20 years ago today, Cojum Dip performed in the finals for the Emergenza Music Festival at The Majestic Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, where the band won third place.
Had they won, they would have performed at the international finals in Germany, where they would compete for a chance to produce an album at the RoastingHouse studio in Sweden, as well as a 1 week slot on the Vans Warped Tour (just to name a few awards).
Daron Malakian has used a vast number of gear both on stage and in the studio. For those who want to know what he has primarily used in live settings and in the studio, this post is for you.
Note, this will not cover Scars On Broadway, and will only span SOAD itself.
THIS POST WILL GET A BIT REPETITIVE, AS I AM GOING IN ORDER AND THERE ARE TIMES WHERE DARON WOULD GO STRETCHES OF TIME WITH ONE GUITAR, SWAP TO ANOTHER ONE, AND THEN GO BACK.
This post will be in multiple parts, with this first one spanning the first 6 years of the band.
For the first few years of the band, Daron primarily used a regular 3-single coil black Fender Stratocaster, which was being played into a Carvin X-100B head and 4x12 Carvin cabinet.
It's likely this equipment was also utilized for the demo tapes, including the Untitled Demo Tape.
Daron using a regular Stratocaster in 1997.
As the band got signed and were preparing to go into the studio to record their debut album, the band had money to purchase some new gear. Here, he purchased an Ibanez Iceman IC100, a "Big Apple" Fender Stratocaster, and a MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier.
The Iceman did not become his main guitar just yet, as he would still more often than not use his new "Big Apple" Stratocaster for most shows.
I've talked about this in detail in a previous post, so I won't go nearly as in depth as I did there.
Simply put, it was the Ibanez Iceman/"Big Apple" Stratocaster being routed through a splitter, which would route one signal into a Marshall Plexi 1959 Super Lead, and the other going to a MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The signals would be routed into two 4x12 Marshall cabinets with G12T-75 speakers, both with a Sennheiser 421 and Shure SM57. These were then routed back into the console, were EQ'd, and then sent out to the "Army Man Compressor" (a busted up Western Electric RA-1217 that Serj stuck a toy army guy in, which gave it the nickname). Some accounts also include an Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer before the guitar signal is sent through the splitter.
Daron also claims in a January 2002 issue of the Guitar Player magazine that a Carvin SX-100 amp was used. This amp is one he's had since he was 15 and says he doesn't take it out of the house because he's "afraid it would get jacked." I'm not certain where this amp was used on the album.
Much like October 1997, throughout this period Daron is primarily seen using his "Big Apple" Fender Stratocaster, routed into a MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier. The major difference now is that he now has a 4x12 MESA/Boogie Rectifier cabinet.
Various photos of Daron from The Roxy Theatre on August 22, 1998.
Still using the MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier and 4x12 MESA/Boogie Rectifier cabinet, this is when he made the final switch to the Ibanez Iceman IC100. One of the pot knobs on the guitar fell off at some point.
On January 23, 1999, during the Fear Factory "Obsolete" Tour, the gear truck that contained all of SOAD's equipment was stolen and was subsequently found set ablaze.
Once touring started back up in March, Daron would begin using an Ibanez Iceman IC50, still using a MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier and 4x12 MESA/Boogie Rectifier cabinet.
Until stated otherwise, from now on assume the amplifier is a Triple Rectifier/4x12 Rectifier cabinet combo.
Daron would swap back to what looks to be a refinished Ibanez Iceman IC100, giving it a Silver Sparkle. This is not unlike the Ibanez signature PS60 model, but that came out way later. This was fitted with some sort of open-coil humbucker pickups (likely Gibson pickups), rather than the stock covered ones his original IC100 had.
Screencap from the Astoria 2 on May 19, 1999.
Daron stopped using his Sparkle Granite IC100 in favor of the Ibanez Iceman IC50.
Daron goes back to the Ibanez Iceman IC100 with a Silver Sparkle in November.
Daron uses a DIFFERENT Ibanez Iceman IC100, still with a custom finish, also with open coil humbuckers. Most photos it appears black, but it appears to be a dark blue/teal sparkle.
^((These may be two separate guitars... it's hard to tell based on available photos.))
Daron goes back to the Ibanez Iceman IC100 with a Silver Sparkle finish for the two shows March.
Daron would use both a custom blue sparkle Ibanez Iceman IC100 and a Baritone Ibanez Iceman prototype. Some shows he would even swap between them during sets.
The baritone Iceman never ended up coming to market, however.
Daron using his baritone Ibanez Iceman.
The main tracking for both Toxicity and Steal This Album happened in the same sessions, so I won't touch on STA later on once I get to 2002.
Daron used a wide range of guitars on the tracks. This includes:
From Daron's own word, he would use the Les Paul for more heavy metal sounds, and the SG for sounds with less gain.
For amplifiers, the main sound employed is a combination of a Marshall Plexi head and MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier head being played into a 4x12 Marshall cabinet and 4x12 MESA cabinet. The cabinets were both mic'd with a Shure SM57 and Neumann U 87. Daron also stated that the Carvin SX-100 was used in the studio. The signal was then processed through a pair of "black-faced" (black panel) 1176 compressors.
In the few live shows that occured in May, Daron can be seen using the Jackson Randy Rhoads and a Gibson Les Paul. This was only for these shows, as he found the Les Paul to be too heavy for how much he moves around on stage.
He also introduces two pedals into his rig, the Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeler and the Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler. (Similar to the amps, I won't mention pedals unless there is an addition/change.)
A modified Ibanez Iceman IC300 with a Silver Sparkle finish shows up for the 2001 concerts. These have bolt-on necks and were modified to remove the pickup selector, having two knobs with one of them being a pickup-blend. He also would use a matte white one as well in some shows, as well as occasionally busting out the baritone Ibanez Iceman.
Daron using the Ibanez Iceman during the filming of the Chop Suey music video.
Daron starts using a few custom painted modified Ibanez Iceman IC300s. The bridge appears to be similar to the ones used on the baritone model and is loaded with a Gibson Burstbucker pickup on the bridge, and a Seymour Duncan SH-6 for the neck pickup.
The following is a list of plugins that Bora has used in his studio. Most of these come from watching this timelapse frame by frame, while the first 3 come from Stephan Wunderlich of The Ninjas.
It would not surprise me if he had some sort of bundle of plugins from Waves or another company. Plugins that we know were used for the 2014 album have been labeled. Unlabeled means we either do not know if it was used.
After nearly 2 years of waiting, we finally have the songs Flesh-Eating Bacteria, AND Jabberwocky (Live At The Palace)!
Flesh-Eating Bacteria: https://youtu.be/bGddqkS-JxA
Jabberwocky (Live At The Palace): https://youtu.be/FlkVcHxjXWo
The rest of the songs all have slightly different mixes, which are all available on our archive.
20 years ago today, Cojum Dip performed in the semi-finals for the Emergenza Music Festival at The Magic Stick in Detroit, Michigan, where the band won first place with 135 points!
Why did I do this? It's funny.
The map has been turned into a large-scale, asymmetrical CTF map. The BLU intel sits at the first control point at Stage 1, and the RED intel sits at the final Stage 3 control point. BLU spawns at both the first two spawns (Stage 1 and 2 BLU spawns), RED spawns at the final two (Stage 2 and 3 RED spawns).
Other alterations to the map were made as le epic beyta references.
Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3723022430
Gamebanana mirror: https://gamebanana.com/mods/675958
This is a comprehensive guide to achieving the guitar tone from the SOAD's self-titled album, based on drawings by Sylvia Massy and footage recorded during the album's tracking.
To start, there are three primary sources I used to put this together: two doodles by Sylvia Massy, and a video she recorded of Daron playing a part of Know in the studio.
This is the first drawing detailing the process for how the guitar was recorded. It details an Iceman being routed into a Tube Screamer, being split into a Marshall JCM800 and a Marshall Plexi, being blended into one channel through the Neve 8068 console, and then going through Sylvia's "Army Man Compressor" (a Western Electric RA-1217 that definitely doesn't work as intended), and is recorded onto tape. Note the mention of the Tube Screamer and the JCM800.
The second drawing is a refined version of this drawing, found in Sylvia Massy's book Recording Unhinged. This drawing omits the Tube Screamer, and doesn't give detail on which Marshall amp was used (JCM800 and the most well known Plexi amp, the 1959 Super Lead are both 100W amps). The drawing also mentions that the cabinets are 30W cabs, and that the Neve 8068 was using Neve 31102 EQs. She also notes that this method, with a different guitar and no Army Man Compressor was used to record the guitars for Tool's album Undertow. In fact, an interview she did actually confirms the cabinets and the 100W Amp---the cabinets are listed as "newer 4x12 Marshalls with 75-watt Celestion speakers"... which would mean it's a 300W cabinet. The Marshall is confirmed here to be a Plexi, likely the 1959 Super Lead.
The next piece of evidence comes from a video of Daron Malakian recording "Know" for the album. Interestingly, he's using his Big Apple Stratocaster rather than his Iceman. Additionally, behind him, you can see both the Dual Rectifier and the Marshall amp, which is the Plexi 1959 Super Lead. I personally do not believe that the JCM800 was used on the album.
I do not have actual guitar gear, so I'm using digital plugins to achieve a sound that I believe is as close as possible to the real deal. The plugins I use are:
AmpliTube 5:
Here is the basic setup for AmpliTube 5. I run the Tube Screamer into the Plexi but not the Dual Rectifier.
The settings for the Dual Rectifier are as follows, looking at the Red Channel:
Presence: 3.2
Master: 1.0
Gain: 6.3
Bass: 8.8
Mid: 6.5
Treble: 1.7
This uses the Modern voicing, using "Bold" power, 6L6 tubes, and silicon diodes.
For the Tube Screamer:
Overdrive: 2.37
Tone: 0.82
Level: 2.39
The settings for the Plexi (British Lead S100 in AmpliTube) are:
Gain: 10
Bass: 8.9
Middle: 10
Treble: 4.0
Presence: 9.2
Reverb: 0
Volume: 7.0
Now for the cabinets:
For both the cabinets, set it to the 4x12 Brit 9000 model. Set Mic 1 to the Dynamic 421 and place it on the top left speaker, and set Mic 2 to the Dynamic 57 and place it on the bottom right speaker. Mute the overhead room microphones.
For Mic 1 on the cabinet connected to the Plexi, go to VIR Tech and place it around here, and set the volume to -5.5 dB.
For Mic 2 on the Plexi, place it around here and leave the volume at -6 dB.
For Mic 1 connected to the Dual Rectifier, place it here, set the volume to -3.8 dB, and hard pan it left.
For Mic 2 connected to the Dual Rectifier, place it here, set the volume to - dB, and hard pan it right.
I have the master on AmpliTube 5 set to -2 dB to stop any potential clipping.
Need 31102 Console EQ:
Because this post is already long, I'll try and briefly explain the settings here.
I'm using the mid/side balance so I can EQ the mics in the middle (Plexi) and the mics on the sides (Dual Rectifier) easily, since I can't exactly route it exactly the same as Sylvia did.
For the mid settings, copy off of this image:
For the side settings, copy off of this image:
Decapitator and Black 76:
To replicate the Army Man Compressor, I then add the Soundtoys Decapitator, followed up with the Black 76 Limiting Amplifier. This gives the guitars an extra bit of saturation and crunch, which sells the tone the best.
Here are the settings for the Decapitator:
And the settings for the Black 76:
(OPTIONAL) Tape Machine 80:
I use the IK Multimedia Tape Machine 80 in the mix bus as it is what I would imagine to be the closest equivalent to the A800 with the T-RackS 6 plugins I have.
I have the Bias set to 0.6, and the LF EQ set to 0.3. Everything else can be seen in the image.
Daron typically uses the bridge pickup on his guitar, so using that will also be helpful for getting the right tone. Since both guitars listed have humbuckers, you can use a plugin such as Blue Cat's Re-Guitar to change the sound of your guitar to sound like it has humbuckers.
The Dual Rectifier used in the studio was only a dual channel as opposed to the triple channel that AmpliTube 5 offers, so be cautious of that if you want to modify this to be a clean tone that's heard on the album.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
