Bands that record with scooped mids

[minh80]

The Justice album sounded cleaner than the Masters of Puppets album..but I just can't help that the Justice album sounded too dry and thin. The black album in my opinion sounded great, because they brought the low end back. I wonder what's James amp settings were for the black album. I think it was still scooped, and they were probably using different amps.

[Rupe]

Scooped mids sounds okay when you're playing by yourself, but when you mix it together with a band, it sucks.

EXACTLY!!! I preached that for years to my "metal" guitar students but very few of them got it. I would go see some of their gigs as they progressed as players only to hear them disregard everything that I ever taught them about tone. Mids are where the money is!

[Dreamland_Rebel]

i like to turn the mid knob all the way up. i hate that scooped sound.

you can still achieve the "chunk" that scooping the mids instantly produces whithout scooping the mids at all. you just have to tweak the amp out right.

[SouthPlatteDemon]

Cool discussion! I'll have to give this a try when I'm playing along to CD's. My own sound always seems to get lost unless I'm way louder. I bet the scooping has something to do with that.

Can the pickups inherently have some scooping too? Specifically regarding the SD's in KV2's and the EMG HZ pickups.

[Soap]

For the sake of clarification and avoiding misunderstanding,
perhaps a definition of " scooped mids" would be in order.
Most likely, there are going to be someone checking this thread out,
and this will be for them the first time he or she have heard the
term scooped mids.

"Scooped" mids - as the word scoop implies, scooping OUT or removing a big chunk of the mids. What you have left is the bass (low end) and the high (treble). Correct me if I'm wrong.

Personally, I prefer having some mids its more pleasant on the ears.
Having the mids scooped its alittle thin sounding to me and can get muddied down in the mix and live as well.

[emperor_black]

Can the pickups inherently have some scooping too? Specifically regarding the SD's in KV2's and the EMG HZ pickups.

Its said that Active EMG's have a "scooped" tone. Hence, very suitable for playing Metal. The Seymour duncan JB model is supposedly high in mids and highs, but lacks low-end. So, its actually quite the opposite of the active emg's. And the EMG HZ's (dont know which type you have) is supposed to be the passive version of the actives and hence should share the same tone as the actives.

[Rupe]

Pickups are certainly voiced differently and add/subtract from the mids, but not so much that the amp can't make up for it. I try to get a very "even" sound out of my guitars, so I will choose a pickup that compliments the guitar's natural tone, whether it be focusing on more highs/lows or mids. Typically lighter weight guitars will be more mid focused and heavier guitars will tend to have more high and low end (although there are exceptions to this). I shape my overall tone at the amp.

[TheAmazingBlob]

Iced Earth's "Burnt Offerings" comes to mind. One of the few albums I've heard that has decent scooped guitar tone.

As toejam said, scooping mids doesn't sound too bad when you're playing by yourself (it sounds more br00tallzzz ) but if you scoop your mids when you're playing with a band you'll be utterly buried. Bass is eaten up by the bass guitar and bass drum, and highs are covered by the cymbals; mids are necessary if you want anyone to be able to hear you. I know I like to use a lot of mids in my tone, it makes it much more full and takes away some of the fizz in the high end.

[butrus]

scoop

Scooped mids heaven
Masacre

[jairic]

There needs to be a better alternative than either scooped or not. I know some guys that will use an EQ pedal in the mix and scoop the mids during some rhythm stuff and then put the mids back in for solo's or a part that the guitar is more prevalent. I just add some mids in, but usually not more than turning it past 5 or so.

[emperor_black]

What about testament? Do they record with scooped mids? I was listening to the ritual album and started wondering. the guitar parts are playing somewhere in the background and you can hardly hear them.

Now, I think exodus is one band that record with high mids. The tempo of the damned album in specific.