How Not To Dial A Metal Sound 

Don't fall into the trap of thinking 'All The Gain!' sounds good. Dial in your metal sound with confidence and make sure your audience can hear you with this tutorial. #metaltone #allthegain #csguitars More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk Affiliate Links: Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?offid=1&affid=367 Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg CSGuitars uses: LEWITT Microphones - www.lewitt-audio.com/ Hoffnine Cabinets - www.hoffnine.co.uk/ Hosa Cables - hosatech.com/ Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks - www.dragonsheartguitarpicks.com/ Title graphics and logo by: www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/ Join the discussion at: Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/ Twitter -twitter.com/CSG_Scotland Music available at: Amazon: amzn.to/2HUdXgV iTunes: apple.co/2JvpCjp Google Play: bit.ly/2KgSzkl Or stream on Spotify: spoti.fi/2HuYPTP

2:06 "Yu won't son beg, yu won't son hevi, yu wull just not be herd" Love your accent

What this guy is talking about is frequency placement with the guitar blending into the rest of the instruments so they all can be heard. AND HE IS 100% CORRECT!

"As a guitarist, you're always the most important person in the band." Truer words have never been spoken!

Even after all these years, whenever I dial the gain knob, his voice keeps ringing in my head "ALL THE GAIN" ... BWAHAHA

Having recently witnessed some metal bands where the guitars were completely lost due to super saturated over processed distortion, I decided to address the topic on youtube.

LOL Learned that long ago, but hearing a Scot do it was worth the watch I subbed...

Thank you for helping me. now I'll really be haired at my next gig

i love beeing haired when i play

"Get EMG pickups, roll off your mids and raise your gain." - Every metal tone video.

This was a much needed PSA. HOWEVER! Your "superior" tone was hardly any better. Perhaps it was bad mic placement or an issue with the head itself but that tone was pure midrange in the worst of ways. Mids are essential, but you need a careful amount of high end or it's going to sound like you're running card board speakers.

I want to be haired like you but im still growing mine out.

I need to be haired!

Ive been saying this since 1987 when I remember watching a local band do a couple Ozzy songs and the Guitarist was using a top shelf Marshall 2203 head and 1960. The problem began as soon as they started playing. The singer starts saying between songs I can't even hear the guitar. Well thats because the guitarist was running a Boss distortion pedal into the 2203 Clean with all the midrange and presence turned off!! I listened to 3 songs and couldn't take it any more. When they stop to start the 4 th song I was standing beside the guitarist and I said!! " IF YOU DONT TURN THE MIDRANGE UP ON THAT AMP AND ADD A LITTLE PRESENCE YOU MAY AS WELL STOP PLAYING NOW!!! NO ONE CAN HEAR WITH THAT EQ SETTING"!!! The singer agreed and off they went to fix the problem. I couldn't take it and normally wouldn't say anything but it was tonal suicide!! Good job dude great Videos! Keep them coming!

"As the guitarist you're always the most important person in the band" lol.

20 years playing and you just opened my eyes, mind blowing.

I’va always seen people say “this has such a nice scooped sound.” I’ve always hated scooping the mids and I felt like boosting the mids makes it so much more brutal.

Also distortion tends to hide mistakes, encouraging you to sacrifice precision in favor of "sounding cool". Practice with clean tone to hammer out mistakes, and then reward your diligence with killer tones & other effects.

Thanks CS, I'm a live sound engineer and you are doing me a favor by informing the metal guitarist on tone and clarity. Thank you.

Dude you are probably the ONLY person on youtube to offer this very specific and often overlooked piece of advice but actually explain the reasoning behind it!

This video changed my life no joke. I owe so much to this guy for helping my live tone

No actually you have to chain 5 death metal pedals into the amp with maximum drive. Throw the drive on the amp all the way up. Not only scoop the mids but also the highs and everything but the lows. The you have to raise the volume till the guitar starts clipping. You have to run all that through a compressor. Once you do a lead you have to make the volume even louder and throw wah wah on it and make everyone def with there ears bleeding. Because blood is metal and so is DEATH!!! @.@

For quick comparison: br00tel 13 year old 0:42 Scotsman's recommendation 3:25

No shave November or not, we always wanna be 'haired' I'm enjoying this. Drummersjokes*

As a bass player with two guitarists both boosting the low end. i'm not being heard, i'm the one who gets lost. i tell them everytime to cut the low end a little bit and bring up the mids, but they forget everytime, every practice day. so annoying. the gear they use: Guitarist 1: lead (Ibanez rg 7 string emg pickups, mxr fullbore metal) Guitarist 2: rythm (Schecter 7 string also emg pickups, Boss metal core pedal)

I think what happens is that a lot of metal musicians come up with this tone when they're playing alone in their rooms, you know, just fiddling with controls. And when that's the case, the tone sounds really cool because it just expands so much. But when you put it in the context of a band, suddenly you don't need to spread out the tone as much, you need it to be more of a niche sound, and so the tone no longer works.

This is actually very helpful for me. Sadly, I fell into the Metallica "...And Justice For All" attitude of scooped mids, high treble, and high distortion. Hopefully this will help to beef up my sound a bit and actually make it sound more than an under-produced Cannibal Corpse album Plus, the way you pronounced "Heard" made my day :) I don't mean to dog you, many nationalities pronounce words differently.

There's nothing more satisfying than having somebody who clearly knows more than me tell me that what I am already doing is right! Thank you!

Being an electrical engineer, you have no idea how much I enjoy the fact that I know what you're talking about even though I don't know how to play guitar. XD ALL THE GAIN!

You want to be haired guys.

Thank you for pointing out the dead simple logic of instrument frequency spectrum. I've told countless guitarists how important it is to develop a tone that sits well in the mix and fills the frequencies that the drums and bass leave empty. But all I constantly get are responses like "no way my tone is number one priority!" they say with their Spider IV half stack.

Every year I come back to this awesome video. Sure the production is better in newer videos, but this classic content is what made me love Collin from the start

It's amazing how many of the comments on this vide are just LOL THAT SCOTTISH GUY HAS A SCOTTISH ACCENT.

I used to fight with my rhythm guitarist about this all the time. He would scoop the mids like fuck and use a Boss "Metal Zone" pedal. I, on the other hand, was stuck with some shit amp for a while, but I had a decent multi effects pedal and had spent days finding a nice (what I called at the time) "Megadeth-y" sound where the mids could actually come through in the mix. I always hated that scooped mids sound anyway, it gave me a headache. I came from a school of guitar playing where you wanted a more growley and aggressive tone from your guitar (I think it was called the 80s lol). I never liked having too much distortion, or having my guitar sound like it was being amped through a gameboy with a subwoofer. Usually the kids I've known who would do these insane scooped mids tones would always cite bands like Slayer or As I Lay Dying as influences, but if you really listened to their music, none of these bands (with the exception of maybe Deicide) would do this. They understood how to get a good sound. I listen back to the old Slayer records and I'm always blown away by how good they sounded for an early thrash band. Then I would go to a show where some local thrash or "core" band would be playing and think "god, they sound like shit!" It's not the songs themselves, but it's the damn tone. Drummers not properly tuning their drums, guitarists with scooped mids, bassists with their amps turned up way too loud, and vocalists who cup the mic like a lover's balls because they don't know how to project. I learned pretty early on that the "Metal Zone" and "Death Metal" pedals were something to avoid. I usually just liked a nice mild distortion pedal or (even better) a good fucking amp. Hell, at one point, I was actually using my multi effects pedal simply as a splitter and using two different amps (a Marshall and a Line 6) to generate that "wall of sound" when I was in a band that only had me as the guitarist (the bassist had a Marshall he was willing to donate to the cause, and after playing around with it a bit we found we really liked the sound of the two together). Find what works for you, but for the love of god, don't EVER use a Metal Zone pedal, and if you're going to use the amp's distortion setting, do NOT scoop your mids. Might sound "cool" to you while you're jamming in your room, but it sounds like deep fried dog shit live. Thank you.

This video singlehandedly changed my opinion on guitar tones forever. Watching it again like 8 years later I still take heed.

This video completely changed how I dial in my sound and I've never looked back. I'm just an apartment jammer but this technique makes my little modeling combos sound huge without being deafeningly-loud. Thanks for the insight!

That first tone actually wasn't that bad lol

I've learned to appreciate natural amp drive with mids over the years, though I love adding some more treble to have a little more bite to cut through the mix (especially since my black metal band has no bass player)

Speaking on behalf of sound engineers everywhere, thank you Colin. Even the best sound engineer can’t fix a sucky scooped metal tone. We just can’t put back what wasn’t there in the first place.

That explanation was perfect; really technical, yet easy to understand. Cheers. I needed this video 30 years ago lol.

i dont understand a word of what you're saying......liked and subscribed

And if you're black metal ignore this video. Get a low quality amp from a pawn shop crank the gain and remove all bass. Make sure the vocalist has an old antique microphone from a fighter jet or something. It doesn't matter if they can hear the notes, just make sure it sounds scary as hell.

I'm pretty sure I've watched this video like 20+ times. It just shows up in my feed and I can't resist. ALL THE GAIN! NO MIDS!

Well said. I can't think of any reason to have an overdrive pedal in front of a tube amp for anything other than solos where you want massive sustain, harmonics, or feedback. Passive pickups through the overdrive channel of a tube amp is the sound that launched rock. There's no need to mess with it, it works. With passive pickups, it cleans up very nicely.

Also, if you're going to play with a distortion pedal through a clean channel, why not buy a great clean amp? If you aren't even playing through the dirty channel of a metal amp, why get one?

All I've ever wanted was to haired. I'm so glad you've shown me how to sound beg.

Really nice. Simply put, effectively demonstrated. Killer sound. I thought I was already doing this, at first, but then you mentioned rolling back the bass. I was doing everything you mentioned EXCEPT backing off the bass. And doing so finally got rid of the last remnants of that "muddy" sound for me. So thank you! This really helped!

Greetings Colin ... I just discovered your channel and subscribed. This channel you've constructed is THE BEST guitar channel, PERIOD. No one else has it all ... Knowledge, Shared Experience, Wit, Intelligence, Humor, Wisdom, Likeable Personality ... As talent, originality and that special quality that make up the most successful bands, you have that. Thank you for being here for as long as you continue this, success and best wishes, a new fan/subscriber from S.F. Bay Area, CA, Scotty!!!

A Tubescreamer is not a clean boost pedal, it's a transparent overdrive. Maybe at a low gain setting it will boost the volume like a clean boost does, but that's not entirely what it was designed for. I thought the exact same thing when I was looking for a clean boost pedal, but was told otherwise from the staff at the store. I ended up coming home with an Xotic EP Booster and couldn't be happier.

Lol, I feel personally attacked.

Preach. I recently made this same discovery for myself and I'm ashamed I never sought out this wisdom before. I'm running through a vintage Marshall JCM900 and for a long time my distorted sound simply came from the A/B switch into the crunch channel with an insane amount of gain. Now I run the crunch channel with a third of the gain knob at the most and modulate it with a Keeley Kahana clean boost. The difference is night and day. Thanks for the great video, sir.

This still has legend status. Glad my man is still around

is it just me or did the clean channel scooped mids thing he was doing kind of sound cool?

How to: Get a metal sound You need a fender twin reverb, the one without gain controls, remember! Keep the volume low not to risk overdriving it the least bit, and flatten the EQ. Mic the amp so you don't risk having it too loud. Then find yourself a hollow-bodied telecaster and just pull out the bridge pickup! All you need is the neck pickup, and roll up the tone knob 100%. and there! you got yourself a metal tone! If you really wanna put the pedal to the metal, get a light reverb pedal, anything else is going overboard

I told the guys in my band about this video and they thanked me a million times over. Thanks Colin, now they can be Haired

I have a inexpensive amp (as I am learning to play and did not want to throw down a lot just yet) and wow, this actually helped me get the sound I preferred to hear.

I am a random guitarist from no where, and i support this message

Who buys a metal amp and only uses it on its clean channel? I mean, isn't the whole purpose of buying a metal amp the distortion sound it gives?

dude, i dont even understand what your saying, but for some reason i can just listen to you for hours.

Years ago, I actually asked the owner of the studio we were recording at to help me dial in a good tone, as I couldn't really find myself in the mix.I was not really impressed until both guitars were going and you could tell what was what. Like with the second example, I'd use that for a rythm and fill in more highs and tweek the sound for a lead.Even when both guitars are playing the same thing you fill in the blanks of what the other is playing tonewise and it makes it sound MASSIVE. Rolling back the gain is also good advice, as dialing your perfect tone means jack when all you hear is crunch crunch crunch! I'd have more to say about bass players tone if I ever had one that shows up or turns his volume up to more than dead silent.Good upload, hope people take this to heart

I'm already plenty "haired". I've been growing it for a few years!!! I don't understand!!! ;)

I'm the guitar pick technician who tapes the guitar picks to the side of microphone stands so this video just totally lost me. I've been doing this for over 40 years and one day hope to make it big. These young kids are doing really crazy stuff with guitar picks nowadays and it just blows my mind.

This is also true, for home recording or any kind of mixing. We love the beef of boosted bass, but that's because we're playing instrument solo. Optimal guitar setting sounds quite dull while played solo, but in the mix, when those low frequencies are already occupied, it sounds much better :) Don't forget double tracking too!

EXACTLY correct. I admit, when I practice alone, I often take out the mids and do what he says not to. But, when playing in a band situation, do what he says. Also, practice that way some too.

After years of growing, I am finally fabulously haired like you.

I have a $45 Walmart electric guitar.

Dude, totally agree with you, a lot of people dont worry about the mix in live gigs, even in bass eq I see a lot of guy totally boost the bass knob not understanding that the bass is already a low instrument and that adding lows only removes the definition of what they are playing. Cheers

Couldn't agree more.... It took me months during my beginning stages of recording to figure this out, with the help of this video!!!!

That accent though... "Haired". Cracked me up. :D

Notice how the guitar without mids gets lost in the mix.

After 9 years... ALL THE GAIN!!!!!!!!! Still the best video on the subject on YT! :D

sometimes seemingly simple advice gives the necessary reminder to keep rocking hard and solid. Thanks for the vid, its a good reminder a lot of great guitarists just might not know or simply forget.

Accents are fun lol. "Heard" in US = "Hurd" "Heard" in Scotland = "Haired"

If you have a low gain amp, then, by all means, max the gain. And is anyone really stupid enough to buy an expensive, modern, hi-gain amp and not use the drive channel?

Apart from the hilarious "Thanks for helping me be hair'd" joke, this was a really great video man

What's funny is that the scooped metal sound that most beginner guitarists go for is something that is EQ'd post-recording, not on the amp itself. I assure you the "Justice" tone that everybody raves about is a product of not only the Mark IIC+ but also post-recording EQ as well.

I definitely like being haired, thanks mate!

You guys won't be haired if you scoop your mids

Thank you so much for this video because quite frankly you've saved my sound, and now it sounds so good I've got inspired to play more that I ever have before, so once again thank you so much and like you say keep it loud mate

if you don't understand what it means to EQ your amp it doesn't matter what you use it's never going to sound right. I'm glad you focused on the true Importance of mid range frequencies especially regarding "metal" tones.

I personally like and miss the no mids and boosted gain sound for recording anyway. Everything today sounds muddy every time the mids are boosted.

So stumbled across this old video... but yeah, you're dead right. I played in a thrash band, playing bass, with two guitarists. One was reasonably gear savvy, but the other would scoop every single mid out that he could. I remember being in a studio rehearsal room and I think it was a Marshal JCM2000 that was there maybe... He dialled all the mids to nil, and then found a mid scoop switch that he pressed as well. But for his clean sound he maxed out the mids on the amp, despite playing a Les Paul... anyway, the singer in the band also encouraged me to have a really bright bass sound, like a funk, slap bass sound... and I was like... "Guys, you've got this all the wrong way around"... When we started recording it all sounded dreadful and I got my way and the bass got cut from the guitar, and put on the bass, as it should be. The other guitarist know what he was doing, thankfully. Said guitarist also had to get me to help him get an amp working once because no sound was coming out of it. This particular amp had the footswitch jack on the front panel... that was what he'd plugged into. 'nuff said.

God. Your generalizations/stereotypes are so damn true it almost brought a tear to my eye. Buying the new gear and cranking up all the gain, metal setting on the Line 6, and even going to the extreme of Jamming out with that awful tone. You sir, crack me up. LOL

You are SO right! Wether I've played metal, punk, alternative or classic hard rock, I almost always use the drive on my head at like 60% with tons of mids. Just sounds better

You speak exactly like the late Colin McRae :) !!!!!!

Just subscribed to your channel Collin. It was recommended thetoneking and Jeff Diamonds. I must tell you though, I'm a Blues Man. Blues On....

tbh i really like the “crappy” tone and i like when they’re blended into the mix like that

Yes that's the tone I want.... Guilty of too much gain but I didn't run through clean so I got that right, I also had my mid too low. I'm learning on my own so everything I can absorb from RU-vid is helpful. Thanks...Jen

Not sure what it says about myself but I really like the sound at 1:13. In my opinion it appears to be a decent backing guitar tone myself. Going to finish the video now to find out why it is incorrect.

Awesome video. Every noob metal guitarist thinks that they wan't high gain and scooped mids, hopefully this bad habit will go away one day.

Ashamed to admit that for eight years since i play electric guitar i didn't know it. Dude thanks a lot!

Thanks for this. Started dialing things differently on my Yamaha THR10X (very dynamic high-gain modeling amp, great tube saturation emulation), and with my Dean Zelinsky Private Label LaVoce Custom, it sounds a lot better than what I was getting. No pedals, but I stopped maxing the gain and keeping the b/m/t at about half with a slight scoop, and now I've got the b/m/t turned up, no scoop, and keeping the gain around 65-75%. Much better sound. And I'm proof that this advice can carry to small solid-state and modeling amps.

all you need is gain and 0 mids it's that easy (:

A cursory glance at the comments tells me that most guitarists don't know jack shit about audio engineering lmao. Just because scooped mids sounds good to you while jamming out alone in your bedroom, that doesn't mean it's going to sound good in a mix. You need to be aware of which frequency ranges each instrument primarily occupies and EQ your shit accordingly...unless you WANT your mix to sound like a muddy mess like 99.9% of black metal, in which case, go nuts.

Great demonstration on what not to do - or rather what to do to make sure the tone sounds weedy and lost in a mix!

Clean channel with a dimed high/low but scooped mid metal zone is what garage metal is about.

As terrible as it sounds, we all must admit that we were there one day. Back when we started. I remember I got an overdrive pedal on sale into a fender blues junior amp, and I thought I was on some next level heaviness.

Shout back if you still want to be haired in 2019.

Yep. This is why a million metal and hard rock bands in the 80's had a pretty simple set up. A Marshall JCM 800 2203 with a simple booster or overdrive pedal like a DOD 250 in the front.

The best thing I can think of to get your point across is explaining to people that you shouldn't HAVE to spend an additional 100$ on a pedal to make the amp, of which you spend 2000$ , sound decent. Adding an overdrive can help, but only in severe moderation. Everything you stated is EXACTLY on point! :)