Michael Romeo's Tone

[drawnacrol]

I just noticed while listening on my i-pod that Romeo has an incredible rythm guitar tone,you can hear every single note clearly even though he is using a lot of distortion and palm muting,does any one info on how he gets this tone on his recordings????

 

[razoredge]

I think theres been a few threads about this but I dont remember their titles. Maybe run a search ? Seems like one wasnt too long ago in the main section of the forum.

 

[CantoX]

One of the first reasons why I ever started getting into Symphony X was the amazing rhythms that were being made possible and the great tone that was coming out of them even with large amounts of distortion.

There was some link on the french site where it had his triaxis settings.. I can't find it though. Help ? lol

 

[Richter X]

Oh you mean that : http://web.archive.org/web/20011215112800/dragonden.free.fr/materiel/MJR.htm

 

[CantoX]

Oh you mean that : http://web.archive.org/web/20011215112800/dragonden.free.fr/materiel/MJR.htm

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rockmanxpr]

Just remember that a recording's tone =
guitar+guitar Pickups+Amp+Preamp+cab+mic+mic position+cable+Mic preamps

 

[rockmanxpr]

hmm reading the french triaxis site and they don't mention what "model" of Lead those settings are on. Like the first one is for Lead 2, but which one? There is Lead2 green, Lead2 yellow, and lead2 red.

 

[Richter X]

You're right, the only thing that remains for us to find Romeo's tone is to find the right voicing. It's not that hard - though I don't own a TriAxis (yet)

 

[CantoX]

You wouldn't want romeo's tone anyways.. right?

I just wanted the b/m/t settings to see if he had a scooped setting and he does but the mids are very scooped. I've my own solo tone !

 

[razoredge]

correct me if Im wrong, but isnt the best metal riff tone, lots of gain, scooped mids, zero effects, bridge pup, just the right amount of palm mute + a whole lot of hold on to your ass ?

 

[CantoX]

correct me if Im wrong, but isnt the best metal riff tone, lots of gain, scooped mids, zero effects, bridge pup, just the right amount of palm mute + a whole lot of hold on to your ass ?

I'm going to correct you because you are wrong. So wrong...

Nah lol.
It depends really.. depends on what you think is good tone so the answer is subjective to who is asking it.

 

[razoredge]

what would your typical riff settings be ?

I have the mid on my SS amp zeroed and the tube amp at 9:00, bass about 1:00 & treb about 12:00 but my effects unit has a 6 band EQ plus program EQ which I have not messed with but the external 6 band I still scoup the mids to around 9:00 and boost the two lows a bit aprox 12:00&1:00 with the two treb are about11:00&12:00. No effects for riffs, I guess it has compression, exiter, but no verb, delay, chorus or flange. It annoys me when guys I play with use delay and verb on the riffs. They have this fairly wet sound they use for solos which is great but when they come out and join in on the riff, it suddenly goes from nicely defined choppy riffs to a puddle of mud.... and Im in it

Years ago when I just had the midiverb and channel switching for my distortion, I used the fastest delay the midiverb had, which is fast, I forget how many milliseconds, it was instantanious, set that at 100% and did that thing have a great click. It was punchier than you can do with a pick, like a trigger I guess.

 

[CantoX]

For the longest time I had my riff settings like this:

b=5 or 12oclock
mid= 6 or 1oclock
t= 7 or 2oclock
compression= 12oclock
gain= 2oclock

Then I got an X2N in the bridge which gave me a midrangey sound and I started to use just a scooped setting and it works out because it still has a lot of mids but controls them. It has a nice sound like that. So now my setting is like this:

b=6 or 12oclock
mid= 5 or 1oclock
t= 6 or 2oclock
compression= 12oclock
gain= 3oclock

Why did I increase the bass? Cause the amp I have has horrible bass response with the built in speaker ( vox ad30 ), and now I always play with an extra firm pillow covering the speaker because it adds a lot of bass and doesn't make it sound like garbage.

 

[razoredge]

I've always had my gain buried...... lol, older amps though, less gain than is available today. I did at one time use alot of middle but one night I turned it way down and pumped the bass up and it was like.... WOW, much fatter sound with alot less sizzle. Currently however my EQ settings are a problem with my clean tones so I need to take the time to get into the programable EQ and boost my bass & cut my mids there or visa versa. Currently I have lots of bassy rumble.... good bassy rumble that is (thunder), if I/we were playing with a bass player I might have to change that some to avoid mud.

 

[The Emptier]

meh idk. his rhythm tone is good but i think its to saturated. at least on DWOT.

 

[Marwen]

To me, his tone in V and Odyssey is pure perfection.
It kicks ass in PL, just great for what it is, but somehow tends to quickly 'tire'/'bore' my ears as the album goes, but the actual quality just blew me away.

I've always thought Romeo had the most tasteful and perfectionist ears when it comes to building his tone.

Oh man, I'll listen to SymX till the day I die... *opens a can of beer*
Even then I won't go without my iPod