The legendary Trichorus clean 80's sound as used by Landau, Huff, Luke, etc - now with tune

Hi,

For some time I have been trying to get the sound of the legendary Trichorus unit as used by Michael Landau in the 80's. But I have always come up short. Until I got the KPA. I thought that with the possibilities in the KPA I should be able to get close to that sound. After some work and listening to a a clip of Michael Landau on Youtube I'm close enough to be happy with the result. Happy enough that I'm not going hunting for an original. This sound works in the context of the tunes I'm planning on using it with.

I have found out that the sound of this rig isvery dependent on the guitar you use. In this tune I used a Tyler Classic with maple board and Hot Lauras 5. When I tried a Tyler SE HD with rosewood board and JTS2500 singles I had to dial in the eq somewhat different. So when you get this KPA Rig you need to keep this in mind.

I also read comments on the wobblyness of the original Trichorus. I have included a chorus in stomp slot 3 that I use to get a certain degree of wobble. This is also something to remember when trying out this KPA Rig. My recommendation is to try the rig with stomp 3 set to Off first to see if you really need that additional wobble. If you want more wobble, turn on Stomp 3 and work with the mix parameter to get the right amount of wobble.

Another point about the Rig is that in stomp 2 there is a boost that you may want to turn off if you have hotter pickups and need more head room.

Finally a word about the compression. If you want more "sprrraaang" (for lack of a better word) in the sound then you can experiment with more compression in the Amplifier section.

You can download the rig from the KPA Rigs page on my web site.
http://www.nermark.com/KPA_profiles.htm

If you want to hear the rig in a musical context here's my latest tune:
Books In Heaven

Welcome!

Mats N

Quote from Delinquent

Thanks Matt, and just like to say I love your two rock profiles, stellar work and your delay and reverb settings (from the ts1-od profile) are on lock for all my auditioning with cans.

Thanks for the nice words. Glad you like my stuff and appreciate you taking your time to say it.

Cheers,

Mats N

Quote from PdeCaumette

You nailed it: excellent!
Thanks

You're welcome! Glad you enjoy my efforts.

Cheers,

Mats N

Quote from Garrincha

Fantastic recreation of that sound, Mats. I love it. It sounds great with my mapleneck MJT Strat.

Technically the Kemper is not really equipped to do an emulation of the DMP. The original had three delay lines 120 degrees apart in parallel which the Kemper can't do. It also mixes the output of three LFOs to get a complex waveform which the Kemper can't provide as well.

With those limitations of the Kemper in mind it's absolutely mindblowing how good you nailed that sound!!!

Is there a specific reason you choosed the Hyper Chorus for two of the units? As I understand it the original DMP was built around a CE-1-style circuit (actually three of them) so I would have thought the Vintage Chorus would work better. I changed this in your preset but found your version to sound a lot better. So you obviously knew better than me

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Hi Garrincha,

I appreciate you taking the time to write.

I've always loved this sound and have always been trying to recreate whatever equipment I've had but with no success.
One of the keys factors to being successful in the attempt with the KPA is probably the fact that I have analyzed recorded sounds for a very long time, trying to match then to my own rig. I think this forced me to develop an ear for nuance.

When I first got the KPA about 18 months ago I didn't think it would work as the KPA didn't provide the technical infrastructure, as you correctly point out. Then I heard a YT clip where someone had connected three chorus pedals in series and had a good sound as a result. I had previously gotten an OK chorus sound by connecting a chorus into a pitch shifter (for detune) so I thought I could try that with the KPA.

When I first tried, I used the Vintage Chorus but, while it sounded like a CE-1, it didn't provide the sonic character I was trying to find. So I tried the Hyper Chorus x 2 and that was closer. Not there but closer.

The final piece of the puzzle was a YT clip of Landau sitting in on a session playing this sound and I could hear it prominently in the mix but still in context.. Then I had a target I could go for and adjusted the eq, compression and the modulation rates. This was also when I realized that I needed to go for one Hyper Chorus into one Vintage Chorus to get the sonic signature. Then I added the third chorus pre-profile to be able to get more wobble in the modulation. I've found that some recorded versions of this sound have more wobble than others and I now feel I can introduce that with careful use of the chorus in Stomp slot 3. I do that by setting the modulation depth and amount for wobble character and then use the mix parameter to get the exact amount. BTW, it's all to easy to mix this too loud as what sounds cool on its own will not sound good in context.

So, this rig is the continued efforts over a long time and has absolutely nothing to do about knowing better than anybody else. It's just about listening, being stubborn and editing and of course not having the budget to go out and actually getting the original unit.

I think it's actually quite cool to be able to get this sound out of a unit that really shouldn't be able to do it, as you also say. So if if you are in the market for this sound, you can buy a KPA for less money than you would pay for a used Trichorus and get profiling capabilities as a bonus.

Cheers,

Mats N

Quote from Garrincha

Mats, what actual profile did you use for this Rig? When I turn off the amp and cab section, the sound changes so I figured it can't be just an empty patch, or am I mistaken here?

Anyway, with the amp and cab off your patch gets a nice twist in a different direction. The sound gets more poppy (in lack of a better term) and has much more bass. Sounds very dramatic with the right guitar.

Anyway: This Rig is a masterpiece. I've searched for that sound since I first heard it in the 80s. And it took me long to find out what the original device actually was. Over the years I found many patches in multi-FX devices that aimed for that sound. But you either get the wobbliness (my old Boss SE-70 had a great "Wave Chorus" with three mixable LFO-Waveforms) or the rest of the pack but never quite both. I really think that chorus in slot 3 and the added wobbliness is the key to that sound, because it adds character to the sound. It's not just clean, it has attitude.

Hi,

No it's not an empty patch and I don't know what amp is profiled. I started working on that sound the first week I got the KPA and at that time almost nothing was tagged. I just figured it would work as a starting point. I have used the rig as it is, with amp and cab off and also with amp on and cab off as I've heard that some studio cats back then used the line outputs on their amps straight to mixing board. A Tyler SE with mid boost on set to minimum and amp on and cab off can yield some cool results. I always have to tailor it quite a bit in the mix though. No cab and no amp is like going direct into the mixer and adding fx at that stage. Also a trick many players used to, and still do.

I have never heard a rig being tagged as a masterpiece before but I do like the tag.

Cheers,

Mats N

Quote from MarcPepper

Love that profile Mats! Thanks a lot!
Just learned a few days ago that I will be playing a show with 80's music beginning of March. So this was perfect timing!!

Cheers,
Markus

Hi Markus,

Like Avis used to say, "We aim to please"!

I'd love to play a show with 80's music. Congrats!

/Mats N