Brutal Death Metal Captures Are Out
You ever wake up ready to conquer the world only to realize halfway through that you've made a massive mistake?
Yeah, that was me today!
My goal?
To create IK Multimedia ToneX captures for some cool death metal presets.
Halfway through that, I had the brilliant idea:
"Why don't I just make these as Neural Amp Modeler captures at the same time?"
Yeah, super dumb move.
The Great NAM Profiling Marathon
I started the day building out the tones for IK Multimedia ToneX, fine-tuning everything with my ENGL Savage 120 mkI.
This is the fun part... because being creative is always fun.
After they were sufficiently brutal sounding death metal guitar tones, I started the profile process.
But then I jumped into Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) profiling.
If you've never made Neural Amp Modeler profiles before, it's basically a DI file that you need to reamp.
It's about five minutes long and it has sweeps and pops and weird noises.
Now imagine doing that 10 times in a row.
And that's not even counting the training time.
I train each NAM profile twice:
- Once using the standard method that you all know and love
- Again using a custom code algorithm that produces an extra high-fidelity capture
I also make Full Rig and Head Only versions of every Neural Amp Modeler plugin setup.
In other words, this takes hours.
Meanwhile In ToneX Land...
While my Neural Amp Modeler captures were training, I was able to finish the ToneX profiles.
Because apparently, I hate free time...
The IK Multimedia ToneX process is faster and easier overall because it's all in a single plugin, but the routing setup can be confusing.
It's one of those classic "go from this line out into this input, then from that output into this input" kind of situations.
Did I lose you? No worries, it took me a few tries as well.
Once I finally nailed the signal chain, the IK Multimedia profiles turned out killer.
The tones were tight, heavy, and perfect for brutal death metal. It helps also that the ToneX software has built-in tonestacks that actually function quite nicely, so I spruced up the ToneX captures even more.
Then Came the Artwork
After the profiling and testing madness, I still had to create the product art.
I had this wild idea: a blood-covered figure surrounded by a sea of impaled bodies.
Naturally, that took a few more hours designing and tweaking.
By the end of it, I said what every metal producer has said at least once.
"I'm never doing that again."
I will never make a Neural Amp Modeler and ToneX pack on the same day again. Wow.
The Result: Visceral Savagery - Brutal Death Metal
The suffering paid off, though: both packs turned out brutal.
If you're into death metal tones and want plug-and-play destruction, these will deliver.
Get the Neural Amp Modeler profiles here.
Grab the IK Multimedia ToneX profiles here.
Let me know how you like them!
Have fun,
-Scott