Power Metal Guitars

[Plugin]

Hello,
please could you give me some tips about tracking and mixing guitars of bands like Gamma Ray, Primal Fear, Helloween, Angra, Blind Guardian and so on?

For example, how many guitars usually they record (2 or 4)?

I did't find many info about this style and their producers.

Thank you

 

[blue_fAng]

It depends in what you are aiming for. I think those bands use high gain amps with medium to high output pickups in their guitars. Try an amp with the high gain function, scoop the mids (try to avoid post eq) and tube screamer helps too put it before the amp. Every professional release have a minimum of 2 rhythm guitars panned left and right. Leads are optional, can be center panned (one lead guitar), left and right or center (two lead guitars), one lead center one right whatever, as long as they don't eat the rhythm guitars too much. Looks like you need a lot of reading here. Some 'power metal' tones can be usable for hard rock, death metal, etc as death metal tones can be used for other styles as well and I'm pretty sure every record has different tone.

 

[Lodge]

Huge power metal fan here, Blind Guardian definitely being my favorite. With the bands you listed, it really depends on what era of their sound you're aiming for, as most power metal bands make the natural transition from bombastic thrash to polished symphonic. If your throwing a lot of symphonic elements in your mix, your guitar tone has to suffer a little bit for it to make way. If you're going for straight up thrashy power metal like say Somewhere Far Beyond or No World Order, usually the main rhythm is dual tracked and then you have whatever harmony/lead parts doubled as well. When the awesome power metal choruses kick in, that's where you bust out the quad tracking and get that massive sound and change in dynamics. Its hard to find good information out there, but you can find snippets here and there. If you hit up Youtube, there are studio videos of Gamma Ray and Blind Guardian, both of which I found not only interesting but pretty damn informative.

 

[Skinny Viking]

Every one of those bands listed not only has a completely different guitar sound and style from each other , they also vary from album to album amongst themselves

Pick one