Kiwi Posted January 5, 2014 Posted January 5, 2014 I'm trying to get that smooth Magnum PI type sound - doesn't have to be exactly that sound but the sort of thick, chorused distortion that was common in the 80's. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OTvTv0EgIg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OTvTv0EgIg[/url] Please tell me if this is right: Guitar-->distortion-->chorus-->compressor-->amp ? It doesn't sound like it when I set this up.
Kiwi Posted January 5, 2014 Author Posted January 5, 2014 This gets close... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_1Mh2PIQYU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_1Mh2PIQYU[/url]
BigRedX Posted January 5, 2014 Posted January 5, 2014 Try one of the original Tom Scholtz Rockman pre-amps before looking at anything else.
waldflote8 Posted January 6, 2014 Posted January 6, 2014 Interesting watching the TH2 vid, I use a POD HD500 and the editing process is similar. Being a fan of 70's Mr Lifeson I'm a bit addicted to my chorus, but often found it difficult to get a good chorus + distortion sound at rehearsal/gig volume. Better if I back everything off a bit and a great (although expensive, at £40 ) purchase recently was an old Peavey Stereo Chorus combo. Run together with a valve head + closed cab (to give some bottom end),it's doing pretty much everything I want. For recording I prefer just to multi track with much milder FX and for home/headphones - the POD with cab/mic sims etc. Sadly never had the opportunity to try some Scholtz gear,.. had Digitec racks in the past which sounded great clean but lost it with distortion. Going way back I used Ibanez chorus + tubescreamer + booster to drive Marshall JMPs really hard, great at volume, but hopeless at home.
waldflote8 Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 He seems to have largely been Boston, playing a lot of the parts himself,.. ?? Boston in Edinburgh, 1979 was my first gig,.. they were rather good
BigRedX Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) [quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1389208272' post='2331431'] Scholz was part of Boston, wasn't he? [/quote] IIRC he was responsible for all the instrumental parts in Boston apart from the drums. If you can hear the guitar sound you want on any of the Boston tracks it will definitely be a Rockman that you need. You should probably also the check out the Roland GP8. They go for around £100 on eBay which is excellent value for money when you consider that it is essentially 8 Boss Pedals in a 1U rack with programability and MIDI. All except the delay and chorus/flanger are digitally controlled analogue circuits. At one point in the 80s it seemed that every rock/metal band had one of these somewhere in their signal chain. Edited January 9, 2014 by BigRedX
Kiwi Posted January 9, 2014 Author Posted January 9, 2014 OK, I have a patch on the MPXG2 which is called 'Boston'...IIRC it had too much distortion and lacked some note definition in the attack. But if/when I'm in the same country as the unit, I might explore in more detail and see if I can wind back the comp a little.
BigRedX Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Does the MPXG2 allow you to change the order of the effects? If so I would experiment with this. The accepted wisdom is for chorus to come after distortion, but I would also try the other way round. It would also be worth experimenting with running the effects in parallel if the unit allows it as that might gibe the definition that you are currently lacking. The original Rockman had just distortion, chorus and delay, so it might be worth turning off any other effects in the MPXG2 patch.
Kiwi Posted January 10, 2014 Author Posted January 10, 2014 yeah I'd always assumed chorus after distortion, but that TH2 vid does it the other way around. The MPX is a swiss army knife in terms of routing options. It's possible to do stuff with it that makes you wish it was over 16 and came from a liberated family.
ezbass Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 [quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1388920342' post='2327554'] Guitar-->distortion-->chorus-->compressor-->amp ? [/quote]Guitar-comp-dist-chorus is the usual way, although sometimes the dist and comp are reversed.
skankdelvar Posted January 13, 2014 Posted January 13, 2014 From Steve Lukather's web site - [url="http://www.stevelukather.com/media/34590/past-gear.pdf"]a history of his rig / guitars[/url] over the years. It's a 21 page PDF Thread from The Gear Page - [url="http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-1014392.html"]which pedals for Larry Carlton sound[/url] For more 80's session names and background, [url="http://guitarinternational.com/2010/09/30/first-call-the-top-studio-guitarists-of-the-%E2%80%9870%E2%80%99s-and-%E2%80%9880%E2%80%99s-look-back/"]this article[/url] from Guitar International
Kiwi Posted January 19, 2014 Author Posted January 19, 2014 Wow...what a treasure trove. I actually tried something like the set up described in the TH2 vid - basically going comp ->vol -> chorus -> split into A/B with A clean and B overdriven. Worked really well and the volume pedal allowed good control of the tone between clean and dirty.
Signal Path Posted June 17, 2015 Posted June 17, 2015 Distortion + Stereo chorus (very slow rate )or Boss Dimension even better + Compressor + very fast delay (min repeats) + Room Reverb Ultimate clean 80's (for me at least) Woodbeez - Scritti Politti Slave to the rhythm - Grace Jones Kiss - Prince
Ancient Mariner Posted June 18, 2015 Posted June 18, 2015 Not quite as big as the tone in vid 2, but a few weeks back I tried Crunchbox type distortion into a Rocktron Deep Blue chorus set slow, then digital delay - it was like "Hello 1980s" all over again. The dual amp tone is interesting, and I really appreciate the signal chain info.
Recommended Posts