Rockman X100 Preset

[modelation]

I've had a Rockman X100 since the early 1980's, but it's been sitting in a drawer. I recently learned about the renewed interest in this unit since it was used by Boston, Def Leppard and Joe Satriani. I put the X100 in my Helix effects loop, creating a snapshot of just the X100 where I could quickly do an A-B comparison of my new preset snapshots with the original X100 tones. Just like the original unit, there are four snapshots representing the four X100 settings: CLN1, CLN2, EDGE, DIST. I used a Rockman signal flow block diagram I found on-line to build up the preset in the same way the X100 is designed. I spent many hours swapping blocks and tweaking parameters in an attempt to tone match by ear. I wanted to make it easy to use without requiring any special IRs. Just like the original unit, you can also bypass the chorus, delay and reverb using stomp switches.

 

A few interesting things about the X100:

* The Boston sound was based on Marshall amps, so that's what I decided to use

* The X100 uses what they call a gated reverb, so the delay is more like a echo/reverb

* I used the Helix Bucket-Brigade delay which is what the X100 uses

* I found that there is not a lot of difference between the X100 EDGE and DIST settings

 

See: https://line6.com/customtone/tone/5460830/

 

 

[Paulzx]

15 hours ago, modelation said:

I've had a Rockman X100 since the early 1980's, but it's been sitting in a drawer. I recently learned about the renewed interest in this unit since it was used by Boston, Def Leppard and Joe Satriani. I put the X100 in my Helix effects loop, creating a snapshot of just the X100 where I could quickly do an A-B comparison of my new preset snapshots with the original X100 tones. Just like the original unit, there are four snapshots representing the four X100 settings: CLN1, CLN2, EDGE, DIST. I used a Rockman signal flow block diagram I found on-line to build up the preset in the same way the X100 is designed. I spent many hours swapping blocks and tweaking parameters in an attempt to tone match by ear. I wanted to make it easy to use without requiring any special IRs. Just like the original unit, you can also bypass the chorus, delay and reverb using stomp switches.

 

A few interesting things about the X100:

* The Boston sound was based on Marshall amps, so that's what I decided to use

* The X100 uses what they call a gated reverb, so the delay is more like a echo/reverb

* I used the Helix Bucket-Brigade delay which is what the X100 uses

* I found that there is not a lot of difference between the X100 EDGE and DIST settings

 

See: https://line6.com/customtone/tone/5460830/

 

 

 

What a great post to come across this is - I haven't tried the tone yet but I certainly will. We had quite a long discussion on the Rockman in a recent thread, I have an obsession in re-creating the Hysteria album guitar tone, mainly because I played it to death growing up, learning to play guitar, and have read so much about how the tone was created. I've actually managed to get fairly close, well at least to something that fits in really well when you play along to the album, and that was done mainly by using the modded marshall amp block or the Diesel amp, but EQ'ed by boosting some frequencies, mainly 500k & 700k, and cutting the highs & lows.

 

The X100 itself though has a pretty distinctive sound straight out of the box so it'll be interesting to see how close you've managed to get!

[modelation]

Thanks Paulzx, I will be interested to hear what you think. Keep in mind that this is strictly an attempt to tone match with my Rockman X100 and not any album or song. I agree about the distinctive sound and I found that it was more difficult to match the EDGE and DIST settings.

[codamedia]

I've downloaded the preset and gave it a try through Native.... great job! 

 

I have one suggestion... Everything after the CAB should be a stereo block (chorus, delay, reverb). That won't effect anything if you play in mono, but for those that play stereo it will be closer to the original Rockman - especially when the chorus is engaged. 

 

15 hours ago, modelation said:

* The X100 uses what they call a gated reverb, so the delay is more like a echo/reverb

 

It's probably just the way you worded it... or the way I am interpreting the wording :) .... but  I'm a little confused by this statement. I owned an X100 for decades and it has never had any reverb. The only "verb / delay" effect was the bucket brigade delay which you also include. IMO, the preset you made sounds more authentic (to an X100) with the reverb turned off and only the delay is used .

 

Of course.... that doesn't mean you can't sweeten it with reverb, it's just not authentic to an X100. 

 

[modelation]

Thanks for the feedback codamedia. I changed to stereo chorus and delay as you recommended and removed the reverb. I was able to tweak the bucket brigade delay to get the reverb like sound my X100 is generating. The new preset is here:  https://line6.com/customtone/tone/5461651/