Ok, so I was wondering how that typical metal sound is produced from a guitar. I watched many videos, but just now I watched one, where a guy presents his new collection item, a dimebag guitar (what ever that means). He presents it by playing some riffs of which I assume are well known in the metal scene.

Now when watching him playing it seems that he never uses the lower strings, only the (deeper) upper strings. Sometimes it even seems to be just the E and A string. My questions:

1) Am I right that one secret to the typical metal sound is using only the top 2 or 3 strings?
2) Are the chords played differently as well? Say, would E-major been pressed differently with the left hand compared to a standard E-major rock chord?
3) What about power fifth?
4) Why is the sound so deep and fat although only two strings are used?

I'm asking this because I want to see if I can adapt some of the things to electronic music. I just love the energy of riffs you hear from bands like Five Finger Death Punch or Rammstein.

 

hello sir, it is very interesting topic. first thing to have in consideration, is the techniques in this particular video are a tribute to dime-bag Darrell , that is the way he played. (think of it as the idiosyncrasies of 90's metal playing because dime was a bit head of his time so his late 80's early 90's playing became mid to late 90's standards so to speak) . I mention this to say it is not representative of metal itself as a whole but particular context ( but still great one)

you can use any part of the guitar to play that way or metal.

There are power chords (root+ fifth ) and then adding in more octaves
and finally Inverted power-chords (fourth chords)
for example. open E next string up , open A then next string up 2nd fret E) this makes a inverted A power chord which gives you same sound as IF you had a 7 string dropped to A( note, you can use Inverted power-chords anywhere)

"why is the sound so deep and fat although 2 strings are used?"

this is due to heavy pre-amp distortion, which is very tight and responsive compared to power-amp distortion
this type of distortion brings out the harmonics and overtones in the vibrating string such that the octave and fifth comes through in the sound when striking a single distorted string (hence, why you use fifths and their inversions fourths )

these are the varibles that all equally contribute to answer your question of sound so deep and fat.
a guitar setup properly, next clear pickups or tube screamer pedal before amp, next amp with high gain pre-amp distortion,
next the power-amp section which makes sound louder add s a tiny touch of three dimensionality but not pushed hard, next a closed back guitar speaker cabinet with high power rating speakers ( the air in cabinet pushes back against speaker making tighter and quicker,) next the high power speaker means it disperses less of the signal into heat making it tighter and more responsive (quicker) finally at the end common to use dynamic microphone such as shure sm57 to capture the speaker cabinet it has extended highs and handles high sound pressure levels. when you add up all these variables, it gives you the exact answer to your question fine sir. \m/ :D \m/

P.S a dubstep wobble (heavy kind) is a synth version of metal guitar tones

 

Last edited: May 2, 2017

1) yes - > power chords (4 strings) root + 5th (+ 8th)
2) No same chords. - full chords are not (often) used to get a metal riff sound. Simplified to get the typical metal sound, you combine powerchords played muted and unmuted in a percussive rhythm with single notes to a riff.
3) power 5th - powerchords (i guess)
4) Amp, EQing (and pickups). - 7 string guitars adds a low "b" or "a" string- 6 strings often tuned down to d or lower.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2017

hmm.. Are you slowly turning over to the dark side mr. tulamide If so you are more than welcome to a world that never stops to amaze me

 

This is kind of a Pandora's box topic in terms of actual sound. You can get a fat sound by using one string only: 'Djent'....

The 'what is played' has been answered but the sound-side is way more difficult. You mentioned Rammstein: Richard Kruspe does use Neumann condenser mics not dynamic - I use(d) ribbon mics (the midrange is way nicer than the overall nasty SM57)...many modern metal sounds are based on the usage of TubeScreamers "TS" (one of those hundreds of variations...) which boost the mids and cut low end so you get a "chunkier" sound out of the amp - than any amp - any cab and the SM57 - the TS nullifies any character an amp has. People tend to ignore this but most guitarists ignore a lot of reality...

Some people cut the mids in the amp and that results in this Dimebag-sound (like in the vid). If you cut them later you get a different type of sound. For the song "Links 2-3-4" Kruspe said he recorded 24 guitar tracks and stacked them. The entire endeavour of recording guitar tracks again and again to make it even more fat is one thing that makes studio recordings of guitars so fat. I don't even know if this works with synths of any kinds as every time you record a guitar it's a little bit different. And it get's fuller and fuller (until you get phasing issues).

If you just want to adapt the style of playing the fifths will help a lot. You then just need to have a base sound and a "chunky" more percussive version of this sound to get this feeling. If you look at "Links 2-3-4" you'll see this "palmmute-palmmute-open-palmmute-palmmute"-scheme which you could try to adapt to "chunk-chunk-base-chunk-chunk-chunk-base" - it's all rhythm and alternating between palmmutes and open...and apply this to different stuff. Maybe you'll need to turn around the original dynamics (regularly you'll play palm mutes harder than the open ones) and make the sustain-less chunky sound as a lower velocity version of the more sustain so it's more intuitive to play the open notes harder on a keyboard.

This was quite a lot of rambling...sorry if it's more confusing than clarifying I am not good at explaining stuff

 

Not slowly. I listen to metal a lot. But, since I am open to anything I also listen to trance, classic, rock'n'roll, blues, etc. I just honor songs if they are good (from my point of view). The first time I got in contact with metal I reacted like most people did ("Awesome music, but why doesn't the singer sing"). Nowadays I enjoy the abilities of the guitarists and drummers.

 

the fatness of song is because accent of pick , mutes , high gain distortion , finger vibrations,...
theoretically u can play any chord with distortion but sometimes overtones sound bad depend on your distortion so you may not use any chord

 

@Polymetrix Actually you are very good at explaining. Especially the tips of "how to" in your first paragraph was very helpful!

I was thinking about this as well. In Reason there is the Subtractor. By accident I found out that this synth never is an exact copy. There are always tiny differences between two (or more) Subtractors. In fact you can load the same patch to two Subtractors and use them as a stereo source, and you instantly have a wide stereo field. It seems that this synth could help me with getting the energy.

But of course, and I hope that was understood, I don't want to recreate metal guitars! A metal guitar sounds like a metal guitar, when a metal guitar is played (and only then). Instead I want to somehow transfer the energy, and in a rougher and darker tone than the skrillex screams or the 64x (or whatever) supersaw.

 

Last edited: May 2, 2017

Depends what you want to achieve. Rhythm is mostly played on the low strings, yes. But there are many styles of Metal that also use higher strings for riffs.

Sometimes they are played with different voicings.

Used a lot but not always, usually not when you want clarity and fast/complicated riffs.

It's deep and fat BECAUSE only the low strings are used - no high strings to muddle things up. Also down-tuning (in this video the tuning is drop-D I think, but nowadays a lot of Metal guitarists go as down as C or B) is a big part of the fat sound. Also, as Polymetrix said, the Bass guitar usually plays the root of what the guitar plays, which adds that solid low end, especially when you drive the mid/highs of it.

tl;dr Metal is a very varied genre.

 

Here is an example of simple powerchords with 3 strings : fifth and reversed fifth followed by single strings.
You can clearly hear distortion is dropping from powerchords to single strings.
"cleaning out" intermodulation distortion.

Standard tuning (not low). And amazing FAT sound :

Even fatter than most downtuned sound ;)

Here is an old school perfect example of downtuning, powerchords and some single string combined with doubled bass guitar (to show the difference) :

 

Holy Shit! The Sylosis vid is also a perfect example for what I mean when I say "Nowadays I enjoy the abilities of the guitarists and drummers"! The double base drum work is fantastic and the skills of the front man amazing.

Btt: I think I can follow you. It is almost symphonic in that all instruments play along either in rythmic or tune (or both) so that they all add to the riff. Which is in contrast to what I normally do in electronic music - having a bunch of different playing sequences/arps that build the overall sound.

 

@PopstarKiller Thank you for your answers!

Indeed. That's why I concentrate on those "power riffs". I wouldn't want to even try to understand the metal/jazz fusion of Panzerballett (very talented guys as well)

 

just to offer up a couple other metal sounds maybe give you different ideas for synth brother \m/


you can get sounds similar to unjustly labeled with a plugin called "string studio" in the lower octave)

 

Last edited: May 3, 2017

Dime one of the most iconic Metal Riff and Tone Masters of all time... Pantera changed my guitar playin alot in the late 80's and 90's fuckin Killer machine he was \m/ @tulamide i wana hear this you talkin bout i dig the idea myself \m/

 

not to be a hijacker... I have a question too..

I know metal heads can be a pretty fanatical bunch... and we have many here in the Z and X...
and many who wanted to participate in the "metal release" in AS...

so why could they not get it together so we could check out their chops... ?
( in be4 where's your stuff Herr Durr ? )

just wondering if anyone who's been around for a year or so could shed some light..

 

EDM in my head but metal in my veins

 

did anyone mention drop tuning yet?

 

I see that your questions have been mostly answered. I will add my 2 cents to your fourth one. The secret to a really heavy tone is dat BASSS. Seriously, it's one of the most neglected elements in home record metal productions, while it's as much important as guitars. If one wants a heavy mix, then that mean, distorted bass sound, which nicely fills the mix is crucial. Check Ola Englund's music, to see what I mean.

 

Ideally you split the bass: clean bass, distorted mids and treble (otherwise you end up with muddy or no low end depending on the amount of dist). The crossover-frequency should be matched by ear with the guitars (really depends on the track what works). And it works best if guitars and bass play unisono or at least complementing each other.