Canadian metal legend and Annihilator mastermind Jeff Waters has posted the following message on Facebook:

"So... I've got the guitar 'sound' for the next Annihilator CD now (that will make 17 studio CDs! Ouch!). To keep options open, when getting the sound this past week, I first tried my collection of tube amps/cabs... but when I found what I thought was something real good, then I turned on the Line6 Helix again and tried to get same or better with it. This time around, it wasn't even close. If I can explain it, I would say I got the Alice In Hell record's guitar sound with a bit more low and power... yes! Now to write some riffs and songs that live up to that!
 
One thing that is pretty interesting if you are into studio stuff (in other words, the following will be extremely boring to read unless you play guitar or are into music recording): back when the digital era came into studio production, we had these revolutionary Alesis Adats that changed the recording industry. For the price of a VHS video tape that you could get later at night at the local corner store/gas station, you could now record at low cost compared to the mega-expensive 2 inch analog tape reels. Big and medium-sized studios started closing down, mainly because musicians and engineers could now open up nice home studios and record most tracks, except drums, at their house! The catch, and most of us didn't realize it at the time, was that the analog to digital converters in them and the Tascam, Fostex versions, etc. were bad sounding. Enter companies like Apogee who started to make better converters... now we had a way to get the sound from analog into digital and it sounded damn good, if you had a good chain to get into the system first. Then plugins happened. Most were horrible and sounded no where near close to as good as a real compressor or eq, etc. Waves and UAD led the way in that area. After all these years since plugins arrived, finally, for a few years now, these companies have been able to model and NAIL most all areas of recording and mixing tools/gear. You have the biggest mixers in the world, who own millions of dollars in real, high-end analog gear, who (most of them) are mixing in the box or sending it out to a good console but using plugins for mixing instead of real gear. At a fraction of the cost but with almost or better quality, as most of those classic units had worn out by now." 

Read Waters' complete recording gear breakdown here.

Guitar World recently caught up Waters and sat him down for a Q&A session. An excerpt is available below.

Q: What influenced you to pick up a guitar?

Waters: "My mother told me we would walk by this shopping mall where we lived in Ontario, Canada, and there was a guy playing guitar all the time out in the street. I sorta had little temper tantrums when I wanted to stop and listen and she would pull me away. So she picked up really quickly that, out of the piano, which she played, and other instruments, nothing sort of got my attention (like the guitar). I was a real ADHD kid. It just seemed like guitar was something I could focus on. I was a zombie, staring right at it. So she got me into lessons when I was probably seven, eight, nine years old."

Q: What do you recall about your first time playing live?

Waters: "It was in our high school auditorium. But of course I got caught the day before in rehearsals smokin’ weed with one of the other guys, so they kicked us off and we never got to play the show. The next one was at another high school. I think we were doing 'Black Magic' by Slayer. We did a Venom song. I think we even did an Anvil song."

Q: Do you have any advice for young players?

Waters: "I’d probably say the same thing to somebody who’s trying to do this long term or as a hobby. You’ve just gotta have fun with it. And it would be really cool to learn different styles if you’re trying to do it as a serious living. This is the toughest time in the last 20–30 years to have an actual career—and to last. You have to learn everything you can about not only your instrument, but other instruments, and how to write. Even if you’re not great at everything, you’ve gotta multitask. Learn how to record stuff at home. If your bass player doesn’t show up, grab a bass and learn how to play it. And you’ve got to keep your brain clear. You can’t do that if you’re partying all the time."

Read the complete Q&A here.