments. No mids and you will barely cut through at all - your tone will be brutal as hell, but you won't be heard. I turn my mids up to about 3 o'clock when I use the metal zone, and I play with that midrange sweep to give me some higher mid coloration to it. Then you can cut some of the highs, which will make your tone a little less harsh, more rich in the high mids, which is what you want for metal.

I totally agree, I actually need a lot of mid to get the lead sound I like (John Petrucci's). I do make sure my sound is good with a full band and also at a decent volume. That is another thing people must remember, VOLUME TOTALLY CHANGES YOUR SOUND so try it at the volume you will use it live.

 

[YaYo]

Originally posted by Eternal_Pazuzu
What Trent says is completely true. I've heard this pedal, and I've heard him talk about it. And in my opinion, any extreme black metal band using equipment made by Mormons in the blowjob capital of the world is pretty cool.

The pedal is alright, i like some elements of it, i definitely dont love it like trent does though.

 

[enigma_nocurnus]

Originally posted by YaYoGakk


The pedal is alright, i like some elements of it, i definitely dont love it like trent does though.

It pummels the metal Zone's fragile sphincter into a wad of cookie dough :Shedevil:


The only thing I would like to have seen on the digi is a flexible e.q on the mid range like the metal zone had. But overall I can't even compare the 2. One of the main reasons I love the digi is cause if you're playing single string stuff, note oriented sequences like a harmonized part, or a leady type lick or something. The note sounds sweet, and you can hear the tone satuarating, but it sustains cleanly. It was the first thing I noticed when I got the pedal, cause the metal zone sounded rank in those instances. That was the one area that I never liked with the metal zone. But it was just a case of I couldn't find anything that was better.

 

[requiem]

Originally posted by enigma_nocurnus


It pummels the metal Zone's fragile sphincter into a wad of cookie dough :Shedevil:

enigma, check your pm's! You tassie devil you....