Subtlety Is Stupid

Subtlety is good if you a prowler. If you do anything too obvious, you'll get caught. However, if you are trying to impact someone, throw it out the window. I want my mixes to sound like someone just smashed you over the head with a metal trashcan. Achieving this is difficult when the end results is electronics flowing through an air pressure pump.

You will hear how people say “Only use EQ sparingly”. Only use X in moderation. Well, I try not to drink in moderation and I try not use EQ in moderation. Either I'm going to use as much as it takes to create the desired effect or I won't use any at all (which is hopefully the desired effect). It's easy to get sucked into this notion that you shouldn't crank you tone controls on your amp. Don't be sucked into that bullshit way of thinking. If the amp sounds better with the lows on 0 and the highs on 10, use them! Forget the numbers. The only reason we even have numbers is so we can recall settings later.

Let me tell you something. I never feel bad about using extreme settings on my amp. Why? Because I can't hear my amp. You can read about that later in this article. When I'm tracking I can only hear the exact sound that is being recorded. I'm only hearing what the microphone is telling me. Regardless of how the amp is set, if the amp sounds thin, I'm going to add some low end and maybe cut some highs. If the amp sounds fizzy, I'm going to knock the gain back. If I still need more gain, I'll crank up volume to get some power tube distortion.

How much volume should you use?

To be honest, the difference between recording on 2 and recording on 10 isn't monster mega huge. However, it's enough to make it worth doing (assuming you have a way to contain all that volume). If your guitar is so loud that the cops show up, it's not worth it. If the guitar is so loud that your guitar player can't hear the drums, it's DEFINITELY not worth it. I guess there is something “more full” about a tone that is cranked with power tube distortion. You'll need to be careful to keep your preamp gain down when dealing with cranked amplifiers simply because the tone can get muddy. I guess the real advantage to cranking an amp is that it offers a different kind of distortion than simply cranking up the gain knob. I find that on my Rivera Knucklehead, the amp doesn't get any louder after 5. It just gets more saturated in the power tube section. I have recorded on 10, but I really need to be careful with the preamp gain. Depending on what I'm recording, the gain may only be on 2 (or even less) with the volume on 10. The other day I was doing some 80s hard rock type of leads. I had the gain on 3 and the volume on 6.

Should The Cabinet Be Vibrating?

If you crank an amp, it will vibrate. A 100 Watt head will more than vibrate a 4x12 cabinet. I've actually had to tape the speaker cable into the jack of the cabinet because the air pressure inside the cabinet was blowing out the speaker cables over and over (and putting my tube amps at risk!). I don't always push my cabinets this hard, but I do frequently.

Honestly, I've been trying to blow my cabinet up for nearly a year. I don't think it's going to happen. I've been trying to blow up the ribbon in my Royer R121 as well, but that hasn't worked out well either.