Hello all, Caligula Nero Machiavelli here with a general question about buying a distortion pedal for my new guitar.

My question pretty much entails about what distortion pedal I should buy for an old school black metal sound (Think "Freezing Moon" by Mayhem or "Jesus' Tod" and "Dunkelheit" by Burzum. I already know of the Dragonfly Effector BM-1 and the agonizing (for me) limited edition status of it. I can't find it anywhere on eBay either.

After a couple searches all I could really find was the Line 6 Uber Metal, since it sounded the closest to what I think is a good sound. (I saw demos of the Digitech Death Metal and the DOD Death Metal, and found neither of the two's sound anything close to what I'm hoping to get with a pedal).

I know Black Metal is the genre of making do with less and some great albums are known for being made with almost nothing (Fenriz recorded an album with a tape deck recorder and Varg Vikernes recorded Filosofem with headphones for a mic and a stereo for an amp). Everything I have now though- including a 10-watt amp with built-in distortion- hasn't been able to achieve anything close to a good distortion or that grainy, lo-fi charm that Filosofem by Burzum and Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone, have.

Because of being placed in such a situation I'd like to know if any of my fellow metalheads have suggestions for a Black Medal pedal than the ones I already mentioned. (Audio samples of effects would also be appreciated)

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I guess tube screamer or boss metal zone or any other pedal will do fine if you used the righ amount of treble and mid . Even a VST amp will work pretty well . Overall I don't know much about pedals so I guess other guys can give you some more useful informations .

Here's a sample of the tube screamer (Euronymous used this pedal) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn1sIRzie8c

BTW do you want it for recording or just for playing ?

Getting the same sound as De Mysteriis/Euronymous era Mayhem is both pointless and impossible, there's a reason why that album sounds unique and thats because the Sound Engineer that created that amazing guitar tone likely has no idea how he actually did it, and that being the reason why there arent 1000000000 bands that sound IDENTICAL to Mayhem, it's why there's 1000000000 that sound Kind-of-but-not-quite-like Mayhem

I guess the real question is: what's the type of tone used in Norwegian black metal?
I would answer: British hi-gain with lots of mids and treble.
About the pedal, I've been searching for years now for a good-sounding distortion, and I haven't really found what I search. The problem of transistor pedals is their synthetic sound. Most people to whom I asked the question answered the same: best distortion is the distortion channel of a tube amp head.

So I turned myself toward amp modelisation pedals, and I cannot give you other advice than that.

HAVE YOU ACTUALLY READ MY POST OR YOU ARE JUST TRYING TO BE A SMART GOD-LIKE CRITIC ?
THAT'S WHAT I SAID

I guess tube screamer or boss metal zone or any other pedal will do fine if you used the righ amount of treble and mid . Even a VST amp will work pretty well


I DIDN'T ENCOURAGE HIM TO GET A TUBE SCREAMER BECAUSE EURONYMOUS HAD IT . IT WAS JUST A FUCKIN' SUGGESTION !

I think the Dragonfly BM-1 was simply an Artec Soloist Distortion with different graphics (it wasn't the Crazy Metal because the controls are different).

I got a pretty good black metal sound by sticking a Green Ringer octave up clone after a Rocktron Zombie (you could probably use some other distortion pedal). I think the key was also the crappy speakers I was using: I had Celestion Tube 10s, I upgraded to better speakers, now it sounds better for other types of metal, not as good for black. Too bad I didn't record anything, I may have to invest in a crappy speaker.

Personally I think some of the many octave up fuzzes available could also do the job. It probably wouldn't sound the same as other artists, but it could sound very original.

If all you want is THAT black metal sound, as other users have pointed out, you want a British-y voicing, loose bottom end, woody kinda sound(think Marshall instead of Mesa) with the gain and treble cranked. But pretty much any high-gain sound can be used for black metal, it's what you actually play that makes it BM or not.

Take pretty much any "__ Metal" dist. pedal, crank the gain all the way, crank up the treble and crank down the bass, and put a bunch of reverb on it and it should sound good. Also, recording with a shitty mic and open doors/windows in the studio helps get a good sound IMO.

Why's that?
You seem to confuse shitty 4-track demo sound with raw black metal tone...

Use a Marshall amp and its distortion. It doesn't need to be a JCM, it maybe a british Valvestate or anything below 100 w (I guess a 60w will work for studio). Try several amps and try to tweak them as much as possible to get the sound that you're looking for.

The guitar that you'll use will have an impact on the sound too. Use a guitar with humbuckers. If you want a more trebly sound but not so low fi, use a maple, alder or agathis body guitar. Not ebony or swamp ash. The tone will be too dark. I have a BC Rich Warlock which, combined with a marshall amp gives me the 'typical' mid 90's bm sound. I use an old Boss Xtorsion as a booster and it really works fine. About amp eq'ing, generally I use 3-4 in low, 7 in mid and 5-6 in high. To record I use a very low gain (3-4), since it's the way the mic will capture the tone more accurately.

Lastly, keep present that you CAN'T reply a sound from a certain record like that, for obvious reasons. What you hear in an album is the mix of several instruments that share and complement frequencies between each other, so you can't hear the 'pure' track recorded in this way. Also, take into account the whole mix/eq work pre mastering, then the work for mastering. You may try to record a excerpt of a song, having already bass, drums and another rhytmic guitar, then compare how much change the guitar tone in the mix.

I like the natural reverb sound that comes from doing that. It doesn't necessarily end up sounding like shitty 4 track demos, as long as you mix it decently.

What's a raw black metal tone?

Gorgoroth - Pentagram, for example

Nothing raw about it. It was thoroughly produced in a professional studio. Compared to say, the March to the Black Holocaust split, it sounds pretty polished and standard.

Yes, the sound is professional, but there are little/no effects on the instruments, thus the sound is pretty natural, compared to same-era Darkthrone or Mayhem for example. Take Gorgoroth's 1st demo, if you prefer.

"Raw" literally means "without effects, eq or filters".

This topic is about getting a raw black metal tone, because you cannot for sure get the guitar tone of a studio album in your rehearsal room, unless using a certain number of pedal effects or a software.

In fact no, the topic is about getting a good distortion pedal for black metal, and no one has been able to answer yet.

Fair enough for the definition, but you can bet that the Pentagram album has been mixed with EQs, comps, so on and so forth. A truly raw album is not supposed to sound professionally produced.


A good (non-raw) black metal album tone is a combination of an OD/dist pedal and/or amp distortion with EQ to taste, slight reverb, double tracking, and adequate mixing. You can't get all that with a distortion pedal alone, but having said that, Boss distortion pedals are a good starting point.
For raw stuff, anything goes really. Cheap shit amp & pedals, stereo, headset mic... Anything.

Most importantly, don't try too hard to sound like someone else. Find your own sound.

I don't like Boss pedals. Neither the Metal Zone, nor the Turbo Distortion. They're cheap and synthetic. I need a higher quality level. A pedal able to rivalize with a hi-gain head.

You mean complement?
Did you try free VST sims?

Well said, my friend. You will never be able to replicate Mayhem's or Burzum's sound. You may get close, but never exact. Black Metal is not about replicating exact sounds anyway. It is an art fueled by emotion and individualism moreso than your equipment. A buddy of mine once said, "Black Metal is 80% emotion, 20% instrument." You will find your sound, dude. Just tinker with your reverb and delay, crank your treble and gain, turn off the bass on your guitar amp, and add a touch of mid... and yeah, the sound engineer for Freezing Moon probably doesn't even know how he got that tone. Improv with the equipment is also very much in black Metal.

No, a pedal that could replace an amp head.




Yes, but since I don't have a proper soundcard, there's a time delay between the signal and the sound.

Record direct with no record monitoring, then add VST sims.
Problem?

I don't know how to do it.

Is the DOD Corrosion the same as the DOD Death Metal? That's what I was going to try with the high pinned, the mids at 75% and the lows at 50%. (No, I'm not going for the purely "traditional" sound for my blackened death project). I was going to suggest it, but he already tried and rejected the DOD Death Metal, and I can't remember right now if they're the same pedal.

have you ever seen this? the BLACK METAL PEDAL. my guitarist has one and its awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0RglpzRdEY

but personally i would go with a good tube amp and stray from pedals. I know Merrimack uses randalls and they sounded great. If you're set on using pedals, the good thing is no matter what you use if you make it sound interesting it doesnt need to sound "good," so just mix and match a bunch of weird stuff. A buddy in a band Alda uses the distortion on a PA power amp that sounds terrible in any circumstance outside of that band.

I've got a metal zone I like to tinker with from time to time. I get tones i'm happy with. I am curious; has anyone here used a fuzz pedal (ex: big muff pi) for their black metal guitar tone?

can anybody tell me what kind of pedal moonsorrow used on verisakeet? I think that album has a great black metal guitar tone.