As far as equipment I have my pedal, a [url=http://www.voxamps.com/pedals/tonelabst/]Vox Tonelab ST[/url], an [url=http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/epiphone-sg-special-electric-guitar]Epiphone SG Special[/url] with stock pickups and .012 gauge Elixir strings, and [url=http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/acidpro]Sony Acid Pro 7.0[/url]
I could never quite figure out how to get a quality metal tone,
and I'm more than convinced my pickups just aren't to par, but I could be wrong.
So what do you guys think?
You should focus on the amp for one thing. A lot of people think poor tone is the guitars fault, whereas the amp is the major factor.
Try tuning it down a halfstep, or maybe to drop-D or C.
Another thing is if your interested in metal you may want to invest in some pickups,
as i find Epip pick ups arnt up to par (for me at least..) Seymour Duncans or EMG Active pickups will give you an excellent metal sound and great pinch harmonics.
They are about 50-200 a pick up.
Tuning down isn't going to help your tone. Pick ups will make some difference, but it's nothing that will make or break your tone and it's not worth the investment over a good amp. I'd just leave it at the amp part.
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OP, give an example of what kind of sound you want. Metal guitar tones cover a lot area.
Well, if you are going to record the guitar with a mic, a good mic is of course very important too.
[url]http://homerecording.about.com/od/homestudiobasics/a/micing_amp.htm[/url]
[url]http://homerecording.com/bbs/equipment-forums/guitars-basses/best-mic-guitar-amp-10894/[/url]
Some links that may help you
I'd recommend him not using a mic and rather just plugging in from his Vox. It has a line switch and also a USB connection. If he was going to get a mic, he'd likely need a decent audio interface, and a decent room, and a good sounding amp.
[QUOTE=Pepin;31762929]I'd recommend him not using a mic and rather just plugging in from his Vox. It has a line switch and also a USB connection. If he was going to get a mic, he'd likely need a decent audio interface, and a decent room, and a good sounding amp.[/QUOTE]
Well, thats true. But i just dont have very good memories recording straight line in. Unless if i have used some kind of software like guitar rig (i cant remember any other right now, been so long that i have recorded electric guitar, but i know there is better than guitar rig), but then again you would need an audio interface.
But im pretty sure its just me, i cant say my amp is good, and my electric guitar sucks pretty much as well. Just do it better than me haha :D
I wish you luck! :)
I got decent results going from my RP250 multi-effects to my line in port, yet I have a decent sound card. Going from your guitar directly into your mic/line in isn't at all ideal because it is very noisy and I believe it could cause damage. You also have to be careful when recording from the line out on your amp because if you are like line 6, you don't limit the amount of gain on the headphone out which could result in you destroying your mic port.
When I employed that method way back I set the volume to 0, started recording, and slowly raised the volume until the signal level was at a good level, but in no danger of clipping. If I went over this my mic port would cut out for a minute and start back up because it has over voltage protection, but I can't assume cards have this, so you have to be careful with that method otherwise you might wreck something.
But the OP should have no issue with that because his Vox has a usb out and it should allow for the pedal to be used as an input, which is rather nice.
What works perfectly for me is an amp with no gain such as a Yamaha and a Digitech RP150. The sound is near perfect for me but by the looks of it, the processor is discontinued so you'll probably have to find it on eBay.
Well, pretty much everything was covered from previous answers, but perhaps there's still a little something I can say that can give you some more insight on this matter.
Back in the days, I too was on a quest for a decent metal tone, it took me around 2 years of constant experimenting / fiddling around to get results I deemed satisfactory. My biggest mistake was to focus too much on the guitar's tone without any backup (by backup I mean drum line, bass line, etc) and was getting increasingly frustrated for not achieving a tone at least close to what one would expect. I do not know how you are approaching this matter so I'm going to tackle two different scenarios.
If you are trying to get a metal tone as a whole (for an entire song let's say), and focusing on guitars without other instruments, then I suggest you to try a different path and get at least a bass line and a drum line to support your guitar(s), the difference is, to say the least, huge. Guitars do sound better when mixed together (correctly of course) with the rest of the instruments since a lot more frequencies get covered instead of only having mid / high range that guitars provide, and that will result in finding a certain guitar tone more pleasant than having to hear it by itself. Fine tuning a guitar tone is a lot "easier" when doing it in a full mix.
Now, if your goal is actually the guitar's tone and solely that then the only thing I can say about that is lots and lots of trial and error, try different amps, mic positioning / try recording dry signals and play around with Impulse Responses, do some equalizing, etc.. As it was stated earlier, do not concern yourself too much about the pickups, they will only slightly alter your tone, the pre-amp and cabinet are responsible for 90% (said loosely, but not far from the truth) of your tone.
Hope I managed to help in any way. Good luck on your quest for THE tone, it's a path we all walk.
[QUOTE=Killover Jr.;31756253]Try tuning it down a halfstep, or maybe to drop-D or C. [/QUOTE]
I hear with djent that this is the strategy, get heavy strings and low tuning and boost the mids. I might try this out
[QUOTE=Pepin;31757169]OP, give an example of what kind of sound you want. Metal guitar tones cover a lot area.[/QUOTE]
Well, I first noticed it with the new Foo Fighters album. I know that they tape-recorded that whole album, so there wasn't too much post-processing (as far as I know)
As far as what I want to play, I was thinking along the lines of Dream Theater or Tool, maybe something a little heavier. I guess it's not so much the tone as the quality of the tone itself, if that makes sense.
[QUOTE=TD4rK1;31766245]If you are trying to get a metal tone as a whole (for an entire song let's say), and focusing on guitars without other instruments, then I suggest you to try a different path and get at least a bass line and a drum line to support your guitar[/QUOTE]
That's actually a really good point, I'll try this
I can get some John Petrucci like tones with Amplitube Metal. That's actually a good deal.
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