Guitar profiling technology in metal music production: public reception, capability, consequences and perspectives

This empirical study explores the guitar profiling technology and its consequences for metal music production. After briefly introducing this technology, the article investigates its public reception in reviews and online discussion boards to explore the subjective perspectives. A sub-sequent acoustic experiment tests the capability of the technology. The findings show that many guitar players and producers have been highly skeptical of digital amplification technology because of tonal shortcomings. However, meanwhile many musicians seem convinced of profil-ing technology due to its good sound quality that has been confirmed by the experiment too. Since for most metal music genres the sound quality of the electric guitar is very important, the creative practices and economic conditions of its production may likely be hugely affected by this technology. The article concludes by discussing the consequences of profiling technology regarding issues such as democratisation of production tools, changes in professional services, creative potentials and future applications of the technology that may radically change metal music production.