Broken guitar tone

[kerryhall1]

I'm trying to get this sort of tone for recording:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzkBmJGGwdA

 

What would you recommend?

 

Maybe guitar -> compression -> preamp -> compression -> eq?

 

What sort of eq or compression settings?

 

 

 

[Verne-Bunsen]

I think you are on the right track avoiding a traditional amp and cab, as Trent Reznor often recorded direct to the console. I remember reading in an interview that he wasn’t happy with guitar sounds until they barely sounded like guitars any more. I’m not at my Helix to play around with it, but I think even dropping the preamp and replacing it with a dirt or fuzz pedal and then manipulating with a post eq would be where I’d start.

 

As an aside, man what a great album that is. It was my introduction to NIN and it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

[soundog]

Or go direct, then try an extreme distortion plug-in, something like iZotope Trash 2. Totally mangle the tone.

[kerryhall1]

I don't really have the ability to run too many plugins, I'm using Reaper on Linux, thus, the need for the Helix.

 

Helix should be able to do it no problem though right?

 

And yes, that album is 100% perfect start to finish...not even a full album, it's an EP as far as I know? Absolutely crushing release.

[Verne-Bunsen]

Figuring out the recipe will take some trial and error I’m sure, it’s a pretty unorthodox tone, but yes I think Helix can handle it once you figure out what “it” is. I’d play with it myself but I’m traveling for work and don’t have access to my gear. Do share if you land on something good!

[kelldammit]

From GS:
"Almost all of the guitars on Broken were done using the ZOOM 9030amp simulator/guitar processor. Trent said that in several interviews and if you've ever heard one it's obvious.</snip>"
 

There's a start...an amp sim not as savvy as the helix.  Maybe try comp into high gain amp (no cab), eq, comp and room verb to fake it?

 

[Verne-Bunsen]

2 hours ago, kelldammit said:

From GS:
"Almost all of the guitars on Broken were done using the ZOOM 9030amp simulator/guitar processor. Trent said that in several interviews and if you've ever heard one it's obvious.</snip>"
 

There's a start...an amp sim not as savvy as the helix.  Maybe try comp into high gain amp (no cab), eq, comp and room verb to fake it?

 

Only one way to find out!

[Verne-Bunsen]

Very interesting Downward Spiral era interview with some good tech-talk here:

 

http://nothing.nin.net/int20.html

 

“Another thing I'll sometimes do is play the guitars twice as fast as the song's tempo, recording them at 30 ips [inches-per-second] on the multitrack. Then I'll slow it down to 15 ips. I'll play the part an octave high, too, so when I slow it down, it's in the right register and at the right speed. But if you saturate the tape real hard when you record it at 30 ips, it takes on a really clear, thick, warm, and bizarre quality when you slow it down. The guitar on "Suck" [Broken]--which I think is the best guitar sound I've ever gotten--was done that way”

 

I don’t think Helix has a block for that, haha!

[Heavyville]

That s the thing with mix wizardry.   So many of the great guitar tones out there had so much more going on then just the gain stages at the amp itself and the speaker being used. 

Mix board saturation is a thing of beauty. 

 

try EQ- Distortion pedal(s) EQ / Pre-amp studio / EQ / Gain black -  just as an example     now try and break all the dials.    press delete if that doesn;t work.