Awesome Guitar Tone

[mguilherme87]

Ive noticed recently that many modern pop-punk, alternative, and new age rock bands such as My Chemical Romance all seem to have amazing tone. Im not really one for that style of music but i marvel at the youthful and energetic tones of these bands. Does anybody know how they are achieving it? We've all seen forum after forum of discussions on getting "The Brown Sound" and "The Woman Tone" and do on. Lets give the new generation some love.

 

[goldsteinat0r]

Money, would be my guess.

Most of those bands likely record with Axe-FX/Kemper type modelers which get insanely good sounds, and/or they use DI recording techniques which make re-amping easy, so they can tweak tones well after the part is tracked. The more time you have to massage something, the better it sounds as opposed to committing to a sound the second its recorded like you do with live amps.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Bogners, Mesas, hot-rodded/stock Marshalls... Fender and Gibson guitars... That's usually the generic recipe for pop punk.

Also, when you mention "new generation", I was expecting some djenty/proggy bands. Bands like MCR are soooooo 2005.

 

[TedEH]

I've always assumed that a lot of pop-punk, "alternative", radio rock, etc. start off with a better tone 'cause they don't abuse the gain, and they give the bass it's proper space. I think lots of metal players assume that good tone = ALL THE GAIN and ALL THE BASS, which more often than not takes all the definition out of your sound.

 

[Vhyle]

How is a tone "youthful and energetic"?

 

[ArtDecade]

My Chemical Romance made albums back when major labels paid a lot of money for studio time.

 

[piggins411]

I'd love to get the American Idiot tone

 

[JohnIce]

First of all, a lot of these artists are mixed by guys like Chris Lord Alge or Randy Staub which makes everything sound very good Not to mention top-class mastering.

Secondly, I know Howard Benson (who produces a lot of these bands including MCR) and his engineer Mike Plotnikoff take guitar tracking very seriously. The guitarist from Skillet said that for all the power chords on the album, they used a PRS+Recto for all the root notes and a Tele+Marshall for all the fifths and octaves So that might give you an idea of how far these guys take it.

Then there's no substitute for years of experience and fantastic gear either. Bands on this level don't necessarily use their own gear, they use whatever the engineer is the most experienced with. Which might be some holy grail one of a kind modded amp. Or a combination of one of a kind amps Same goes for cabinets, overdrive pedals etc.

Also consider that the signal chain can often be made up of extremely expensive microphones and preamps. Most of the time it's also mixed and summed on analog desks as well.

- edit - I found this article, this might help you a bit: http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscell...-guitar-tracks-from-different-producers/22686

 

[bloc]

Secondly, I know Howard Benson (who produces a lot of these bands including MCR) and his engineer Mike Plotnikoff take guitar tracking very seriously. The guitarist from Skillet said that for all the power chords on the album, they used a PRS+Recto for all the root notes and a Tele+Marshall for all the fifths and octaves

Bwahahaha omg