Palm mutes

How do you remove the excess freq sticking out when doing heavy, high gain, palm muted notes?
I can't seem to completely eliminate it without removing maybe 4db from 160-200hz, which drastically changes the sound which i don't like.
Swedish/Finnish Melodeath (In Flames, Norther, Children of Bodom..) producers seem to be able to do it. All the fullness and bass without the 160-200hz part sticking out.

It's all about compression, since you don't want to dial back those particular frequencies...and I "get" why you wouldn't want to carve up the basic tone.

If you set up your compressor so that it's only clamping down on those "woofs" that you get when you palm-mute,  you'll be able to keep the frequencies you love, while attenuating those bass plosives.

As much as I hate multiband compressors, it might just be the trick you're looking for.

You'll want to make sure your release is set quick enough that the compression releases in time with the chug, chugs.  And be gentle, as compressors are very sensitive to low-end energy.

Aside from that, mic choice and placement can have a lot to do with it.  You could try moving your mic closer to the center of the speaker.  ALSO...you could move your mic off axis a bit to avoid proximity effect from all that air that's moved when you palm-mute.

What about playing around with the release time on your compressor, so that the gain reduction is back to normal by the time the palm mute hits?

It'd have to be a fairly quick release yes?

Bristol_Jonesey


What about playing around with the release time on your compressor, so that the gain reduction is back to normal by the time the palm mute hits?

It'd have to be a fairly quick release yes?

Yes, a quick attack and a quick release with the right amount of reduction can help that sort of thing to blend....and even, dare I say it, make it sound punchier!

Technique?  I'm thinking..... me thinking could be dangerous..... but the technique used will either allow that or not.... I don't often play a bunch of palm muted stuff at high gain..... 

You're hearing the high order harmonics that are created in the amp circuit that is a result of the distortion.  decreasing the gain reduces these harmonics proportionally. Also, the tone knob on the guitar can be rolled off.

I don't know that I would try to gate it or compress it to try to remove it. Compressing it might hide it in the musical content, making it less obvious.

I used palm muting on the latest country tune on the song forum now...(I Don't Care) the guitar was obviously set much cleaner than you are speaking about.  I cranked the gain and the volume to about 6 or so on the POD, using a black face fender emulation. Tone controls to taste, and on the guitar, volume on 10 or 9 and the tone on 7 or so.... to take the crispy highs out. I kept the strings palm muted so they didn't ring as I played the rhythm tracks.


 you could also post some examples for us to hear..... of what you're hearing... put links in your post here in the techniques forum since it does relate to this topic.

EDIT: disregard the "post an example"  I was poking around in the songs forum and found the song that you speak about..... I need to listen later, on my lappy with cans.... everybody's still not up and besides, these speakers are too cheap to do justice to the details of your mix.