How do you achieve the 80's Rock/Metal sound?

  • Just curious as to what effect and parameters you all use for getting that 80's hair band rock/metal sound; the kind that almost replicates a doubled guitar track. I know some people use a little detune, some use chorus. Anyone out there care to share your secrets and settings? I'm kind of looking for that Zakk Wylde rhythm sound that he had when did the "No More Tears" album with Ozzy. I'm happy with the amp profile that I have. I just need to get the effect right. I'm pretty sure he used a chorus pedal for the effect as opposed to detune. But I can't seem to get it right.


    Whatchya' got Kemper peeps?!

  • Zakk did alot of reamping I had heard to thicken his sound so you may not get that close. For that type of sound I use Micro Pitch 2 and a tight delay (6ms no feedback) in Stomp slots to help thicken things. I use the pitch detune vs a chorus to get rid of the sweep that can be annoying with alot of gain and fast picking. The mix is low on both, I think around 10% now, you may like them higher.

  • Yeah, this is for live use. So doubling the guitar isn't possible. I've used Micro Pitch before (and still use it now to create the effect I'm looking for). It's solid, but doesn't sound quite "there" yet. I'll try adding the delay as mentioned above. I haven't tried that yet. Thanks!

  • If you are recording , play each part four times with near perfect precision, and you will get that Wilde sounding guitar.


    This.A hot rodded marshall (JCM800) and some simultanous "pure california" high gain (recto,soldano,5150) on the these parts would also help I think..panning hard right and hard left..

  • btw..this guy is "the specialist" for 80s sounds...


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  • btw..this guy is "the specialist" for 80s sounds...


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    Uhhhhhhhhhh, YEAH!!!! The sounds he gets when using the sunburst Les Paul; that is EXACTLY what I'm trying to achieve. If anyone could profile that type of a sound and share their settings, I think I'd be so happy my left nut my pop! Just the left one, the right one is much harder to impress.


    I know that exact sound can't be achieved (even by the mighty Kemper) without all of that gear he's using. But if someone could get me close, I'd be forever thankful.


    That said, I did notice he's got a Kemper in the background. Come on man! Profile that stuff!

  • cant add much to whats been said, definatly a fair amount of chorus, and some very short stereo delay as others have said.
    Also theres an effect in the mod section called stereo widener, which gives you more stereo spread also.
    Maybe you could do a dual path trick also and feed the amp and cab to one channel dry, and the other channel wet, with chorus and delay to get abit more doubling.
    Cheers.

  • I read that the parallel path bypasses the amp section so didn't think it work for this. I also turned off any Modulation in the Delay but it still sounds different than the source note to me (needs eq but I can't figure out how). Anyone with a work around for that I'm all ears.

  • I should have mentioned that my go to JCM800 style rigs for that kind of tone are slightly tweaked version of Deadlight's Jubilee Rock on the rig exchange and The Amp Factory's JCM800 hot mod pack, one of which is included in the factory content as ManRock 800.

  • Ok Guys.... I don't know why.... but I can't find the "Micro Pitch" effect anywhere? do we have to down load it from somewhere??? or did Kemper remove it? or is it hiding in this Glorious Toaster somewhere :)

    Just use the TYPE knob and scroll. It's in there. :)