Why are scooped mids and high gain "evil, satanic, tough, etc."?

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BABMusic said:
I've always found the scooped sound much easier on my ears. The high midrange thing may work out well in the mix, but just playing it alone, can cause ear fatigue. A lot of albums I do like have a scooped guitar tone after mixing. I feel no shame for my love of scoop. Nothing evil or wrong about it.

I don't want to hear what Dr. Peterson has to say. It will probably be a one-hour deep discussion about how I'm not taking responsibility for myself by refusing the midrange tone.
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Yeah, scooped is great. Just not to the point of when the tone turns into my teenage idea of awesome. When it goes too far you can turn a four thousand dollar amp into a 50 dollar one.

Dr Jordo would probably spend an hour analysing what actually is the meaning of tone.
 
What I find interesting about midrange is that it has a similar affect on the ears as drinking something really sweet. For example, if you never drink Coke, you will be surprised and maybe delighted how sweet one sip of Coke tastes. If you are a frequent drinker and are continuously drinking a large 32 once Coke, you likely won't even notice the sweetness after drinking half of it. Similarly, if you start playing an amp with the mids on say 3 or 4, you might hear it sounds a little scooped. Then you put a graphic EQ in the loop and drop that middle slider a bit, it sounds much more scooped. After a while, you go back to the way the amp without the EQ and it suddenly sounds very midrangy. It's weird how our senses adapt.
 
BABMusic said:
What I find interesting about midrange is that it has a similar affect on the ears as drinking something really sweet. For example, if you never drink Coke, you will be surprised and maybe delighted how sweet one sip of Coke tastes. If you are a frequent drinker and are continuously drinking a large 32 once Coke, you likely won't even notice the sweetness after drinking half of it. Similarly, if you start playing an amp with the mids on say 3 or 4, you might hear it sounds a little scooped. Then you put a graphic EQ in the loop and drop that middle slider a bit, it sounds much more scooped. After a while, you go back to the way the amp without the EQ and it suddenly sounds very midrangy. It's weird how our senses adapt.
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In all honesty, it’s why I’m trying to learn self control and focus with tone. It’s amazing how quickly you can get used to a tone that you didn’t like when first using it. Then going to another tone, same thing. The ears are a seriously deceptive thing.
 
...Evokes the natural "distortion" of vocal chords when screaming?
 
It’s just an exciting sound on the ears. I think it’s sort of like the sound equivalent of watching a cool action movie or maybe driving a car fast. Anyone with healthy testosterone levels should love it
 
I think scooped mids are a thing because they play well with other instruments, honestly. If you have a bunch of cranked up stuff from 300-2k just going to be fighting everything else.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
People need to stop listening to people at TGP who insist that their 3 watt combo amps with a total bandwidth of like 600 Hz - 2 kHz are “all anybody needs” because “guitar is a midrange instrument.”
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That does sound like something someone would say there. I remember in 2022 or so, I posted a thread titled something like "I told my wife I want to buy a few more guitars as a hedge against inflation." It was obviously a joke, but a lot of people took it way too seriously. Said I was a bad husband, etc. lol
 
I turn the midrange all the way up on some amps. Punch sounds more aggressive to me than the girth of cut midrange.
 
stephen sawall said:
I turn the midrange all the way up on some amps. Punch sounds more aggressive to me than the girth of cut midrange.
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Probably very amp dependent. I know I don’t like my Deliverance with the mids low. Sounds weird. I can crank those mids quite a lot actually.
 
Hiwatts-n-Gibsons said:
I may be old fashioned, but this still sounds pretty evil to me. No high gain, just a cranked up Fender '65 Super Reverb with a EH LPB-1.

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I’m actually very old fashioned. When I was young I thought Aerosmith tone sounded as tough as you could get. Then probably the most extreme and tough and evil was Motley Crüe.

To be honest. I still feel that way in a lot of ways. Especially as far as old fashioned power amp style cranking. Just sounds truly tough. Kind of like an old muscle car. Risky, engaging.

Whereas more modern tones, even though I like some of them, like Diezel, are more like a modern Mercedes AMG. Way faster, can easily get up to speeds that blow away the muscle car. But you lose some connection and wildness and engagement and risk.
 
I'll tell what it's evil to - mixing, generally-speaking.

You need mids in order for geetar sounds to poke through nicely.

In isolation, smiley-face is always gonna sound more-impressive 'cause we like to hear lows and highs, but in a mix context, the lows (kick, bass etc.) and highs (cymbals etc.) are already-there.
 
Monkey Man said:
I'll tell what it's evil to - mixing, generally-speaking.

You need mids in order for geetar sounds to poke through nicely.

In isolation, smiley-face is always gonna sound more-impressive 'cause we like to hear lows and highs, but in a mix context, the lows (kick, bass etc.) and highs (cymbals etc.) are already-there.
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That’s nerd talk!
 
Cool thread and cool topic of conversation. Lots of great ideas and interpretations in here.

As mentioned, guitar is generally a mid frequency sound to start with, so scooping mids, just provides a different (and possibly extreme) version of that tone. It may sound evil because at some point people wanted to be different and NOT have a ton of mids, so maybe it was/is considered 'anti-establishment' :dunno:

I once read that all music can be boiled down to man generally trying to mimic sounds in nature. Think about that. That's a heavy concept. Electric guitar, in particular (in that read anyway), boiled down to the sounds of insects and crickets/locust/cicadas, etc. Sometimes the swirling sounds of these guys in the summer eve can be a nice relaxing sound. But sometimes the locus and cicadas could be interpreted as a wrath.

Just more food for the thought.

When I was young Motley Crue's Shout album was pretty frickin' metal at the time. Not sure I'd consider it metal today as a lot of it was imagery. But damn Mick's guitar tone on that album was fucking evil sounding :lol:
 
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311splawndude said:
Cool thread and cool topic of conversation. Lots of great ideas and interpretations in here.

As mentioned, guitar is generally a mid frequency sound to start with, so scooping mids, just provides a different (and possibly extreme) version of that tone. It may sound evil because at some point people wanted to be different and NOT have a ton of mids, so maybe it was/is considered 'anti-establishment' :dunno:

I once read that all music can be boiled down to man generally trying to mimic sounds in nature. Think about that. That's a heavy concept. Electric guitar, in particular (in that read anyway), boiled down to the sounds of insects and crickets/locust/cicadas, etc. Sometimes the swirling sounds of these guys in the summer eve can be a nice relaxing sound. But sometimes the locus and cicadas could be interpreted as a wrath.

Just more food for the thought.

When I was young Motley Crue's Shout album was pretty frickin' metal at the time. Not sure I'd consider metal today as a lot of it was imagery. But damn Mick's guitar tone on that album was fucking evil sounding :lol:
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I like the nature theory. Sounds cool. Although, once when I was much younger I remember being stoned and drinking at my friends house. Pantera was playing, as it often was. I remember noticing it was like the sound of industrial machinery to me. Lol. Especially having worked on a production line.
 
I had a buddies older brother say try this and he almost zeroed my mids knob on my peavey stereo chorus and I was like what the fuck just happened? That was in 87 or 88…. It was like a-ha…. Now where’s my rock -tek distortion pedal so I can play the brutz before the brutz were a thing….
 
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MadAsAHatter said:
Here's what AI has to say about it.

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The 'subjectivity' part is huge. It's more of a learned response than anything. Meaning from childhood mom said Kiss stood for 'kings in satans service' She did not let my brother and I have the posters and T shirts our friends had. This of course just led to more rebellion and a deep dive into heavy partying.

Side note scooped mids = lost in the mix. May sound massive in your bedroom tho!

In the 80's most bands except for Def lep and VH were dark and had lyrics about death or dark topics so it is also and associated response to the those 2 aspects going hand in hand

Years later we not only get turned on to Stryper as well as a friend makes the profound statement 'music is a celebration not a funeral dirge'
Some people just like to be dark and depressed I guess

Stryper and many other bands not necessarily Christian are positive and encouraging but still shred!



 
cragginshred said:
The 'subjectivity' part is huge. It's more of a learned response than anything. Meaning from childhood mom said Kiss stood for 'kings in satans service' She did not let my brother and I have the posters and T shirts our friends had. This of course just led to more rebellion and a deep dive into heavy partying.

Side note scooped mids = lost in the mix. May sound massive in your bedroom tho!

In the 80's most bands except for Def lep and VH were dark and had lyrics about death or dark topics so it is also and associated response to the those 2 aspects going hand in hand

Years later we not only get turned on to Stryper as well as a friend makes the profound statement 'music is a celebration not a funeral dirge'
Some people just like to be dark and depressed I guess

Stryper and many other bands not necessarily Christian are positive and encouraging but still shred!



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My Grandmother used to say something similar about AC/DC. Anti Christ / Devil something. Can’t remember. There was a lot of that back then.

Too be honest, I can’t blame them. I mean AC/DC literally have an album Highway to Hell where Angus is in Devil horns. Imagine my Grandma’s era, there would be have been NOTHING like that. That literally would have been shocking, satanic stuff. And there’s her grandson spinning around on the floor pretending to be Angus.

Obviously, whether these bands are being funny, or actually are into that, I don’t pay too much attention. I can’t not like Acca Dacca. Some of the most glorious Marshall tone put to wax.

Stryper are awesome. Saw them a couple of years ago. Amazing show. Still great. Much better than other bands that lived excessively. It’s awesome when a Christian or positive message band can actually rock!
 
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