# How does Meshuggah make that noise in "Mind's Mirrors"



## Kali Yuga (Mar 20, 2011)




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## MF_Kitten (Mar 20, 2011)

Super loose and floppy strings, possibly through a tremolo dive bomb.


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## AySay (Mar 20, 2011)

pretty sure they're just de-tuning the low F after picking.


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## Poparad (Mar 20, 2011)

Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me, too. Considering that I've never seen them with a trem equipped guitar (correct me if I'm wrong), then they're probably just all detuning the string at the tuning peg.


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## Kali Yuga (Mar 20, 2011)

That's what I thought it could be too, but I thought I'd ask. It sounds lower than F though.


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## Eric Christian (Mar 20, 2011)

Hitting the open low string and pushing the trem bar all the way down?


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## Aerospace274 (Mar 20, 2011)

They don't have trems though, they use fixed bridges right? I've asked this question before in the techniques forum. They make that noise on ALIVE too.  Even if it is just detuning, how do they give it such sustain?!


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## GATA4 (Mar 20, 2011)

You can make the same sound...just break your lowest string and pick at it


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## Alwballe (Mar 20, 2011)

Im in a meshuggah "for the fun" band, and i dont know if meshuggah does this, but when we play it we use something as simple as this:







That in combination with a good feel and timing (belive me its not easy to get it good) sounds pretty much exactly like on Catch 33.


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## Aerospace274 (Mar 21, 2011)

So you just drop it to slack tension or so? How does it ring so long though? It sounds like half of that section is one long note, man! Crazy shit, lol.


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## Kr1zalid (Mar 21, 2011)

Aerospace274 said:


> They don't have trems though, they use fixed bridges right? I've asked this question before in the techniques forum. They make that noise on *ALIVE* too.  Even if it is just detuning, how do they give it such sustain?!


 
ALIVE?

or LIVE?

If it's the latter, any videos??


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## Detuned0 (Mar 21, 2011)

If you are using a PODxt twist your large "Effects" knob until it has the last effects setup selected (Cave Reverb). Then just make a slight pick scrape or harmonic and let it sit for awhile and you have the intro sound to "Shed".


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## Variant (Mar 21, 2011)

I believe their bridges are fixed, so I'd be guessing it's a 'digital' effect doing the divebomb.


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## vampiregenocide (Mar 21, 2011)

They may have tuned down one of their universes to play that part I don't know. I think Tool have done the same thing on a couple songs.


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## elrrek (Mar 21, 2011)

They recorded it on an escalator.

They stuck a POD on the top stair of the escalator, turned the recorded on, turn the escalator on and just changed gears on the escalator when the y wanted to change note.

They have a friend in this shopping mall, who let them sneak in at night and do it.


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## MF_Kitten (Mar 21, 2011)

Variant said:


> I believe their bridges are fixed, so I'd be guessing it's a 'digital' effect doing the divebomb.



they have several LACS 8 strings other than the ones they mainly use live and for most of the recording stuff. Among these, i'm pretty sure they have one each with tremolos made for them by Ibanez. Fredrik now has a Kahler tremolo on one of his LACS 8's as well.


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## Captain Shoggoth (Mar 21, 2011)

^Ah, I always wondered how he did the solos in Spasm and Stengah haha


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## Jogeta (Mar 21, 2011)

Digitech Whammy Pedal?


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## Aerospace274 (Mar 21, 2011)

Kr1zalid said:


> ALIVE?
> 
> or LIVE?
> 
> If it's the latter, any videos??


Nah, if they did it live i'd have had it figured out by now. No, between the songs sometimes and in the intro of Alive they do it. I really like the sound haha, not gonna lie!


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## josh pelican (Mar 21, 2011)




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## Kali Yuga (Mar 21, 2011)

josh pelican said:


>


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## Malkav (Mar 22, 2011)

Meshuggah definitly do have whammy bar equipped 8-strings, I have an interview with Frederik in guitar player where he talks about how they had to weld the baseplates off two Lo-pros to make the 8 string one. I think this might have actually been for their first Ibanez 8s, the Matt Black ones with 1 pickup. Seems about the right time period.


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## SYLrules88 (Mar 22, 2011)

for the intro of a jam track i made, i detuned the F to roughly Bb (kinda tough to tell what note at that point  ) and just struck it hard once, let it ring for a short bit, then put it as the intro but i reversed the track so it goes low to high. sounds pretty cool and satisfies the sort of effect i was looking to achieve.

you could always buy one of those D tuna tuning keys? my bass player has one so he can easily switch from standard to drop D. ive never used one so i dont know how adjustable they are, like if you can set it to go down like 3 steps when you hit the switch?


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## C3R3BRUM (Mar 22, 2011)

Yeah, Meshuggah definitely have trems equipped with most of their guitars. Their Nevborns had pretty decent trems from what they say. I spoke with Fred one time at a show about 2 years ago just after Obzen came out. He said the new Ibanez 8's they have are his favorite. He said the trems are great and he can divebomb the hell outta the strings and they'll stay in tune. Anyone tryout the Seymour Duncan Blackouts for 8 string? How are they? I'm thinking about getting em for my Schecter V-8. Wanna replace my EMG808's in it.


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## avenger (Mar 22, 2011)

Well you see, this sound falls under the djent category meaning no one will ever be able to discribe or agree on what exactly is happening.


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## MF_Kitten (Mar 22, 2011)

avenger said:


> Well you see, this sound falls under the djent category meaning no one will ever be able to discribe or agree on what exactly is happening.



hahahaha!

to clarify though, their older 8 strings with the fixed bridges are made from two ibanez trems (lo-pro?) with the sustain block removed, somehow fused together in the middle, and bolted to the body. this is probably how they ended up with the FX-EDGE bridges from the 2228.

they also have some that have functioning trems, probably made in the same way, by fusing two trems together.

in later time, fredrik has at least one 8 string with a kahler tremolo. whether it's a modded old one or a new one, i don't know.

for Mind's Mirrors they either used the trems to divebomb, or the strings were just tuned loose enough to make that sound when struck hard.


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## goherpsNderp (Mar 22, 2011)

edit: SOME PEOPLE missing the point that they do the divebomb noise LIVE and are seen doing so without tem-equipped guitars.

the only thing i can think of is a pitch-shifter pedal that is somehow set to shift downward instead of up? if that's even possible. no idea. i don't really touch effects.

as far as in-studio though, i saw a video of mnemic making their last album and they had someone standing next to them with their hand on the tuner to manually detune and re....tune.... the string as they needed lol


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## MF_Kitten (Mar 22, 2011)

ah, do they really? i never heard that... are there clips? do they do it on the ALIVE dvd/cd?

i thought they just played the low F repeatedly to make that menacing drone, sometimes playing conflicting harmonies to each other and stuff to make evil sounding shit happen.


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## rythmic_pulses (Mar 22, 2011)

I personally believe they hit the 8th string tuned down really low below B0 on the eighth string then reversed it and looped it then cut the hit out to make the wavering sound when the voice comes in hope i explained it?

EDIT: Live sometimes they use the soundclip to open shows


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## Aerospace274 (Mar 22, 2011)

MF_Kitten said:


> ah, do they really? i never heard that... are there clips? do they do it on the ALIVE dvd/cd?
> 
> i thought they just played the low F repeatedly to make that menacing drone, sometimes playing conflicting harmonies to each other and stuff to make evil sounding shit happen.


They do it on ALIVE, but not during songs. On ALIVE, there's an intermission between each song with clips from the road and such and sometimes it just has that menacing rumble from Mind's Mirror's playing over the video's sound.


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## Eric Christian (Mar 23, 2011)

Something I thought was interesting in the 2011 Ibanez catalog on page 11 there is a picture of Tony MacAlpine with a RG2228 that appears to have a tremolo bridge on it. Kinda fuzzy but it looks like some type of Floyd Rose design to me.


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## Malkav (Mar 23, 2011)

Ihsahn also received a trem equipped 8-string, I believe it's a Takeutchi that Ibanez used. As far as I'm aware the custom shop models have yet to be seen sporting real Ibanez Edge series bridges, I really just wish they'd hurry the fuck up and release a Lo-Pro Edge for 8-string.


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## Kamikaze7 (Mar 23, 2011)

Eric Christian said:


> Something I thought was interesting in the 2011 Ibanez catalog on page 11 there is a picture of Tony MacAlpine with a RG2228 that appears to have a tremolo bridge on it. Kinda fuzzy but it looks like some type of Floyd Rose design to me.



I had noticed that the other day too... Up until I saw that pic, I thought one of two things... One was that Marten and Fredrik are still using the fixed bridge models. Two was that in looking closey at that Tony MacAlpine pic in the Ibanez cataolg, I noticed that he has an actual Edge 8 tremolo on that guitar...

Surprising to see, yes. But is that something Ibanez will ever do as a production option, I highly doubt it...


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## The Honorable (Mar 23, 2011)

elrrek said:


> They recorded it on an escalator.
> 
> They stuck a POD on the top stair of the escalator, turned the recorded on, turn the escalator on and just changed gears on the escalator when the y wanted to change note.
> 
> They have a friend in this shopping mall, who let them sneak in at night and do it.



wat is this i dont even


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## sun_of_nothing (Mar 23, 2011)

however its made, it now is classified as "superdjent"


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