Meshuggah Koloss Tone

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df88

Member
Has any one come close to the tone in koloss or is it even possible on this thing (axe fx2); Im looking for a CLEAR tone for low tuned palm muting. It seems all amp models have the same fizziness too them that cannot get cleaned up. Im not the type of person that dwells on modeling of existing amps and to be honest I kind of want an amp that has different fizziness/gain sound to them but I suppose it is the way the axe was designed that all are similiar in this respect. Give me a synthetic amp with some balls please. I can't argue with Axe's clean and mid gain capabilities; I concede that those are well done.
Side note: I apologize if my terminology is vague or plain wrong but I technically do NOT know what I am talking about; I do know audibly. Hah.

I also do not believe Koloss is the best tone but it is the only one I can think of for reference.
Use the beginning of this song (@ 0:27) for reference:
MESHUGGAH - Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube


Cheers
 
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You need to back off the gain on the amps to achieve that kind of tone.. Maybe try the Fas Modern with the drive at around 1.5 max! Djent tones in general are all about getting the right kind of tone BEFORE hitting the amp input.

Use a peaking EQ and a compressor to accentuate the area around 800hz-1.5Khz and to squish the signal before the amp model. Pedal mode, ratio somewhere between 3-5:1. Use the compressors output level knob to drive the input of the amp model to get the gain up to where you want - just don't push it too much to keep clarity and not get a load of fizz (=distortion). Also be very careful of the low end. Use the PEQ to shave off the low end on your signal and try not to get too excited with the low knob on the amp model.

Some people have had success with the Tubescreamer in front of their amps, what this basically is doing is the job of the compressor and EQ I mentioned earlier, but you could try to use the T808 OD model instead of / in combination with the tips I mentioned earlier.

After all this it's about the choice of IR in your Cab model. You could try Kalthallen IR's (linked in the IR section) for this type of sounds.
 
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Try using a high pass blocking filter after the amp model, say start at 7k and go as low as 3k. Alternatively try the same filter before the amp block results will widely vary.
 
What amp sim are you using? How much gain? how high is the master volume?

For this style of playing you need very little gain depending on how hot your pickups are. I have a djent style patch that uses the fas modern with the amp gain at 1.90 and the master around 3. Compress and gate heavily for rhythm playing. Also, try rolling off all stuff above around 10-12kHz. That will get rid of some fizz for sure.
The other thing is that the guitars are deceptive on koloss, it seems like they have very little gain compared to some of their other records. As always with meshuggah, the bass tone has a LOT to do with how the guitars sounds since they almost always play the same parts. It that sense the bass and the guitars act as one instrument and really depend on each other to make a composite sound.
 
Cubase with custom IR's I have read.
I have cubase with their presets and they are muddy as well. It could be pickups (my EMG 808's) or my mixing but I am not so sure. If anyone's interested I can post a few of the patches I attempted with the Axe. I also have a recording of my tone in another post (search Fatty 8 string in my posts) for the tone I have currently. I use cubase and Axe tones but am not really satisfied with it.
 
Alot of that tone you hear on that CD is actually Dicks Bass!!! They're just so insanely tight it's hard to tell. And I'm pretty sure they don't even have Axe Fx II's yet :)
 
Hahaha, yeah. I've heard a few sound checks and it's amazing just how insane Dicks bass sounds on it's own. It's BRUTAL!!!! And Fredrik and Martens guitars as awesome as they are... don't sound that crazy heavy alone. But when mixed together.... it's pure MAGIC!
 
The bass is definitely part of the overall fatness although I think it's too LOW in Koloss; the bass only part in "Break those Bones..." is pretty quiet and overall. Obzen guitar tones I actually dont like at all (they sound thin and grainy); it's all bass with that one. Yeah, pretty sure they still got the ultras.
 
That type of tone is all about the bass and guitars becoming one instrument. All the crush of the tone is bass.


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It's pretty easy to get a guitar tone similar to theirs with a Recto New amp sim or FAS Modern with the voicing set to modern and not neutral. Not too much sag and power tube bias and crank up the definition a lot. Tube screamer with boosted mid's. Don't overdo the mid's on the amp, but use a graphic eq to really suck out a lot of 500k or around there. Picking the right kind of cab helps too. Something like a Mesa V30 with a Royer 121 or SM57 mixed with a German cab or something a little more mid scooped helps get close to their tone. They actually use a good amount of gain, but don't use too much where you are losing tightness. As everyone else will tell you their Bass tone is soooooooo huge in terms of how their whole sound is.
 
@df88
I was just reading this post and go to listen to your tone on soundclound out of curiosity and I really like your heavy stuff (meshuggah, desert storm, outro, v5). Congrats man, your sound is really fantastic, I dig your tones and mixes.
Is it possible for you to post some of your presets here or on axechange ? I don't want to copy at all but I'd be so pleased to try out that kind of presets.
 
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