"Modern" tone??

Bloodrock

Bloodrock

Well-known member
Why are we still describing amps that were introduced in 1991 as "modern"? We either need to update the term MODERN or realize guitar tone has stagnated for over 20 years.. has it reached the end of the road? I haven't heard much of anything outside the box in forever other than maybe jack white and Billy gibbons using tons of effects. I remember going to Mars music back in the 90's and plugging into a Roland guitar synth.. it blew my mind how many cool sounds I could get out of it. Wish I could have afforded it. I wonder why more guitarist don't use that kind of shit in today's world of technology? There are other things to do than just try to get the most or best distortion ever.. no wonder rock music is dead.. rant over.
 
I have the Boss SY-300 and SY-1000; they work and sound great, but not perfect.

However, with MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression ) / MIDI 2.0 keyboards, now keyboards can be more expressive beyond basic velocity and aftertouch, and provide a wider variety of synth sounds than available for guitar.

I have a Keith McMillen KBoard Pro 4 which is a MIDI MPE keyboard controller, and recently got the Expressive-E Osmose which is at another level for keyboard expressiveness.

When I want synth sounds, I just use my keyboard synths (hardware and software).
 
Want new guitar sounds, try some software plugins such as Neural DSPs Archetype Tim Henson, the harmonizer is different.

For modern effects and sounds, look into the Eventide H90 (or H9), some amazing sounds in both; I'm using a H9 for time effects with my Vox Continental, but it works equally well with guitar and other instruments. I'd get the H90 today, but got my H9 before the H90 was released.
 
Modern for me is last five years. Post Djent guitar. A lot less gain and blends into pop or country music. Guitar is actually back in the last two years. What direction is it taking ?
 
well, we are going on nearly 70 years of electric guitar as we know it, at some point id think you can only do so much while still sounding like a guitar.
 
rsm said:
Want new guitar sounds, try some software plugins such as Neural DSPs Archetype Tim Henson, the harmonizer is different.
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Polyphia definitely has their own thing going on tone wise, i have no idea how they get that cleanish jangle
 
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I still use a GK, often. In fact many wouldn't have a clue the sound that they're hearing was born of guitar strings. Another that's piezo based. I mix them often with my ERGs to play simultaneously. Even use sometimes with my violins to get some real crazy effects.
 
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When I think "modern" guitar tone I think more about production than I do amps. We're pushing technology that was created in the 50s. And we are pushing it far beyond what it was intended to do. Hell, a lot of modern bands don't even tour with conventional guitar amps.

As far as we are we still using amps designed in the early 90s (I'll assume you're talking about the 5150)....? Because it still sounds good.
 
When I think modern I think of techniques or style, not sounds. One of the last big shifts in metal for me was Mastadon popularizing, disonant arpeggiated voicings, in metal rhythm playing which lead to a lot of the styles we see now, involving a lot of spread voicings and open strings. Unfortunately people go overboard with it and when you make every bar a cacophony of these voicings, ever changing, the sense of rhythmic musicality and melody becomes a fart in a hurricane.

Years ago when Matt Bellamy (Muse) put a Kaoss pad on his guitar, I thought that was pretty damn cool. Now that’s a guy who knows how to incorporate strange things on the guitar without losing the plot in rhythm and melody.
 
RaceU4her said:
Polyphia definitely has their own thing going on tone wise, i have no idea how they get that cleanish jangle
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It's really not difficult

Turn the gain down ALOT on a 5150, plug in a guitar with fishmans and a tube screamer, use with mesa OS cab

or do all the above virtually with a modeler, works the same
 
skoora said:
When I think modern I think of techniques or style, not sounds. One of the last big shifts in metal for me was Mastadon popularizing, disonant arpeggiated voicings, in metal rhythm playing which lead to a lot of the styles we see now, involving a lot of spread voicings and open strings. Unfortunately people go overboard with it and when you make every bar a cacophony of these voicings, ever changing, the sense of rhythmic musicality and melody becomes a fart in a hurricane.

Years ago when Matt Bellamy (Muse) put a Kaoss pad on his guitar, I thought that was pretty damn cool. Now that’s a guy who knows how to incorporate strange things on the guitar without losing the plot in rhythm and melody.
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It was alot cooler when the black metal bands were doing this.

Once mastodon made it popular it became kind of played out
 
DanTravis62 said:
It was alot cooler when the black metal bands were doing this.

Once mastodon made it popular it became kind of played out
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Mastadon did it where it really pricked up your ears melodically. The BM bands of the 80’s just made it sound like noise ala. Two metal zones in series’s plugged directly into a frying pan. Like Jesus and Mary Chain with less Jesus and more chain.
Hearing bands release an album sounding worse than what my boombox could record at band practice was always a treat..😂
 
skoora said:
Mastadon did it where it really pricked up your ears melodically. The BM bands of the 80’s just made it sound like noise ala. Two metal zones in series’s plugged directly into a frying pan. Like Jesus and Mary Chain with less Jesus and more chain.
Hearing bands release an album sounding worse than what my boombox could record at band practice was always a treat..😂
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I even had a hard time identifying what’s being played in those songs 😂
 
I use "modern" mostly to describe a newer era of metal. As in, metal with chugs, heavier vocals, arrangements that span multiple genres and drums that don't sound like tin cans. This is, of course, apposed to 60 year old dudes yelling out of pitch while the drummer plays the same beat for 5 minutes, the rhythm guitarist palm mutes the same chords they've played for the last 30+ years, just in different sequences, and the lead guitarist sounds like he's having a convulsion on the fretboard.
 
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