Recording Metal Tone, how do you do it?

[downtuned]

hey guys,

I was wondering what setup you all use for recording metal? do you use direct in or Mic it up with your amp? What DAW do you use. What cab sims (preferrably free ones) do you use? Any advice for recording newb??

 

[sear]

I usually mic up my amp, but if I'm lazy I use direct-in. Direct-in guitars always have a digital fizzy high-end and "farty" low end that sounds very fake to me, and even with good impulses they tend to sound too "clean" and manicured, without the same kinds of noise and imperfections you get out of a real amp. However you can't beat their versatility.

 

[evan9198]

I just use an SM57 to mic my amp and the Scarlett 2i2 interface. I record into Reaper (works really well and can't beat the price). I never really had a need for cab sims so I don't really know much about which ones are good.

 

[Prime]

Lecab is a favorite amongst many for loading impulses (cab sims)

Here are a few popular impulses people use.

ASEM RECTO V30 L2
orange_2_mics
s-preshigh


Here are a few Ampsims

Lecto
X50
X30

Searching those keywords will lead you to many others.

 

[nscarfo83]

Check out toontrack ez mix. Pretty good tones for a simulation.

 

[downtuned]

thanks for the input! my singer said i should try amplitube 3 for the specific tone I am wanting. He says theres a good 5150 sim and the boss hm-2 tone im looking for.

 

[Prime]

Why do that when you can get better ones for FREE!

X50 is 5150 amp sim...use that if you want a 5150 sound.

The Boss HM-2 is a pedal (sounds like bees) from the 80's hair metal days. That's not even and ampsim or an amp. I don't know if I would be asking a singer about guitar tones anyway.

 

[sear]

The Boss HM-2 is a pedal (sounds like bees) from the 80's hair metal days. That's not even and ampsim or an amp. I don't know if I would be asking a singer about guitar tones anyway.

The Boss HM-2 is a cornerstone of old-school Swedish death metal tone and sounds amazing. Don't make me slap you with Entombed.

 

[Leuchty]

Pod HD Pro into Cubase 6.

 

[Prime]

bzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[aturaya]

I usually don't use impulses, I just process POD Farm to hell. But when I wasn't too lazy to find impulses that worked for my tones I went through tons of combinations of Catharsis, Gods Cab, GuitarHacks, Kalthallen (most real sounding to me), and Sperimental pack impulses. Just google them. Mix and match them.

 

[ADevilsDaydream817]

guitar rig!!! i get some nasty tones with this and some different cab impulses

 

[Narrillnezzurh]

My typical signal chain is DI -> compressor (Waves CLA-2A) -> Tubescreamer (TSE808) -> EQ (Waves Q2)-> ampsim (LePou Legion or TSE x50, it varies) -> impulse (Catharsis) -> noise gate (Cubase native).

The compressor and the EQ aren't free, but there are plenty of free compressors and EQs out there that work just as well. Everything else is totally free, save for the noise gate which is built into Cubase.

 

[Ratel]

di -> tubescreamer -> ampsim -> impulse loader -> tape saturation -> eq

i don't use noisegates, i mute silences by hand. my favorite ampsims are TSE X50, Lecto, Le456 and Hybrit.