How To Dial PERFECT Metal Tone In Under 5 Minutes

[@NeuralDSP]

That's it, that's the tone!

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

there it is

[@arrakeen20]

This man’s presets do kick ass

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

thanks king

[@bolillo5013]

Especially on the nameless

[@kilocharlie1100]

Great video! Just want to add this for any newbies guitarists who want to make huge metal mixes - fix your drums first before you get into the guitar tones. In my experience first get an absolutely banging drum sound, a huge bass tone, and you're gonna sound massive no matter what the guitar tone is. Like, the drum tone is more important than the guitar tone overall in my opinion. I spent YEARS trying to make my mixes sound huge by tweaking guitars and it never worked. But then I started studying other tracks, experimenting with mix templates, drum libraries and presets, and stuff and then I realised - if your kick and snare are massive, there's a good fx chain on the master bus, and your bass is big as a rhino's arse - you really are sorted and then the guitars are like, the raw pasta and the drums and bass are the sauce. Good pasta is important but the sauce is what really makes it a dish. You can get away with having ok pasta if you have excellent sauce, not the other way around imo.

[@Nofe20]

I read all of this. Thank you.

[@ronforeman8394]

Those pickups are doing a lot of work on this tone also, fantastic

[@devinthegreig]

Dude, as a drummer/producer that can play guitar but literally learned to sculpt tones through years of your videos: I just gotta say thank you so much for the info🙏

[@den-dudin-rock]

And then you try to work with it in the mix and everything falls apart

[@spawn302]

All this guy does is record for mixes so I trust this to sound fine in a mix

[@silaswintersguitar]

Thats why you record DI with it.

[@MeTuLHeD]

You HAVE heard his mixes...right?

[@Durkhead]

A lot of the time you just have to move the mic a little on the cab section while the mix is playin and the guitar will magically fit right in

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

@@RayFerrettiif you record both at the same time, you can use the printed tone for playback and then save heaps of processing power and put less strain on your CPU from constantly needing to feed DIs into an amp sim every time you hit play

[@legitwhitebelt8353]

For the soldano I dialed it in 5 seconds. Hit the Ihsahn typical lead preset and made an EP with it 😂

[@krustoff24]

Great format, great explanations on what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how it interplays with everything. I love this.

[@marcusinator1]

I swear this video fixed my tone issue! I applied it to my physical gear and it fixed the issues I had! I know its sad but i never thought of adjusting the amp settings besides the gain... But it honestly fixed my issues!

[@djabthrash]

Using a MIDI volume pedal as a remote control for the gain knob helps a lot setting the gain quicker. And looping riffs and then tweaking the tone too.

[@Father_Jerome]

Extremely helpful, as I’m just getting into NDSP plug-ins

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Moltimer5050]

please more of this ill watch every single video

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

There’s heaps of videos like this on the channel that go all the back to almost 5 years ago, enjoy!

[@jackevansevo]

Idk whether I just have bad ears, terrible headphones (or both) but it's sometimes really difficult for me to discern the difference between the subtle tweaks he's making along the way to shape the overall tone. Stuff feels like magic ✨

[@bassic6959]

He is going very fast and also knows exactly what he is listening for so I wouldn't worry too much if you can't notice it. You can for sure train your ears more and your listening device makes a huge difference

[@TheMirrorify]

He's making subtle differences to an already good tone. When the amp is good to begin with only slight sculpting is needed. He's set this up pretty much exactly how I do my 5150 with a 10 band in the loop.

[@Return2TheLiving]

Look at this way he is doing things that individually change like 2-5% of the tone, and on its own that component can be hard discern but with years of messing around you notice them more and more but even so it’s such a small adjustment he is making. Then you take into account that he has made 10 different changes to different parameters and that all make a 2-5% difference it becomes a 20-50% difference than where you started. A good amp will sound decent with most things set to the middle position and really are there for fine adjustments in most cases.

[@Guips96]

I might need to pull the trigger on a couple Neural DSP plugins to take advantage of the 50% discount that's going on right now

[@FCdrums]

you can always download the free trial for 14 days, you won't regret it, I have 4 plug ins now from Neural DSP

[@КиранДонлон]

DO IT

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

I use this approach for all of them!

[@Guips96]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive I wish I could. The euro is way to expensive for me in my country lol. I might buy two to not break the bank

[@Drpepperkiller10]

@@Guips96 Soldano X + Plini X and you're set on every tone and feature possible

[@danthemanmillan]

would love to see you do this with bass and parallax!

[@AfroRedMusic]

Yeah man! I got a cheap 7 string Jackson last year and I'm modding it with some custom Stringjoy's and Graphtech locking tuners; still deciding on what specific amp/sim, distortion and compression pedals to get but I'm excited to get my tone sounding sick like this! I'm also a live sound engineer so I wanna use that to my advantage; keep this shit up man, love it! ❤‍🔥

[@stevenwang3396]

This is amazing, gotta try this next time. I always feel lost when doing some of this stuff, I especially find myself trying to "mix" using the EQ sometimes when I'm not happy with the starting tone yet.

[@alaskanoutlaw]

Loved the straight to the point approach.... Boom boom, peace! Great format imo!!!😎😎🎸🎸

[@Doctee81]

Thank you for the great tutorial. Be interested to hear if you (or anyone else here) have any particular strategies for dealing with interference and noise. It seems to be pretty much absent throughout this vid.

[@MichaelSheaAudio]

Honestly, the "stock" tone at 0:45 is what I've been preferring lately. Simple and natural. In your own words, you like a sterile tone, so I guess that's where we differ. I'm over guitars being sterile. 😅

[@markus_m4rk]

Nice system! Trying to achieve a balance between crip picked riffs and slightly saggy palm mutes is always a challenge.

[@pikmindude12]

I just stumbled upon your channel that took me to your music. Absolutely MAD sound and unique style that is yet very familiar to fans of similar genres. Do you play your last bit in one of your songs? Lifelong fan here, I’ll listen to you ten years from now going through my playlist and i’ll immediately be taken to this time in my life. Cheers man ✌🏽

[@ANOOOSMIA]

first impression: a bloody soldano amp? that's boutique! who does this kid th.. second: oh. it's a plugin. well. seems more portable than my pod hd prox. heard a lot of good things about bias, actually. third: around 1:47. i think he knows what he's doing. he's explaining it perfectly along with the sound examples. fourth: thanks. kids, listen to and learn from this guy. this is justinguitar for brick wall enthusiasts.

[@TlustaPlaneta]

Great video Keyan! It would be super great if you would make another one with more "recent" low tunning. Like double drop D# for example. :)

[@enduro_six8419]

you are my lifesaver keyan! thank you so much!!!

[@maddyleaf]

Hi Keyan, Love your vids, watched you for a couple of years now! I have a video idea/suggestion: Buy a cheap entry level guitar, test it in a mix with no changes and then upgrade it with new pickups, strings, nut (whatever you can to make it sound better) and then test it in a mix, and then test one of your premium guitars in a mix. I think a lot of people don't understand how much of the sound of a guitar is just a really good tone/mix and what a couple simple upgrades could do. In my opinion, a cheap guitar with sensible upgrades can sound just as good as a premium guitar and I'd love to see you test it out! Could be an S by Solar 7 string, the Jackson JS22-7, the Ibanez Gio GRG7221QA (Loved your video with this guitar), or whatever you want, could even by a 6 string. Just an idea, if it sounds dumb or you think your Gio video already covered this extensively enough, then that's fair. But would love to see it explored a bit more. Cheers!

[@djabthrash]

Tweaking cab/mics before tweaking the amp post-gain tonestack is a good tip.

[@seb5689]

he is right, purple does in fact sound the best!

[@dustinhopkins6470]

Timing of this vid is perfect for me. Happen to be dialing in a digital soldano also

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Nice! Glad to hear it dude

[@ahendowski]

I do have a question, especially with the slightly scooped mids - the tone sounds GREAT by itself - how does it sound in a full metal band mix?

[@VincentVegardSvart]

Do you deal with the input level? What kind of interface do you use?

[@ulfb5467]

Do you have any idea how hard you want to hit your Neural Amp sim in dB? From what I could see, it's pretty hard. How much signal are you after the amp sim? Thank you.

[@CrissLiew]

We have a very similar approach in dialing tone

[@abiishk]

My amp doesn't have a purple skin. What do I do now?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Sell all your guitars and give up

[@abiishk]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive :(

[@seba8194]

Hi Keyan, i have the same Juggernaut evertune 7 guitar that you have showed in other videos, I want to set it up on Drop E, i don't know if buying a 74-13 string gauge or a 80-11 strings for Drop E. Any advice? I know 74 is a little bit thinner but i dont' know if the 80 gauge is going to affect my tone. I hope you can help me. (Sorry for my bad english, greetings from Chile!)

[@buraksevilmis5059]

broo i'm speechless... in this video is amazing. that's also show us, how can we save more time . SUB

[@Fiveash-Art]

Soldano looks different from mine.. The EQ is different and those two extra options on the main amp interface, 'transpose' and 'doubler'. What's up with that? Have they updated or something? Amazing guitar playing. Wish I knew how to do all that stuff. 👍🏻

[@Fiveash-Art]

@@jimmymht01 hmm, .. Don't know if I'd have much use for either of those.. But I like the low and high shelf on the eq.. Looks like maybe some new presets too. I'm gonna grab it. 👍🏻

[@karolscovers1651]

You know the tone is gonna be fire when that amp skin changes

[@bobwalters9151]

Hey keyan, what thumbuckers do you prefer in your guitars for the type of music you play? Thx..

[@NoJobRob]

bareknuckle juggernauts

[@chupiconverge6034]

Great video. Good Job

[@bryanrios146]

I wonder if the slo pedal can pull this tone

[@alexz3207]

Nice dialing. What tuning are you in?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Drop C#

[@Hans-Technology]

Is this on standard tuning?

[@DanFrancisco76]

back years ago I used to use physical amps and pedals ect. Never had a problem recording with active pick ups until trying to use an amp plug in. Can't get it to not clip. I've tried everything I can think of to get it not to clip. I use a Focusrite 3rd gen 2 channel interface. Maybe I need an interface with a better pre amp. Any ideas?

[@silphv]

Maybe put a DI box between your guitar and the interface to control the level if your pickups are too hot. You shouldn't need a new interface

[@Mixa_742]

What should I do if I can't change the amp's color to purple ?

[@silphv]

Just quit

[@djabthrash]

paint your screen purple

[@1904vinny]

Hey guys, i just got the Fortin Nameless Suite and tried to use Keyans Preset „The Tone“ for some Recording. Turns out i somehow have problems with the noisegate setting he is using.. it seems like its gripping so fast, that playing single-note lead riffs is not possible without losing a big piece of the sound. Can somebody explain to me, what the reason for this could be? I am using the scarlet 2i2 dialed in just so, that the input does not turn green. My guitar is an EC 1000 with emg 81 pickups. Thanks alot! Keep riffin🤘🏼

[@silphv]

It could be technique or your guitar setup or both. Something's eating into your sustain more quickly than it does Keyan's basically. If you know your fretting technique isn't the issue you might have some fret buzz for example that you're losing energy to. Ideally fix that (if you've never carefully checked the evenness of fret heights on your neck before you might be surprised-you can lose a lot of sustain from a mild fret buzz that you can barely even hear-but it could also be the nut slot depth or neck relief if it's not set up properly). But a workaround in the meantime can be opening up the gate a bit more, or using a compressor pedal in front of the amp to get more sustain at the expense of some dynamics.

[@kenxinhxc1635]

What analog do i need to get this tone

[@seb5689]

ya know when this man says things like "that airy top end" I then listen closely and go "ooh that IS an airy top end" I then quickly remember I have no clue what I'm talking about 😂

[@slates1969]

Great video. Gonna try this approach with my recently updated Gojira and Soldano X models. One thing I'm not sure you mentioned in the Eq section was that you've applied low and hi pass filters. Unless I missed it

[@issy_dev]

He did mention it at the beginning of the EQ section, although it was only brief

[@renatoconsollaro3134]

Peace!

[@carazy123_]

Sick

[@chepss]

Next, do it with beginner electric guitar

[@user-gv9uf9nq5v]

HANDS DOWN. THE BEST TUTORIAL.

[@noobvisual1588]

sounds like Pulse rhythm tone

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Good ears, I used the Soldano for that song!

[@ibanezrg320fm]

Not me listening on my phone 😂

[@davidjoel111]

me 5 seconds in....... "you can change the WHAT?!"

[@poot_by_the_foot1341]

Use “The Tone” in the Fortnite amp

[@joederbyshire_]

bro said fortnite amp

[@amirjester4384]

@@joederbyshire_ 🤣🤣

[@MysticArchmage]

Hate to be a downer, but this is a deeply flawed approach. You should have drums and bass recorded already, and use them as a reference to where the guitar sound should sit. Listening to and playing the guitar isolated, on it's own -- there is a 100% chance it will not sit in a mix well. Especially with those scooped mids. Sure it sounds great on it's own, but the guitar will lose all definition once you have bass and drums in the mix. You would therfor need to redo the process from scratch.

[@dorian9593]

#tuning in vid?

[@OthiOthi]

Drop C#

[@Durkhead]

You should lowpass and high pass in the ir section

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

3:42

[@Durkhead]

​@@KeyanHoushmandLivemy amp sim has a high and low pass built in to the ir section, i guess this one doesnt. I also low pass way higher like at 100 to 120hz

[@Osoch]

Hi pass, sure Low pass? Not always

[@djabthrash]

" You should lowpass and high pass in the ir section " Why not right before the IR ?

[@Durkhead]

@@djabthrash you can, the amp sim i use has 2 dials a low pass and a high pass so its really easy to set. I guess not many amp sims have that. Some ppl do it to the di, whatever floats your boat

[@adownbeatexegete1549]

This doesn't carry over to the Fortin Nameless Suite X at all.

[@oddoutdoors]

I just use a high quality krank tube amp. It's better. Much better.

[@Dylantime]

Why Keyan reversed

[@djabthrash]

What about CONTEXT ? This is almost the most important part and you didn't mention it :) This "perfect" metal tone will only fit 1 mix.

[@soawesomesonic]

its funny, when just a random youtube guy hear the difference bellow 0,5dB when eq

[@silphv]

It's experience. A lot the best tweaks that add up to a good sound are to find just where you really notice a change and then dial it back a little bit. Our ears are dumb sometimes and tend to lead us to go overboard.

[@djabthrash]

several 0.5dB tweaks in a GEQ make a big difference actually...

[@mikey-dubs]

Too many knobs! Jeeez

[@qpphil5150]

scoop the mids, ALL THE GAIN. takes you 2 seconds. you're welcome

[@Durkhead]

Sounds like landmvrks

[@Blacklight_Music]

I believe they used this plugin for “Lost In A Wave,” so you’re pretty on point with that.

[@nofilternoise]

You need a fender on (or) a single coil to have that sound

[@djabthrash]

Landmvrks have a way more metallic / single coil / thinner sound tho'.

[@TommyGunzzz]

Just pick presets only, problem solved

[@weirdoku]

You okay bro? You look a bit tired 😂

[@direfulsilver3286]

dude that sounds like shit

[@mrfakovmrfako5245]

0:45 you zero in guitar playing, you can't mute without noises😁👎👎

[@oddoutdoors]

Fake tone. It's a computer program. Get a real amp

[@mrfakovmrfako5245]

0:45 you zero in guitar playing, you can't finish sound without finger noises 👎👎

[@Duhovkaa]

Plugins are shit

[@tankdarla637]

i cant stand cab sims ,amp sims , plugins any of that computer crap it doesn't matter, its fake, for recording its killer i am sure and it sounds great, but it doesnt really transfer to real gear well. if i just recorded i would get rid of all my gear except my guitars but really would only need one because you can make any decent guitar sound like anything you want with all that computer stuff i will see a killer pedal or amp and go look for reviews and most of the reviews are with computer and IRs or whatever, why even buy the amp or pedal because you can just use the computer crap for everything, and reviews plugging into computer are ridiculous

[@talaynt2656]

Okay

[@Texasisthereasonn]

Old man finds out about plugins and modelers what's new

[@Fiveash-Art]

@@Texasisthereasonn 😂"Computer crap"

[@djabthrash]

"i will see a killer pedal or amp and go look for reviews and most of the reviews are with computer and IRs" because doing the old school way (using a real cab played loud) is impractical and inconsistent and inflexible, and the majority of people play ITB nowadays in a way. The only way to know how it sounds like in person on a cab is to be there in the room yourself.

[@trevorD1156]

The arrogance of this guy in this video makes him impossible to watch .🤮🤮🤮

[@DrDeusExMachina]

You’re high

[@nikolavuksan2029]

That's good tone! Coming from a die hard tube guy.

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Thanks for watching!