Def Leppard at the Radio 2 Festival

Paulzx

Paulzx

Experienced
I was lucky enough to attend the Radio 2 Festival in the UK at the weekend to see Def Leppard headlining the final day. What a performance it was too. It was actually a pop act festival mainly, so it seemed really odd to see Leppard there, but they just blew everyone away. One of the best performances I've ever seen from them, and I've seen so many over the years I probably couldn't list them all. They made the other acts look like cabaret acts to be honest.

Obviously I'm mainly listening to the guitar tones and the vocals. Everyone's vocals were really nailed on, Joe's vocal especially was very impressive.
The guitars are so good now, that tone is really down. A nice heavy crunchy sound, but the leads and solo's seem to really soar. I've seen the band many times since they were using the Axe III, but this show was particularly impressive. Sound was spot on too. I don't know if it's just that JMP OD1 amp sim, but their tone is very strong and gritty. I think everyone involved with the fractal stuff on the guitars have done an immense job there.
 
Saw Def Leppard a few years ago during the Summer Stadium tour and hands down their sound was amazing for being in a large open-air stadium. All the guitars/bass tones were album quality. All the other bands that used traditional amp set ups their tones were just so-so whereas the AXE FX tones that DL had were hands down amazing.
 
The guitar tones were excellent throughout the gig.

Viv Campbell’s Les Paul gold top with the P90s sounded fantastic so +1 for his presets please.

Also it was great to hear Switch 625 and Bringing on the Heartbreak again.
 
wire_twerp said:
The guitar tones were excellent throughout the gig.

Viv Campbell’s Les Paul gold top with the P90s sounded fantastic so +1 for his presets please.

Also it was great to hear Switch 625 and Bringing on the Heartbreak again.
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Yep the guys sounded great. Every time I see them I wonder if they'll start taking their foot off the gas, but they don't. There was a lot of energy there.
 
Brian Coonan said:
Those are the kinds of vids where I laugh when people say modelers don't sound good.
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Leppard have always been a progressive band, as we know in the studio, and with technology. They're not afraid to change things or try new things. I think what they're really getting out of the Fractal, is consistency in the sound. Not only is it producing top quality tone for them, but it sounds the same every show. I think that's a huge bonus with digital.
 
Paulzx said:
Leppard have always been a progressive band, as we know in the studio, and with technology. They're not afraid to change things or try new things. I think what they're really getting out of the Fractal, is consistency in the sound. Not only is it producing top quality tone for them, but it sounds the same every show. I think that's a huge bonus with digital.
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Couldn't agree more about the consistency. Whenever I play a show, I know what I'm SUPPOSED to sound like and if I don't it's a quick conversation with the sound engineer. Some of them still like to EQ like there is a 57 in front of a cab, or they have an unusual amount of gain on the strip. Most guys now I find are pretty familiar with modelers though so those conversations happen less and less. What's really cool is showing up to a gig and having the sound engineer say "Great - a Fractal - I have one of those as well". :)
 
Keith White said:
Yep. Made this video when it came out

Unbelievable tone
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Hey Keith, that's the Axe III version you're using? Do you find when you play that tone in isolation that it sounds as dark and chunky as Phil's actual live tone? On the FM3 version the cabs have been blended so it may be a bit different. Using my Jackson PC1 it definitely cuts through as a strong tone because there's no real fizz, but there's also no boom in the low end, which is good.

But the real tone in the live show sounds a bit darker and chunkier to me. Have you noticed they pulled the 500k right down on the amp eq itself? Interesting approach because almost every other guitar tone I've ever used has been boosting those mids frequencies
 
Gadget said:
Great show! Thanks for the link.

I love how the show starts with a mostly bemused-looking pop crowd and ends with them all as cheering, hand-clapping Def Lep converts :)
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Almost like the classic scene in “This is Spinal Tap” at Lindberg AFB when they launch into Sex Farm - except they don’t win the crowd over…
 
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