Unfinished.
For getting the right sound, we are influenced by many old-school bands. At the same time we want to keep the ball moving forward. That means referencing the guitar sound that we know and love while boosting clarity, dynamic texture, and space.
We try to avoid the cliche of occupying every millimetre of the sound stage caused by cranking all gain and volume up. This leads to a flat wall of sound. We want a variety of brutal textures to keep the audience engaged. Orchestral musicians are used to this communal sharing of auditory space; each player rising and falling where required. To recreate the “live feeling” requires careful writing and recording. We don’t like to rely on post-processing for dynamics so we try to write and play accordingly.
Since we like to quad-track guitars, finding tones that balance each other together is important. However, each individual track must also sound good while solo.
For example, we have tried a mix of Mesa/Boogie triple rectifier and Peavey 5150 together since they are classics of this genre. The result is a brutal, thick, chainsaw sound that works well in the mix. However, during solo sections, the 5150 frankly sounds rubbish. Therefore, we needed to test more to find something that works.
We ended up with the Mesa/Boogie triple rectifier and Orange (specify). I use the tube screamer before the head to push the raw guitar. Next we have noise gate, …
Each of the guitar sounds now both have a low rumble that does not interfere with the dominant frequency of the bass guitar, and mids to highs that have good clarity to stand out in the mix. Both guitar sounds also separate from each other sonically with slightly different dominant frequencies and highs. This creates a nice texture that would otherwise muddle even the smallest picking difference. Lastly, each guitar sounds thick and full while solo.
The cabs seem to make the largest difference to the final sound. Despite this, for every cab tested, I was happy with the head/pre-cab set-up. I ended up using… but it’s possible that we will change it up.
Some EQ on the guitar output creates more space for the bass guitar and kick drum. While this takes out some of the punch if solo, it is far more important to give the other instruments space in the mix and ameliorate potential ducking in the low end, which is crucially important.
We also take of some off the high end that is superfluously picked up during recording that generally is not heard while playing live.