Devin Townsend going over his main preset/GP-100 sound

RevDrucifer

RevDrucifer

Fractal Fanatic
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At one point in this stream he was asked if he’d upload his AxeFX presets and he explained that he’s been talking to NDSP about working with them on an Archetype plug-in and he’s waiting to see how that pans out before releasing anything “but if that doesn’t work out I’ll figure out how to get them to ya”. Then at the end someone asks him to go over the GP-100 sound in the AxeFX. I actually haven’t watched it yet, but I know there were a few people here trying to figure it out and hopefully this helps them a little.

While I don’t think I’d use his presets with my own music, it’d be cool to dick around with them. I currently have no use for amp sim plug-ins and I’d assume most of us here don’t, so hopefully there’s not some non-compete type of thing in place with NDSP that prevents him from releasing his tones on other platforms. I’m all for musicians/artists/anyone finding any way they can earn an income, the more the merrier, IMO. In that case, I can see the appeal of putting out a plug-in suite like Archetype as people really dig those.
 
Jumpback said:
NDSP would probably sound huge, but not feeling his Axe presets at all, I compared his to some of Leon's and for me LT's were way better
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I suspect the preset he built for the FM3/AFX3 is much like the presets he built for Line 6. They’re cool, but not indicative of something he actually uses.

He said back in the fall of 2019 that he and Garth Richardson (and I believe Matt as well) were working on a pack for the Fractal that would include all of his sounds. That seems to be off the table. I’d imagine, if it actually happens, there’s more of a monetary benefit for him to go the Neural DSP route.
 
Just a note that his GP-100 "stuff" is already in the "Epic" scene of the "Hevy Dev" factory preset that Devin provided for the Axe-Fx III, FM9 and FM3, and based precisely on what he uses in his own rig. The first "Garth Pack" session resulted in one fantastic IR, which I will see about sharing.

@Morphine is of course correct that artists who are short of touring revenue during these hard years must seek monetary benefit in the form of partnership with software companies. We've seen that many times, even before the pandemic.
 
Morphine said:
I suspect the preset he built for the FM3/AFX3 is much like the presets he built for Line 6. They’re cool, but not indicative of something he actually uses.

He said back in the fall of 2019 that he and Garth Richardson (and I believe Matt as well) were working on a pack for the Fractal that would include all of his sounds. That seems to be off the table. I’d imagine, if it actually happens, there’s more of a monetary benefit for him to go the Neural DSP route.
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Yeah, I can see a plugin from NDSP on the cards for DT. I'd love it if FAS brought out some NDSP-type suites to rival (better) the NDSP stuff. They could actually port the presets to the Axe III. Just like NDSP promised with their plugins, but didn't deliver.
 
Admin M@ said:
Just a note that his GP-100 "stuff" is already in the "Epic" scene of the "Hevy Dev" factory preset that Devin provided for the Axe-Fx III, FM9 and FM3, and based precisely on what he uses in his own rig. The first "Garth Pack" session resulted in one fantastic IR, which I will see about sharing.

@Morphine is of course correct that artists who are short of touring revenue during these hard years must seek monetary benefit in the form of partnership with software companies. We've seen that many times, even before the pandemic.
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He did mention in a twitch stream he did with Garth that they would share the IRs. That was about 6 or 7 months ago or so. Would be cool if he could find an avenue to get it out.
 
axl-fx said:
yes I'm talking about the original Roland unit
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Ahh. I misunderstood. I actually have one of his GPs here. The earlier Axe-Fx version sounds exactly the same as the GP -- in fact, after some years of us tweaking it, I think he'd say it sounds better.
 
I thought about sharing this myself, but the way Devin puts together presets is so specific to him, that I wasn't sure. Anyhow, to that point, I feel like crafting a guitar tone must be a very taxing (yet rewarding) part of his job. Devin has mentioned before that there is a lot of buildup in frequencies where his voice and a lot of the orchestral instruments lie, as well as the guitar. So creating a guitar tone that is satisfying while also serving the songs must be quite the undertaking. I can relate in my own way, but not to the scale of Devin's music.
I like Devin's approach to mixing. He goes in with broad strokes and then does the detail work afterwards. That seems to carry over to his guitar tone sessions as well. I would really love Fractal to interview him. However, this would be more of a discussion and hopefully a demonstration, on his philosophy on guitar tone and how he goes about approaching that in dense arrangements tone wise and orchestration wise.
 
Admin M@ said:
No, the old GP has a patch editor and pretty deep sysex. It was decades ahead of its time. Roland really screwed up by abandoning that product tier in exchange for the products of the silly VG era.
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I like said silly products but still; yes.
 
JiveTurkey said:
Do you transfer it via Parallel cable?
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There is a guy on YT who gets a very close sound. When I see DT used a EQ in the chain then the unit alone probably won't get as close.
He is kind enough to share the settings on FB if you contact him.
I believe I just entered them manually, I think there is soundtower or something editor via midi for it too....I might have even done it that way its been some time :D


Admin M@ said:
Ahh. I misunderstood. I actually have one of his GPs here. The earlier Axe-Fx version sounds exactly the same as the GP -- in fact, after some years of us tweaking it, I think he'd say it sounds better.
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I have one of the GP-100 units and would love if Devin ever would allow sharing it. I'm a huge DT fan from back in the day but not as much past Infinity etc. The SYL/OM/Infinity albums were just magic. If he were ever to sell it I'd probably buy it just for the nostalgia.
 
axl-fx said:
There is a guy on YT who gets a very close sound. When I see DT used a EQ in the chain then the unit alone probably won't get as close.
He is kind enough to share the settings on FB if you contact him.
I believe I just entered them manually, I think there is soundtower or something editor via midi for it too....I might have even done it that way its been some time :D




I have one of the GP-100 units and would love if Devin ever would allow sharing it. I'm a huge DT fan from back in the day but not as much past Infinity etc. The SYL/OM/Infinity albums were just magic. If he were ever to sell it I'd probably buy it just for the nostalgia.
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We did a pay to play gig with SYL on the Alien tour. So awesome \m/
 
AndrewJay said:
I thought about sharing this myself, but the way Devin puts together presets is so specific to him, that I wasn't sure. Anyhow, to that point, I feel like crafting a guitar tone must be a very taxing (yet rewarding) part of his job. Devin has mentioned before that there is a lot of buildup in frequencies where his voice and a lot of the orchestral instruments lie, as well as the guitar. So creating a guitar tone that is satisfying while also serving the songs must be quite the undertaking. I can relate in my own way, but not to the scale of Devin's music.
I like Devin's approach to mixing. He goes in with broad strokes and then does the detail work afterwards. That seems to carry over to his guitar tone sessions as well. I would really love Fractal to interview him. However, this would be more of a discussion and hopefully a demonstration, on his philosophy on guitar tone and how he goes about approaching that in dense arrangements tone wise and orchestration wise.
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Check out the toontrack mix a song in a few hours he did. Must watch....its pretty depressing actually just to see how efficient he is :tired:

AndrewJay said:
And here is another one where you can really hear his tone.
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Just goes to show all the gear he has used over the years he still sounds like Devin.
 
Admin M@ said:
Just a note that his GP-100 "stuff" is already in the "Epic" scene of the "Hevy Dev" factory preset that Devin provided for the Axe-Fx III, FM9 and FM3, and based precisely on what he uses in his own rig. The first "Garth Pack" session resulted in one fantastic IR, which I will see about sharing.
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I had an hour long Skype lesson with Devin in Sept/2020. We talked a bit about the GP-100 sound and how to get it in the Fractal. Much of what he shared in this recent Twitch stream is what he showed me. While the Artist Preset is certainly a version of that sound, it's very very loosely based on what he actually has going on with that signal chain. I get why it is the way it is for the preset (cant run on FM3 without two amps) but yeah.

I'm not entirely sure what elements could be taken from it and applied to what he's actually doing with his GP signal chain. I've gone deep down the rabbit hole on this and everything I have tried, with the EQ cuts in the delay blocks in that scene, makes the buzzy/sizzly GP style echo get choked/chopped off pretty bad.

I'm pretty convinced that the tone match he has in the IR player for that sound is the secret ingredient. He even said in the Skype lesson that he wasn't ready to share that. I've tone matched my GP-100 (a few times) and I feel I am well into the ballpark at this point... but still not quite there. Thankfully he's been pretty generous with sharing info about his signal during these Twitch streams.
 
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