How to get this 90s thrash metal tone? (Heathen - Victims of Deception)

C

calemben

Member
I haven't been able to find anything on what amps and cabs and mics were used on this album. What does it sound like to you, and what would you recommend using?

 
Sounds similar to some older Metallica Boogie amp tones. Search for some Master of Puppets and And Justice for All presets for a good starting point. USA IIC+ or USA Lead with the 5 band boogie style graphic EQ should do nicely.
 
There is something that made me think that, too, though there also seems to be a Marshall element. I can't get and haven't heard that Puppets punchy tone with any of the Boogies, so I'm not getting close to the Heathen.
 
Metallica slaved their boogies out to Marshall JCM800's, then later on used Mesa strategy 400 Power amps with studio preamps.

kirk1986rack.jpg

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Also: http://www.chain-metal.nl/mark3/metallica.html
Amp setting notes from Flemming Rasmussen who made his mark and secured his reputation from having produced and engineered Metallica's early classic trilogy of albums; "Ride The Lightning", "Master Of Puppets" and "And Justice For All".
 
crg123 said:
Metallica slaved their boogies out to Marshall JCM800's, then later on used Mesa strategy 400 Power amps with studio preamps...Amp setting notes from Flemming Rasmussen who made his mark and secured his reputation from having produced and engineered Metallica's early classic trilogy of albums; "Ride The Lightning", "Master Of Puppets" and "And Justice For All".
Click to expand...

It's interesting such different sounds came through the same engineer. Only Puppets is great. Lightning is decent. Justice is weak....though I think some of the problem there is the overbearing kick in the mix.
 
I believe Master of Puppets was the first album they used Boogies on. Ride the Lightning was a Marshall JCM800 2203 and a tubescreamer to my limited knowledge. Try switching the tube type on the IIC+ model to EL34 and use a Marshall style 4x12 IR (Celestion V30's or G12-65's I think).
 
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Does anyone have close tone matching experiences on this album guitar tone? I would love to have tone from that album, one of my all time favourites.. I have tried to tone match it but somehow i just can't get it close, it just capture too much hi frequencys and cut too much from some mid ranges i think. I am out of ideas..
 
http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=3754

Here. I made some tone matching with iZotope Ozone5 since i couldn't get close enough results with Axe tone matching somehow :S Anyway, it sounds REALLY bass heavy alone but if you record two tracks with 100% left/right panning and compare to song like "Opiate Of The Masses" you will notice that it is almost same. Just lacking some really high frequenys

EDIT: btw, i used Jackson RR24 with EMG pickups
 
I bit update for my Heathen Tone Matching. I made it much more accurate at this time and i think it is pretty damn close. Maybe only lacking for some low-mids but that's not a big deal

I uploaded tones to Axe Change but somehow links won't work this time so you can search for "Heathen TM Right" and "Heathen TM Left".. I made 2 tones because on album there was difference between left/right. Hope you like them =)

BTW: here is dropbox link for tone comparing, first is Heathen's and second one is my tone matching www.dropbox.com/s/tf5rsff9bqqxgqb/Heathen%20Tone.wav?dl=0
 
Sounds great, good job! :)

The patches don't sound good on my setup though... what configuration of the blocks did you use? were you using the drive , TM, cab ?
 
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Good to hear! :)
I am using just patches i uploaded to Axe Change. I made IR with iZotope EQ matching so i am using only Amp/cab setup. It sounds REALLY muddy and bass heavy alone, i usually just play along with some other patches. Those are mainly for recording and if you might know that usually guitar tones on an albums doesn't sound great alone but in the full mix they will sound right.
 
I have been trying to re-match this tone cause i think my previous attempt was not so good.. I can get the eq curve so close but it is always missing distortion on some frequencys. I know Axe is capable for this tone, i just don't know how to do it correctly :confused:
 
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