“Hysteria” Tone Recreation
After the decline of each musical style, it is logical that a new, improved, more comprehensive one should be born, which leads to new, interesting and more creative bands. That is exactly what happened in the late 80’s and the early 90’s gave a chance to the emerging new style called “Alternative rock”.
Alternative Rock
We have witnessed the rise of so many bands and so many talents in the 90’s, that surely many of you have had a favorite alternative band that you have listened to and listened to hundreds of times. Containing a mixture of several styles such as grunge, metal, punk and indie rock, Alternative rock is the nominal definition of bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains. These are just several bands which brought that newly formed style into the mainstream.
One band made a great impression on the listeners and music lovers of that time. Grabbed the attention of massive audiences, this band was recognizable for combining a wide range of sonic inspirations and bright spectacular concerts worldwide still for today’s. Perhaps you have already guessed who that band was. The constantly evolving musical power – Muse.
Muse Story
Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_(band)
The three members band began its journey in England, but not in 1994. it was long before that year when Christopher, Dominic and Matthew met each other in Teignmouth, Devon. Very interesting circumstances first gathered Matthew and Dominic during playing games on a retro computer.
Somewhere in the joyfully spent times they started to discuss the music. Everyone of them has already played on different instruments and quickly found their common ground in the music. Christopher was first a drummer but later on he took the bass to become bassist for the newly formed band – Muse.
The first beginnings of the band appeared after two, three years and their first playing competition on stage brought them first place. After that they played a lot of covers in different clubs and in 1995 they were discovered by studio owners who were impressed by Matthew’s imaginative and creative mind. With free studio time they recorded their first songs and not long
after they became favorites to fans all across England. Their first album was released in 1999 and was met by the local critics with mixed responses but it didn’t stop the following success of the band. Tours all over Europe, Australia, America, Japan marked their fast growing success amongst the fans.
Gear
Apart from Matt’s talent and abilities to sing and play the piano, his strength is concentrated in his interesting guitar playing and arrangements in general. So, listening to the band, many of you are probably curious about Matt’s rig?! Well, let’s look into it. When it comes to the guitars, he is very versatile and uses Manson Signature, Gibson, Fender Strat, Gretsch, Ibanez, Jackson, Parker, Taylor, Yamaha, PRS. Okay, even more.
He is no less diverse in his choice of amplifiers as well. Starting from the veterans Fender amps, passing through the favorites Marshalls and ending with Randall, Orange, Soldano. But none of this is surprising when you want to create and need a different sound.
Another very interesting thing about the band Muse you have probably noticed is how the bass line takes central position in many songs. It’s not surprising with the finger style playing and using synthesizers and effects, Christopher, their bassist, deserves special attention too.
The album Absolution is a spectacular incarnation of wonder rock symphonies with lavish orchestral arrangements. We wanted to recreate the song Hysteria from this album both the guitar and bass guitar in order to find Muse’s feeling that we all gather at their grandiose concerts and when listening to their CD’s.
With our Amplifikation Matchlock amp sim and Efektor Fuzz plugin pedal, you are going to find the guitars in the song very similar, very colorful just like Matt’s. Because we never cease to amaze you, we are about to release a surprisingly authentic bass Effektor that we will use in the song as well. The over sensational songs of the band Muse need special attention in front of the computer and particularly the turbo – charged Hysteria song. With the dystopian related music of the song, comprehension of the sonic message is going to be received in your ringing ears at the end of this recording journey.
First let’s create the guitar tone and then the killer bass line with the new secret pedal and our Cerberus Bass Amplifikation amp simulator.
“Hysteria” Tone recreation
The Guitar Riffs
The guitar riff of the song really complements the whole picture when the driving bass line enters with the drums in the arrangement. The guitar tone is simple. Fuzz – Amp – EQ – Delay and Reverb.
The guitar tone starts with a fuzz pedal
Then a Fender* type amp. In this case our Amplifkation Matchlock amp simulator, which is great for this job
A little EQ to the shape the tone to fit better in the mix
And at the end a delay pedal and reverb to give the guitar depth and more epic character for the big bends.
The bass riff
What we could say. It’s crazy and the driving force of the song.
The tone starts with a solid fuzz like distortion
Then in the Cerberus Bass Amp Simulator
The riff is totally crazy in E minor with huge energy and the pedal together with the bass amp are just enough to get the same tone in seconds.
Here you can hear the intro bass line
Audio Sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CdyKWjOtb0q_hc2dS3BCnQNjt8eKjosU/view?usp=sharing
Here you can hear the whole mix
Audio Sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kUFyNVIqBdli0P0AMzUz7EwXt9nz6-mt/view?usp=sharing
Here you can download the preset and copy it to your presets folder:
Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CZbkz1ENRqaYIPW-9xIIAX5Wn7ewHXQk/view?usp=sharing
The preset file for A360 looks like this:Red Peppers Snow.ka360p copy the file after extracting it from the zip file at:
Presets folder:
Windows:
C:\Users\[User Name]\Documents\Kuassa\Presets\Amplifikation360
Mac:
/Users/[User Name]/Music/Kuassa/Presets/Amplifikation360
And, as a final word, Muse is just amazing. Crazy and fulfilling melodies with solid arrangements. The bass and the guitar are so well tied together and show the true talents of Chris, Matt and Dominic, who is grooving with them.
Stay tuned for more tones with history, explanation and preset for download!