What’s new at Zystrix? Read on…
May 1st, 2023
Before I go into the continuing saga of
how to record metal and rock guitar there
are four important things I’d like to cover
quickly. The first one is…
Happy Cinco De Mayo
Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is an annual celebration of the
anniversary of Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the
Battle of Puebla back in 1862. It is often mistakenly thought of as
Mexico's Independence Day. After
the end of the American Civil War
(1865) the United States began
loaning money and weapons to the
Mexican liberals thus pushing the
French and the Mexican
Conservatives to the edge of defeat.
In 1866 France withdrew their troops
from Mexico. Since then, because of
intense alcohol advertising over the
years, USA beer sales for the celebration are now competitive with
Super Bowl sales. I think I’ll purchase a six-pack
of cold Bohemia – my favorite Mexican beer.
Happy Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is celebrated at various times, usually in March or May,
in over 40 countries. In the USA it is an annual celebration on the
second Sunday of May and it
happens to fall on the 14th this
year. President Woodrow
Wilson signed a proclamation in
1914 designating Mother's Day
as a national holiday to honor
all mothers. Motherhood and
moms are a beautiful thing.
Here’s a salute to the best
mother who ever lived -- yours.
The World of Music is
Changing Once Again
There are two new VST downloads available that have begun to
shakeup the way musicians think about playing and recording. Both of
them are open source which means both of them are FREE. If you
like digital modelers like Kemper or Tonex then you may like these:
the N.A.M. or Neural Amp Modeler and the Proteus by Guitar ML.
Lookup Jason Zdora’s video How to use NAM Neural Amp
Modeler EASY MODE, get the downloads, and treat yourself to the
world of amp modeling. Do they sound as good as a Kemper?
Well, they sound damn good and I can’t say I can tell them apart,
but you have to be the final judge. Given the choice between either
of these free modelers (or both) or spending hundreds of dollars for
a commercial version I suspect the time has come to say goodbye
to expensive gear. And over time I suspect more musicians will join
the various groups to share their sound designs, and that’s a beautiful
thing. I’ve got a couple I would share. “Oh, the times they are a
changing”. Knowledge, art, and music for all…
New Music
Here’s a couple of new tunes from Dangerous Neighbors. I think
these may go on the album for the new book as introductions to
other tunes. Should they go on the new album? You be the judge.
One is a classical guitar piece and the other is a piano piece. You
can hear them on the Dangerous Neighbors page. Enjoy.
And now on with the show…
How to Record Metal Guitar
How to Record Rock Guitar
This Zystrix posting is the seventh of a several part series designed to
help a person record guitar, specifically metal and rock guitar, no
matter your skill level. And the main crux is how to do an excellent job
on a low budget. Please know that there are many types of gear that
are glossed over or omitted here because there’s just too much great
gear to list.
Last time in part six we covered the last of the pedals. For a review
click on the arrow pointing left by the wrist watch at the top of this page
and click on the yellow megaphone to come back here.
This time I’d like to go over gain staging, or as many people call it,
pedal stacking. This may seem mundane and boring to some, but it
can impact your sound in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. So make a
taco or burritto or have one delivered, take your shoes off, crack open
a cold Bohemia, and enjoy. And away we go…
How to Record Killer Metal and Rock
Guitar
The Ultimate Guide
(Part Seven)
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Pedal Stacking or Gain Staging
The most important thing a guitarist has for injecting their own
personality into their sound is their pedal board. Period. And I know
there are going to be moans and groans about cabinets and amps
making more of a difference. And yes, they do make a big difference,
especially the IR (impulse response) or real cabinets with real
microphones. But it’s the choice of pedals that is intimately tied to the
sound and sonic personality of the performer. And since the pedal
market is glutted with great sounding physical pedals from the
expensive to the many free downloads (L.A. Lady downloadable tones
by Source Audio or N.A.M. Neural Amp Modeler tones) there is no real
reason to forego the sound you really want. And complex and original
guitar tones are easy to achieve by stacking your gain (distortion)
pedals. And a personal tone sets you apart from other guitar players.
You’ve probably noticed that some guitar players are distinguishable
by the sound of just a few notes, some by their technique, and some
by both. What we are trying to do (I hope) is design a sound that is
yours. It’s would be nice if someone could tell it’s you playing just by
hearing you warm up. So giving thought to your pedal choices and the
setup is imperative.
So you have decided on a sound and purchased the pedals you want.
Once you have the pedals of your choice it’s time to decide how you
want your sound to be based, or figure out what sound forward you
desire. This is because the last pedal in the chain will dictate the
overall sound of the stack. Don’t forget that your amplifier can and will
also be a player in this chain-of-gain. Then it becomes a balancing act
to refine the tones for that perfect mix. Since the final pedal dictates
the volume and most of the EQ of the overall pedal stack, the pedals
that come before assist in imparting their particular attitude and grind
(distortion) to the sound. And as the previous pedals get louder they
tend to distort the final pedal but they don’t add much volume. This is
one of the reasons the desired sound is a gain-staging balancing act.
Let’s invent a two-pedal example for ease of explanation and just plain
fun. Run your amplifier sound neutral for this experiment and then turn
up the amp gain later as needed. Let’s say your favorite pedals are
the Tube Screamer (any original or copy) and a Metal Muff by Electro
Harmonix. By simple inspection (because I know the sound of the
these two pedals) it just makes sense to me to have the Tube
Screamer first in the chain because the Metal Muff is the dominant
sonic personality and that’s what I prefer. However it could be
connected in reverse, but I think the tube screamer makes an odd
choice for a main sound. Let your ear be the judge. As a different and
more difficult example say you have a Pure Sky by Caline, the Golden
Plexi 2 by Tone City, and the Dyna Comp by MXR. What order would
you use? A lot depends on what end sound you desire, but I would
start with the Dyna Comp first and the Golden Plexi 2 last. The reason
I say that is the Dyna Comp will even out the guitar signal for the Pure
Sky. Once the Pure Sky is adjusted to the dirt or distortion you prefer
then the Golden Plexi 2 would add the final “amplifier” touch with a
plexi type of grind. But once again it can be any order, it depends on
the final sonic outcome you prefer. So the rule here to remember is
the last pedal dictates the overall sound (and a lot of the EQ). Do you
have a favorite distortion pedal? Put that one last in the chain. Now
here’s an interesting and complex choice of pedals: the G4 by Revv,
the Distortion Plus by MXR, the Rat by ProCo, the Blues Driver by
Boss, the Tumnus by Wampler, and the Throttle Box by Mesa Boogie.
What order would you guess they be in? Which pedal should be
second in the chain? We’ll cover the answers to this quiz later.
Another way to view pedal stacking is to consider pedals fitting into
two camps: overdrive (distortion) and volume boost. The “boost” pedal
used can have the gain turned down and the volume turned up. The
overdrive (distortion) pedal would have the distortion turned up with
the level set to a normal or unity gain. This method of pedal stacking
produces clever and unpredictable sounds depending simply on how
the pedal is viewed. For instance, getting back to the Tube Screamer
(any original or copy) and a Metal Muff by Electro Harmonix example
above, the Tube Screamer can be used as the boost or last pedal with
the Metal Muff set at unity with the distortion set to something less
aggressive. Now the Tube Screamer becomes the final EQ and
volume dictating the overall sound of the pedal stack. I suspect this
arrangement of these two pedals would be odd but usable. Another
way to approach pedal stacking is if you want your sound fat and
distorted put the most distorted pedal last. If you want your sound
cleaner with more headroom then put the cleanest gain pedal last.
So let’s get back to the pedal stacking questions above about the
pedal order of the G4 by Revv, the Distortion Plus by MXR, the Rat by
ProCo, the Blues Driver by Boss, the Tumnus by Wampler, and the
Throttle Box by Mesa Boogie. Did you figure it out? I always
approach this kind of problem with the last pedal in the chain decided
first and then I generally work backwards from there. Since I like the
G4 for the amp realism it imparts I would run it as the last pedal with
the gain turned down somewhat (at least for now). Then I would
decide which distortion I liked the best and put that just before the G4.
In this case I prefer the Throttle Box. Since I prefer the Distortion Plus
over the Rat I would put the Distortion Plus after the Rat. Hmm, but
what about the Tumnus and the Blues Driver? Since the Blues Driver
has a nice amp-like distortion I would run this one before the Throttle
Box. Since the Tumnus has such a sweet overdrive I would use it to
tame down the angular distortion sounds of the Rat and the Distortion
Plus, so the Tumnus would go before the Blues Driver. That leaves
the Distortion Plus before the Tumnus and the Rat at the beginning of
the pedal chain. I would run the Rat at unity volume and EQ -- the
distortion would be turned very low. I would do the same for the
Distortion Plus and run it about the same way as the Rat and it would
also have the distortion turned very low. The Tumnus would then be
used as a way to tame the combined angular distortion sounds of the
previous two pedals. The Tumnus has a beautiful way of smoothing
out drive tones with its own type of distortion and it would also be set
to volume and EQ unity. This signal would then go into the Blues
Driver set to unity volume and EQ with the distortion set to something
low to moderate. This signal would then drive the Throttle Box slightly
with the distortion character and some of the EQ being dictated more
by the Throttle Box. This signal would then go into the final pedal in
the chain, the G4 by Revv, with the G4 distortion and EQ dialed into
something complimentary and not too overbearing and squashed.
This signal would then be either run into a DAW (digital audio
workstation) with my favorite power amp emulator (like the free TPA-1
by Ignite Amps) and the a speaker emulator (like the free NadIR by
Ignite Amps and Djammincabs) or into an amplifier with the distortion
set lower so the pedals are doing most of the work. And voila! You
now have the ultimate personalized guitar tone using pedal stacking.
Is the previous example the correct way to run these pedals? There is
no real correct way, that’s just how I would do it based on what I like to
hear. And given just these few pedals there are a huge amount of
sound combinations available. We just scratched the surface of this
audio art-form. Oh, and by the way, you may need a noise gate
somewhere in the signal chain to tame down any excess hiss and
noise depending on how the gain stages are run. And don’t forget that
these sounds, at least in the sense of EQ, are cumulative. If there are
two pedals with a big mid-range scoop then the guitar mid-range can
become lost. Once again, it’s a balancing act with you as the final
judge and jury. And your job as the musical chef is all about blending
the sonic spices into a delicious main course of auditory delight.
Don’t touch that dial… Stay tuned next time…
Congratulations. You made it to the end of this section. Next we’ll
cover the actual recording of monster metal guitars. There are two
main camps or schools of thought for the studio techniques of
recording heavy guitar. And this time it’s about metal guitars. After
that we’ll cover recording rock guitar in a single guitar situation. Later
we’ll cover old tricks, modern and popular tricks, and maybe a few you
never tried. Of course, if the moon crashes into the earth, we may get
a late start. And we’ll have fun. Maybe I’ll see you then.
Friends bring happiness to life, especially friends
who bring extra beer.
Knowledge, art, and music for all…
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