THAT Linkin park guitar sound - How?

Before anyone starts flaming and go on about their chords not being advanced enough, let me tell you that I believe it about what you don't play as opposed to what you do play. :)

Ok, so how does Brad Delson from Linkin park get that phat guitar sound. It contains a lot of top and bottom and little middle. I believe he uses a mesa boogie, but what's the secret. Is it all in the production? Editing? Pro Tools effects? Or what is it?

Can you say 'expensive studio equipment and production the band had NOTHING to do with'?

Erm.. Im guessing the fact that most of there songs are probably drop D tuned is the reason but I could be wrong.

Originally posted by chucklivesoninmyheart
Can you say 'expensive studio equipment and production the band had NOTHING to do with'?

LP is a band that's probably more involved in the production of their stuff than any other band in their genre.
And the sound really is all in the production.
Unfortunatly, there's no way to emulate that sound unless you're the guitarist of LP, playing guitar in an expensive studio through some really nice sounding gear, recording multiple tracks per song...

One tip though, he probably uses way more mids than you'd ever think...

^exactly.

He uses PRS, d'addario strings, and dimarzio dual somethingerother pickups, if I remember right. No idea what amp, anything loud is a good start.

I'm pretty sure most of there songs (older ones) were in C, not drop D.

Thanks guys.

Well, I'm not actually a guitarist. It's for my guitarist, but I know a fair bit about production.

First of all, I have read a lot of their older stuff is tuned in C sharp.

chucklivesoninmyheart, SPL.
What is this "expensive studio equipment" no one else can afford.
Guitar amp, effect processors, pre-amp, EQ, pickups, double (triple etc.) tracking?

Hammurabi: sorry, what is PRS? A brand of guitar?

PRS= paul reed smith- an expensive and well respected brand of guitars.

Disturbed plays in C#, that's what I always use for comparison when talking about tunings.

Originally posted by Armadillo
What is this "expensive studio equipment" no one else can afford.
Guitar amp, effect processors, pre-amp, EQ, pickups, double (triple etc.) tracking?

First of all, they record and mix their albums in world class studios, which means exceptionally good acoustics and control of sound. They most likely use SSL consoles to do their tracking and mixing, which are GREAT sounding consoles. They use the best A/D converters out there to get their stuff into Pro-Tools for editing. They probably use all kinds of nice outboard gear during tracking and mixing, mostly EQ's and compressors... I'm sure they use a bunch of plug-ins on top of that.
I think Brad from LP uses Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers for amps together with PRS guitars plus probably some Seymour Duncan pickups.
In order to get that big stereo guitar sound like LP you need layers and layers of different takes spread over the stereo image, preferable all with a relatively different sound to give them more seperation and enhance the big sound. Plus, the guitar and bass work together on that sounds, most people don't seem to be able to make that distinction.

Originally posted by SPL

First of all, they record and mix their albums in world class studios, which means exceptionally good acoustics and control of sound. They most likely use SSL consoles to do their tracking and mixing, which are GREAT sounding consoles. They use the best A/D converters out there to get their stuff into Pro-Tools for editing. They probably use all kinds of nice outboard gear during tracking and mixing, mostly EQ's and compressors... I'm sure they use a bunch of plug-ins on top of that.
I think Brad from LP uses Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers for amps together with PRS guitars plus probably some Seymour Duncan pickups.
In order to get that big stereo guitar sound like LP you need layers and layers of different takes spread over the stereo image, preferable all with a relatively different sound to give them more seperation and enhance the big sound. Plus, the guitar and bass work together on that sounds, most people don't seem to be able to make that distinction.

Acoustics are only important when mixing as electric guitars are recorded using line input and not miced up I would presume.
SSL is a good console I agree, but you can get a channel strip class A pre-amp for next to nothing these days. You get soundcards with 24 bit/96 khz, so I don't think the difference is that big.
EQ, compressor, yeah it makes a difference again, but still minor.
Amp, guitar, pickup, still small but noticeable difference.

The biggest difference I think is in your last point, layers recorded with different tones, maybe some of the layers slightly delayed to give a fuller sound.Different amount of reverb, EQ etc.
But I suppose if "I" only get 95% of the sound in each phase, then I'll in up with 75%-80% of the sound, by losing 5 % in each phase.
Yes, I have noticed the bassline is usually the same as the guitar.
Hmmm.... it ain't easy.

Originally posted by Armadillo
You get soundcards with 24 bit/96 khz, so I don't think the difference is that big.

All depends on how anal you get about sound, and wether you have the monitors and acoustic environment to hear everything properly, there is a big difference between actual converter quality and the conversion bit depth and sampling frequency.

Originally posted by Armadillo
Hmmm.... it ain't easy.

That's exactly the point I was trying to make. I guess what you were really inquiring about was not the LP guitar sound in particular, but more how to get a big guitar sound like it...

As long as you know how to get a clear guitar sound, keep it seperated from the other instuments, and can create a big stereo image(personally I prefer seperate takes over delays to layer guitars), your guitarist should be pretty happy. :-) And you definitely don't need any fancy gear to achieve all of that.

[Edited by SPL on 01-30-2004 at 12:06 PM]

It also depends whether it's studio or live. It's pretty damned hard to multi-track live with one guitarist.

Good luck finding a Dual Recto... they don't make them anymore...
And in an interview I read in one of those guitar rags.... They mostly used Pro Tools HD ($12,000 + a really kickass computer) that they had in the back of the tour bus.

Ok, if you're wanting to sound exactly like linkin park's guitarist, then I don't know what to tell you really, other than sorry about your luck. And that statement doesn't go to you for wanting to sound like lp's guitarist of all people. I feel that way about everyone that wants to sound like someone else. It's in my belief that doing so takes away from the essence of who you are. Furthermore, saying that linkin park's guitarist is the only one that'll ever be able to get that particular sound is like saying that Jimmy Page is the only one that can play stairway, or at least the intro. I personally don't know, so there's not really much point in reading my post in vain. I don't know how to get a sound like anyone else at all. People use what they use. It's not a concern to me. I dunno. Now that I've wasted your time and told you nothing usefull I will begin phase 2 in my plot to take over the world. Ha ha ha.