THE Rockman thread

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Not sure what amp he used here but it has that nasal processed thing cutting through:
 
Didn't Megadeth use them to record a couple albums? "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" and maybe the rhythm guitars on "Rust In Peace" ? Not sure about the latter, but it kinda sounds like it...
 
Any way you look at all things rockman, Tom S. is a genius way ahead of the times back then.We can only hope that he passes his secrets and knowledge on down at some point.I just had my xpr/pa 500 head on the other day thru 4 rockman cabs and was blown away with it.And this was right after I played my shiva,friedman, and Elmwood!
 
anomaly":229y5bdl said:
Didn't Megadeth use them to record a couple albums? "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" and maybe the rhythm guitars on "Rust In Peace" ? Not sure about the latter, but it kinda sounds like it...
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If by Megadeth you mean Def Leppard and if by Peace Sells and Rust in Peace you mean Hysteria and Adrenalize, then yes.
 
robertkoa":3qqmss0x said:
In interviews at least one I can remember, Tom Scholz said he used a 50 watt Marshall with the Power Attenuater he made NOT one of the "Rockman" Units.

Excellent tones and songs.
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For the first Boston album it was a 10 watt little amp with a power tube that had a bad socket.
That is what he said and the engineer said in one of the magazines i had at the time.

Magazines, do they still exist?
 
I've seen lots of discussion about the first two albums in the pre-rockman days. Despite the different stories, they seems to be a lot of focus on use of compression, using a "cocked-wah-pedal" or pre-distortion and post-distortion EQ. I use the term distortion loosely, because that could be any distortion source, including effects or overdriven amplifier stages.
 
Marshall and Ampeg amps and the prototype Power Soak were used with Ampeg cabs, as well as an MXR 6 band EQ, and the infamous Hyperspace pedal he made from an old Echoplex, plus tape saturation, outboard studio gear (compression, EQ, echo, reverb, etc...) is what I've always read.
 
rbc":2vxsffxl said:
I've seen lots of discussion about the first two albums in the pre-rockman days. Despite the different stories, they seems to be a lot of focus on use of compression, using a "cocked-wah-pedal" or pre-distortion and post-distortion EQ. I use the term distortion loosely, because that could be any distortion source, including effects or overdriven amplifier stages.
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I recently read on TGP how a member approximated the pre-Rockman Boston Sound using a kind of cabinet simulator. It inspired the thought that cab simulation is a large part of what shapes that sound, particularly the enhanced compression.

What are your thoughts on cocked wah-wah pedals? Do you know what frequency in particular (and maybe Q value) that Tom managed to knuckle down from his wah-wah pedal, that he used for the Rockman? It must be more than just boosting 800Hz.
 
MXR 6 band boosting and cutting (all the way) on multiple frequencies...there are pics on the 'net
 
Tom Scholtz used a Rockman on the Third Stage album... No comparison to the tones from his Marshall rig IMO. I do have to hand it to Tom Scholtz for inventing the concept of using light emitting diodes... Very cool idea! Didn't take the designers at Marshall long to adopt this into their Jubilee line of amplifiers. I prefer 100% tube diode path, but the marriage of the two provides for some nice tonal options.
 
Kapo_Polenton":j420ledh said:
Not sure what amp he used here but it has that nasal processed thing cutting through:
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That 'nasal processed' sound, sounds to me like the particular chorus pedal used in the guitar rig. Some chorus pedals will affect the timbre of the signal no matter what Delay Time is used.

If I use my H2O chorus pedal rather than the Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger, I pretty much get that same rhythm sound in the video clip.


So I guess that matches up with Mike Wagener's notes about running four amps in separate rooms that are then summed to one mono channel. Two Marshalls for the high frequencies, two Laney amps for the low frequencies- with one Laney being fed by "a Boss chorus pedal". Being 1984/5 it could have likely been a Boss CE-2, or maybe CE-3 set to mono.

In saying that, I do reckon a lot of the Rockman Sound is coloured by the chorusing effect in it. However that Dokken guitar tone, while nasal and processed-sounding and that "squeezed' texture, does not have that scowling hawky squawk so characteristic of the Rockman sound which you hear in a lot of 1980s telly show themes or the 'Scarface' soundtrack that I often refer to.
 
The reason it doesn't sound like a Rockman is that it's mixed in with the Marshalls and Laneys. I'm telling you, try it at home before you decide. None of the solos have Rockman on them, but the rhythms ? For sure...
 
And, for the record, I don't care WHAT Michael Wagner says about it...everyone's memory so many years later is suspect. I know Bob St John (who engineered all the Extreme records), and while MW says the guitar was put through a Furman PQ3 on Extreme I and Porno, Bob says emphatically NO. So who's right ? Try it and let your ears decide...I did.
 
I don't have a rockman, but I do love the stories in this thread. I was wondering, is this a rockman in this video? There is a rack in the back in some of the shots that looks like a rockman and it would make sense that given the year, a guy on the guitar seminar circuit might have a rack based around one. Jump to around 5:00 minutes.

 
It might be a XPR, but it's hard to tell. The XPR is really cool. You can program it with up to 100 lineups and use MIDI to control it. There is a three band EQ that allows pre-distortion changes to the EQ. You can also mix the clean signal with the distorted signal. The distortion is followed by a second 5 band EQ. The effects include a stereo chorus with programmable sweep speed, along with a reverb.
 
In some ways it resembles an xpr but its a bit blurry to tell for sure.I got to hang out with Joey while he was on tour with Michael Sweet's solo project.Im pretty sure at this particular show, Michael and joey were using triaxis's.I had dinner that night with the band, sat with Michael and joey and darn, wouldn't ya think I d been talkin shop with them! But,if my memory serves me right, as a young 21 yr old then,I think the only thing I asked them about was how to make it and get signed to a label! lol...anyways, the xpr is one of favorite rockman pieces for sure..almost perfect ,should've added full echo,smart gate, and itd darn near be perfect.
 
Hi to everybody,
I need some help and I hope this is the right place for my problem:
I have a (glorious) rockman xpr rack unit. I always had it, and I used to use it with a simple footswitch. Now I bought a behringer fob 1010, I don't know why, probably it's the midlife crisis, so I am looking for more toys :)
I was wondering if I can program the expression pedals with the xpr, let's say the volume and the distortion values.... is it possible? can I really do it? and if yes, how? Is there any resource on the net for this? (I searched but didn't find anything).

thanks, best.

ginuz.
 
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