How do I get this tone (Def Leppard live)?

[bloomk]

I really like this tone:

 

 

Their tone has this highly digital and almost unnatural guitar tone. Is it highly compressed? Look at 39:48... Been trying to get this sound but can't seem to figure it out.. 

 

this is also the tone:

 

 

 

If you guys could point me in the right direction that would be AWESOME! thx

 

[cruisinon2]

Take your shirt off and showcase your chiseled 60 year old abs...;)

[PierM]

To my ears sounds like a run of the mill Marshall hi gain tone...Collen is also using a sustainer, and that's the "compression" you are probably hearing.

[Schmalle]

DL Bloomk.hlx

Quick ballpark attempt, Super OD -> Soldano.

[bloomk]

3 hours ago, Schmalle said:

DL Bloomk.hlx 12.36 kB · 2 downloads

Quick ballpark attempt, Super OD -> Soldano.

Which IR are you using?

[datacommando]

5 hours ago, bloomk said:

Their tone has this highly digital and almost unnatural guitar tone. Is it highly compressed?

Well, originally that was the sound of the Tom Scholz Rockman direct into the desk, when the Hysteria album was recorded.

From their website:

https://www.defleppard.com/tag/hysteria-amp/

 

Live Def Leppard have for years used a Marshall JMP-1 preamp, JFX-1 multi-fx and Alesis reverb, but more recently Axe-FX

 

The Hysteria “sound” keeps cropping up on here, much like the Andy Summers “Massage in a Brothel” tone (duh!)

 

Check the links in this from a couple of years back.

 

Even though I have been known to purchase presets it’s still best practice to make your own sounds.
 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

[codamedia]

These guys had direct rigs long before direct was ever a consideration..... 

No amps on stage & in - ears suggests that is still what they do. Why not - they've built an entire brand on those sounds. 

 

In 2014 Phil Collen was running into Marshall JMP-1 preamps and used Fractal AXE FXII's for effects and IR's. 

 

If I needed that tone.... I'd call up a Marshall JCM800 Pre-amp... load some old Rockman IR's (for cabinets)... then adjust some effects to taste. 

[bloomk]

thanks guys!!! Using the info in this post I figured out how to make it sound how I wanted.. SOOOO stoked!.. Fun Fun.. It was so easy to do it that I almost feel stupid.. but thanks guys for spending the time to help out a fellow player :) 

[bloomk]

And yea.. Def leopards live rig is driven by AxeFx if I remember correctly.. 

[MGW-Alberta]

These presets sound pretty good.

I have not tried them.

Click on the videos tab for a demo.

 

https://shop.line6.com/marketplace/classic-albums-hysteria.html

[Schmalle]

9 hours ago, bloomk said:

Which IR are you using?

Sorry, something got messed up - it's the wrong preset...the attempt got lost...

[Paulzx]

6 hours ago, bloomk said:

thanks guys!!! Using the info in this post I figured out how to make it sound how I wanted.. SOOOO stoked!.. Fun Fun.. It was so easy to do it that I almost feel stupid.. but thanks guys for spending the time to help out a fellow player :) 

 

You're in my world now with this one, forget all the rockman stuff, that was Hysteria & Adrenalize album tone, the live sound has evolved over the years

with different gear, ultimately to right now, which is Axe FXIII and the fractal guys have actually given some info on the settings for that.

 

Some of the info stated above is correct, it was always based on the JCM800 but they also had the Palmer speaker simulator in that rig which did influence the sound quite a bit.

 

If you listen to live stuff over the last ten years or so, the guitar tones have changed quite a bit. They always favoured cutting the low end right out of the tone at one point, to more of a tuned down growly marshall processed tone more recently.

 

I'll try out some of the stuff above too, I've got a tone for this dialled in using the modded 2204, you have to EQ it quite a bit so it's not fizzy though - do you think you've cracked it then?

[Paulzx]

6 hours ago, MGW-Alberta said:

These presets sound pretty good.

I have not tried them.

Click on the videos tab for a demo.

 

https://shop.line6.com/marketplace/classic-albums-hysteria.html

 

I bought these from Scott, to be fair, there have been much closer attempts by others since he made this. One guy came up with an IR that was really chasing that compressed Hysteria clean sound and it's damn near spot on. Of course this is the album sound though, not the live sound

[codamedia]

48 minutes ago, Paulzx said:

it was always based on the JCM800 but they also had the Palmer speaker simulator in that rig which did influence the sound quite a bit.

 

That certainly makes sense as a progression through the years... 

 

@bloomk ... I'm attaching some IR's that may come in handy when searching for these tones. 9 IR's from the Palmer PDI-03, and 4 from an old Rockman. I didn't have these with the thought of producing Def Leppard tones.... but if this is the direction they took over different periods they may (or may not) help :) 

 

NOTE: I created the rockman IR's myself, I'm not sure where I got the Palmer IR's, but they are not a commercial release... someone made them from a Palmer they had. 

palmer_rockman_ir.zip

[MGW-Alberta]

3 hours ago, Paulzx said:

 

I bought these from Scott, to be fair, there have been much closer attempts by others since he made this. One guy came up with an IR that was really chasing that compressed Hysteria clean sound and it's damn near spot on. Of course this is the album sound though, not the live sound

 

When you bought them how much tweaking did you have to do to make them sound right?

(I say them because I am assuming there's more than one preset, like a bundle.)
Are they set up for mono, stereo or WDW?

Just curious about the difference between free ones on CustomTone and paid ones on MarketPlace.

 

[cruisinon2]

2 hours ago, MGW-Alberta said:

Just curious about the difference between free ones on CustomTone and paid ones on MarketPlace.

 

 

For the former, the only cost is the time you'll have to spend turning the patch into something you can actually use... and the latter requires you to pay for the privilege of doing exactly the same thing...;)

 

Save yourself both the time and the money, and do it from scratch... in the long run, you'll waste less time and have extra beer money.

[MGW-Alberta]

True enough.  When I first got my Helix I was a little bit lost in the complexity of it so I took a shortcut and bought a small package from Glen Delaune, maybe his first one and I was required to tweak those presets by quite a lot before I could use them but I did not feel it was a complete loss because his custom made artist specific IRs were quite useful and I learned a lot just from studying how he does things.  I also learned from him a few things not to do as well but I'm still glad I did it.  Different people measure value different ways.

[Schmalle]

My approximation to the Gods Of War Guitar Lesson tone mentioned in the OP.

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/5585783/

Have fun!

 

Edit:

Alternative based using the Revv Red channel - this is super close with my Les Paul using Bareknuckle Steve Stevens bridge pickup.

https://line6.com/customtone/tone/5586309/

[Paulzx]

9 hours ago, codamedia said:

 

That certainly makes sense as a progression through the years... 

 

@bloomk ... I'm attaching some IR's that may come in handy when searching for these tones. 9 IR's from the Palmer PDI-03, and 4 from an old Rockman. I didn't have these with the thought of producing Def Leppard tones.... but if this is the direction they took over different periods they may (or may not) help :) 

 

NOTE: I created the rockman IR's myself, I'm not sure where I got the Palmer IR's, but they are not a commercial release... someone made them from a Palmer they had. 

palmer_rockman_ir.zip 370.03 kB · 2 downloads

 

Nice one, I'll be interested to try these too

[lawrence_Arps]

On 10/14/2021 at 6:49 AM, bloomk said:

 

 

 

Their tone has this highly digital and almost unnatural guitar tone. 

 

 

 

 

I don't hear anything that could possibly make me use the word "Digital".  Its highly overdriven and has a sustainer on it which is a bit "unnatural"  but neither of those things mean digital.  There is a bit of chorus and reverb as well which may have been created digitally, and the actual guitar tone may well be an AxeFX...which is digital, but none of those things when used properly (as in this case) has any factor in the tone which would give a listener a clue that it was being produced using a microprocessor vs a set of analog gear (which the old Rockman tones were).

Mostly I hear a marshally tone with extra overdrive that could be coming from anyone of a dozem amp brands and a hundred pedals.....pretty standard stuff (apart from the sustainer)

anyway - glad to hear you were successful!

 

[Paulzx]

6 hours ago, MGW-Alberta said:

 

When you bought them how much tweaking did you have to do to make them sound right?

(I say them because I am assuming there's more than one preset, like a bundle.)
Are they set up for mono, stereo or WDW?

Just curious about the difference between free ones on CustomTone and paid ones on MarketPlace.

 

 

Being brutally honest, no amount of tweaking made them sound right lol. I actually requested this from Scott and shortly after, he decided to make one an sell it, but I've done closer matches myself. I like Scott's channel and I try and support these guys work where I can but I wouldn't recommend buying this particular preset. I didn't think it sounded brilliant even when he did the demo video. Trouble is I'm a huge Leppard fan and I've analysed the guitar tones for many years so if somethings a bit off I can hear it straight away.

 

I'll revisit the preset and see if it can be modified. Maybe with better IR's etc. One of the problems with this hysteria album tone matching with the rockman IR's of course is that the distortion tones sound like Boston but when Leppard used the unit they had it to bits re wired it, re eq'd it and so on their recordings although you can hear some of that rockman tone in the distortion tones, it doesn't really sound like,e the X100 unit, they changed the sound so it wouldn't, which makes it very hard to get those tones with a dedicated rockman IR. The cleans do sound a lot more rockman like, compressed, pingy shimmery etc but very full sounding

[Paulzx]

3 hours ago, MGW-Alberta said:

True enough.  When I first got my Helix I was a little bit lost in the complexity of it so I took a shortcut and bought a small package from Glen Delaune, maybe his first one and I was required to tweak those presets by quite a lot before I could use them but I did not feel it was a complete loss because his custom made artist specific IRs were quite useful and I learned a lot just from studying how he does things.  I also learned from him a few things not to do as well but I'm still glad I did it.  Different people measure value different ways.

 

Same experience here. You can learn how they set things up but I always end up pulling it apart and virtually re building the preset

[Paulzx]

20 minutes ago, lawrence_Arps said:

I don't hear anything that could possibly make me use the word "Digital".  Its highly overdriven and has a sustainer on it which is a bit "unnatural"  but neither of those things mean digital.  There is a bit of chorus and reverb as well which may have been created digitally, and the actual guitar tone may well be an AxeFX...which is digital, but none of those things when used properly (as in this case) has any factor in the tone which would give a listener a clue that it was being produced using a microprocessor vs a set of analog gear (which the old Rockman tones were).

Mostly I hear a marshally tone with extra overdrive that could be coming from anyone of a dozem amp brands and a hundred pedals.....pretty standard stuff (apart from the sustainer)

anyway - glad to hear you were successful!

 

 

Yep sounds like there's a bit of chorus on that opening riff doesn't there, but also they way they tone shape that sound is by dropping the mids a bit, dropping the treble and cutting some of the highs, opposite of what they used to do. It's a darker thicker tone now but still based on that Marshall JMP