Brutaler Gitarrensound

One could say that this is a very complicated topic because every guitar player is looking for his own sound and there are many different ways to create and record that, starting from Dismembers “we just put as many distortion pedals as possible in the signal way of the amp until it doesn’t matter what we are playing anymore” to the ultra tight Necrophagist tones.

However, there is one thing we all agree upon: it has to kick ass! That’s why we are going to give you some useful tips and tricks which were collected in studio over the years and through exchange of information with other guitar players. This should give you some inspiration, but feel free to add more…

Zerberus HYDRA I Guitar - pic by Metalpix

1. Basics

We will focus our attention to HiGain sound here. If you want to learn more about working out nice, clean, crunch and blues sounds, please turn to other recording forums.

There are two ways of getting a HiGain distortion:

a) a distortion pedal (pedal on the floor serving as a preamplifier, sometimes also as a 19” rack setup) should be connected to the signal way of the clean channel of the amp

or

b) you should be using the internal distortion of your amp (amp head)

Beside a good guitar and cables, it is not recommended to discard two other very important things: a tube output stage and a 4×12″ cabinet. In case you are using a combo amplifier, we would rather recommend guitar re-amping.

Output stage and voluminous cabinets are essential for the thrust and power of the final sound, especially when using low tuned guitars which probably all of us here do That’s why you should make sure you can lay your hands on a tube amp. Here you can find amplifier basics.

OK, there is one exception – Dimebag Darrell (from the mighty Pantera) always used a Randall transistor head, but well…they were never really much of a Grindcore band anyway

2. The guitar

Since many of you probably use down tuned string tuning (Dying Fetus, Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Misery Index, etc. playing C#, whereas Nile even plays Bb) your guitar has to keep up with it. If you’re tight with money it would be better to go for a guitar with a fixed bridge because cheap tremolo systems won’t do you any good. They can barely hold the tuning which as a consequence leaves you with constant readjusting – not good! But starting from 750/800€ guitar price, the tremolo system should be that good that it can keep up with your desired tuning.

Higher gauge of your strings (011-052 or 012-054) is also advisable: they sound heavier, have a better “bottom” and you can play them more accurately when using lower tunings. Not every “metal-looking” guitar can put out appropriate brutal sounds – a humbucker at the bridge of your guitar would be more essential for that and there is a range of excellent manufacturers out there such as EMG, DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Bill Lawrence or Kammerstein. Naturally, good sound is always depending on your personal taste.

With more than 15 years of guitar playing experience, we can say that in a price range of 500€ an Ibanez RG or S should do a good job. Better keep your fingers off cheaper models if you consider playing it in a studio or do a home recording with it. Solid guitars in the price range between 500€ and 1000€ would be:

• CORT EVL series (with EMG pickups)
• ESP LTD series
• DEAN
• ZERBERUS
• JACKSON
• SCHECTER

“More Metal Than Thou” – B.C. RICH below 1000€ is not a good choice.

For even lower tuning, try a 7 string or a baritone guitar

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3. Pre-amp distortion & amps as output stage

• IBANEZ TS-9 Tubescreamer & Marshall JCM 800 – well known allround setup, nearly every sound is possible, starting from Florida-Death to more new school styled sounds (at least in the studio).  The TS-9 works as a booster for the distortion channel of the JCM 800. Forget about the JCM900, its crunch distortion doesn’t do the job for HiGain sound outputs.

• BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone am Marshall JCM 900 – Florida style a la Vital Remains, Deicide, Morbid Angel…

• BOSS MT-2 connected to an HM-2 connected to whatever – sounds like old Swedish Death Metal (Dismember, early At The Gates) or nowadays Grind a la Rotten Sound. The trick was (is) that they didn’t have enough money for good amps so they just did a serial connection of 2 distortion pedals and connected this to any cheap amp But be very careful with this setup! BTW, the original “Midrange-Tone” was created by Nihilist (later Entombed) with an orange BOSS DS-1.
• BOSS MD2 Mega Distortion, BOSS ML-2 Metal Core – probably the most brutal pedals on the market right now! These are definitely falling into the brutal corner, but the distortion delivered may be a little too much for studio matters, more precisely – it could sound a little “muddy”!

• TECH21 SansAmp – for clean defined brutal-sounds, Rammstein and Clawfinger use that live - oops…wrong blog

4. Tube-amps with distortion channel (Hi-Gain)

• ENGL E645 Powerball - 100W; 4-channel tube-amp; flexible routing; “more“ amp than this nobody needs; perfect even for clean guitar sounds from time to time – guess it could even pull off some nice Blues tones – we never tried though

• ENGL Fireball 60 E625 - 60W; smaller 2 channel variant of the Powerball; Hi-Gain-sound is the same; doesn’t come with the internal noisegate like the Powerball does (who needs that anyway?); has a FX Loop… Alex‘s amp, Marcel’s amp. ‘Nuff said

• MESA Dual Rectifier – luxury giant for people with too much money; you can even switch between different tube settings. There is probably nothing this thing can’t do – OK, getting pregnant maybe…

• PEAVEY 5150, 6105, Ultra – 3 classics; the 5150 was once developed by a young man named Eddie Van Halen and he also made it famous. Nice thing; has enough gain reserve for brutalheads; good in combination with an Ibanez TS-9. The only known downside is the loud hissing noise in the Hi-Gain-channel, here you would need a noisegate.

• DIEZEL Einstein, Herbert – yes, they are really called like that . Brutal, defined sound and unfortunately very expensive – the price is over 2.000€.

• BOGNER Überschall – ca. 2.700€, worth every penny. Try to test it at a music fair, you will be thrilled by its incredible precise low-range tones.
• AMPEG VH140c – Dying Fetus and Suffocation were spotted with these amps, not produced anymore but maybe you can find it on eBay.

5. Cabinets

Here you need to try out different models because the speakers/cabinets have to match the rest of your equipment. They are very important as they are the last piece of equipment before the recording process starts and sound enters the microphone.

• ENGL E412

• Vader cabinets as used by brutal bands like: Lividity, Suffocation, Immolation, Devourment, Neuraxis, Necrophagist

6. Extras / Tips

• Even in the most brutal music the distortion rate is set surprisingly low. Too much distortion results only in undefined, noisy sound. One studio trick is to add several low distortion tracks to get one heavy distorted sounding guitar (see article: Guitars: Mics & Positioning).
• Use thick strings and thick guitar picks (> 1mm) for a better, more precise feeling.
• Powersoak – used to push the amp to the limit, but without the danger to lose your hearing. As the Powersoak absorbs the non required energy, it is also very useful as heating
• Noise-Gate – reducing noise between notes played. For Hi-Gain-sounds, especially live, a must have! Sometimes also useful in the studio. BOSS NS-2 (little white one) – reliable for years. And no, this blog is not sponsored by BOSS.

7. Simulation-amps

Seems like many things are possible nowadays, but we are still not very convinced. Maybe we will get into it or do a review about some amps (Line6 for example).

As you know, these are all just examples and guidelines – to find your sound, you have to try it out yourself!

Links:

• Here is an interesting video, Colin Davis  (Vile, Imperial Mastering) explaining his point of view concerning the recording of metal guitars. Have fun!