Steve Lukather CAE 3+SE preset

guitarnerdswe

Fractal Fanatic
FOR THOSE WHO JUST WANT TO ROCK, THIS PRESET USES A USER CAB, SPECIFICALLY OH 412 MAR-CB V30 57-04, WHICH YOU CAN GET HERE:
https://www.ownhammer.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164&products_id=374

The preset, scene description and (out of date) sound clip are at the bottom of this post.

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BACKGROUND

After Lukather left Rivera, he went back to a somewhat simplified version of his previous CAE/VHT rig. The rig changed a bit over the years, and I've chosen to emulate the best parts of it.

GUITARS

He most often used Music Man Luke II guitars. These had alder bodies, rosewood fingerboards, maple necks, two point non-locking tremolos, and EMG 85/SLV/SLV pickups. For a number of years, he also used a Fernandes Sustainer in the neck of his two main guitars. Other variations included the BFR series, which had bodes made out of a mahogany tone block, alder wings and a maple top. There was also the odd ebony fingerboard (the Dargie Delight), and a gold guitar with EMG X-series pickups and a neck totally made out of rosewood.

THE ROUTING

The general routing for his rig is pretty standard for how Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics usually does his rigs. Everything is pre preamp, except the delays, tremolo and the pitch/chorus/reverb. The only slightly unusual thing is that his leslie sim is before the preamp. I've added a solo boost (vol/pan block 1) after the cab, just because most people will probably find that useful in general (even though Luke never used one).

WAH

He used a Dunlop Cry Baby DCR2SR rack wah. I've simulated his settings for it.

VIBE
He used a CAE Bad Cat Vibe for his vibe tones. I've copied his speed and depth.

OCTAVE
For some time, he had a BOSS OC3 octave pedal in the back of the rig. I've used the ring modulator set up to work as a octave down, because it gives me more control over the tone than the octave type in the pitch block.

LESLIE
For the largest part of the rigs existence, he used a Line 6 Mod Pro set up for a leslie simulation. He used it before the preamp. The X-state is set up for a slow speed, and the Y-state for a fast speed.

OVERDRIVE
He sometimes used an overdrive for his lead tones. He used two different ones. First, a modded Tube Screamer, and later a Radial Tonebone. I've choosen the Ibanez Tube Screamer.

PREAMP

He used primarily a stock CAE 3+SE. I've used his settings for the tone controls, gain and bright switches, and tweaked other stuff by ear to get it to sound more like Luke's. I've used the GEQ in the amp block to simulate the global EQ on the real deal. I've used less low end on the global EQ though, since he used small 2x12 cabs and I'm using an IR of a 4x12. He rarely used a clean tone, and when he did, it was mostly on the bridge pickup. His used CH2 for all rhythms, and CH3 for pretty much all the leads.

POWER AMP

He used a VHT Classic EL34 power amp for his center dry cabinet. The outer two cabinets were powered by a VHT 2/90/2 KT88 power amp. These two cabinets were both dry AND wet, so his setup was very unusual being W/D // D // W/D. Basically a stereo setup with an added dry cab in the middle.

CABINETS AND SPEAKERS

His cabinets were for the most part three CAE 2x12 with Celestion Vintage 30s. I don't know of any IRs of such a cabinet. My preset use the OH 412 MAR-CB V30 57-04 IR from Ownhammer, since I think it sounds the best with this preset. Get it here: https://www.ownhammer.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164&products_id=374

COMPRESSOR
Lukather didn't use a compressor after he switched from Rivera back to the CAE/VHT setup. I've included a more subtle version of the compressor found in my "Lukather Soldano X88R" preset, but it's bypassed in all the scenes for authenticity.

TREMOLO
He used a CAE Super Tremolo. The settings changed over the years. I've chosen to use tremolo block 1 as a no thrills triangle tremolo like he sometimes used. Tremolo block 2 is set up to sound like his "killswitch" tremolo, a square tremolo with the depth at max.

CHORUS/PITCH/REVERB
For the first versions of the rig, he used a TC Electronic G-Force for chorus, pitch and reverb. I've used slightly modified versions of the chorus and pitch from my "Lukather Soldano X88R" preset, and the medium hall reverb. He only used these effects on clean tones. In later version of the rig, he used a rack mounted Boss CE1 as a chorus, but by then, he never used the clean channel any more. Therefore, I've chosen the TC setup, because I think people in general will find it more useful.

DELAY

Lukather used two Lexicon PCM70 for delays, both running V2 firmware. One was running the preset called "Pan delays", the other one "Circular delays". Both are multitap delays, and "Circular delays" also use some diffusion. Besides all of the recordings of Lukather, I have demo clips from users of the PCM70 and the actual settings of the presets in a chart. I've spent many hours figuring out the "mystery" of his delays.

Lukather used "Pan delays" as his main delay when he returned to the 3+SE rig. "Circular delays" was often added in parallel to the other unit/preset (think Little Wing from the Paris 1990 concert). "Circular delays" was sometimes used on it's own, but not very often. During the mid 90s however (Tambu-era), he used the "Circular delays" quite a lot by itself.

In this general period of time, Lukather's delays were NOT synced to the songs tempo. He also didn't use two different volume levels for the "Pan delays" that he used in the Soldano rig very often. When he did (like in "Girl Goodbye" from the Amsterdam live DVD, it was generally set to about 3dB louder than what he normally used, as marked by Bradshaw on the front of the PCM70 running that preset. When the "Pan delays" was set to the louder level, he never added the "Circular delays". There is a vol/pan block in front of the first multidelay block to simulate this.

POST PRODUCTION TONE SHAPING

I've added a filter block and a PEQ block at the end of the grid to do the final tone shaping. I've chosen to simulate the Neve 1066 preamp/EQ using the Waves V-EQ3 plugin, since that is what Lukather has in his studio. Bypass these and the cab block if you're using a real cab.

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SCENE DESCRIPTION

  1. Typical clean tone.
  2. Clean tone with both delays for ballads.
  3. Typical dirty rhythm tone.
  4. Dirty rhythm with "Pan delays" and the leslie (used with rolled down volume on the guitar).
  5. Dirty rhythm with both delays and the vibe.
  6. Typical main lead tone with "Pan delays"
  7. Lead tone with both delays.
  8. Lead tone with "Pan delays" and the Tube Screamer.
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SOUND CLIP

Here is a short lip of how the preset sounds. Unfortunately, I don't have an EMG-equipped guitar that will truly do the preset justice. The guitar is a dual humbucker Fender Lead III, the neck humbucker is split for the neck tones. Once again, forgive the playing.

 

Attachments

  • Lukather CAE 3+SE.syx
    6.3 KB · Views: 321
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Thank you so much for sharing this and your other preset!
Both of these translate wonderfully for my Ibanez RG (Tone Zone bridge, PAF Joe neck) totally plug and play.
Superior presets.
Thanks again ;)
Greg
 
Do you mind sharing exactly which ones ? I'm always open to trying something different ..., especially when it comes to IRs !

THANKS !
 
FOR THOSE WHO JUST WANT TO ROCK, THIS PRESET USES A USER CAB, SPECIFICALLY OH 412 BOG-ST V30 57-05, WHICH YOU CAN GET HERE:
http://www.ownhammer.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=153&products_id=360

The preset, scene description and sound clip are at the bottom of this post.


SOUND CLIP

Here is a short lip of how the preset sounds. Unfortunately, I don't have an EMG-equipped guitar that will truly do the preset justice. The guitar is a dual humbucker Fender Lead III, the neck humbucker is split for the neck tones. Once again, forgive the playing.



My Axe doesnt like your preset - it wont load for me?? Anyone else have this issue?
Im running an Axe XL with Quantum v1.

Also will not load your other Lukather X88R preset.

Would love to try out your presets
 
My Axe doesnt like your preset - it wont load for me?? Anyone else have this issue?
Im running an Axe XL with Quantum v1.

Also will not load your other Lukather X88R preset.

Would love to try out your presets

That's the first I've heard of it not loading. Can you load other peoples presets? What error do you get?
 
Yeah other presets load OK. But nothing happens when i load yours - like, nothing! No error message, no file is overwritten, nothing!

I've never seen this occur before. I'll keep checking around - thanks for responding
 
Do you mind sharing exactly which ones ? I'm always open to trying something different ..., especially when it comes to IRs !

THANKS !

I actually posted to the wrong thread :) My Beat Clip clip is the Lukather Soldano X88R preset also by @guitarnerdswe.

But the IR's I used in the Soldano preset are: F043 4x12 Recto SM75, F044 4x12 Recto M160. Default settings in a stereo Ultra Res Cab.

For this Luke CAE preset I used the F061 4x12 Fractal V30 AT4047. I changed from the SM57 mic sim to none also.
 
Since there is a bug which causes the gain data to disappear from the PEQ block, here is the correct data:

CAE 3+SE PEQ1 –

Band 1:
Freq 1 570.4 Hz
Q 1 0.302
Gain 1 0.00 dB

Band 5:
Freq 5 890.2 Hz
Q 5 0.349
Gain 5 1.00 dB

Band 2:
Freq 2 1198 Hz
Q 2 0.451
Gain 2 0.00 dB

Band 4:
Freq 4 2400 Hz
Q 4 0.248
Gain 4 2.00 dB

Band 3:
Freq 3 2200 Hz
Q 3 0.399
Gain 3 0.00 dB
 
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This preset sounds great on my Axe FXII MarkII. I tried the OH_212_BOG-SH_FN-42_Studio-Mode IR and it sounds great with my EBMM LIII - thanks!!
 
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