29 posts
Now, I know what your favorite metal pedal probably is: ;D
But
HERE'S a ten metal pedal shootout. I found it really interesting once it was done and I clicked on the link to see what people liked the best. For me, all but the second one sounded like someone put a blanket over the speaker and, to be honest, I'm not sure if I found any of them all that usable. So, with me not being a metal-pedal specialist, I'm curious as to what you think about these and if you think there was something wrong with how they were demo'ed.
Also, I'm curious if there are any others out there that you think sound better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, some tone fun for you. ;)
Below are just a few rhythm reference tones that I'm curious about (lead tones left for another day :) ). What do you think is the best way to go about recreating them? Some may be easy, but I'm trying not to assume anything (helps me learn). You'll notice that I didn't put any Rush examples since those used to kill me until I learned about bi-amping with clean tone and an overdriven one. Still love that sound.
First an oldie:
Accept - Princess of the Dawn Starting around 3:05.
Next:
Lacuna Coil - Swamped The first main guitar - pure Triple Recto? Or?
Older still:
Ozric Tentacles - Eternal Wheel The guitar starting around 1:15ish.
Seasoned:
Howard Jones - Prisoner First occurs around 0:40 - sampled?
And:
Flowing Tears - Serpentine Main rhythm guitar - more Recto?
A soft ball:
Dream Theater - As I Am The guitar that comes in around 0:35.
I have yet to hear that so called King get any decent tone out of anything - I've seen other "demos" by him and they are all horrible... On this one, I couldn't listen past the second pedal. I am certain those pedals are capable of better tones than what he got, but at the same time, any pedal that has the word "metal" in it and I'm thinking right away it's aimed at kids who don't know any better...
BTW "The King" had the gain up way too high on the 2 pedals I heard. That is a common error when trying for a good metal tone.
I'll have to listen to the actual nice song clips when I have more time, but the first thing i thought of on the Lacuna Coil song was Peavey 5150/6505 with a tubescreamer in front. I have no idea what they actually used though. That was sort of the standard "metal" setup when that song came out.
JP used a Road King (Rectifier) on Train of Thought so there's your softball... :D
Interesting. I thought all the pedals sounded pretty bad, but figured it might just be me. Anyway, if you saw the other thread where I describe my pedals and effects, you can see I'm looking into the whole "beyond tubescreamer" distortion world to fill things out. I DON'T have the ability to crank an amp, nor do I have any type of attenuator at the moment, so going the most natural routes are out for now.
Never considered the 5150 (or whatever a 6505 is). I wonder how much different the 5150 is compared with the '79 JMP I used to have that Mike Soldano modded for me... I seem to recall that somewhere there's a pedal to get the 5150 sound out there? Hmm... I'll have to go look later.
Whoa! Found the AMT P1. Now
THIS is a much better demo (and Charger would note that lack of yapping as well ;) ).
DAMN! I've only listened to two of these AMT pedals, but they sound SOOOOOO much better than any of the metal turds posted early I think I'm going to have to listen to them all - lol!
HERE'S some monster called an SS-20. There's an "avoid the jabbering" link for Charger in the description as well! ;D
for that kinda thing... don't rule out a modeler. "Line6 Distortion" on the DM4 sounds pretty good. or, use a muff. I doubt any "metal" pedal will sound very metal... but I'm just cynical at this point.
Funny you should mention the DM4. It's the only Line 6 box I never had because I wanted it in the rack version (since I had all the rest). Unfortunately, they only made eight of them and the Edge from U2 got four (they were made for him originally). ::)
huh, that P1 sounds pretty cool. (through KC300's ;))
(SS20 sounds pretty cool too... but not the clean channel)
I think I found the right "King" for demoing. The Tone King sucks, but Brett Kingman just kills on every demo I've heard. His Vt2 demo has me rethinking things since (theoretically?) I should be able to get some/most of those tones between my VHT Valvulator GP3 pre going into my VHT 2/50/2 (the only power amp I have left).
So far all of the AMT pedals sound great though I can't hear a lot of difference between some (a comment said that's due to YouTube's compression - who knows).
ironsheep — Oct 19, 2013 (SS20 sounds pretty cool too... but not the clean channel)
How about the clean channel on the SS-30? Check that out
HERE.I think I've heard enough that I'm just going to weed out the stuff I don't need anymore, toy with more of the settings I already have, THEN see what I'm still lacking.
That said, it's been a fun
waste of time night listening to all these demos! ;)
also meh... but why would I want a clean channel on a pedal anyways? heh
they do sound kinda cool gained up... saturated, I suppose that's "old" these days, though. who knows... it's fun to noodle with that much gain for sure.
Oh Lordy, "The Tone King"....that guy makes just about everything sound like shit. There's also another guy who things he's the business but also makes everything sound like shit and that's Paul Riario from guitarworld.
I just don't get it how these people believe that they are experts in their field. They talk forever about crap, build up the expectations and then the sound samples always sound like crap. They do the industry a complete dis-service and probably put loads of people off buying the gear they demo.
Wow, those AMT pedals sound really good!
I spent a lot of time earlier this year listening to clips and thinking I wanted a bunch of different amp in box pedals. I tried 3 different ones - the Bogner Uberschall, which was really good, and I wouldn't mind getting another at some point, but the Mini Rec covers all my heavy needs; so then I tried the Rockett Animal, which I love and still have and play thru a lot for fun; and the Catalinbread DLS mk3, which was good but had a low end flubbiness that I could not get rid of no matter what I tried, so I went back with and stayed with the Animal for the Plexi-ish tone.
At some point the GAS passed, lol. Probably because money became tight due to health issues for Dory and Jake (our German Shepherd who turned out to be allergic to grass and dust of all things).
But it also helped me realize that it was just GAS, and the Mini Rec covers all the sounds I need for recording, and the Animal covers the classic rock sounds for when I want that sort of thing. I have hopes for getting together with some guys I used to play with, would have happened by now if it weren't for all the other crap going on.
Anyhow, I would think between the 2 preamps and the poweramp you have a great base. I guess I'll post more thoughts in your other thread.
Yeah, the more I can overlook GAS and the urge for something new, the more I think I'm going to try to make what I have work.
(But you never know - I still don't have a decent fuzz/muff pedal! ;) )
CraigBert — Oct 19, 2013This one's for you Jon! :)
Yeah, that guy always does good demos, although he does like the mids pushed a bit too high for my liking, getting into "honky" territory, or maybe that the sm57 doing that.
I couldn't take any pedal shootout seriously when I saw they had a Behringer in it.
Paul, the demos I keep hearing of the AMT pedals are awesome. I really like their tube pre-amp sounds.
http://amtelectronics.com/products/ss-series-3-channel-tube-or-jfet/amt-electronics-ss-20-3-channel-tube-guitar-preamp/
The 8-string demo isn't too bad, though I'm not sure his low string is tracking very well.
Any time I want to enjoy a demo, I just watch Prymaxe Vintage on youtube. Yeah, their demos are long. But no talking, and the guy plays the crap out of every pedal, uses every setting, uses a looper to explore rhythm and lead sounds with the same pedal, and shows the settings he's using. I'm usually not convinced I will ever sound that good because they guy has incredible touch and equipment, but I really get a complete feel for the pedal. Very few demos I've seen (even my own) are anywhere near as worthwhile.
I can build the AMT S-1 or B-1. No P1 schematic yet...
Ok, late to the metal party. I'll check this out tonight. Meanwhile, two words for a really good, affordable metal pedal Barber Dirty Bomb! That's two words in metal circles.
Nice!
A silly fantasy that just came to mind would be a pedal strip with each of the preamp pedals on it so you could change from amp to amp at the push of the button. ;D
That said, even having an S1 or B1 paired with something like the O1 or F1 would be tempting. :)
charger — Oct 21, 2013No P1 schematic yet...
Someone on the DIY Stomp Boxes forum claims to have it if you PM him.
Well, what they are doing is the same thing I've been doing, taking known circuits and translating them from tubes to JFETs. I didn't realize the P1 was the 5150... I'm not much of a fan so probably not willing to put the work into laying out that circuit at this point... unless someone wants to buy it... Seems like a lot of the magic in their pedals is the cabinet sim. That might be cool as a mini standalone pedal...
Actually, I probably can't even do those pedals for the price they cost... $130 is a pretty damn good deal for a JFET emulation pedal--those are tricky to bias... and with the speaker sim too... any one of those pedals would require that I build two circuit boards, bias something like 7 JFETs... it's going to be spendy in terms of time. If these were in the price range of the Bogner pedals, it would be worth my time because I could do something cheaper... I can't beat $130 though.
Reminds me of how much I liked my Mig50. It still had the best clean of any amp I've ever owned.
Sounds like I need to read up more on these.
For now, the Barber Dirty Bomb is the best I have used, and it is not very expensive.
So Howie, are you ever going to give me any tips on recreating the tones I provided samples on above? ;)
Tips for re-creating? The AMT pedals sound really good but if money is tight, I've seen Dirty Bombs for $90 or so. I haven't tried any of the more expensive Wamplers and things but some of them are supposed to be good as well.
Not what I meant... I'm talking about getting your ideas on how to recreate the tones from those songs (e.g., "On this one, they probably use a Cornford, you need a fuzz, a compressor and you'll want turn the treble up"). Something like that?
OH!!!! You want to make me WORK at this! LOL I'll review some of these again and see what I can come up with.