Mixing Low Tuned Metal Guitars | Metal Recording Basics in Cubase

#metal #metalfriday
In this Metal Recording Basics video, Mendel looks at recording metal in Cubase and, in particular, how to mix low tuned metal guitars. He explains how the string tension on a metal guitar is crucial to downtuning and the relation to the different scale lengths of necks on electric guitars. Long neck guitars, with heavy gauge guitar strings, are a definite advantage for tuning a metal guitar down and mixing them for metal. Mendel then gets into mixing low tuned metal guitars in Cubase, EQing to let the other instruments breathe and using multiband compression to tame the palm mutes. By learning simple metal recording and mixing techniques like these, you can create standout heavy metal guitars which sound great.

We hope you find this video entertaining and useful. If you like what you see, please leave a comment and tell us what you think. Thank you.
Your Steinberg YouTube Team

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[petersblock]

Great video! I'd love to see you breaking down the process of finding that guitar tone. Cheers!

[matthieulefloch]

Mendel ! I NEED you Kemper presets ! Where can i find it ? Insane metal guitar tone 🤩 !

[costinnovac]

That info about low gain in case of low tuning/bass is something I didn't know.

[NeuroticNexus]

Right in the end you mentioned a crucial thing, which is the efforts in recording the right tone already. That's what I directly noticed that the raw guitar tone was nearly perfect, hence the fine tuning was not done to try to get "the tone" but to let the right sound fit in the mix. Usually when I do not care so much about tone, mic position, volume the results are frustrating and there is no way to fix it by just EQing etc. As you well explained in the end, the time is well spend in capturing the right tone from the start which is imho also the secret of a perfect guitar sound. Thanks for the video of course, I found it very helpful. One question: which volume is your way to go when using speakers? My rule of thumb is to use a volume where speakers start moving, then tune the sound of the amp and try a bit more or little less volume.

[CaptnShred]

I love these Mendel videos, keep em coming!

[GaryHiebner]

Awesome video. I love that Architects style F# octave tuning. I got the same tuning on my Ibanez MMM1 28-inch Baritone guitar. And like you said scale length makes the word of difference.

[louddude]

was this included into a playlist? this is so explicit and interesting

[remane]

awesome video, just moving over to cubase and this has shown a few great tips for low tuned metal guitars. thanks!

[theemmanuelguzman]

Super informative Mendel! Great job! Your videos have been helping me out a lot!

[WaqasRazzaq-]

Please explain how to improve tone of guitar.

[ArranChristie]

This video has waaay too little views for the quality of this content. Keep up the good work, really useful knowledge and it is very digestible too. Got yourself a new sub \m/

[freethinkers-inc.]

Thank you very much for this really cool knowledge sharing.

[Hifcrea]

I got this problem where my mix sounds massive and nasty as long as most things are palm muted.
My open string strums for djent type metal just sound so dam weak and don’t POP like the palm mute strums do.
Got a 7 string with sentient pick ups and do standard B tuning and drop Ab. Use fortin nameless.
64 gauge low string.
Is it a guitar issue? Gonna try toning down gain a bit

[biggerfootprint]

So you've used mostly IRs. Does this also translate with live micing a tube head/cab?

[Oskarius]

Awesome video as always man. Got a question about group channels. Whenever I route my guitar tracks to a GC they instantly start to sound really bad. Im a amateur and Wonder if you can give me any tips?

[imdrecordings]

What drum library and iVST is @Mendal using for this?

[LondonSteveLee]

On your "whistle frequency" wouldn't you be better off using the dynamic EQ in frequency? Or if wanting to keep non-pro users happy - use the de-esser as a dynamic EQ

[LondonSteveLee]

Shame the multiband compressor doesn't have individual output controls per band.