Percussive metal sounds?

mbe

How do metal players get that clicky rhythmic sound on the lower strings that sounds like a roomful of electric typewriters?

Genuine enquiry, I must admit to being fascinated by the technique. 

guitarmangler

A noise gate, set really high , helps achieve that stuttering sound . 

BloodEagle

Palm muting the strings, combined with the right type of amp/guitar/pedal setup

Sassafras

Some form of Tourette's?

benmurray85

Downtuning, heavy strings and long scales length

Bucket

In a contemporary metal mix, the kick drum can often contribute to the clickiness as well.

guitarfishbay

Post an example of the type of sound you want to get. 

The technique is palm muting but there are a lot of factors that go into the final sound.  The typewriter click you're talking to probably comes from a combination of pick technique, a tone that involves boosted upper mids or highs, and how tight it locks in to the drums and bass sound (which either or both might also have some clicky attack too).  I find thinner picks get additional click on the attack too, though not everyone likes the feel of doing heavy rhythms with thin picks.

In Djent it's stylistically common for the kick to hit at the same time as the guitar and bass in unison for the chuggy parts.  In isolation the guitar sounds usually aren't that big, because the low end comes from the bass and kick drum.

On modern recordings the guitars are often edited to be lined up against each other which can give a very tight sound, this is extra important for some styles if the sound comes from the combination of the guitar, kick, and bass hitting together.  If they're not together then the guitar might sound a little thin in isolation in these styles.

If it is an on off type of sound the silence is probably stripped out on the track.  The way to achieve this in a normal setting is to use a noise gate.  You also have to play and mute tightly (which includes muting unwanted noise so that he gate will close fast after each note is stopped).

mbe

Here's an example, I guess it must be the EQ that I am trying to fathom out.

prlgmnr

Can't really argue with what he says between 15 and 20 seconds.

Lestratcaster

Also don't use too much gain, modern metalcore stuff doesn't require that much gain as you think, as its supported by the kick drum and bass so swamped it in gain will only make the chord or note sound mushy esp live. A good amp and pickup choice will make a difference, the sound is in your palm mutes and pick attack though.

timmysoft

Theres a couple of different ways of getting that sound.

 Active pickups into a high gain amp or hitting the front end with boost. You can also do both of those things if you're proper metal core! You can scoop or boost the mids, but the important thing is the attack, something like an Ibanez TS808 with the volume up full, gain down at zero and tone marginally boosting the highs helps with that.

 My favourite example would be:

Maynehead

I’m still not sure what exactly you are referring to...

Are you talking about the metallic clanging noise immediately as he hits the strings? If so that’s just the acoustic sound of the strings hitting against the frets, being picked up by the camera mic. You won’t hear it too much through the amp.

guitarfishbay

Maynehead said:

I’m still not sure what exactly you are referring to...

Are you talking about the metallic clanging noise immediately as he hits the strings? If so that’s just the acoustic sound of the strings hitting against the frets, being picked up by the camera mic. You won’t hear it too much through the amp.

Agreed.  The click in the video posted is the acoustic sound of the guitar being picked up by the camera.  It's hard to tell but it could just be the sound of the pick hitting the strings, not the strings hitting the frets, but it's definitely the acoustic sound of the guitar.

mbe

I will try to find an example played by Eytsch, I know he frequently uses isolation cabs. 

Alegree

Anything percussive asks for compression - as all mentioned previously, you can achieve that with either a compressed pickup (active or active toned) or tons of gain in the form of a boost or a lot of preamp gain.

mbe

Here is Henning Pauly, I think it's through an isolation cab at 3.30.



Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I will try a noise gate and separately a compressor. Got SD Blackouts and a Randall 1 watt high gain combo. 

It's mainly the rhythms that interest me but that clicky tone does seem to enhance it.

Maynehead

Are you talking about the very initial attack or the actual distorted tone? Every time I think I get what you’re referring to, but then get completely confused by your “room full of typewriters” analogy...

Are you talking about that single click/squeak every time he hits the strings?

BloodEagle

BloodEagle said:

Palm muting the strings, combined with the right type of amp/guitar/pedal setup

mbe

Maynehead said:

Are you talking about that single click/squeak every time he hits the strings?

Yes

webrthomson

Mostly it's the combination of the palm mute, compression (amp / pickup or both!) and a tight gate that gets to that sound.

For a gate I find the ISP decimaters pretty good, though I'm just about to move to the Fortin Zuul!

In terms of amps I tend to use a Diezel VH4 or Herbert - either of those are brutal - with active pickups (seymour duncan AHB-1 or AHB-3) will get you right there

Maynehead

mbe said:

Maynehead said:

Are you talking about that single click/squeak every time he hits the strings?

Yes

Ah, that is the sound of the pick hitting the strings, and the string vibrating against the pick for a split second, with frequency increasing as the pressure of the pick against the string increases.

This can be heard most prominently in amps with high gain and a more pronounced high end. Active pickups will also emphasise this sound more than passives.

Ironically a lot of metal guitarists don't like that noise and try to get rid of it!