# "Djent Tone" vs. Line 6



## LineSixer83 (Apr 6, 2011)

Hi guys!

I would like to start off by admitting my complete noob-hood by revealing myself to be a new user of Forums in general and this one in particular.

I really like the feedback which has been given on here whether healthy or not, I feel like I could gain some more knowledge by just asking a few questions.

As far as playing my instrument, I don't really need much help....from you...

I'm inquiring about tone. I understand that as musicians we all try to keep our little nuances and tweaks a secret but I'm wondering if I could just get a couple of pointers. 

Gear; 
Line 6 Flextone III XL, thru a 4X12 wired Series, 
2x (Celestion Custom Line 6s' running at 75w each[toys I.M.O]), 
2x (Patriot Common Wealth Eminences' [growling lows while playing the 8 string through it]), 
Schecter Elite 8 {2x EMG 808s}. 

I WAS modeling after a Soldano 100w head through a Mesa Boogie 2X12 (Cab modeling only) but now I'm lost with the 8 string. I tried to model the Mesa Boogie Trip-Rect but its too bassy, I even ran Bypass on the Cab modeling.

So I'm at this place where the speaker wiring sounds beautiful with a 6 string and whatever tones I model after but when that 8 string comes into play its neither djenty nor "good". I know how to "djent", but there IS a tone for that and I'm not even close. HELP ME GUYS!! PLEEAAASYYYSSS.

Equalizer? Noise Supressor?, Compressor?, Parametric EQ?,


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## Stealthdjentstic (Apr 6, 2011)

Compress to fuck. Tons of noisegates. Love your high mids.


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## ROAR (Apr 6, 2011)

1.) Sell everything.
2.) Buy Axe-Fx
3.) ???
4.) Profjit.


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## TomAwesome (Apr 6, 2011)

Less bass. More mids. EQ boost in the high mids. Boost before the amp model. Strum your guitar with a duck.


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## drmosh (Apr 6, 2011)

less gain. less is more


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## alvaro (Apr 6, 2011)

i believe djent relies a lot on player hands, i mean, i have listened people like bulb playing through a lot of different gear and he still gets that "hollow" hard pick tone. Of course yuu have to get some EQ and compression skills over your device chain, but i think is more important to became a hard picker on light gauges and to learn to get those staccato riffs (a good noise gate helps a lot with this)


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## jriveradavis (Apr 6, 2011)

When palm muting try moving your hand a bit closer to the neck. Playing around with where your palm is for muting affects your tone quite a bit.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 6, 2011)

LineSixer83 said:


> As far as playing my instrument, I don't really need much help....from you...
> 
> I'm inquiring about tone.


 
Part of what dictates tone is the manner in which you choose to play your instrument. Ignoring this will leave you with horrible tone regardless of what guitar you buy and what widgets, gadgets whose-its and whats-its you connect to it and how you choose to EQ them.


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## Aerospace274 (Apr 6, 2011)

Lol...Why...so awkward... about technique advice..?
Anyway, you're generally gonna get two answers about how-to-djent. 
1. Add Mids.
2. Change your picking or muting style.
If you ignore one the other will be pretty much negligible. That's just the nature of the beast. I'm not a pro on djent and am not really a fan of how people act like it's a genre but it's really not a hard technique. Start with your amp's tone controls all set at 12:00 and start by boosting the mids and cutting the bass. Tweak to your own personal taste. That's about as simple as I can make it.


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## Meatbucket (Apr 6, 2011)

TomAwesome said:


> Strum your guitar with a duck.


I'm going to live the rest of my life with this as my motto. Fucking epic.


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## LamaSabachthani (Apr 7, 2011)

Meatbucket said:


> I'm going to live the rest of my life with this as my motto. Fucking epic.



They put up a hell of a fight though


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 7, 2011)

OD pedal. I don't believe the Flextones have an OD feature so you may have to go buy a separate OD... Try an Ibanez TS808 or TS9... Maxon OD808 is amazing. Set it at 0%,50%, and 100%. You'll find with that tone knob at 100% it really cuts your bass, tightens/compresses your sound, and will really help to give you the tone you want.

You can also try a different amp model, unfortunately the tightest amp model on the Flex3 is probably the Line 6 Insane. Try giving that one a whirl but you'll have to make sure the gain is no higher than like half and you'll probably need to turn down the treble and presence quite a bit and keep the bass around 5ish and the mids around 5-6.


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## saovi (Apr 7, 2011)

Djent starts with the way you play guitar which needs to be aggressive with precise mutes from both the palm and fretting hand. Timing and accuracy are also key points. Sure EQ has a lot to do with it - bass rolled off and gains in the mids as well as a well adjusted noise gate, great cabinets and mikes, but until you get the playing part of it, no amount of money you throw at it will get you there IMO (although an Axe FX helps).


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## Meatbucket (Apr 7, 2011)

Rule #1: Listen to Meshuggah.
Rule #2: Don't talk abou--- Listen to Meshuggah.
Rule #3: Listen to Meshuggah.
Rule #4: High mids.


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## JeffFromMtl (Apr 7, 2011)

alvaro said:


> i believe djent relies a lot on player hands, i mean, i have listened people like bulb *playing through a lot of different gear and he still gets that "hollow" hard pick tone*. Of course yuu have to get some EQ and compression skills over your device chain, but i think is more important to became a hard picker on light gauges and to learn to get those staccato riffs (a good noise gate helps a lot with this)



I honestly believe that what accounts for that "hollow" sound (which I _love_) that many players are capable of getting relies quite heavily on string gauge. Picking hard with a relatively light gauge - I use light as a relative term, considering some of the maniacs on this forum use things like .090's  - tuned way down, will give it that "bouncy" kind of attack, which is why some people swear by long scales (27+") and light (.068 - .072) gauges


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## Aerospace274 (Apr 7, 2011)

> which is why some people swear by long scales (27+") and light (.068 - .072) gauges


Haha, I'm currently tuned to Contrabass D with a .074 on my 8th string. (Normally tune to F.) Yes it does djent!


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

Absolutely loving my mids and hi-mids, through the new EQ I bought. Beautiful sound sir.


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

See, my questions in general were in regards to the CURRENT equipment I own. It is very solid understanding of mine that I have some questionable gear. I do have a dream RIG in mind but for now the new EQ is brutally excellent.


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

Ok. First off, what kind of duck? We have geese here in the heartland of America and so... you know its kind of rough to plow my neck with a duck....ok.. nevermind.. LMAO.

No, seriously. I took YOUR advice first an EQ. It worked. Thank you.


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

The reason I posted "As far as playing my instrument, I don't really need much help....from you...", is certainly because I understand the concept of "djent". Whether as a genre or a sound, or an onomatopoeia. I get it. The specific type of picking you do can alter those sounds. And I agree with everyone else that "tone" in the proverbial sense of 
"sound shaping" is reliant on; the guitar, the gear, the guitarist, the strings, the ambience/matrix and further more the amount of expression an individual desires to place on playing the instrument. "Djent" is objective and therefor my questions was SPECIFICALLY directed towards the gear-aspect of things.

I also would like to point out that despite tone being governed by these parameters, "djent" specifically with an 8 string guitar requires a SPECIFIC tone. You can't achieve djent with a Fender 74', or a Gibson amp from the 70's if you think you can, I'm sry but Djent is beyond you. There is a elevated-mid range sound, with the perfect CHUNk that is necessary to achieve said "djent" vibes. I tried it through tons of amps. Until I got this EQ, my life was in misery for shaping. 

I thank you guys. Its been the most productive forum discussion for me so far!!


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

Completely agree. Of all "djent" sound bands, Meshuggah the great grand-daddy of it all is the basis for my tone. Currently with the EQ I can only say that its achieved that tone and more. Not to toot my own tweeter.


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

I purchased a DOD 30 BAN parametric EQ. Job doooooooooooooooooone.  Sounds ridiculously good right now. Line 6 Flextone III comes with a GATE and a Conmpressor. Both are complete pieces of turds, BUT along side some shaping they do the job, and WELL>


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## LineSixer83 (Apr 8, 2011)

EPIC


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## Cmak (Apr 10, 2011)

Holy fuck is there no edit function on this forum or did you really just multi-post that many times


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## Saber_777 (Apr 11, 2011)

I heard a pretty cool tone using Amplitube. The Ipod amp. haha. Try that? Run your speakers in parallel instead if series?


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## SenorDingDong (Apr 11, 2011)

When you think your MIDS are too high, boost them more. Oh and did I mention high MIDS?


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## Gnash (Apr 11, 2011)

Hey Sixer, are you running the EQ before the amp or in the fx loop?

Are you leaving it fairly flat and just boosting the mids?


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## Rick (Apr 11, 2011)

Why is this in ERG?


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## Randy (Apr 11, 2011)

Rick said:


> Why is this in ERG?



I was just thinking that.


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## Rick (Apr 11, 2011)

Randy said:


> I was just thinking that.



Hai. 

Tom's got the right idea, BTW.


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## Cmak (Apr 11, 2011)

Rick said:


> Why is this in ERG?



Probably because ERG is more djent-orijented


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## Cmak (Apr 11, 2011)

Edit: The Edit button just recently started appearing, maybe my post count wasn't high enough.

-Chris


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## anthonyfaso (Apr 12, 2011)

To hit on what most people said, getting that "djent" tone is mostly your picking and muting technique. Aggressive picking, boosting the mids and highs, and cutting back on the bass will help you get that tight, sharp tone.


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## Rob_Ec (Apr 13, 2011)

a 7 Baritone helped me achieve the full djent sound =] 
use a compressor and a noise gate set the noise gate really tight but to the point where it still has decent sustain.Tube screamer or other overdrive helps as well for that extra crunch when djenting lol 
u might wanna try a pod as well i love mine!


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## Rick (Apr 13, 2011)

Cmak said:


> forget the "a". And how is there no Edit function on this forum? I cannot be a part of a forum without an Edit button...
> 
> -Chris



You should be able to edit your own posts. 



anthonyfaso said:


> To hit on what most people said, getting that "djent" tone is mostly your picking and muting technique. Aggressive picking, boosting the mids and highs, and cutting back on the bass will help you get that tight, sharp tone.



Maybe this will end the "djent" debate forever.


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## Dead Undead (Apr 14, 2011)

I actually got one of the best djent tones I've ever heard from a combination of a Danelectro (Humbucker/single)
and a Line 6 Spider IV 75 on the Cowboys From Hell preset with the bass turned down and the mids cranked.

I don't know how. I'll probably never have that happen again, but it was awesome.


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## somniumaeternum (Apr 14, 2011)

Djent is not always the style I go for so you may get some better advice off the guys who live and breathe it but what really helps for me is:

1) High mids as has been said. But I mean more specifically get a EQ and start sweeping freqs around high mids and see what works for your setup, guitar, playing style, picking technique.. blah blah. If you have a parametric EQ, don't use a very large Q, you want the right boost in the right freqs - you don't want to high shelf the shit out of it

2) Roll off anything below a threshold. On my JP7, to get a really tight metal sound I roll off a lot of the bass below maybe 50-100 and gradually bring them back to 0 around 100-200 depending on the feel i'm after. You don't really hear those freqs but I feel them and it gives a different sound than the really tight almost evil cyborg demon from the future kind of sound (I'm thinking fear factory here lol)

3) Bring the picking hand closer to the neck. This seems to help my djent a lot. And by "closer to the neck" i mean really only 5-10 cm or so (but don't weight down the strings or you'll go sharp). Play around with the distance that works with your scale length, pickups, etc.

Some has been mentioned already but just wanted to put my spin on it.

Hope you figure it out man!


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## zilenbin (May 17, 2017)

Most of the times all is middles and gain (sorry my english im Chilean) . I have some tones that i can share you and you can work it with podfarm. 

not to play with them just to check all the levels and pre and posts.


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## angl2k (May 17, 2017)

zilenbin said:


> Most of the times all is middles and gain (sorry my english im Chilean) . I have some tones that i can share you and you can work it with podfarm.
> 
> not to play with them just to check all the levels and pre and posts.



You're posting on a 6 year old thread


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