# Meshuggah koloss amp?



## IbanezFred (May 19, 2012)

Does anybody know what amp meshuggah have used on the koloss album? I heard it was the dar forza quattro? Others say it was a fortin Natas/Satan? I'd be pretty damn impressed if it was the axe fx, some Guy told me they used an axe fx, I find that hard to believe though. I'd figure thordendal was a real valve/tube Guy...I mean I know they use the axe fx but did they record with it?


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## EdgeCrusher (May 19, 2012)

Apparently it was all VST's from Cubase Amprack, no actual amps were used. Personally, I don't really like the tone on this record.


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## Shask (May 19, 2012)

I have read that they used VST plugins....

Not sure if that was for scratch tracks or the final recording....


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## IbanezFred (May 19, 2012)

Thats insane....
why would they not use real amps??


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## IbanezFred (May 19, 2012)

EdgeCrusher said:


> Apparently it was all VST's from Cubase Amprack, no actual amps were used. Personally, I don't really like the tone on this record.


 
What don't you like about it?


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## Larrikin666 (May 19, 2012)

They're not the biggest tube amp users on the planet. They'll jump back and forth, but I attribute them making the POD stuff popular with a lot of the metal community since they used them for so long.


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## simulclass83 (May 19, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> Thats insane....
> why would they not use real amps??


They liked the tone and thought the Axe FX took too much tweaking, if I'm correct.


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## IAMLORDVADER (May 19, 2012)

Cubase vst amp programme. running a clean tone into cubase then processing it. The mans a genius


meshuggah documentary - YouTube

He talks about it at around 5:40


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## IbanezFred (May 19, 2012)

IAMLORDVADER said:


> Cubase vst amp programme. running a clean tone into cubase then processing it. The mans a genius
> 
> 
> meshuggah documentary - YouTube
> ...


 
Thanks for the link man!


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## Ben.Last (May 21, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> I find that hard to believe though. I'd figure thordendal was a real valve/tube Guy...I mean I know they use the axe fx but did they record with it?



This is just applying the normal guitarist "TOOBS is da bestest!!" mentality to someone that it doesn't really applied to. They used Vettas for years.


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## xCaptainx (May 21, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> Thats insane....
> why would they not use real amps??




Because of your first post. You obviously liked it and it did the trick.


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## spawnofthesith (May 21, 2012)

Meshuggah have been consist modeler users for years. 

New meme idea, "Scumbag Fredrik":

Gets DAR signature amp

Doesn't use it


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (May 21, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> I'd figure thordendal was a real valve/tube Guy


Well, he DID use the Line 6 Vettas for... quite awhile. 

EDIT: Nevermind, Lern2swim said it before me. 

But it did remind me of some old cliche'-thingy.

"Dude, your tone was amazing! Was the best one tonight! What did you use?"
"Oh, just a Line 6 Pod..."
"Oh, really? Well, it'll probably sound better if you get a real tube amp like a 5150 or something..."


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## wookie606 (May 21, 2012)

Not sure whether they kept the VST sounds or not,
Maybe it was just pre-production.
Maybe they re-amped?
I could be totally wrong though.


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## EdgeCrusher (May 22, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> What don't you like about it?



I don't know really, I was just kinda underwhelmed with this record as a whole I guess. I should have said I just don't like it as much as some of their older tones.


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## USMarine75 (May 22, 2012)

BTW Anyone happen to know the Meshuggah settings for Vetta II?


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## getaway_fromme (May 22, 2012)

USMarine75 said:


> BTW Anyone happen to know the Meshuggah settings for Vetta II?



I'd be quite interested as well. I thought Nothing remastered sounded fucking awesome!


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## Alekke (May 23, 2012)

I LOVE the sound of Koloss! It's dirty but it's crisp and metallic! 
Fredrik said theres a preset they used in cubase 6.5 and then I ran into this guy who used that same preset and record a clip with no post processing. Sound is awesome!
Shuggah2 by Guitarjon on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free


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## XEN (May 23, 2012)

We guitar players get so caught up on tone sometimes that we can't hear the song.

For the better part of a decade Meshuggah has been making arena music on what could almost be considered a bedroom budget. 

For my part I have not been able to stop listening to Koloss. The songs are awesome.


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## Velokki (May 23, 2012)

They used just VST plugins, and reamped clean signals.

And you can also see a Vetta II (powered on) in the studio, in the documentary, so I guess it's also in use, at least in practicing.


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## darren (May 23, 2012)

urklvt said:


> We guitar players get so caught up on tone sometimes that we can't hear the song.
> 
> For the better part of a decade Meshuggah has been making arena music on what could almost be considered a bedroom budget.
> 
> For my part I have not been able to stop listening to Koloss. The songs are awesome.





I'm loving the songs, the sounds, the mix and the mastering. Everything is so clear and brutal-sounding.


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## MF_Kitten (May 23, 2012)

USMarine75 said:


> BTW Anyone happen to know the Meshuggah settings for Vetta II?



From what i know, it's not very special at all. Fredrik has said in interviews that he uses lots of low end, not that much mids, and balanced high end. Then the boost in front of the amp of course. I think anyone could guess that they use the Big Bottom model. Scoop the mids a tiny bit, and then just balance the rest. toss a boost in front. Remember how Bulb shared his Pod XT tone, and it wasn't that interesting to play through? and remember when Fredrik himself posted his Pod 2.0 tone on the Meshuggah forum, and everyone was like "this is mediocre as fuck!"? Yeah. It's in how they play, how their guitars sound, and how the guitars are mixed.


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## joshc482 (May 23, 2012)

i know their setting for the vettas, and on koloss it was all axe fx.


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## Demiurge (May 23, 2012)

It's neat to hear that VST's were used, but it shouldn't be a total shock with regard to the quality. Whether it's a Pocket POD or an AxeFX, it's a piece of hardware running software, and so is a computer- with processor speeds increasing and latency reducing, it will be interesting to see if onboard amp modelling becomes as prevalent as onboard synths.


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## Ben.Last (May 23, 2012)

joshc482 said:


> i know their setting for the vettas, and on koloss it was all axe fx.


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## IbanezFred (Oct 30, 2012)

spawnofthesith said:


> Meshuggah have been consist modeler users for years.
> 
> New meme idea, "Scumbag Fredrik":
> 
> ...



EXACTLY! i figured thats what he would have used...


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## Ben.Last (Oct 30, 2012)

IbanezFred said:


> EXACTLY! i figured thats what he would have used...



It could POSSSSSSSIBLY be because he doesn't actually have one yet.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Oct 30, 2012)

Lol at OP thinking they are t00b guys when theyve been L6 poster boys for a lonnnng time.


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## Wings of Obsidian (Oct 30, 2012)

People are just so....... _____ (fill in the blank based on what you've read in this thread thus far).


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## Scattered Messiah (Oct 30, 2012)

They actually really used the vst amp rack in cubase... I did not really believe them at first, until I got up and tried my own luck with the amprack. Totally works!!
it won't give you the in the room feeling of a pushed amp, but it totally works for recodring purposes, as layering different sounds gets stupidly simple...

Live it's all axefx atm, afaik.


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## Kali Yuga (Oct 30, 2012)

Lern2swim said:


> This is just applying the normal guitarist "TOOBS is da bestest!!" mentality to someone that it doesn't really applied to. They used Vettas for years.


To be fair, the typical 'tubehead' isn't going for a artificial dynamic-less tone like Meshuggah uses. I don't mean that to sound insulting to the band, because like most here, I'm an enormous Meshuggah fan that loves their sound, but it's definitely something uniquely fitting to their brand of music. Those who love tubes want warm, dynamic crunch tones (or are parroting decades of 'tubes are best' rhetoric without really exploring the possibilities themselves). Meshuggah is a whole other world of guitar sound, and digital simulation gets there easily, and more practically.


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## DjentDjentlalala (Oct 30, 2012)

NO AxeFx.They said in interviews that they used cubase plugins.


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## benduncan (Oct 30, 2012)

spawnofthesith said:


> Meshuggah have been consist modeler users for years.
> 
> New meme idea, "Scumbag Fredrik":
> 
> ...



scumbag? he doesnt even have a real head yet, or has just received it. obviously i cant speculate on whether he will use it or not. 

that would be funny though, maybe without the scumbag part, lol


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## Ben.Last (Oct 30, 2012)

Kali Yuga said:


> To be fair, the typical 'tubehead' isn't going for a artificial dynamic-less tone like Meshuggah uses. I don't mean that to sound insulting to the band, because like most here, I'm an enormous Meshuggah fan that loves their sound, but it's definitely something uniquely fitting to their brand of music. Those who love tubes want warm, dynamic crunch tones (or are parroting decades of 'tubes are best' rhetoric without really exploring the possibilities themselves). Meshuggah is a whole other world of guitar sound, and digital simulation gets there easily, and more practically.



That's basically exactly what I was saying.


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## Kali Yuga (Oct 30, 2012)

Lern2swim said:


> That's basically exactly what I was saying.


Sorry, wasn't really trying to argue or parrot your post. I was trying to get to the point that tubes are sometimes "bestest" in the genres where more classic tones are called for, but somehow I got lost in my Meshuggah gushing.


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## mongey (Oct 30, 2012)

I'm a tube amp guy but I play in drop A.

I think much below that and moddlers and VST's are where its at as tubes start to muff out and loose definition .And VST or Axe fx is teh same hting right. Axe is just a PC in another box 
I like the tones on koloss. Its one of those things where playing alone they probably sound ordinary,or not amazing anyway , but they really suit the mix.


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## IbanezFred (Oct 30, 2012)

Stealthdjentstic said:


> Lol at OP thinking they are t00b guys when theyve been L6 poster boys for a lonnnng time.



forgive me for my idiocy/ignorance of 5 months ago lol


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## Krucifixtion (Oct 30, 2012)

I don't know why everyone is so shocked by the fact that they just used plugins on Koloss seeing as how pretty much everything since Nothing has been Line 6. Michael Keene from the Faceless uses Waves guitar plugins into a laptop for live. When setup right plugins can sound just as good. To me the difference is in the feel. Playing straight into my interface with plugins feels pretty stiff like old Pod stuff. However, when I play DI into my friends Avalon tube pre and use PodFarm the sound and feel is really pretty decent. Yeah my Axe-Fx II does sound better when dialed in right, but sometimes I listen to my old Pod recordings with different 3rd part IR's and sometimes think it sounds better than Axe-Fx just, because I had so much time to nail down the more limited parameters you can adjust on an old Pod. Where the Axe-Fx does take quiet a bit time to learn how to EQ properly and what IR's sound the best for the application.


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## incinerated_guitar (Oct 30, 2012)

Honestly, I cant get a decent tone out of my Cubase 6 amp rack...like at all. Maybe im just not good with dialing in a good digital sound  Kudos to them for getting such a boss tone from it.


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## signalgrey (Oct 30, 2012)

spawnofthesith said:


> Meshuggah have been consist modeler users for years.
> 
> New meme idea, "Scumbag Fredrik":
> 
> ...



CANT use it..because he hasnt even been given one to use...See the DAR thread if you want a fucking laugh. DAR is using his name on the amp....Fredrik didnt even get one to use.


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## Survivalism (Oct 31, 2012)

wookie606 said:


> Not sure whether they kept the VST sounds or not,
> Maybe it was just pre-production.
> Maybe they re-amped?
> I could be totally wrong though.


 

They kept them. And used them.
And that is what you're hearing on Koloss.


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## onefingersweep (Oct 31, 2012)

I don't see any reason for Meshuggah to use real amps since they don't play big chords and their sound is all about sounding "cold" so to speak. It's when you want to play bigger chords and still have warmth and great clarity a good tube amp excels. For the music they do digital emulators does the job fine.


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## IAMLORDVADER (Oct 31, 2012)

I still find it funny/inspiring that they decided to use plugins, the only Meshuggah album to feature pods was the original Nothing release and that was subsequently re-recorded with a mic'd up Vetta II and the rest of the albums have been mesa boogie and marshall, so to use plugins is quite a departure (apart from live which has been digital for years)


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## axxessdenied (Oct 31, 2012)

I eenjoyed koloss a lot. I thought the mix was epic on it


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## Kali Yuga (Oct 31, 2012)

IAMLORDVADER said:


> I still find it funny/inspiring that they decided to use plugins, the only Meshuggah album to feature pods was the original Nothing release and that was subsequently re-recorded with a mic'd up Vetta II and the rest of the albums have been mesa boogie and marshall, so to use plugins is quite a departure (apart from live which has been digital for years)


I don't believe any album was Marshall although it was part of the stage rig, it was all Mesa until Nothing, and since then it has been modelers (including the Vetta), which usually model Mesas. I could be wrong, but there's a thread on the Meshuggah forum where the gear used for each album was shared.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Oct 31, 2012)

Contradictions Collapse. Marshall 8200. Something tells me None was also Marshall, since it really sounds like an 8200.

Sadly, I can't find the thread that shows what amps the band used, since it looks like it was taken down.

http://www.tandjent.com/meshforum/viewtopic.php?t=3441

EDIT: Nevermind, found someone that quoted it on a different form:



> Ibanez Universe - TC Electronic Integrated Preamplifier -
> 
> Contradictions Collapse - Marshall 2003 (I think it's called...) *[It was an 8200, not a 2203]*
> None - Mesa/Boogie 50 Caliber+
> ...



Guess I was wrong about None.  But you were correct about Nothing. Thats when they begun using the original Pod Pros.


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## Kali Yuga (Oct 31, 2012)

Ah, okay. Thanks for digging that up!


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## FireInside (Nov 1, 2012)

They did use a Vetta for Obzen though right?


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Nov 1, 2012)

Pretty damn sure they did. Or it was POD X3, which basically has the same amp models.


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## Wookieslayer (Nov 1, 2012)

Obzen = Vetta fosho.


the NONE EP has some of my favorite Meshuggah tones ever... a lot is from their TC Integrated Pre and technique of course.


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## Kali Yuga (Nov 1, 2012)

FireInside said:


> They did use a Vetta for Obzen though right?


It was a Vetta and Line 6 cabinet, the mic was some unknown Chinese cheapo. Just goes to show you don't need to spend 5k on an Axe FX setup to sound like Meshuggah.


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## Alekke (Nov 1, 2012)

Kali Yuga said:


> It was a Vetta and Line 6 cabinet, the mic was some unknown Chinese cheapo. Just goes to show you don't need to spend 5k on an Axe FX setup to sound like Meshuggah.



I think it was some kind of ribbon mic but they actually made an impulse out of that and used it for recording. 
Cool story is, as I read somewhere, Jocke Skog made that impulse by accident and it turned out as meshuggah's main cab impulse in axe fx.


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## Kali Yuga (Nov 1, 2012)

It was actually Jocke himself that posted that information somewhere when people were discussing Meshuggah's IRs. I can't remember if it was on Sneap, FAS, or what. The Obzen recording was with the Chinese mic, but there were IRs made from it and are floating around online. It's been awhile so of course I could have some details scrambled. I assume they have had other IRs made since then, since it's been awhile since Obzen and Jocke has been working with DAR to made some new high-res IR. The ones floating around have about 10 varieties in different cab/mic combinations. If it wsa by accident that makes it all even more hilarious that people spend so much money on Engl, DAR etc to sound like something that was a simple Line 6 setup and an accident! I'm guilty of it myself though, so no offense to the tonechasers.


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## goldsteinat0r (Nov 1, 2012)

Koloss is a really great record, but I definitely think that Mesguggah's approach to studio guitar sounds will only work (and it really does work) for a band like them. The majority of their riffs are below the range of even a normal drop tuned guitar, and as someone already said, tube amps turn to mush at a certain point and you are almost forced to resort to plugins or solid state amps.

That said, when they do venture into the higher register at various pts on Koloss the guitars are SUPER bright and borderline brittle. It works for the low F riffage for sure though.


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## jeleopard (Nov 1, 2012)

spawnofthesith said:


> Meshuggah have been consist modeler users for years.
> 
> New meme idea, "Scumbag Fredrik":
> 
> ...



I don't think they've finished it yet... have they? I know there's a prototype...


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## AVH (Nov 1, 2012)

You guys are funny.  
The FBM prototype is still at the studio, always has been. I've played it, and it's buggy in a couple of spots, but does sound good. And yeah guys, Koloss was all Cubase VST's.


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## MF_Kitten (Nov 1, 2012)

Alekke said:


> I think it was some kind of ribbon mic but they actually made an impulse out of that and used it for recording.
> Cool story is, as I read somewhere, Jocke Skog made that impulse by accident and it turned out as meshuggah's main cab impulse in axe fx.



The story is that Jocke just put it up to the cab, and didn't think too much about it, and then the Meshuggah guys were just going to record some stuff, and decided to use that since it was already right there. Jocke walked in while they were playing it back, and was like "HOLY SHIT WTF DID YOU DO?!", and they were like "it's your mic, man!"

it was a line 6 cab, and it was this mic: TSM MT 184S kondensator mikrofon, designet for overhead, perkusjon, akustiske instrumenter. - - musikkhandel.no

i've had GAS for one for a while, but i haven't found the time to spend the teeny weeny bit of cash on it just yet. I had no idea it was the mic in question initially, i just loved it from Jocke and Ola's video demoing the DAR amp.


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## median (Nov 6, 2012)

Dendroaspis said:


> You guys are funny.
> The FBM prototype is still at the studio, always has been. I've played it, and it's buggy in a couple of spots, but does sound good. And yeah guys, Koloss was all Cubase VST's.



Great looking site. Those are some amazing guitars you get to work on. I can't wait til Meshuggah comes back to SOCAL. It's always a pleasure.


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## ScrotieMcBoogerballs (Nov 29, 2012)

massage my testicles


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