Guitar Tone of Breaking Benjamin, Korn, and Deftones

[anotherelement]

How do you get that big fat guitar tone? Examples of bands would be: Breaking Benjamins, Korn, Deftones, etc. Any advice you can offer would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

Adam.
AnotherElement

[lolzgreg]

Originally Posted by anotherelement

How do you get that big fat guitar tone? Examples of bands would be: Breaking Benjamins, Korn, Deftones, etc. Any advice you can offer would be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

Adam.
AnotherElement

Slipperman's Guide

1. Great Player
2. Great Room
3. Great Amp/mic placement
4. Great Guitar/new strings

Patience!

Good Luck, the slipperman thread is the best detailed one.

-Greg

[brandondrury]

How do you get that big fat guitar tone? Examples of bands would be: Breaking Benjamins, Korn, Deftones, etc. Any advice you can offer would be extremely helpful.

The short answer is slap a mic in front a guitar cabinet that sounds like Breaking Benjamin, Korn, or Deftones.

The Slipperman guide is pretty damn good. I hadn't read it in years and then absorbed it this weekend.. It was good to go over it again. Much of the info is implied, but there are some HUGE lessons in his rants.

The big thing that Slipperman mentions but doesn't go into great detail on is the part about the guitar player getting "his sound". Slipperman kind of expects the guitar player to do that part and much of his discussion from then on goes into advanced engineering to properly capture that guitar tone.

If I was recording label bands, I'd assume that the guitar player had gotten a guitar rig that he was pretty damn happy with. A label metal dude playing on Engl amps is one thing. The home recording guy at home trying to make the same tone with substandard amps is another.

Without going into advanced specifics, if the guitar player can get a killer sound coming out of the amp, it's simply an issue of placing the mic in a good spot and doubling the track. You can certainly make this as complicated as you want, but this is the general approach I take.

Brandon

[DogpitStudios]

When i think fat or big, I think layering. of course you can go way crazy with this and start retuning guitars or just layer many tracks for a chorus of the same stuff, or play in octaves. This can get really messy though, so do it tastefully when you think you need it, and don't overuse.

An other thing, when you are setting up your guitar sound, don't make a few of the common mistakes that I've made over the last few years. One is not placing a mic with out listening to it. In slipperman's guides you'll see something about swinging the mic along the speaker, This seriously works. It also helps to tell you if you are using the right mic at all or not. The second thing I sometimes do is turn the gain up too much. In the room it might sound big because the waves are having serious phase cancelation and i'm not actually hearing anything real, but once I isolate the cab and mic it, it sounds tinny, and obnoxious. I tend to turn gain wayy down now so that I can really hear the notes being played. Of course sometimes bad guitarists sound better with the gain up cause it covers everything up. I'd suggest not recording them. Mid range also tends to be important, play with the EQ on your amp, not afterwards. Last and probably the most important. Don't settle with a crappy tone thinking you can EQ it or put on reverb to make it sound better later. EQ and reverb can only make the guitar sound better once it already sounds good. Some times EQ is only used for space-making. These effects are going to do nothing to crappy playing except for highlight the crappy part.

I hope this was somewhat helpful.

Ben

[anotherelement]

THanks guys for all your input! I will try the various things you've suggested. Thanks again for your help!

[brandondrury]

When i think fat or big, I think layering. of course you can go way crazy with this and start retuning guitars or just layer many tracks for a chorus of the same stuff, or play in octaves. This can get really messy though, so do it tastefully when you think you need it, and don't overuse.

I've backed WAY off of layering the past year or so. A guitar on each side is plenty for me. I've found that my tones are much better when I work really hard on getting those 2 tracks to sound as massive as possible. Anything past doubling starts moving into chorus territory. I don't hear this chorus effect on the big rythm guitars I like except for maybe some old Zakk Wylde stuff, but that sounds more like a pedal.

I have done songs where we put a good 20 layers of different amps, different guitars, different ways of playing (octaves, open chords, drop D, etc) It ended up sounding like crap. If the amp is happening, I find two tracks does it for me.

Last and probably the most important. Don't settle with a crappy tone thinking you can EQ it or put on reverb to make it sound better later. EQ and reverb can only make the guitar sound better once it already sounds good.

DEFINITELY most important!!!!! You can not fix guitar tone after the fact.

I sometimes do is turn the gain up too much.

Just remember that too little gain can suck too. If the song calls for pinch harmonics, give 'em enough gain to nail them. Granted, you can high pinch harmonics with a clean tone, but it'll sound a lot more like Billy Gibbons than Zakk Wylde. There is a balance there but so much depends on the song and the situation. Just listen to the tracks in your monitors before you settle on a tone. You'll be able to figure out if you need more or less gain by listening.


Brandon