Tight Modern Metal Tone or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Low Cut

Headphones recommended! Preset link below!
Ever wonder why seemingly ever metal player puts a Tube Screamer in front of their amp? And what’s up with the Precision Drive’s Attack Knob? Let’s talk tightness and discuss one of the most important tone tools in your arsenal - the humble Low Cut.
Since people kept asking for the preset, here you go: line6.com/cust...

[@CaliLuke]

It's refreshing to hear someone that's not an idiot explain how to manipulate guitar tones.

[@MrFrenchyge]

Wow! As an engineer first and wannabe musician second, I can really relate to the precise way this video convey *how* the sound is affected and constructed in contrast to a lot of other videos out there which subjectively compare a lot of very similarly sounding tones. Very useful and appreciated!

[@thebishopgame]

Thanks! It can definitely be hard to make the most of modelers (and really any guitar/audio gear) without some audio engineering background. I figured there are plenty of videos showing what things sound like but not many going into how/why they sound like that.

[@AndrewBonicaRR]

@@thebishopgame ^this.

[@MaxFreist]

@@thebishopgame this x1000 :)

[@noeltage]

Thanks for info man. I never knew what Attack nob does. But i noticed that adding more Attack affects low end. Also that open 7 string sounds good.

[@AndrewBonicaRR]

The perfect amount of knowledge, insight, practical application, demo, and humor. Pretty soon you’ll be able to quit your job and become a full time contencts creafluencer. Keep ‘em coming!! 🤘😜👍

[@SteveSterlacci]

Igor speaks, i listens

[@aaronshortmusic]

Amazing. More more! :-)

[@MaxRodFTW]

Now I need to figure out how to do that with my kemper .. Thanks for the great vid

[@sjsphotog]

great stuff. yeah the Klon opened up for sure with that trick. keep the Helix content coming. Thnx

[@dasenase]

Finally someone didn't paywall their good preset

[@madmikemike]

This was great info and to the point. Stuff I knew already but to see and hear it laid out in a vid was awesome. I’ve thought the same about the centaur but never thought to stack drives. I just got a stomp and can’t wait to try this. Cheers bro

[@erotonelli]

great job, bro

[@iainpople8986]

so that's how you use a tube screamer! Apart from all the other great stuff in this video, I am stoked to finally understand what all the fuss is about.

[@kennethhughmusic]

Wish I found this video earlier. I just tried using this effect in front of a tube amp (5150iii) on some extended range guitars. It was exactly what I was looking for. Took the take with the Horizon Drive and blended it with a take just straight into the amp and got a beautiful rich, tight sound. Thanks for this!

[@Bushprowler]

Funny thing is, my old Pearce G2r/G2x does most of this and more and it's from the early 90's (and the amp's first iteration goes as far back as 1979 with Moog's Lab Series designs).. there's a high roll-off switch, there's a low cut, active EQ, parametric mids located before the distortion, a variety of gain boosts.. this thing did "djent" long before this even was a thing (I would still love Line 6 adding this beast to their Helix like they did with Billy Sheehan's BC1.. really hoped for it, tbh) and when Mike Fortin rips off a German amp builder's circuits who's done his version of preDist high/low cut filters in 1994/1996 and relabels them as Grind&Girth (and sells them to Randall for manufacturing overseas) he's all of the sudden the modern metal amp guru with all these influencer assclowns promoting him. Btw. I found your channel by accident a few days ago and I quite like it how you bust some of this bs.

[@justintteotd]

Ok Igor, we need more Helix vids! I’m sure you are busy enough but these are too good.

[@thebishopgame]

Lol, I have a couple I wanna do, I just need to find the time.

[@jefflogan334]

These videos are great inside looks into the details. Keep them coming!

[@gauravlama2079]

Fantastic bro, wana see more, Please do a tone match setting like John petrucci lead and rythem tone, These are the tones that I have not seen very often with the Helix

[@brianbaugusmusic]

Great video!

[@mtempz3165]

This was awesome

[@R3dbudd]

I’ve always like a “Klon always on” in my Helix signal chain. Keeps cleans from being weak and sterile. But with the Horizon Drive and a fuzz and kinky boost between amp and cab it’s too many blocks wasted on gain. Gonna try scrapping the Horizon and just running a low cut plus a Klon.

[@carlossalazar4508]

The Klon is the secret weapon!!

[@micahwatz1148]

I cant stand low end cuts. The regular ts9 just sucks all the life out of the tone in my opinion. I use the ts9 turbo.

[@AdrasteaOne]

Really helpful video! I just recently got an HX Stomp, so this will help me construct a nice modern metal tone. Thanks!

[@zamfirandrei]

Hey dude, this is a great video. Any tips for tight (VERY) down tuned bass tones? Cheers from Romania!

[@thebishopgame]

“Very downtuned” means your strings are gonna be pretty loose unless you really up your gauge, so you’ll have to make sure your technique is really clean and you aren’t picking too hard. Past that, I tend to try not overthinking bass tone - B7K or Sansamp into the SVT Bright, compressor after (LA Studio comp is my first choice but maybe the multi and if I really need to dial in). If you’re finding you need more emphasis on the subs/lows, you can try the Split ‘n Grit approach where you process the lows and highs separately. Check out the Gear Gods video on bass tone using Helix for a good rundown of that.

[@ryanleemartin7758]

as a guitarist fully making the plunge into the digital realm, I salute you!

[@shredwig]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you for making it! Also, any reason not to use the Horizon Drive (for both low cut and gate functions) > Minotaur to save a block vs. Horizon Gate > Lo Cut > Minotaur?

[@EliasJackson]

As someone who barely plays any guitar but uses a lot of VST guitars in my music production, this was super helpful! A lot of tone videos use jargon that I don’t understand, or present before and after demos that are so subtle that I can’t hear the difference. This was really well explained and helpful. You’ve earned yourself a sub 😁

[@raphaelguitarx5931]

What about the Valve Driver? because on this I have had to raise the drive in order to sound, I love it but for the sake of the sound i want I only use it on solos, can you please test it?

[@6oundStudio]

you're awesome

[@morgan_holmstrom]

I wish we knew what IR was used

[@Berserker26]

Gee that minotaur sound with the nano was epic. I'll have to start giving that a go instead of the 808.

[@SlyHikari03]

Clever title.

[@olavieikla2386]

Great insight! Always nice to hear people who know what they're talking about, instead of just hype around some pedal or gear. Care to share more about your badonk tone and ir used?

[@thebishopgame]

The preset's on CustomTone, link's in the descriptions but here you go for convenience: line6.com/customtone/tone/5304895/. I don't remember the exact IR, I think it was an OwnHammer one from HHC2 - either GAIA FWD or THOR FWD.

[@hewedcorpse]

Shit, man...Your explanation just give me a whole new perspective towards the klon centaur. Thanks, man.

[@beatrizgarcia2812]

Man you should do this full time. Love your vids.

[@hakametal]

Awesome video man. I was playing around with ultra low tunings (drop f# to drop e with my 7 string) and I noticed that the low end in these tunings is just absurd to deal with properly. Ran EQ passes with the precision drive and it's still not enough to stop the muddiness coming through. Is there something I should be looking at?

[@thebishopgame]

That’s REALLY low for a seven string. Did you up your string gauge? Because you might just be running into the limits of the instrument.

[@thebishopgame]

Yeah, that’s pretty short scale for that. You’re in an 8 string tuning, and that low string wants closer to 28”. This is where multi-scale really shines. Anyway, not sure what kind of “mud” you’re hitting but if cranking up the PD Attack to max does get rid of it, then it’s not an issue with low end on your input but something else in the tone. Too much gain is a frequent issue - you generally need way less than you think you do, particularly when double tracking, so that’s something to check.

[@GeoNikBand]

Just wow! that's the first video I watched from your channel and immediately subbed! It would be great if you could upload the preset to customtone too. Killer tone! keep it up \m/

[@thebishopgame]

Enjoy: line6.com/customtone/tone/5304895/

[@PaulDatta]

Excellent video. Subbed right away. I’ve been tweaking my patches using the parametric eq and frequency cuts on cabs and have ended up having to make presets for headphones, amp in bedroom, amp for jam/live. Any tips on how to setup consistent or universal patches or is there no such thing?

[@thebishopgame]

Thank you! So, in essence, no, not really. Drastic level differences like headphones vs live mean that our ears will perceive the tones differently. You can google “Fletcher Munson Curve” if you wanna read up on it. You can try to account for this effect with EQ when dialing stuff in but you’ll have to bypass that when you switch contexts. You also have to account for the fact that different playback systems just sound different. My tones sound different in headphones vs monitors, but I expect that because I know how both my headphones and monitors sounds. Definitely not a simple thing to deal with!

[@silencemakesnoise]

I got it.. And the point this what is attack ? To preventing your low-end and i love this point. Bigthanks dude

[@gristlemcthornbody9936]

wow. Exactly the answers I'm looking for, in 6 minutes and not a second of that wasted. Well. Done.

[@AlecBourneMidiMadScientist]

Likeyed and Subscrikeyed. This was decent man. Super decent. Been on an EQ hook of late and perusing drives post 3.0. What a world. Keep these up Igor! Really nice content.

[@SanguineThor]

Found this video by searching "how to actually get a good metal tone". Accurate result.

[@DavidMacVicar]

Thanks for all your Helix help thebishopgame! (here, reddit, etc) you rock!

[@xplanet2112]

Very well explained, I sort of knew this stuff from back yonder from the Sneap Forum but this is the clearest explanation yet with a wonderful demonstration wit that low cut block. This video should have the most views for tone chasing! Thanks man!

[@tobilson]

Very interesting and to the point. Good comparisons. Thank you:)

[@chrisvento78]

Hell yea, Prost ! It Helped out a lot especially using a 7 string.

[@db1machine]

LEGIT the best explanation I’ve ever seen.

[@obzen6803]

this man really did his homework

[@d77sauce]

Def want to learn more about how the different drives affect the amp

[@ibanezrg320fm]

Definitely subbed. I think this is what I've been missing. You kinda lost me a little bit with how fast you talk but I'll have to watch it again. And again. And a few more times. But this was insightful, thanks

[@thebishopgame]

Heh, sorry, I talk fast but I update slow. I'm hoping to make some more stuff in the coming months but I've been super busy with a million different, so don't be too disappointed if it takes me a while.

[@MrTwister45674567]

Great straight forward video , Thanks for tips

[@lightninginmyhands4878]

Hello and thanks! Sorry to say that I have a Stomp here and would love to check your preset ... any chance you have something extremely super similar for Stomp?

[@thebishopgame]

Ah, yeah, I had something on the second path that wasn't even being used and that would probably keep it from importing on stomp. Here you go, this should work: www.dropbox.com/s/8922kxngfimm38r/LoCutTestStomp.hlx?dl=0

[@huseyintuter]

Great explanation many thanks

[@martinlaferriere1040]

What ir were you using ?

[@divisionoflabor3070]

Hey just curious! What kind of programming languages/ education do you need to be a firmware programmer? Never met one before!

[@thebishopgame]

You need to have some sort of background in computer systems and ideally electrical engineering. I have a Computer Science degree. Most embedded system work has historically been done in C with C++ getting more adoption recently as it’s become better suited to it. There’s been some promising effort to get Rust usable but it’s still a young language and needs more support before it’ll get wide adoption. Really though, the answer is “whatever your hardware can run”. Embedded Python exists, for example, though I expect it isn’t very performant compared to the others I mentioned.

[@divisionoflabor3070]

@@thebishopgame Dude! Thanks for the competent and informative answer. I was just jamming on my hx stomp and appreciate your work. Have not heard of rust but was really getting into C++ for a good time there. I think I'll pick it back up. Subscribed and liked! Hey, I hope Line 6 gets on the AI route, that's going to be nuts.

[@tonyatkinson4496]

Great video. I learned a lot.

[@mhv91]

3:48 you cracked me lol

[@Zordid0]

I love my nano attack

[@billwarner213]

So at level 6, for example, what IS the low cut on the Horizon Drive - 80Hz? 120Hz? And this is a GREAT video, btw!

[@thebishopgame]

I don't remember off the top of my head, but at Attack 6, it's WAY higher than 80. Probably more like 300. On Metallurgy, we ended up defaulting the low cut to 200Hz on the Modern and Thrash plugins. Trust me, try cranking it, you won't miss it.

[@billwarner213]

@@thebishopgame Hey, thank you so much for your reply - I really appreciate it!

[@SatellitesInTheCity]

Excellent video!

[@DanielVanvors]

Did you change the pick ups on your guitar? Looking at getting a jp157 but have heard nothing but horrible things about the pick ups

[@thebishopgame]

No, I didn’t, but I want to. The thing plays great, and even with the stock pups you can get good tones out of it, but I do think they’re a weak point. Not sure if it’s the quality of the pups themselves or them just being poorly matched to the rest of the guitar, but after playing it for a while, you just start getting the sense that it could sound better than it does.

[@DanielVanvors]

@@thebishopgame appreciate the insight brotha 🤙🏼

[@adam2178]

You may as well buy a solid state amp if you're going to chuck a distortion pedal in front of a tube amp.

[@9hk38f]

Ill buy you taco bell, if you go pedal shopping with me! What do you think about the Revv G4?

[@thebishopgame]

Lol, soon as I get the vaccine, I’m down. The Revv stuff is great! The G4 is similar to the Generator’s Red channel, so expect big, beefy, gain-y sound. If you like the sound of that amp, go for it! I’m more of a purple channel guy myself, so I’d probably grab the G3.

[@9hk38f]

@@thebishopgame I LOVE guitar toys! But have absolutely no knowledge of the electronics behind everything. So watching your videos is cool. I just mess with knobs till I get a good sound. I've been using that new small metal muff that just came out, with the noise gate. I love it. And just placed an order for the G4. Cant wait to check it out. Keep making videos for us clueless guitar players!

[@EricBenjamin518]

The content is so solid and communicated in an informative easy to understand way. Add in some Click Bait titles, a regular content schedule and a lucky r/guitar post and now you're viral. There, a long shot business plan. I'll take my 5% cut.

[@thebishopgame]

I got burnt out just reading this comment.

[@EricBenjamin518]

​@@thebishopgame okay, I'll help. Here's some video titles that you could probably use (regardless of content): - Top 5 reasons your metal tone SUCKS - YOU'RE LISTENING TO YOUR MIX WRONG [Minecraft] - Your Ears Are Lying About Your Guitar Tone - Bernie Sanders' DNC speech (METAL VERSION!) - Best free guitar VSTs Feb 2021

[@thebishopgame]

@@EricBenjamin518 I should probably just turn this channel over to you.

[@kane6529]

I likey I subscribey , HX Stomp presets please 🙏

[@thebishopgame]

Thanks! I’ve got all the presets I’ve made available publicly up on CustomTone - line6.com/customtone/profile/thebishopgame/. I think most of them are Stomp friendly, the last few (Polyphia, Intervals, Iridecent) definitely are. Any others I make will go up there as well.

[@Jetisertes]

MOOORE! :D

[@sakuban]

Gimme moooore :v

[@elysium3674]

I don't have the horizon device on my pod go even though i have the latest firmware. I always thought pod go and helix would get the same models

[@thebishopgame]

No, they had the same models when POD Go launched, but POD Go doesn’t (and can’t) get the same updates that Helix/HX do. The stuff that can transfer will in future POD Go updates.

[@georgealcoba3514]

I have the Horizon on my POD GO :)

[@joshreynolds8732]

This was great!!!

[@arnoldphillips8716]

Loved the tone on this! Mind sharing the amp settings and the rest?

[@thebishopgame]

Ask and ye shall receive: line6.com/customtone/tone/5304895/

[@Caynug]

oh shit its Ondrej on the first FB Post from Lithium Dawn!!!

[@thebishopgame]

Ha, yeah! I was in the live incarnation of LD when he was out in LA, I’m in (and mixed!) the Live in Studio vids.

[@Caynug]

@@thebishopgame haha yeah I just noticed. I edited the live vid to "status" btw!

[@thebishopgame]

@@Caynug oh hell yeah, great job!

[@ivancarrano4688]

Any recommendations on what frequency range to set the low cut to?

[@thebishopgame]

Really depends on how much low end your guitar has and where the cut is - I’ve recently been using a cut right before the amp and going as high as 200Hz with a 12dB/octave slope.

[@ivancarrano4688]

Thank you! I’m doing Drop E on a 30 inch with single coils. Ever since, I’ve only been using the Minotaur now. It has an infectious tone.

[@KaldDodeGitarist]

Are you not monetized? I opened this video twice and got no ads. And I don't use adblocker

[@thebishopgame]

Yeah, I have enough subscribers but don’t have enough time watched per month to monetize. Even then, I wouldn’t get enough views for it to be significant money so I’d prefer to keep it not monetized until it would actually matter because ads suck.

[@KaldDodeGitarist]

@@thebishopgame i don't mind watching ads, personally, because I can't afford to contribute to channels I enjoy in any other way.

[@thebishopgame]

You’re a good person =]

[@KaldDodeGitarist]

@@thebishopgame thanks! I know the struggle. So it's the least I can do to ensure I keep getting content from creators I enjoy

[@KmeierGaming]

Im really trying to get the "THWONG" sound out of my seventh string on my guitar. What would put emphasis on that. I guess a good comparison would be like the doom soundtrack guitar tone.

[@thebishopgame]

Hmm, we’ll the DOOM ST is weird because the guitars aren’t just going through an amp, they’re also convolved with the chainsaw sound from the original DOOM - it’s a pretty unique tone. That said, I think a lot of that is actually just the guitar itself - both the extended range (9 string) and the pickups. You could try playing with EQing your DI signal (I can’t make recommendations because I don’t know your starting point) and doing some pitch shifting (Poly Capo is good for this).

[@KmeierGaming]

@@thebishopgame Thanks for the suggestions ill have to experiment around and try these out

[@MichaelDespairs]

Lots of talk mediocre tone

[@bdawg6]

Thank you so much! This is so helpful!!

[@funnyassguitarguy69]

Damnit! You made me subscribe to your Channel 🤣