Meshuggah's old sound

[Ermz]

Do any of you guys know the nitty gritty on what was used to record the guitars and bass on Chaosphere?

There have been tidbits over the years, like how the band liked to run some TC Preamp Boosters into the amps and also graphic EQ pedals, but I've never had anything solid. The general live set-up they had seemed to be pretty convoluted.

The combo of the guitars/bass on that album is one of my favourite sounds ever, and embodies to me why the Rectifier is one of the best amps ever. The bass grit in particular sounds godly on this album, and I'm thinking it was likely run through the Recto as well?

Goes without saying that all of Meshuggah's material after this album went down hill, sonically. Not to mention rolling with those horrid trends to use digital amps.

I'd like to recapture some of the magic of Chaosphere - in particular the ability to pull grinding bass sounds which improve the perception of the guitars so much.

 

[Rockchops]

I'm not so sure, but I think they used the recto plus their Marshall 8200 to get a bit more djent

 

[WestCoastCrush]

I'm pretty sure it guitars were a combination of original Ibanez Universe (Steve Vai era first issues) 7 strings tuned down a half step into Marshall Valvestate heads. Could've been 8100's or the bi-chorus ones. Can't remember...damn you, beer!

 

[Deadmonkey]

This should help.

 

[lolzgreg]

You da man!

 

[Harry Hughes]

I tend to think people must think I'm retarded for thinking that obZen actually has amazing guitar tone.
Chaosphere is a tone that is more universal (I could see it working outside of the context of the album) whereas obZen's tone is nothing you want on anything but obZen, it just sounds so amazing in the context IMO, as well as being truly unique (well, at least until a horde of 16 year old djent wannabees picked up a copy of obZen and decided it was "jump on the bandwagon" time)

FWIW, they've pretty much stuck by passive pickups too.
Marten himself said this in an interview from SS.org about EMGs and active pickups and why he prefers Lundgrens:



Haven't tried 'em on any of our guitars but I think they have a...plastic quality to them that I don't care for. Depends on what you're using them for. In a pop set-up I guess they'd work just fine. Or with crisp/clean chorus-laden shit it'd probably be a good choice but they sound way too flat IMO

 

[ze kink]

I <3 my Lundgren M8's (and M7 too).

AFAIK they only used the Valvestate stacks live. I've had a combo from that series (8240) and it was surprisingly good. You just had to be very careful with the contour knob.

And BTW, I read that they tried to use real amps when they recorded ObZen, but it didn't turn out very well. I'm not particularily fond of the Pod tones on the newer albums either, but the music rules so I don't really dislike it either. Hopefully they'll come up with something amazing with the Axe-FX's.

 

[nihilisticequilibrium]

Am I the only one that thinks the Catch 33 tone is the greatest tone ever?

 

[Ermz]

This should help.

That's great.

Doesn't seem to say what they used on bass though... only guitars.

Did bass chain ever pop up anywhere?

 

[Deadmonkey]

That's great.

Doesn't seem to say what they used on bass though... only guitars.

Did bass chain ever pop up anywhere?

Nothing that I can remember anyway. I know at some point they talked about Gustaf using a POD Pro live but I think that's as far as they went into it.

 

[Seizure.]

Goes without saying that all of Meshuggah's material after this album went down hill, sonically. Not to mention rolling with those horrid trends to use digital amps.

Can't say i fully agree with this, they have a great sound on Catch 33 and the latest.
I only like DestroyEraseImprove aswell, soundwise.

But whatever, matter of taste, it doesn't go without saying though

 

[BrettT]

Seems like I remember reading somewhere that the bass on Chaosphere was run through the Dual Rectifier head.

 

[GarethSE]

can we make it one of the official rules of this forum that you get insta-banned if you think Catch 33 is anything less than utter perfection?
Please?

all the catch 33 bashing saddens me to my very core

 

[Dylan S]

I love Meshuggah.

I love the production on their new stuff just as much as their old stuff. I love the drum sound on DEI!

 

[John_C]

can we make it one of the official rules of this forum that you get insta-banned if you think Catch 33 is anything less than utter perfection?
Please?

all the catch 33 bashing saddens me to my very core

+1
an exceptional album

 

[Splat88]

Am I the only one that thinks the Catch 33 tone is the greatest tone ever?

Yes.

 

[GarethSE]

I pretty much think everything on Catch 33 is the greatest everything ever (along with Obscura, Annihilation Of The Wicked and None So Vile)

chaosphere is pretty sick though so let's get back to that

 

[Executioner213]

Paul Masvidal told me that when they were on tour with Meshuggah this year, even Meshuggah was using Axe-FX.

 

[Ermz]

Uh, I'm not sure if you guys noticed but this thread was created specifically to discuss their old (Pre-Nothing) sound. You can love the sound of their newer material all you want - it just has no bearing or relevance to this thread.

@BrettT: I thought I read a similar thing a while back. On that footage they did of the bass tracking it definitely sounded like it was going through a recto. Surely they didn't run it through the 1960A cab though?

 

[Mikaël-ange]

I didn't know really well Meshuggah but I always hear about Daniel work on this.

Not Meshuggah but Scarve studio pics in old dug out (if that can help you to find Bergstrand vibe)

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/835412/Scarve%20studio%20pics.rar