triplets, shredding

[joeymusicguy]

does anyone have any advice on what equipment is best to bring up triplets on guitar? i imagine the most important thing in the chain to bring this out would be the pickup (the player obviously), and the amp.

i'd have to say that a lot of epic metal bands (children of bodom ish) have gotten this down pat on recordings. i heard a similair band the other night and every single little palm mute was so clear and almost poked at your ears it was so perfect, unfortunately i cannot remember the name of the band. im getting ready to produce one of the biggest cd's i've ever done, and im just trying to figure out a way to make the triplets on the guitar sound outstanding. i really want to capture every little detail about what the guitarist in this band is going to play because he is definately one of the best guitar players i've ever met in my life. a lot of the style of music they play is similair to all that remains, but there's more to the material to come soon.

just wondering if anyone knew any handy tricks to bringing out those quick triplet palm mutes, so that you can really hear the attack on each palm mute.

 

[GuitarHack]

A Krank Revolution amp

Check out this video at around 4mins 25 seconds for the guitar stuff and in particular the riff at 4mins 34 seconds might demonstrate some attack/definition that you are looking for, if not it's an interesting video anyway.

http://www.theocracymusic.com/Studio4-06.mov

My Krank Rev has been in for repair for about a month now, damn I miss it, I watch Matt Smith's video (this video linked to here) daily just to hear the tone.

 

[AStacy2]

Track them well, the player is extremely important in getting this done IMO. If he's not hitting all the notes hard enough, tell him. If there's too much gain it will hurt the clarity of very quick notes too. I would say that an Engl Powerball would be the best for doing this.

 

[~BURNY~]

Fingers+brain.

 

[LSD-Studio]

what am I not getting? why should you need anything special to play triplets?
what's the difference whether you play 3 or 4 notes per beat? why should you need different pickups or so?

 

[Sweetnothing]

I see no point either...you should have a clear, defined sound ( for triplets and for everything) and you have to be spot on performance-wise ( like with every kind of metrics)
So...is there a difference really?

 

[Tachy]

The player is the most important thing, but if you wont a clear and articulated tone go for framus cobra, crappy player hate it.
I have no experiences about Kranks but I hear a lot of good things about them.

 

[~BURNY~]

What they said.
On the other hand, for lead guitars in general, I found that pushing the tone (treble) on a Tube screamer can help a lot no matter what the amp is.

 

[joeymusicguy]

to everyone that doesnt quite get it:

a lot of amps or maybe pickups, dont make the sound im after. this player is definately awesome at what he does, im just trying to find a better way to capture it. a lot of the tones we've been messing around with aren't cutting it yet.

on a lot of amps, extremely fast triplets or "gallops" just sound like, "duuuuuh". if you have a kick drum behind it going "da da da" then of course its going to sound like the guitar player is going "duh duh duh". but without kicks, it will often sound like "duUuUuh".

so im guessing im gonna need sort of a combination of a low gain amp along with a smidget above average gain amp in order to get the triplets to come out along with a heavy thick tone to go under it.

the guitar player wants a krank really bad, but i have mixed feelings about krank. i've heard good and bad, and i'd love to make this cd sound a little unique compared to everything else out there. so im not sure if a krank is the right direction.

i love engl tho, but im not sure if the engl amps would fit their style...

 

[joeymusicguy]

what am I not getting? why should you need anything special to play triplets?
what's the difference whether you play 3 or 4 notes per beat? why should you need different pickups or so?

fast triplets, like ones that are so fast, they mud up on most distortion/amps and sound like one single "duuuuuh", just slightly prolonged.

 

[joeymusicguy]

A Krank Revolution amp

Check out this video at around 4mins 25 seconds for the guitar stuff and in particular the riff at 4mins 34 seconds might demonstrate some attack/definition that you are looking for, if not it's an interesting video anyway.

http://www.theocracymusic.com/Studio4-06.mov

My Krank Rev has been in for repair for about a month now, damn I miss it, I watch Matt Smith's video (this video linked to here) daily just to hear the tone.

i think this is pretty much the direction we want to go for guitar, that was very close to the sound im talking about with the triplets

 

[LSD-Studio]

oh, you're talking about rhythm guitar....
try the engl blackmore or better VHT pittbull...tight as a virgins ass!

 

[Tachy]

Originally posted by LSD-Studio
...tight as a virgins ass!

Uhhhhhh!!!!

 

[carl@laruso.com]

oh, you're talking about rhythm guitar....
try the engl blackmore or better VHT pittbull...tight as a virgins ass!

Hey man

hmm....used the VHT pitbull on some new fightstar demos recently (al's amp) I really didn't get on with it.... probably because we were pushed for time and there just seamed to be SOOOOOOO many options on it.... would really apreciate some settings you use mate,

I was kinda spoilt for choice on that gig tho.... we had dezil, 5150, VHT and messa on tap!!!

C

 

[LSD-Studio]

it's pretty hard to get THE sound out of the vht, because that amp works completely different tahn any other amp (at least setting it up does).
VERY important is the master-volume.
most of us use mainly the preamp-vol and adjust master for the volume we need. most of us don't want the power-section of our amplifiers to take too much influence on the tone, that's why metalamps have lots of headroom.
the VHT seems to be designed differently, on a pittbull you've got a sweetspot on the mastervolume around 2 o'clock (you probably would never set the master of your 5150 or recto that high, 'cause poweramp would color the sound). you've got to find it and leave the master at that setting (a MUST for good sound on a pittbul!!) then use the channelvolumes to set the desired volume (so pretty much the other way most amps work).

play around with the shift-buttons, they're very effective for setting the freq of treb and mid pots, and that makes a hughe difference between "modern" and "vintage".
the treb-pot influences the mids very much, so play around with it, the vht can be a pretty mid-heavy amp, but can also be modern scooped.
in adition the non-grafic-models have a shape-switch in the poweramp-control-section (next to resonance etc) push it!

the Pittbulls react very sensitive towards guitars and cabs, i don't really like emg81 with it, but emg85 owns!

 

[STINNETT]

I'd say the most important thing would be to dial in the right tone...keep the gain lower so that it delivers the clarity and definition that you want. Beyond that it's all about the player. When you double track those parts you've got to be extra anal about getting them tight and spot on.

 

[chadsxe]

to everyone that doesnt quite get it:

a lot of amps or maybe pickups, dont make the sound im after. this player is definately awesome at what he does, im just trying to find a better way to capture it. a lot of the tones we've been messing around with aren't cutting it yet.

You just answer your own question.

 

[DIOBOLIC5150]

Mesa Triple Rec+ TS808, low to moderate gain.
Emg 85 in the bridge
Light Compression
Light strings
Light pics
BBE Maximizer
Fast picking hand

Try that.

 

[Dead Winter]

thin picks, thin strings, low mids, high treble, mid bass, but for me the most important is the tuning. If you are in normal E tuning, you shouldn't have a problem because you won't be sacrificing some frequencies for others. In my opinion, thrash metal should be in E. You get a great picking attack and a great sound with normal E tuning. But that's just me.

 

[STINNETT]

I can't believe anybody is suggesting thinner picks....I think you lose definition that way....but I do have to agree with the comment on tuning. Stuff like this always sounds better to me in standard tuning or close to it.