NIN TDS GUITAR SOUND TEST: MARSHALL JMP 1 x ZOOM 9030 x TURBOSYNTH

[predobrev]

Hi! I tested the gear which Trent used to record most of the distorted guitars for TDS. I also captured IRs of the Zoom 9030 cab sim, which you can grab here. I thought some of you that are into production might be interested in hearing this. Thanks for the space!

[shagg_187]

Very cool!

Saturating sound is always fun. Great to see you applying Clouser's steps wisely.

This can be translated well into modern Plugins, right?

[predobrev]

Very cool!

Saturating sound is always fun. Great to see you applying Clouser's steps wisely.

This can be translated well into modern Plugins, right?

Thank you! Over the course of that Gearslutz thread, Charlie has provided extensive insight into applying similar processing with modern plug-ins. In resume:

- Convert Sample To Oscillator can be done in wavetable synthesizers such as Serum or Logic Pro's built-in Retro Synth. By far, Serum is the closest to TurboSynth in regards to this function. As a former DigiDesign employee and part of the NIN sound camp, Steve Duda (creator of Serum) was intimately familiar with TurboSynth and - intentionally or not - implemented much of its wavetable oscillator functionality in Serum.

- Waveshaping can be done in iZotope Trash 2 or other waveshaper plug-ins like Cableguys Waveshaper.

- The initial harsh, fuzzed out digital distortion sound can be achieved with most software or hardware amp modelers by removing the cab simulator after the distortion or amp model. This ends up sounding like early black metal records in a way. However, Trent did use the 9030 cab simulator on TDS because he liked the sound of it. Feel free to try out the IRs with a Marshall amp model or any hi-gain amp/distortion model that sounds trebly, spiky even. Do push settings into the extremes. For Broken and TDS tones, use the Pantera guitar sound as a starting point. The JMP-1 + 9030 pretty much gets you the scooped Pantera tone which Trent happened to like, then process to hell in TurboSynth. Another technique to apply is adding strong compression before and after the distortion stage to literally obliterate dynamics. However, the waveshaper is what really makes buzzsaw guitars out of any distorted signal.

- TurboSynth seems to work under macOS 7 / 9 emulators like Basilisk and SheepShaver, if you want to try the real deal on a modern computer. In my experience, I couldn't get it to produce sounds, but YMMV.

If you haven't, be sure to read the video description thoroughly. It explains why my experiments with convert sample to oscillator and pitch-shifting samples didn't produce the expected result. I wish I knew this stuff before filming, but it wasn't documented anywhere before I did the vid and asked Charlie on Gearslutz.

[shagg_187]

Thank you for the detailed analysis! Will definitely see if I can replicate the sound in my future recordings.

(*Desire to own JMP 1 and Zoom 9030 intensifies*).

EDIT: Is there a modern alternate to JMP-1 and (specifically) Zoom 9030? Seems like they're hard to come by.

[predobrev]

You have some options, both software and hardware.

Software: Choptones have a JMP-1 profile for Bias Amp Desktop.

Hardware: an old ADA MP1 preamp, a Mesa V-Twin pedal or rackmount (also great for Mesa Recto tones), or a Hughes & Kettner Cream Machine. Line 6 POD processors with the Chemical X amp model (based on a modded JMP-1) can probably pull it off, too.

For 9030: hard to find, yes. Trent used it for distortion on Broken and for cab sim on TDS. If you want the distortion, the current Zoom guitar FX processors are affordable and can sound pretty gnarly. Anything between the Zoom G3 and G5 series is fair game and a lot of fun. These have a Zoom distortion pedal model which is somewhat reminiscent of the old units, sound-wise. If you want the 9030 cab sim, grab my IR files and use them with an impulse response loader. Also, the Zoom 9050, which is the 9030 successor might be a little easier to find and is virtually the same thing.

[tap3worm]

I remember there being quite a few 9030's around for pretty cheap a few years ago. Near impossible to find one for a decent price now it seems. I just settled with stuff like Ohmicide, Amplitube, and the free X-Fer 8-Bit Crusher, which I believe is modeled after the Turbosynth bitcrusher, to a similarish effect.