Metal Guitarist Who love their Mids?

Hey everyone,

Being a guitarist who plays predominately metal I find it strange that I really dislike the scooped mids sounds infact my eq is like a reverse scoop.
I've realized not many metal bands opt against scooping their mids and I listen to a lot of metal, basically every sub genre.
(from doom to death to power metal and everything in between)

So does any one else here use a lot of mids while they play metal?

Cheers.

I don't use a 'scooped' sound much. I find it's the mid-range that helps me cut through the rest of the band. I don't quite EQ it like you by the sound off it, but I certainly don't use scooped mids.

I don't know that I'm very 'metal' though... :rolleyes:

If you are gonna scoop out the mids then you might as well be playing Bass on your Lead guitar.

I like the scooped sound, adds some bass to your tone when your just playing by yourself. But if your playing with a band, you need to crank that up IMO. Would all just mush together and thats why a lot of underground bands have ****ty sound.

Most bands go for the scooped mids approach but that's why there aren't a whole lot of unique tones out there. A much better approach is to let eh bass guitar fill in the low end and a touch of the mids, then work on everything above that with your guitar tone. There's no point tweaking a guitar tone that sounds cool by itself because it won't work with the rest of a band. A lot of heavy bands end up with a muddy sound because everyone is playing the same frequencies. Try thinning out the rhythm tone and beefing the bass guitar, then try adding some mids to the lead guitar.

I scoop the mid then add some until I get teh warmth and definition that really sets my tone apart. I don't always play metal but I find that on my amp, turning all the knobs to 10 (including the frequency contour), and setting the midrange to 5 or 6 provides a versatile sound that doesn't sound too honk-y that works for pretty much everything I play, leaving the gain level the only variable.

I don't scoop the mids, but we are a Hard Rock band, actually borderline metal....

Here's how my eq is set (Marshall JCM 800, Marshall 4x12 cab with greenbacks).

Presence: 2
Highs: 3
Mids: 5
Bass: 4
Gain: 8

I have this same opinion too, whenever I go to a jamming studio, I see 9 out of 10 gtrist suppress their mids .

I think becasue boosting the low and higs sound 'heavier' which is not always false. Iused to have such tone settings before and I could NEVER get the type of tone of my heros like Gary Moore, Ritchie Blackmoore, Jeff Beck....you know, the usual suspects ;)

Then by 'accident', I played on an amp with the mids turned up and the low& high down to about the 3 to 4 level. I find it a little hard to cut through the strings initially but after a while, I finally got the sound I wanted. I find the the mids has its unique 'bass' or bottom-end quality in an unique way. And it made my playing sounds cleaner than it actually is.

When I had a parametric EQ previously, I always "screw" with the settings like:

Lo: 2kHz / +2dB
Mid: 2.8kHz / +3dB
Hi: 1.6kHz / -2dB

Basically, just jumble up the frequency setting and forget about the lo/mid/hi classification.

As you can see, I am just a regular "guy-in-the-middle" :)

I wouldn't say your alone. I am into metal in a big way and I crank my mids too. It depends on what I'm playing though, I think that scooping mids can make your sound heavier, but with the mids you get a meaner tone.

I love metal but I also like a lot of prog stuff, and lately Mars Volta. So I would say my tone is kinda influenced by that. I like a real nasally sound, especially for leads. I don't play with a bassist much though so I do occasionally scoop em mids to get a lower sound.

Plus I play drop d and Eb standard so I have to fight to give my mids and low ends enough presence, so they generally and up pretty high.

I play with cranked mids, a little bass and about half on treble. I love the warm sound it produces while not becoming too squeaky, and my neck pickup is what I usually solo on :)

i turn my mid all the way up, bass halfway, and trble 3/4s of the way