"good" metal gui tone by itself/ tone changes from ref to casual speakers

[50boomer50doomer]

Can someone give me a solid example of what a good DI tone is with no other instruments?

It seems like every demo i see of different amp sims is with the guitar in a mix with other instruments, and i cant tell how bass-y my tone should be without bass guitar and drums.

Also, does anyone have a problem w/ their guitar tone sounding like garbage when going from reference headphones/monitors to casual speakers. (Phone, car, casyal computer speakers, etc)?

 

[Drew]

If you poke around enough, you can almost certainly find a song in the genre you play where there's at least a few seconds of unaccompanied guitar with little/no accompaniment, and spending some time critically listening to that and comparing your sound to that sound will probably help a lot.

Im going to go out on a limb and guess we play different genres, but Andy Timmons' intro to "Deliver Us" is sort of my de facto tone sanity test:

 

[Masoo2]

Here's some examples for ya:

https://soundcloud.com/iambulb/axefx-ii-firmware-10-test-bulb

https://soundcloud.com/user-714776354/sets/mark-lewis-kemper-pack-audio-examples

https://soundcloud.com/user-714776354/sets/brian-hood-kemper-audio

https://soundcloud.com/user-714776354/sets/will-putney-kemper-playlist

I think most of these all sound pretty good, they're mix-ready tones straight from some pretty well known metal producers.

Soundcloud is probably the best place to find isolated guitar tracks, though I'd also recommend looking around for stems from albums or songs you think sound good. Stems allow you to hear the fully processed guitar tone isolated.



EDIT: ^That has bass in it that I originally did not hear on first listen

There used to be a ton of these uploaded on YouTube but it seems some have been taken down (either that or I'm just bad at finding them).

Also if you Google around you should be able to find some stems from Periphery II from the Jammit tab player thingy that used to be a thing. Maybe Rock Band game stems as well?

All are great ways to find examples of good metal guitar tones.

 

[VESmedic]

Arch enemy nemesis is all over YouTube, fantastic tone. Not exactly sharp in high mids, but still bright and defined and to this day, unique. I’ve also got solo’d tracks of many metal records over the last 10-15 years I can post, for reference: not on YouTube, actual WAV files.

 

[Descent]

Can someone give me a solid example of what a good DI tone is with no other instruments?

It seems like every demo i see of different amp sims is with the guitar in a mix with other instruments, and i cant tell how bass-y my tone should be without bass guitar and drums.

Also, does anyone have a problem w/ their guitar tone sounding like garbage when going from reference headphones/monitors to casual speakers. (Phone, car, casyal computer speakers, etc)?

For the most part you should think in a context of a mix, that's why most presets are way overhyped as they are missing the rest of the band.

Since it's anniversary of Randy's death, here's one example.

Think about hearing this by itself:


Yuk, right? No depth, kinda scratchy, airy and over-effected.

Here's in the context of the mix, see how the sound is sculpted now to fit around the other instrument's range, and also to complement Ozzy whiny, somewhat tuneless performance: