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===Metal===
'''Metal''' is based on distorted treble frequencies over others. The bass comes through clean and tight, only compressed, while the high-end is filled with saturated, harmonic overtones. Notes and power chords in riffs have a tight response - all the notes can be fairly clearly distinguished, even when playing at fast tempos. Chords have most notes come through well enough to be distinguished, but can get too harsh and noisy for bigger chords. Palm mutes sound thick and rattle the walls, while having the signature ''djent'' sound in the upper mids and highs, emphasizing each stroke.
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== Pre-EQ ==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Freq (HZHz) !! Peak !! Lacking
|-
| 0-150 || Muddy || Thin
|}
For Pre-EQ, usually there's no need to make high-amplitude, narrow-width cuts/boosts - they tend to sound bad. I like wider, somewhat-subtle cuts/boosts. The first thing I'll adjust is bass. If the distortion is a bit too rough and has a muddy, low-end breakup, I like to reduce bass. I like to use a low sheft, with about -2 db and start with frequency around 300 HZHz. This should mildly clean up the low end. Then I reduce the gain further and try to notice when the bass gets totally clear and tight. You don't want to cut too much or you lose tone. Then I start to reduce the frequency, trying to see where I get the most punch without losing tightness. Usually this is around 150 HZHz, but it depends.
You can do the same thing for the highs but in reverse. Do a high shelf +4 db boost and slowly move the frequency downwards from 5 kHZ kHz to around 1 kHZkHz. You should find a sweet spot that adds extra harmonic richness to the tone but isn't too sharp and harsh.
You can also use parametric bands. Some suggestions are to cut around 500-800 HZ Hz - this should make the distortion a little rougher, but too much will make the mids too weak. Or boost around 1 kHZ kHz to 1.5 kHZkHz. This gives the tone a Tube Screamer-like effect, getting a bit more djent to the tone, but can sound a bit like a cocked wah pedal if overdone. You can also try the exact reverse to getter a smoother, creamy, liquid-lead tone.
I don't have a preference of parametric EQ vs. graphic EQ here. Usually you can make settings on either one for the exact same effect, because I'm not doing any narrow or extreme boosts/cuts. I just find it generally easier to find the sweet spots using a parametric EQ - trying to adjust the graphic means moving more sliders (or turning more knobs), but it does have the advantage that you can visually see how you're impacting the signal.
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== Boosts ==
Some pedals are purely called boosters, or treble boosters. These are more common in vintage rigs, used to overdrive amps with a rather bright tone. I tend to find they can overemphasize treble for modern purposes; however, they are simpler to use.
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== Mixing Multiple Distortions ==
=== Pre-Amp and Power Amp ===
Power amps are usually difficult to drive into heavy distortion and distort in a rough, somewhat nasty manner. Sometimes this is all you need to give your tone that edge that a smoother preamp doesn't provide. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to control, requiring loud volumes to achieve. Many modern amps feature low or half volume switches, which allow you to drive the power tubes harder without getting deafening volumes. Also, distortion is frequency response dependent, but you don't have much wiggle room here. If you use the pre-amp's EQ or an EQ in the effects loop after the pre-amp distortion to prep the signal for power amp distortion, you may get the distortion tone you want, but the frequency response after the power amp may need some EQ tweaks. Yet it's impossible to EQ after the power amp and before the speakers. You ''can'' EQ post-mic'ing, but this won't help for practice/and many gigging applications, and you may have to rely on the house sound-man to do it for you where there may be differences of opinion in what constitutes a good tone. However, this doesn't matter if it's all emulated in a modeler, which is a big benefit of such devices. Power amp distortion can be affected by the type of tubes as well as how they are biased; however this can be very difficult to A/B and experiment with. Thus, a lot of these kind of tweaks rely on word of mouth, and there are tons of rumors about such modifications famous players performed on their amps. Hot biasing tubes can also decrease their life-span, leading to practical issues doing so. However, some amps, like the Mesa/Boogie ''Road King'' allow a lot of options in this regard...but it comes with a heftier price tag.
=== Distortion Pedal and Amp ===
=== Multiple Distortion Pedals ===
This is usually a recipe for disaster, but sometimes you want that kind of out-of-control tone. Multiple pedals works ok here because they typically have less resonance and a tighter response than tube distortion. Thus, you can contrast the crazy distortion with dynamic control and mutes. You usually want to mix a fuzz pedal with a distortion, both with medium (crunch-level) distortion.
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== Compression vs. Distortion ==
Clipping typically introduces compression, leading many to fail to think of the two as different phenomenon. Rather than simply turning up the gain until you get a thick saturated tone, you may prefer using a compressor to thicken up the tone, using only enough distortion to get a little harmonic richness and crunch to the tone. This allows you to retain clarity in your playing and improve signal-to-noise ratio. It also lets your dynamics have more influence over tone, where accents will push the amp into distortion, while softer playing will be clean. But the compression keeps the levels of even the soft playing more audible, giving your notes more sustain.
Most place their [[Compression|compressor ]] before their distortion. Since distortion introduces compression, you have to expect that and use a milder compressor setting or a larger Attack setting than you would on a pure clean tone. The compression will also add more balance to the frequency response, giving you less control over your distortion. This can be remedied by placing a boost or EQ after the compressor.
You can also try using the compressor after the distortion, but I find this tends to over-emphasize distortion in attack and sounds a bit artificial. Of course, this is a bit different when adding a limiter in the DAW, which is also post-distortion compression. That tends to help achieve loudness in a mix but isn't quite what I'm talking about here, which is a larger compression used to thicken up the entire guitar tone rather than tame peaks. Even so, a mild compression can work well.
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== Battling Harshness or Thin-ness ==
Even when following all of the above advice, you may find the distortion is still too harsh or thin. The first place to look is the cab. Closed back cabs tend to have more bass and low-end resonance that thickens up the tone. Another place to look is post-distortion EQ. Distortion by nature adds high-frequency overtones - if they run amuck, the tone will be harsh - try reducing presence (3+ kHZkHz) or adding a low-pass filter. Be sure to naturally roll off the highs, and don't kill them - just de-emphasize them relative to the rest of the tone. This is particularly important as you increase volume to gig levels.
Finally, reverb is not your enemy. It doesn't matter if you are the most metal guitarist on the planet; reverb is necessary to make any tone sound more natural and pleasing. That doesn't mean you need some cave-like ambiance on a djenty rhythm tone. Normally you are playing in a room, which will have natural ambiance, no matter how much dampening material it has. But if you are using headphones or right in front your cabinet, things tend to sound more harsh. A reverb effect at around 8-12% mix can make a huge difference. A very mild pre-delay (5-20 ms) opens it up a little more. And if your reverb has a dampening control (or is designed to dampen (dull) the reverb as it persists), you can get away with larger mix and decay time parameters without making the reverb take over the tone. Lead tones can always sound nasal or harsh without any reverb or delay - I consider one or both absolutely essential for a great lead tone.
One final thought: a single guitar tone isn't going to sound like a double or quad-tracked stereo guitar tone in a mix. Layering guitars and adding space between them really helps to thicken up the tone. They each fill the gaps between any crackles or buzziness any one track has, as well as getting a 3-D effect from the stereo space that makes them sound fuller and richer. Similarly, bass guitar can make up for low-end (particularly the very low end), cymbals typically cover up guitar high-end, and bass drums add attack that guitars lack. Distorted guitar is primarily a midrange-oriented and low-dynamic-range instrument. Now, that doesn't mean you should settle for a crappy tone just because a lot of it will be covered up or enhanced by other players or studio wizards - just don't build yourself up for expectations that are impossible to meet.
Some other pointers:
* Some amps, typically older ones, can sound downright nasty when fed a large amount of treble. Even modern amps might sound a little nasty when boosted with too much bite. Don't feel like you are compromising backing off the treble on a boost pedal or pre-EQ. This is particularly evident with the ''Tube Screamer'' - 100% Tone might make low E riffing sound good, but chords and leads suffer. A lower Tone setting still emphasizes mids and makes for a boosted tone without high-end harshness. Adding a little pedal distortion can get back the bite to low note riffing without harsh sustained chords or leads.
* Pedals will often distort even at low Drive/Distortion settings. Try backing off of the pedal distortion and using more amp distortion.
* Just because your amp says it has tube-like distortion doesn't mean it actually distorts anything like a tube amp. Tubes are effectively a dead technology for their original pure amplification purposes, but there is a reason they are still very popular for music, particularly guitar amplifiers designed to distort.
* Just because an amp is a tube amp doesn't mean its distortion will be smooth and pleasing. Design matters.
* Even further, the individual tubes matter. Tubes can burn out or become microphonic and lead to all kinds of issues. Consider retubing or seeing a tech to get an inspection.
* A used amp may have been modified by a previous owner. Just because your amp is a popular brand doesn't mean it's going to operate exactly like every other one.
* The same goes for pedals, guitar electronics, and cables. Incorrect tone knob capacitor values can lead to all kinds of issues. Bad solder joints can lead to poor signal transmission. Bad cables or guitar shielding can introduce lots of interference and hiss into the tone, or even fixed frequency squealing.
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