# Meshuggah "Nothing" Tone Match EQ Test (Free Impulse Inside!)



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 19, 2011)

So I heard about "Match EQing" the other day and it really intrigued me (if you don't know what I'm talking about check out this thread: YT: Match EQ and IR Tutorial! - Ultimate Metal Forum). 

Basically you decide on a guitar tone you want to emulate, find a section in that song where it is guitar only. Then load that section into your DAW, and record a take of that same section with your own guitar in the same tuning with whatever amp emulation you want to use (I used my Axe FX, it can be a POD, Revalver, etc. whatever) with your cab sim OFF. Then you use an advanced EQ plugin that has match eqing (I used Ozone like the tutorial said to) to analyze the EQ spectrum of your take which is just amp emulation, and the real recording which is amp, cab, and mic. By analyzing the two you are basically able to subtract the amp from the EQ spectrum and create an EQ curve that represents what the cab and mic bring to the sonic spectrum for that tone. Then you can use that EQ to create an impulse and wah-lah, you have an impulse that makes your tone sound exactly like the tone from that CD even though you're playing a POD or Revalver or Axe FX or whatever.

I tried out matching the intro guitar to Stengah by Meshuggah on the album Nothing. As you can hear it came out pretty damn good. There are VERY small differences tonally, but to the untrained ear they would never hear the difference, and honestly it's probably not the tone so much as playing technique. I'll let you decide which take is mine and which is from the CD .

Meshuggah Nothing Match EQ Tone Test by Alexchapel on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

The impulse I made is set up for my Axe FX patch, but I tried it with other patches on my Axe and it sounded good so if you want to try it you can grab it here: Download MeshuggahImpulse.wav for free on Filesonic.com

Lemme know if you try it how it sounds with your set up!


----------



## Dan (Sep 19, 2011)

Why didn't you match the dreamy sounds of 'Freebird' to your setup is all i want to know?! 

Seriously though this sounds like a pretty cool idea. Especially for those who are always doing internet covers. I might have a play around with this and see if i can get some really boutique tones from it. So i can finally play:


----------



## Winspear (Sep 19, 2011)

Awesome, thanks for the explanation and the patch. I've heard of this before but never really got my head round it until now. Really good match! Going to have to try this myself.


----------



## col (Sep 19, 2011)

Nice, it's very close. I'll have to give this a try.

I wish you had uploaded the impulse to google docs or something though, filesonic sucks monkey dick.


----------



## Winspear (Sep 19, 2011)

Am I right in thinking that the results from this would be best if you were in possession of a DI used on the actual recording? Obviously there will be differences between guitar tones/playing when using the impulse yourself but I'd imagine you should effectively be able to copy their rig that way.


----------



## Oxidation_Shed (Sep 19, 2011)

That sounds pretty spot on. The second sounds a bit fuller to my ear however, but only slightly. Go on, put me out of my misery: which is which?


----------



## Tree (Sep 19, 2011)

Glad to see this worked out for you! Nobody seemed to pay me any mind when I posted about it in that other thread


----------



## nojyeloot (Sep 19, 2011)

This is absolutely jaw dropping. My mind just went into overload at the tones available to me now.

1st on the books, Scar Symmetry 

Thanks Alex.

PS - regarding the Meshuggah clip (which blew my mind), I think yours is the first clip. Am I correct?


----------



## Iheartmidgetbooty (Sep 19, 2011)

Holy moses, I will have to try this!!!! I've been having trouble with tone and I think this might be a godsend, thanks alex for sharing the info, and might I say.....which one is yours for fucksake?


----------



## Scar Symmetry (Sep 19, 2011)

Oxidation_Shed said:


> That sounds pretty spot on. The second sounds a bit fuller to my ear however, but only slightly. Go on, put me out of my misery: which is which?



#1 is Alex. Sounds great man.


----------



## Winspear (Sep 19, 2011)

I haven't tried the patch yet but from some I've downloaded before (e.g the constant motion one) results can be pretty dissapointing. The whole process is based entirely on the difference between the two tones, so if yours tone isn't fairly similar to the fake (Alexs') results can be miles out. I'd love to make some myself but don't have the software  Apparently it can be done in Logic for free.


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 19, 2011)

EtherealEntity said:


> I haven't tried the patch yet but from some I've downloaded before (e.g the constant motion one) results can be pretty dissapointing. The whole process is based entirely on the difference between the two tones, so if yours tone isn't fairly similar to the fake (Alexs') results can be miles out. I'd love to make some myself but don't have the software  Apparently it can be done in Logic for free.



This is true, I can upload my Axe FX patch that I used but if you don't have an Axe FX then it doesn't help either hahaha. I did it in Logic but I had Ozone so I used that per the tutorials instructions. Then I downloaded Voxengo Deconvolver and opened it with Crossover for Mac (let's you install and run Windows programs on Mac).

And for everyone wondering yes mine is the 1st. Like someone else said the original seems slightly fuller, but that's about it.


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 19, 2011)

Tree said:


> Glad to see this worked out for you! Nobody seemed to pay me any mind when I posted about it in that other thread



Yeah it was actually your post where I discovered it, so thank you! hahaha


----------



## leonardo7 (Sep 19, 2011)

Awesome. Very very similar sounding. I was guessing yours was the first one because upon close inspection I can tell the first one is EMGs and the second one has that ever so slightly warmer passive pickup sound to it. Knowing that info along with my experienced ear is what I used to distinguish them and I was right! But maybe Im wrong and just came to that conclusion by coincidence but thats what I listened for and was correct. I just listened for which one sounded like EMGs and which one sounded like passives. Amazing that you can get it to sound so close with different rigs and guitars.


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 19, 2011)

leonardo7 said:


> Awesome. Very very similar sounding. I was guessing yours was the first one because upon close inspection I can tell the first one is EMGs and the second one has that ever so slightly warmer passive pickup sound to it. Knowing that info along with my experienced ear is what I used to distinguish them and I was right! But maybe Im wrong and just came to that conclusion by coincidence but thats what I listened for and was correct. I just listened for which one sounded like EMGs and which one sounded like passives. Amazing that you can get it to sound so close with different rigs and guitars.



Yup you're right. I think that would be the hardest thing to emulate is the pick ups, especially if the original track is passive and you're recording with active. I used my Stef B8 and it has EMG 808s. I thought my track still sounded active as well.


----------



## Oxidation_Shed (Sep 19, 2011)

It's amazing just how similar of a sound you can get with totally different gear. I am pretty much gobsmacked. Now if only my money short, student self could afford to blow a couple of hundred on Ozone just to fuck around with it :/


----------



## Winspear (Sep 19, 2011)

^ There's sure to be some free EQ matching plugins out there  I know the video stated they were 'shit' but might as well try and see what results you get


----------



## Tree (Sep 19, 2011)

EtherealEntity said:


> ^ There's sure to be some free EQ matching plugins out there  I know the video stated they were 'shit' but might as well try and see what results you get



The guy in the video, "Clark Kent" is a little biased with Ozone. The free ones are decent, but Ozone does deliver far more accurate results


----------



## Winspear (Sep 19, 2011)

Cool, I'll search something out and give it a try.

Here's one my friend made from the new SX album after I linked him this thread, sounds awesome to me! Done in Logic with EQMatch or something
SymphonyXTone by TChandler on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

He did miss out the part in the video which said to disable the cab, but it still sounds awesome. I guess the only reason to disable the cab is so that the EQ has a full frequency spectrum to deal with, and cutting is better than boosting etc.


----------



## Kurkkuviipale (Sep 19, 2011)

I found a thread about this on the Fractal Audio forums a while ago. Someone got some really nice replicas of Petrucci's tones including The Dark Eternal Night.


----------



## geofreesun (Sep 19, 2011)

wow i have to check this out! alex, would you share your axe fx patch too?


----------



## ZXIIIT (Sep 19, 2011)

Pretty fucking awesome!

Moar !


----------



## Lorcan Ward (Sep 19, 2011)

I tried this the other day, its crazy how close you can get to a tone. I find the only thing thing that ends up different is how heavy a guitarist picks and how tight their technique is. 

Here is my clip of a riff from Sequoia Throne:
Match EQ Test by drawnacrol on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

First part is the two riffs played one after the other. First mine then Luke's.
Second clip is mine.
Third clip is Luke Hoskin's.


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 19, 2011)

Here is the Axe FX patch that I matched it with to go along with the impulse if anyone has an Axe and wants to try it. Just disable the cab and load the impulse on your gtr channel in your DAW. Aside from using this for this tone even with the cab enabled this is one of my favorite patches i've programmed on my Axe so give'er a shot if you'd like!

Download Recto_New.syx for free on Filesonic.com


----------



## DrewsifStalin (Sep 20, 2011)

i have no clue how you pulled this off... I tried it with letter experiment and it was an awful fail


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 20, 2011)

DrewsifStalin said:


> i have no clue how you pulled this off... I tried it with letter experiment and it was an awful fail



You had to have just done something small wrong man, it was confusing at first but if you asked me to do it again I could do it in like 10 minutes. It's real easy once you understand it!


----------



## Stealthdjentstic (Sep 20, 2011)

Incredible, pretty crazy how similar it sounds despite very different gear.


----------



## TimTomTum (Sep 20, 2011)

This basically blew my mind... Have to try it.


----------



## Alekke (Sep 20, 2011)

Nice!

Can it be done in Audition? I'm kinda noob...


----------



## Marv Attaxx (Sep 20, 2011)

I tried it and failed hard 
I don't know what I'm doing wrong because I do it the exact same way as in the video by clark kent.
For some reason it sounds super-shitty and the part I recorded is actually slower afterwards 
I tried it with:
The Acacia Strain: Jonestown
Fear Factory: Oxidizer
Meshuggah: Stengah
Limp Bizkit: Eat You Alive, Bring it Back


----------



## penguin_316 (Sep 22, 2011)

I want to try this...but what quality do the audio clicks you're replicating need to be?

For some reason in Cubase 5 I cant just directly upload a track from a CD...it needs to be an AVI or MP3...etc. Wouldn't the quality of my impusle suffer greatly using an MP3?


----------



## bigswifty (Sep 22, 2011)

this is so sexy.

also, so an impulse is what? an EQ setting which emulates a certain configuration of somekind?


----------



## Stealthdjentstic (Sep 22, 2011)

Opeth21 said:


> this is so sexy.
> 
> also, so an impulse is what? an EQ setting which emulates a certain configuration of somekind?



Impulse simulate a cab.


----------



## Winspear (Sep 22, 2011)

^ They can simulate whatever you want, technically it is EQ and decay.
-The frequency response of a cab
-The frequency response and decay of an open space (convolution reverb)
-The frequency response of some other piece of gear

In this case simulating the difference between the preamp (no cab) tone that you feed it, and the full (cab included) tone of the record. You could say it was just acting like a cab here, but it's doing a lot more than that. 

They are made by feeding a sine sweep or noise through the gear/space. By feeding the space with every frequency at even volumes and recording it back, software is able to 'deconvolve' them together and get the difference, resulting in a short impulse WAV file. This is loaded into an impulse loader/convolution reverb plugin to 'convolve' against the audio you feed it.


----------



## AlexWadeWC (Sep 22, 2011)

penguin_316 said:


> I want to try this...but what quality do the audio clicks you're replicating need to be?
> 
> For some reason in Cubase 5 I cant just directly upload a track from a CD...it needs to be an AVI or MP3...etc. Wouldn't the quality of my impusle suffer greatly using an MP3?



I'm sure a wav file would give you a slightly more accurate representation, but I just used an MP3. Seems fine to me.


----------



## Winspear (Sep 22, 2011)

^ Yeah it would be accurate enough. But I'd definitely sort out that problem. Cubase can most definitely import WAV files. You'll need to rip the CD to your computer first but that will be in WAV format. The reason it wont work is because audio CDs actually don't contain WAV files - despite the fact that you burn and rip to/from the CD in that format.


----------



## Tree (Sep 22, 2011)

EtherealEntity said:


> ^ Yeah it would be accurate enough. But I'd definitely sort out that problem. Cubase can most definitely import WAV files. You'll need to rip the CD to your computer first but that will be in WAV format. The reason it wont work is because audio CDs actually don't contain WAV files - despite the fact that you burn and rip to/from the CD in that format.



I found out the hard way that some CDs are encoded with m4a's which apparently is not recognized by Nuendo


----------



## Winspear (Sep 22, 2011)

Damn, here's a nice free program for all your conversion needs  Free Audio Converter: free audio converting software


----------



## MF_Kitten (Sep 22, 2011)

awesome!

now do the same with Re:Nothing!


----------



## Coryd (Feb 1, 2012)

bumping this. This sounds awesome!!! 

Does anyone still have this Axe Fx patch and IR they could upload?


----------



## JamesM (Feb 1, 2012)

Stealthdjentstic said:


> Impulse simulate a cab.



That's one of its uses, but not what is "is." An impulse response is merely an EQ curve.



@Coryd -- I'm not a fan of Match EQ'ing as it creeps me out kinda, but try it yourself. It isn't difficult and you might learn some stuff.


----------



## TomAwesome (Feb 1, 2012)

The Armada said:


> That's one of its uses, but not what is "is." An impulse response is merely an EQ curve.



That's one of its uses, but not what it "is." An impulse response is a measurement of the reaction of a dynamic system to an input. As it is used in audio, it's basically a method of accurately capturing and reproducing the reverberations of a physical space or reverb processor. When we use an impulse of a cab, we're not just applying EQ. The deconvolver is mimicking the way the power amp, cab, room, and microphone (as well as whatever else the original sample went through, like the recording console, the air, etc) reacted to the sample that was run through them when the impulse was created, except for harmonic content. Try using impulses for reverb some time. A good impulse response of a lush room is hard to beat.


----------



## JamesM (Feb 1, 2012)

I'm going to have to disagree with your disagreement. Redundant.  You can't measure impulse with a microphone, which is how impulses (in audio) are captured. All forms of audio decay effect the frequencies of whatever signal is being emitted, and that is what a microphone capturing the "reaction" of the source is listening to. A huge part of, say, impulse reverbs being so realistic is they alter frequencies realistically for a certain captured scenario, as opposed to algorithmically calculating it. That's just me though. 

I use reverb impulses all the time, too.


----------



## gemy87 (Feb 1, 2012)

filesonic don't work reupload file please!


----------



## GATA4 (Feb 2, 2012)

Wow, great job man. You absolutely nailed it.


----------



## TomAwesome (Feb 2, 2012)

The Armada said:


> I'm going to have to disagree with your disagreement. Redundant.  You can't measure impulse with a microphone, which is how impulses (in audio) are captured. All forms of audio decay effect the frequencies of whatever signal is being emitted, and that is what a microphone capturing the "reaction" of the source is listening to. A huge part of, say, impulse reverbs being so realistic is they alter frequencies realistically for a certain captured scenario, as opposed to algorithmically calculating it. That's just me though.
> 
> I use reverb impulses all the time, too.



Yes, capturing the change in EQ is all part of it. Point being, you said that an impulse is nothing but EQ, but EQ is only part of what is captured.


----------



## JPhoenix19 (Feb 2, 2012)

Somebody re-up, plz.


----------



## Coryd (Feb 2, 2012)

JPhoenix19 said:


> Somebody re-up, plz.



+1

File is missing from the link that was posted.


----------



## Menigguh (Feb 2, 2012)

AlexWadeWC said:


> Meshuggah Nothing Match EQ Tone Test by Alexchapel on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
> 
> The impulse I made is set up for my Axe FX patch, but I tried it with other patches on my Axe and it sounded good so if you want to try it you can grab it here: Download MeshuggahImpulse.wav for free on Filesonic.com
> 
> Lemme know if you try it how it sounds with your set up!



Reload the patch on mediafire please


----------



## fwd0120 (Feb 2, 2012)

Yep, I have done this before. Great results! You need to have a relatively pristine source though. If the tone you are trying to match has reverb and delay, you need to try to get those settings close before you match. You also need to be playing the riff spot on.

This can also be helpful with mastering in a very limited sense.


----------



## nojyeloot (Feb 6, 2012)

I ended up giving this a whirl. I used my AxeFX II to try and get Pagan's Mind's tone from Celestial Entrance

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...nd-through-osiris-eyes-patch-ir-match-eq.html


----------



## Jook (Feb 8, 2012)

Wow! I had no idea that you could do something to this extent with impulses.

bumped!


----------



## DeKay (Feb 8, 2012)

Someone make an meshuggah cover with the stengahs tone! And match the bass tone to the later part in stengah where only bass is playing for a few seconds!


----------



## sol niger 333 (Feb 19, 2012)

Second is definitely Meshuggah. But only from a timing, technique perspective. Tone is SUPER close. I might be wrong though in which case you play exactly like the Meshuggah guys and they don't haha


----------



## Levi79 (Mar 10, 2012)

Sorry for the semi-necro bump. Alex, that was crazy. I went to download the files and they don't work anymore. Think you could upload them elsewhere? I'd be very grateful!


----------



## solus84 (Jun 6, 2012)

Hi, awesome work on that tone. You can barely tell the difference. I've tried this with other tracks and it's worked really well. 

I'm actually starting a thread on here to compile a list of METAL tracks with lone guitar parts, so we can all have a place to go instead of trying to rattle our brains:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...gs-tone-eq-matching-purposes.html#post3041622

Any help is appreciated.


----------



## Vres (Jun 26, 2012)

Has anyone tried this with the tone from the 2006 remix of Nothing? I tried first with PodFarm (noise gate+screamer) to TSE808 (drive 0 gain 100%) and TSEX40 (all knobs 12 o'clock), then recording only with PodFarm (gate+screamer+amp) but I can't seem to nail it. I understand that basically half of that tone is dynamics that make the twangy and fat sound, I'm getting there but slowly. Any tips?


----------

