If I knew how to do anything Indie, I would record something for you, but I dont know where to start. Give me ideas

Black, IIRC, is actually the least amount of individual takes, rhythm guitar wise, of the three. L/C/R. Done. There was some serious multi-micing going on there; I remember hearing that they used the phase cancellation from all the goddamn mics to get "that sound", as it were. Something about stripping it down to be more loose and rock versus the tight metal thing. I could be talking out my ass here, I admit, but I am going from memory. That's when they started experimenting more with production stuff, too. Layers you'll never hear.

Reload, for what it's worth, might be the best sounding heavy rock album ever. Ironically, I think it contains their least compelling songwriting save for perhaps Kill 'Em All, which is what it is- a bunch of pissed-off 19 year old kids who just happened to have a kickass band. Don't expect greatness, just attitude.

Load, I think, is quite a good "B-list" '90s heavy rock album. It's not Dirt or Superunknown or Dogman or whatnot, but it is a solid record and mostly suffers from being overly long. They included the... swings-and-misses on that, which, while not actually bad, don't improve the record, and would have been better served with the good tracks from Reload.

Reload, I keep around as a production reference. I love being able to hear the space between everything on the CD. Rip it to mp3 and that's gone. It's still good, but that last 1%... I would kill a man to know how to get that, in any genre. I suspect, alas, it is merely amazing gear, great playing and a great engineer.

Well said ma brtha

I'd give my left nut for the rhythm tone on Reload...

Was that the Wizard Modern Classic or the Wizard Metal? I think the former, again IIRC. I would two. Hell, I'd give both; I've no interest in children. It's funny how little gain that tone has, too. It sounds, to my ears, like a great guitar + amp (and player) and sheer goddamn volume. Turn up, pick hard, play tight. When I play on my metalbandguitarist's rig, I have to roll back the volume to make it at all playable for me, he uses sooooo much more gain than I ever do... and he and I are huge Hefield fans when it comes to metalguitarrhythming.

Doesn't help he uses 10-52s on Gibson scale in C# standard. I use that or 11-52 in E standard Fender scale with a mile-high action!

Again, I digress. That tone rules. I don't even play guitar in a metal band and I will tell you straight-up that tone rules for all general-purpose high gain applications.

I've learned that the gain settings I use on my amps do not work for other metal guitarists.


They have to crank the gain up 2 or 3 clicks more, on average, because I pick as hard as I can without knocking the guitar out of tune, and when I'm palm muting I pick even harder than that. Not many other guitarists do that these days. I guess it comes from my first amp being a Peavey Bravo 112 that with the gain maxed would barely do metulz.


Reload's tone would fit my downstroke happy bitch slappin' right hand perfectly.

I tried to choose more guitar based stuff.

That is the way to roll. I'm all for heavy-handed playing- my picking technique falls quite squarely into the "Thud And Blunder!" category. Like you, that probably stems from not having a very gainy rig or high output pickups when we were starting out and trying to play heavy stuff through that.

The difference between my picking technique and the guitarist in my heavy band is... staggering, really. He's the model of efficiency; not so much wrist as thumb and forefinger. His pick hand like, never moves, ever. He could bust out a Jeff Loomis solo or some insane grind and look like he's not doing a thing, while I'm flailing away all forearm worse than Zakk Wylde, total inefficient brute force. I suppose this is why I don't have a great deal of endurance trying to play fastmetal rhythm. Or punk rawk. I do love the downstrokes, though. Alternate picked powerchords, palm muted, sound like , generally, and anyone who says there isn't a sonic difference is talking out of theirs.

This thread inspired me to listen to Hero Of The Day.
Still a kickass song.

Yes, the ultra can pull off all those on the stock presets alone.

DO IT THEN.

It actually can, too. It's the only modeler I've heard that does mid-gain convincingly. The more I hear the thing in person and/or play through it, it is the only one worth a damn. I respect it as I would a good amp.

I feel like all those bands dev posted use the axe fx.

Minus the Bear would probably love one, that dood likes his effects. Seriously, like more than one DL4 on the board.

His rig is crazyfuckery. Doesn't he have like four DL-4s or someshit?

I honestly almost want one myself, except there are a couple things on my board- the Geiger Counter and Mothership- it can't replace. As an effect unit on its own it is awesome. The modeling is a bonus. I haven't tampered with the thing, just played through my friend's patches, so I can't tell you if it really acts like the amps it models, but frankly, I don't care, because it sounds and feels and responds like a piece of real gear. Regardless of its accuracy, it is a nice amp in its own right. It does what it says on the tin, and I'm generally skeptical of that shit. It basically does most of what my rig does... for roughly the same amount of money. (Ignoring the modeling bit.)

My right hand work is mostly wrist, with a bit of elbow thrown in on downstrokes that I want to "accent" (re: break the big E). The maple fretboard/jumbo frets and low action on my Ibanez accents how hard I pick by the fact that the strings "pop off the fretboard" when I'm playing teh brootz. Half of my tone comes from my right hand, the other half from my amp.

As an example: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8290798/memorize.mp3

Listen closely to the palm mutes on that clip. You can hear the strings smacking the fretboard.

Loud through my monitors, the heavy picking is obvious with the sharp attack of the notes versus the decay. Especially as it's solo-ed guitar. The Devil is in the details, and The Devil has all the best tunes. I like this. Thusly:

Digression/rant: the best players have a sound with some attitude and style that's all them. A hot mess with some fucking vibe is a much cooler player than a human sequencer with none. Play It Like You Mean It, doesn't matter what it is, from the heaviest heavy to the mellowest mellow. As an instrumentalist, what you're playing and how you're playing it is your voice. You wouldn't sing it like you didn't give a fuck about the words, would you? Say something. If all you're doing is hitting the notes, you've lost the plot entirely. See above: Devil = details/best tunes. Every note you play is a syllable of your voice as an instrumentalist. Say what needs to be said how it needs to be said. /endrant

You speak the truth.

And, from other posts on this forum, I've realized we share the same first name. Eric. That's cool. I go by Curtis, though.

Go figure.

Given this forum is populated solely by idiosyncratic oddballs, that one's preaching to the proverbial choir, really. Cam's occasionally cited talent-to-member ratio around here has a lot less to do with anyone's playing ability than our collective Getting It regardless of anyone's tastes or chosen genres.

Exactly.