Gift of Tone #15 - PHIL COLLEN of DEF LEPPARD

[Bruce Sokolovic]

Short of digging up Hendrix and having him write a preset, I'm not sure this gift will be topped.

 

[skipreid45]

Coolest thing ever. I always wonder why we cannot get pros pre sets. Not like we will infringe on anything they have or will do.
Thanks!!!

I would definitely pay for pro preset packages.

 

[Moke]

I'm not sure about the tuning - I'll ask Phil about it.
I kept the Input EQ low cut there to make sure the low end stayed tight. There was a FW update earlier this year that changed some things in the JMP model, so I had to do some tweaking to get it where we wanted it. The output EQ reflects some of that tweaking.
As far as the studio recordings, there are definitely multiple layers of guitars going on - they typically pick out the dominant parts and play those live. I have been experimenting with layering a clean amp underneath the high-gain amp on my own III, so maybe we'll start doing that on some of Phil's presets. I'll share a preset here soon and see what everyone thinks - it's a cool way to have 2 separate guitar tones going on simultaneously.

This is pretty cool. I did a similar thing for my 'Foolin' (as well as Photograph when we used to cover it) rhythm tone. A 'compressed' clean tone in a parallel path to mimic the studio recording and add some percussiveness and clarity.

And the same for the 'Foolin' intro. An acoustic-ish path along with the clean electric wet tone. Sounds huge through larger systems.

 

[jzguitar]

Thanks John! Do you know the chorus settings for the Foolin intro from the last tour? I didn’t know if you have those settings or not since you just work on Phil’s

I'm not sure what Viv has going on for FX, but I seem to remember the 8 voice chorus being used for some stuff.

Thanks John! Do you know the chorus settings for the Foolin intro from the last tour? I didn’t know if you have those settings or not since you just work on Phil’s stuf

 

[jzguitar]

Questions for John...
What are the guitars tuned to in the studio recording of Photograph? 432?

I was going to ask if you had to reset the amp's input EQ Low Cut back to 714Hz after upgrading to firmware 21 because that value seems high and firmware 21 upgrading reset the values back to defaults. I see that it is the default for the JMPre-1 OD1 amp. Did Def Leppard's collaboration with Fractal contribute to that default?

I hear a guitar playing the arpeggios that is cleaner than the shared tones. Even the songster tabs have those arpeggios on a track labeled as "Electric Guitar (Clean)". Perhaps attempts to play along with those parts without the clean tone is why people are commenting about the tones being dark. Is it that Phil doesn't play that clean tone so it isn't included?

Just spoke to Phil about the tuning - funny story, actually. Apparently they had a strobe tuner in the studio that was a little wonky, so the tuning varied a bit throughout the recording.

 

[DrGreencock]

Awesome gift and so nice to see John the real tech chiming in with notes. Super special thanks to Matt for getting us FM9 users the IRs needed to match the power of the III.

What a great purchase the FM9 has been and I'm not even 3 months in. Love this and this Christmas has come early 15 times already!

 

[ak301]

Just spoke to Phil about the tuning - funny story, actually. Apparently they had a strobe tuner in the studio that was a little wonky, so the tuning varied a bit throughout the recording.

Thanks so much for all the cool info,

I've always wondered why when the screens show fake cabs behind Phil he has Atomic branded ones. I get he's using the CLR's but why not the Fractal logo.

 

[rrhoads17]

Thanks so much for all the cool info,

I've always wondered why when the screens show fake cabs behind Phil he has Atomic branded ones. I get he's using the CLR's but why not the Fractal logo.

Because he uses Atomic FRFR speakers.

 

[ak301]

Awesome gift and so nice to see John the real tech chiming in with notes. Super special thanks to Matt for getting us FM9 users the IRs needed to match the power of the III.

What a great purchase the FM9 has been and I'm not even 3 months in. Love this and this Christmas has come early 15 times already!

I've been here about 5 years or so and Fractal have always been great

 

[rrhoads17]

I'm not sure what Viv has going on for FX, but I seem to remember the 8 voice chorus being used for some stuff.

Thanks for the response John. Hopefully, Phil would be willing to share his effect block library for the various songs on the live set list at some point.

 

[rsvette12]

Just spoke to Phil about the tuning - funny story, actually. Apparently they had a strobe tuner in the studio that was a little wonky, so the tuning varied a bit throughout the recording.

Yes saw a video of Phil explaining this and tuning was off but they still went with it on final cut

 

[normanaj]

I'm not going to mention this on the Helix forum, I'll be exiled.

You will always have a home in Fractal land .
Thank you Phil and John for your awesome generosity and to the entire FAS Team for the awesome GoT series .

 

[Paulzx]

You forgot to check the output EQ

View attachment 112737

Ah so as i suspected they've knocked out a bit of the low and mids on the 500Hz, that's kind of how i thought it would be

 

[Paulzx]

I wonder if Vivian will release any presets. I liked his clean intro tone from Foolin when I saw them earlier this year.

That's going to be song specific though isn't it, as for everything else i imagine it will be identical to Phil particularly amp settings and such like. Viv's may be EQ balanced slightly differently for his LP guitars

I was going to say, if JZ has time to comment on that perhaps?

 

[Paulzx]

Don't burn any bridges

You're kidding aren't you, most of them already don't talk to me on the helix forum, just because i'm honest, I really rate the Helix if you know how to go about getting good tones, but I'm always talking about Fractal over there because i think it's helpful to have discussions about comparisons. Apparently you can't do that though lol.

 

[Paulzx]

Excellent! I'll try this on Phil's FM3 to get it closer to the III. You rock, Matt!

Hey John, is Phil using the FM3 at home then or does he still use the Cybertwin?

 

[jzguitar]

Hey John, is Phil using the FM3 at home then or does he still use the Cybertwin?

Mostly a Blackstar Silverline combo at home, but the FM3 sometimes as well.

 

[Paulzx]

Here is some of the experimenting I've been doing - it's the JMP block from Phil's preset with a clean layer added. The clean on its own is pretty bright/thin but its main function is to add some sparkle/texture to the heavy tone. It works well for the chorus of Photograph.

Yep I guess it would help there. The band have over the years, changed the way they play some of these songs, a couple of times, which is one of the things I love about them because it creates some extra interest for us die hard's.

Have they ever tried to do the chorus clean like the record?

 

[Paulzx]

Yes saw a video of Phil explaining this and tuning was off but they still went with it on final cut

The tape had slowed down a bit in the end so Pyromania was always a bit off standard tuning. Photograph was tuned down also.
Not heard that story before about the strobe tuner that John just mentioned but it does explain why nothing really sounds right when you try and play along lol

 

[Paulzx]

You will always have a home in Fractal land .

I do feel more at home here.. I feel like I'm having an affair lol