That "elusive" 80s tone....

MrGuitarabuse

Fractal Fanatic
Yes, yes, yes... beating a dead horse I assume...

Anyway, with now two weeks ahead of me of at home writing reports and stuff I also get plenty of time for tweaking and playing. With recent upgrade regarding compressor and @guitarnerdswe delay blocks I thought I have started hunting down 80s, Luke, Landau etc tones, clean and lead.

Love this clean compressed sparkly rack tone here. At 1:42 he is starting with "dry" (although, doesnt sound 100% dry) and adding comp, chorus, delay.




For leads love this guys smooth tone here


I will start tweaking and see how it goes. If anyone got suggestions to achieve these tones, feel free to chime in. This will after all these years with AXE-FX be my first attempt to seriously start tweaking. I usually fire up the AXE-FX and get stuck playing on whatever preset I was playing the last time, or some downloaded or purchased presets, so all pointers and suggestions most welcome, Thanks
 
search the forum. we analysed this in great depth and even produced presets based on what we discovered. (this was all on the II). we didn't have the tri-chorus in the II, so we had to fudge it to some extent, but it's now in the III so it should be easier. if you wanna get into research mode and make some new presets, i'm sure they'll be gratefully received!
 
search the forum. we analysed this in great depth and even produced presets based on what we discovered. (this was all on the II). we didn't have the tri-chorus in the II, so we had to fudge it to some extent, but it's now in the III so it should be easier. if you wanna get into research mode and make some new presets, i'm sure they'll be gratefully received!
Thanks... yes found one thread (so far). Again @guitarnerdswe great breakdown
 
Thanks for the shout out! Even though Landau and Luke had similar rigs and tones, there were some differences:

Amp tones:
Both used X88R preamps, but Lukes was the prototype. Landaus was the production model. Luke generally had more gain, bu his tone was also smoother and fatter. Landaus was thinner with more rasp. Both ran SS power amps, so turn the sag parameter to zero.

Delays:
You already have the PCM70 delay sounds that Luke used. Landau generally used the PCM42s which were mono units, so he panned them L/R. A typical setting would be 250 ms on one side, 500 ms on the other. His delays were usually more prominent, with high level and low feedback. Lukes were more subtle and washy, due to lower level and higher feedback. Landau did have a PCM70 in his rack, but he rarely used it.

Chorus:
Luke was a TC1210 guy, Landau a Tri-stereo guy. Landaus chorus was much faster and intense, Lukes was wider but also more subtle in a way.

Pitch:
Similar tones, but Landau often had his louder in the mix.

With that being said, there is a Luke X88R preset for the Axe-Fx III coming. It's done on the effects side of things, but I haven't settled on which IRs to use yet. Sadly, I won't have access to my electrics for a few weeks, so it will be a while before I can release it.
 
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I love these sounds,
Here's another great video demo, which is more in the 80's Landau territory.



I have this preset that's been cobbled together from various presets others have created, so I can't take credit for it. I don't find it useful for anything much other than messing around/noodling with.
 

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  • Clean Tri Chorus.syx
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the chorus and delays bit is the easy part, imo. it's nailing the compression...but with the new compressors we have now, it should be easy.

i think i remember putting up a preset on axechange back in the day, called "dripping wet" and there's also an 80's guitar preset in the big bundle i put up a few months ago.
 
i would recommend using the pitch block to emulate the H3000 microshift delays (if that's what's happening here, it's kinda hard to tell). the pitch isn't modulated, it's fixed. a different sound than using modulation in the delay block.
 
as for the compression. i found the manual for the dbx and gleaned that it's a VCA feed forward comp with an RMS detector. attack is dependent on out level and release is dependent on front panel settings, which they don't clarify.

in the vid, he has it set to almost 8:1, with a hard knee. i reckon the attack is 15ms and the release is very fast, but also smooth. maybe 100ms. i've got it after the amp, which is how i think he has it here. up to 10db of compression when he switches to humbucker and hits it hard, so set the threshold appropriately. i reckon auto makeup and auto att/rel should be off, but i'm happy to be corrected on that.

you can see his trichorus settings in the vid, but i'm really not sure what the H3000 is doing, i don't think it's delay, but i can see "coarse" and "delay" on the screen, so i think it might be a pitch shifter acting as a dual chorus, so i'd use the detune, pan left and right, set some small delay amount (different each side, just a few ms) and then adjust the shift to taste...probably somewhere between 5 and 11 cents. plus on one side and minus on the other.

ok, i'll let you get on with it!
 
Landau and Luke used the 4:1 ratio, with the occasional 6:1 thrown in. Kristian (the guy in the video, he's from the same town as me), uses the 6:1 ratio in the video. There is no 8:1 ratio marked on the panel.

Anyway, the Eventide is most likely doing the classic micropitchshift settings:

Left: +9 cent, 0 ms delay
Right: -9 cent, 25 ms delay

Everybody and their grandmother used that preset. If you see an Eventide doing pitch/detune, you can bet your money on that it's those settings.
 
I bought Axe 3 only for trichorus but can't reproduce that sound, I hope anybody can do that for all 80's lovers!
 
I bought Axe 3 only for trichorus but can't reproduce that sound, I hope anybody can do that for all 80's lovers!

It's not too hard with the tri chorus type. There are more things to the tone in the video though. Like that it's direct, all the other effects, heavy EQ etc.
 
Camilo Velandia (@camilovelandiamusic) made the perfect preset a few years back:
The preset is on his website for free. As many have mentioned, THAT 80’s sound need more than just the tri. Active pups (or at least in «out of phase»-position) -> Hard compressor -> EQ with a big dip in the mid -> pitch -9/+9 -> trichorus -> modulated delay -> big reverb are all equal important.
 
Thanks all for chiming in so far. I have plenty of homework over the weekend :D
First goal as said to dial the compression, I saw somewhere ratio 4:1 was used as mentioned by @guitarnerdswe and will try higher as well and see how that goes with some various settings from @simeon above and some other info found online...

Its time to bring out my 1990 Valley Arts Steve Lukather custom pro out of retirement it seems :D

to be continued
 
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