Trent Reznor Distortion

Using FW17 you can readily lose the AMP block, ditch a CAB IR for a NULL IR and go with just the preamp controls to get some pretty awesomely nasty sounds. It's much easier to get NiN type fuzz tones with FW17 -- Trent does a lot of a guitar -> pedal -> direct to board stuff for those sounds.

I'll post a clip and a patch and an IR tonight when I get home.
 
Got home late tonight. Gonna make you wait another day but it'll be cool. Worth the wait.
 
Rammstein is straight up compressed Dual Recto and Diezel tones.

Definitely try the Metal Zone for Ministry and some NIN though. I'd even try it with just the drive and cab blocks, without an amp.
 
Yay! Finally others who´s also into NIN sounds!

Looking forward to your reply iaresee. Does anyone of you people in this thread have an clue of how to acheive the dirty guitar sound of Good Soldier (starts at: 0:22)?
I really like the evolving overtones of the sound and how it 'goes around' (ie 0:22 - 0:36). An guess would be some Diezel or Mesa Amp with some bit crush and/or some pitch based + LFO modulation of a ring mod (or could it be that they are blending it with a synth source?). I´m not good on metal amps so I have some trouble to identify the signature sound of them... (and maybe the culprit is that I shouldn´t even look into the metal amps, I mean for me that sound isn´t really hi-gain in the normal sense)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQcMQ4LYiNQ
 
Yeah. I don't think it sounds like there's a high gain amp going on in there. I'd almost say go with something Fender-y and then pile fx on that. I think you're on the right track with a bit crusher and possibly some light ring modding. It sounds really lo fi and splatty; might be a fuzz in the chain too. Maybe I'll toy with trying to get something along those lines tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

I'd definitely like to keep this thread going, as I'd love to see some more development of non-traditional sounds, especially along the lines of what Reznor accomplishes.
 
Ben.Last said:
Yeah. I don't think it sounds like there's a high gain amp going on in there. I'd almost say go with something Fender-y and then pile fx on that. I think you're on the right track with a bit crusher and possibly some light ring modding. It sounds really lo fi and splatty; might be a fuzz in the chain too. Maybe I'll toy with trying to get something along those lines tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

I'd definitely like to keep this thread going, as I'd love to see some more development of non-traditional sounds, especially along the lines of what Reznor accomplishes.
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Yep, to me it sounds so broken but still so tuneful in the overtones, like they almost have their own life/intelligence despite the guitarist playing the same riff over and over.

I agree on keeping the thread going. Have you messed around with the bit/sample rate parameter? One thing I´ve found is to set the envelope follower to control the sample rate, combine that with an filter/wah with same envelope control. And you´ll get somewhat of an aggressive (dirty) wah that then turns into something more of a synthsound when the envelope diminish. I´m often using the drive block in the middle of a chain or afterwards delays and such whenever I want the sounds to go 'broken' in the decays (when I´m not playing), also lot of times I´m using an LFO + envelope so that it evolves over time in my 'inactivity'.

Also, many years ago, in my Ultra I´ve got a musical Ring Mod sound that´s also reacts to the envelope follower, where the frequency opens at its lowest and raises into the same pitch as you play. Hard to describe but it sounds a bit synthlike.
 
In the "old days", Broken, TDS era he mostly used a cheap little Zoom processor straight into the board. Many times he would process the audio with software such as Turbosynth to make it sound crazy. He had tricks like recording it an octave up, then slowing the sound down to transpose it back to pitch. That gave it the weird fat but synthesized kind of tone.

In The Fragile era he had walls of pedals where he would play and record for hours, and then later listen back and cut out pieces he liked.

Anything past that is hard to replicate. Now he owns 2 of every pedal that exists, and walls and walls of modular synths. He does seem to really like pedals from Way Huge and Metasonix.

I am not sure what Ministry used for guitars. I have always been curious about that!

Rammstein used a Recto, but the other guy used a Sansamp PSA-1 direct, and they mixed those tones. That is the harsher tone you hear on the earlier stuff before Reise, Reise.


I LOVE Industrial Metal! Probably my favorite Genre! I wish it were still going like it was in the mid-90s!
 
Yay I'm found some Industrial fans in this forum! Thanks for your replies, seems like the consensus is distortion into a board and you are right the overtones are plentiful. I like that "good soldier" sound as well.

As for industrial Metal, I think Orgy is coming out with new music soon, and trent always has something up his sleeve, I just saw the old Stabbing Westward singer in Las Vegas with his new band as well. It's out there.
 
dkenin said:
Yay I'm found some Industrial fans in this forum! Thanks for your replies, seems like the consensus is distortion into a board and you are right the overtones are plentiful. I like that "good soldier" sound as well.

As for industrial Metal, I think Orgy is coming out with new music soon, and trent always has something up his sleeve, I just saw the old Stabbing Westward singer in Las Vegas with his new band as well. It's out there.
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Yeah, I know there is some, but it isn't the same!

I am sure there are 100 reasons why, but I blame the laws! In the late 90's the laws changed to where artists couldn't use samples are freely as they used to. A lot of Industrial was in the art of using samples and creating something weird and new. I mean, Pretty Hate Machine was mostly samples of Prince, Front 242, and Public Enemy albums! The same thing happened to rap, pop, and electronic music. Everything kind of got watered down and got back to basic synths instead of weird sounds. Everything after about 1998 got more simple sounding, and found new techniques, like using that damn autotune on everything!

But, I love this type of music! I also own a lot of software samplers, synths, noisemakers, etc... I can sit for hours and make weird noises. If I didn't have to have a job to pay for all this stuff I might actually be able to create something, lol! It is so fun to record something through the Axe, and then process the audio with something like Reaktor to make the weirdest sounding stuff you can. However, it takes so long, it is hard to actually ever finish something if you dont dedicate your time to it full time.
 
Check out the new preamp simulations in the cab block in FW 17. If you set the drive and/or saturation really high, you can get some really interesting grungy, low-fi sounds. Some of the models get pretty scratchy and crackly and get that cool broken transistor radio kind of vibe.
 
Shask said:
Yeah, I know there is some, but it isn't the same!

I am sure there are 100 reasons why, but I blame the laws! In the late 90's the laws changed to where artists couldn't use samples are freely as they used to. A lot of Industrial was in the art of using samples and creating something weird and new. I mean, Pretty Hate Machine was mostly samples of Prince, Front 242, and Public Enemy albums! The same thing happened to rap, pop, and electronic music. Everything kind of got watered down and got back to basic synths instead of weird sounds. Everything after about 1998 got more simple sounding, and found new techniques, like using that damn autotune on everything!

But, I love this type of music! I also own a lot of software samplers, synths, noisemakers, etc... I can sit for hours and make weird noises. If I didn't have to have a job to pay for all this stuff I might actually be able to create something, lol! It is so fun to record something through the Axe, and then process the audio with something like Reaktor to make the weirdest sounding stuff you can. However, it takes so long, it is hard to actually ever finish something if you dont dedicate your time to it full time.
Click to expand...

Yeah the lawsuits probably got a lot of bands/artists to withdraw the use of samples in their music. Or at least made it a very much more careful selection of samples. However, I think that the samples sound themselves was secondary to the music that made it what is was/is. It was the groove in them, the creative freedom in using them, and the features/limitation in the samplers aviable back then.

Nowadays there´s so much of royalty free sample packs out there with all kinds of sounds aviable. And such vast computational power in computers regarding samples and software samplers. That I believe that it has somewhat lost it appeal to bands/artists because of that, it isn´t as much of an challenge any longer. I mean today, you can find zillions of drumpacks that sounds so extremely good that you almost could pick whichever you want and get satisfied (with the sound) anyway.

However, I think most realize pretty soon after they´ve got a drumpack. That it´s first and foremost about the groove, secondly about the sound itself. And it´s much harder to program/play a beat with a good groove, albeit having the best (and multiple versions of) sounds. Than finding an sample with an exceptionally good groove from a exceptionally good drummer (as pretty much all those samples used back then, actually were, they picked those samples for a reason).

It wasn´t until after I got my Octatrack, that I fully realized the impact of using samples in the music as they did back then. Such weird sounds/noise that can be had from Octatrack. And it´s fantastic to see what other people come up with in how to use it and making extremely creative workarounds for its limitations. I e:
Octatrack Trick - 64 Breakbeat x 16 Slices Megabreak XFading Slices! - PatchArena
 
If you do use an amp block play around with the variac setting too, if you crank that right down you can get some cool 'dying amp' sounds, similar results from the Speaker Drive setting too with extreme settings.
 
Great thread. I haven't tried to copy any NIN sounds, but I did start a patch using a Fuzz Face into the tube pre and then into a cab to get started. I'd like to try it with a Null cab and use the hi and low cut to fine tune rather than an actual cab. Pushed the cab preamp fairly hard... around 7 on both drive and saturation. Reduced the bit depth a bit on the Drive block, then added a ring mod after the amp and a flanger with the new Zero flanger setting after the cab. Very tasty so far... now I think I'll see if I can wreck it a bit more with the variac and other amp settings. LOL It's already got a nice sound I can see putting into some of my experimental synth based stuff.

I really don't know what genre my stuff fits into. I'm more of a hard rock and metal player, but I picked up a guitar synth and play around with plugins sometimes. NIN has been an influence, and I also listen to some Ministry and Rammstein for inspiration.
 
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