How to get that 90s NINE INCH NAILS guitar tone

[@Tonepusher]

Cubase project & ZOOM 9030 Impulse responses here: www.patreon.com/c/tonepusher That one's been on my list for a while now, but I wanted to do it right hehe! I think I nailed it pretty well! That said, I know there was a lot more processing involved back then: sampling, resampling, tape saturation, and all that. These days, though, there are easier ways to get a similar sound without all the hassle they went through in the '90s! Thanks so much for the support! Don’t forget to drop a like it really helps a ton. Cheers!

[@vladv5126]

Alternate title: "How to nine inch nail that guitar tone"

[@Tonepusher]

hahaha well, ngl, that could totally be the title hehe 🤔

[@jesse_cole]

Oh, I get it, because Nails/Nails! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

[@dashobradors]

As always, what a great video! ❤❤❤

[@Tonepusher]

hey! thanks a lot :))

[@PaulOuzounov]

Good work! Super realistic, and love the detail you went into!

[@Tonepusher]

thanks for the kind words :))

[@phantomlord2oo]

One other trick Trent used on Broken to thicken up the guitar sound. He recorded the guitars tuned down, played the parts slower, and recorded to tape at half speed. When played back at normal speed it was the correct pitch but sounded much thicker. Otherwise spot on!

[@Tonepusher]

Yeah I kept that one for another video :)

[@phantomlord2oo]

@Tonepusher Awesome! Can't wait for that one too!

[@Kostaras4444]

Isn't this trick used in the exact opposite way? Meaning, higher tuned and played faster and then slowed down with tape speed? 🤔

[@justin6point7]

@@Kostaras4444 I think the idea is to bring a growl up to pitch for low frequency thickness you can't get by detuning a high frequency squeal, but I could be wrong.

[@wesleyestrella8251]

This sounds pretty accurate. Amazing job man!

[@Tonepusher]

hey thanks man :) yeah I compared with the original and it's pretty close. I had to use different drums not to get copyright claimed lol

[@DatBoi-du7eo]

I was looking for this! Thanks a lot. How do you get the tone for the guitar solo on Ruiner though?

[@Tonepusher]

thanks for commenting! :) the guitar solo on Ruiner is a straight up preset on the Zoom 9030 as is.

[@Romad_20]

Nice! NIN is my favorite since I was 10 when PHM came out. Love you're really digging into all of the industrial (using the term loosely) sounds. I've always wanted someone to lay things out the way you do. Thanks!

[@Tonepusher]

hey! thanks man haha I've been into industrial since my early teens too. Such a unique style of music. My first album was Sehnsucht back when it came out. Changed my life hehe

[@mcallistron]

You're old. (I was also 10 when PHM came out). Cheers!

[@Emily_M81]

sounds great, I think you outdid yourself on this one :D

[@Tonepusher]

hey thanks a lot :))

[@sp9127]

Super intéressant comme vidéo. You Nine Inch Nailed it!

[@Tonepusher]

lol haha merci! J'ai passé proche faire le jeu de mot dans la vidéo 🤣

[@erasenegatedelete]

I’ve been waiting for this!!

[@Tonepusher]

yeah man! I took my time with this one. I only had one shot lol I wanted it to sound as close as possible :) 🤘

[@erasenegatedelete]

@@Tonepusherthank you so much for this video!! I cannot WAIT to try this! I’ve tried with zero success to get that tone for years

[@R3ND3RR0R]

Schecter Apocalypse, nice, I have one!!

[@Tonepusher]

haha yeah I love that guitar man. I use it a lot.

[@R3ND3RR0R]

@@Tonepusher Modern classic dude!

[@thenext9537]

I read in a few mags back in the day, they went direct in. Also, their early live shows were difficult because of all the pre programming which didn't allow spontaneous creation of something. I found that interesting.

[@Tonepusher]

True! Electronic music, in general, is very unique to perform live. There are thousands of different ways to approach it, and NIN has definitely been innovative in that space.

[@thenext9537]

@ NiN is one of the ONLY bands I prefer live because records like TDS are pretty “dry” and just need that venue to make it open up.

[@DielectricFailure]

That’s what I like. I forgot you played guitar too. When I’m experimenting, I’ll use a guitar plugin but no cab. Just ugly distortion. Check out the band Bile and their song “I Reject” and that’s the tone I’m messing with.

[@Tonepusher]

yeah no cab tones sounds cool! hehe I often use them to blend with a ''normal'' tone. But there's a fine line where you can get lost and make it sound bad haha

[@K_E_Robin]

I want here you make your own track with that guitar tone 🔥🔥🔥

[@Tonepusher]

I'm working on music as we speak :) It might get in there hehe

[@K_E_Robin]

@Tonepusher Hellyeah! Another question: is it possible to make a bassline with a drum machine? My solo project, BRU✞E, will 99% solely be made with drum machines and maybe a sampler to record my voice as another percussive element.

[@Tonepusher]

@@K_E_Robin yeah 100% ! Some drum machines have basic synths in it or sounds. Also you could make your basslines using analog kicks too. You just need to find out the root note of the kick and youre good to go :)

[@K_E_Robin]

@Tonepusher Goodie goodie!! I'm gonna check for some machines that will do the trick! 🔥🔥🔥

[@Fl4ppers]

If you have a DS-1 you can use these direct into your IR/cab sim of choice too. We used to approximate industrial guitars in the 90s with these into valvestate combos ..poor man's option.

[@Tonepusher]

Exactly. To be honest, I used the JMP to stay true to what he used. But in reality, the cab sim (Zoom 9030) and the shaper distortion make up about 90% of the tone hehe

[@automaton111]

Nice. Rammstein and KMFDM guitar videos coming next?

[@Tonepusher]

you read my mind :) it's on the list

[@ReclusiveArts]

this is awesome, thanks!

[@Tonepusher]

hey np man :) 🤘

[@Davivd2]

This is great. I hope that you do a few more for NIN. The ending riff of Closer (Closer to God Remix) is thick. Reptile is another really chuggy tone that I would love to see broken down.

[@Tonepusher]

Thanks man! yeah Reptile is awesome. Probably one of my fav NIN track.

[@jgrove1736]

Listen to Killing Joke's Album "What's This For...!" from 1981 and you'll hear much that inspired a younger Trent. Especially the song "Unspeakable", Geordie Walker's guitar tone on that track definitely played in Reznor's ears many a time.

[@Tonepusher]

yeah I LOVE Killing Joke, it's been a while since I listened to them. Was definitely an influence. I often go back to their 2003 album.

[@VuotoPneumaNN]

That influence likely came via Ministry, as you can note how KJ obsessed Jourgensen has always been.

[@jgrove1736]

@@VuotoPneumaNN Yeah, first two early 80's KJ records are like a prototype for the industrial rock yet to come with elements of it in the grooves and guitars, distortion pedals on some vocals and Jaz's atonal synth patches that sound like sampled machinery. They took a slight "New Wave" detour in the mid 80's but in the 90's came back to a harder sound when they were named dropped, covered and in some cases, directly copied by so many other bands at the time.

[@AA_MusicGuy1111]

Great video but the reason there is a hard low pass filter is because the stem file was compressed audio

[@livettp]

Merci!!!

[@Tonepusher]

heyy de rien, ça fait plaisir! :)

[@AbashyIntellMe]

What about voice effects? Which Vst and Plugins use

[@Tonepusher]

Yeah making vocals tutorials is on my list for sure. Ministry, FLA etc...Although I need to find a good versatile vocalist :) I'm not too good at singing haha

[@deanolium]

Some of Trent's vocals goes through the 9030 on TDS. You can hear the ring mod at work there, mainly on backing or obscured vocals. Otherwise Trent mostly sings relatively clean. He plays with reverb a lot - some sections having virtually none to get it right in your ear, other sections having more so it fits into the mix. The big thing you'll see in the multitracks that's floating around is he uses a tonne of compression (you can hear his breaths a lot which is emblematic of that), sings into a tube preamp which will distort when he screams into it, and does several harmonies. But otherwise it's nothing too crazy.

[@Tonepusher]

@@deanolium 100% That's why there's not many tutorials on NIN vocals online. Because the reality is that there's no precise technique that he uses all the time. It's not like a trademark sound, it's always different.

[@BullyMaguire4ever]

@@Tonepushermain thing for Trent is usually SM58 through a Neve 1073, and cascading 1073s to distort.

[@mickmaster7345]

I think Reznor used Zoom 9020 for Broken EP and then JMP-1 for TDS. But still really great tone!!!

[@deanolium]

Both were used for TDS. However, he used more than just the reverb on the Zoom 9030 on TDS. The Ring Osc was used a tonne, and no doubt he also used the compressor in it, which is rubbish as a compressor but gives a heft to the sound. The outs from the units pulled the highs out a little making it a little less high-freq fuzz which then needed to be heavily low passed here. With TurboSynth, the wave shaper can absolutely be recreated with modern plugins, but the convert-to-osc section can't really. That works by splitting the sample up into slices and then turning each slice into a series of sinewaves that approximate the sound. It never sounds quite right, but layered with the original it sounds awesome. However, you can get it to reorder these slices, and even randomize them. This totally fucks the sound up in an amazing way. Just layer back into the original recording, maybe breaking each chord into it's own sample which you put through this chain, and it gives you utter chaos. But because it's changing the order of the sample, plugins (which are linear) can't handle it. This does sound good enough though, and is a great way to get those tones. But you just lose out the weirdness which really pushes Trent's guitars. For instance, the solo on Ruiner is all just a preset in the 9030 which is cheesy and noisy as hell and it sounds amazing.

[@Tonepusher]

The ''convert to osc'' function is pretty much do-able on Serum. Might be ''to clean'' to reproduce the EXACT same effect. It's pretty much the same thing but ''better"' sounding.

[@rskityaev]

A while ago i did a cover of Wish. It leaned much towards Ministry sound :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZXRf4OGd6ierLM&pp=ygUPb3V0cG9zdCAxMSB3aXNo

[@Tonepusher]

hey nice one man! haha Sounds good 👌

[@Durkhead]

So did you make these irs or did you download them from a website? Cause if you didnt make them then i think its kind of shitty that your selling them.

[@FlankinspanK]

the tone sucks but it works