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.

The Sources

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.

https://preview.redd.it/doh94ltue7yg1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3ee6a4abc8edbfc5bdc6ae4670cdf14d58531e5

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.

https://preview.redd.it/3bxfisqvg7yg1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e60e4ce633d9d18c40abbfb0b132096696382442

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.

How To Remake:

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 (with AmpliTube Mesa/Boogie pack)
• Need 31102 Console EQ
• SoundToys Decapitator
• Black 76 Limiting Amplifier by IK Multimedia
• Tape Machine 80 by IK Multimedia (not necessarily required, but helps bring the tone together in the mix bus... ideally get a plugin that replicates the Studer A800)

AmpliTube 5:
Here is the basic setup for AmpliTube 5. I run the Tube Screamer into the Plexi but not the Dual Rectifier.

https://preview.redd.it/pt9v1uv0n7yg1.png?width=804&format=png&auto=webp&s=903b01c66558d7fd94273c7c2bb3276e02d75a52

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.

https://preview.redd.it/cr18jshen7yg1.png?width=1175&format=png&auto=webp&s=77d03fc3725f86b565116a07e17dd455197acddd

For the Tube Screamer:

Overdrive: 2.37
Tone: 0.82
Level: 2.39

https://preview.redd.it/fibrcymgw7yg1.png?width=609&format=png&auto=webp&s=283ff2ad6c98fb6cab8bbb3b0a498985e63686cd

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

https://preview.redd.it/k6bq2358o7yg1.png?width=1129&format=png&auto=webp&s=2766c6d52fc423fddbbeca1b0c5028661af4e0eb

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.

Mic 1 Plexi position

For Mic 2 on the Plexi, place it around here and leave the volume at -6 dB.

Mic 2 Plexi position.

For Mic 1 connected to the Dual Rectifier, place it here, set the volume to -3.8 dB, and hard pan it left.

Mic 1 Dual Rectifier position

For Mic 2 connected to the Dual Rectifier, place it here, set the volume to - dB, and hard pan it right.

Mic 2 Dual Rectifier position

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:

Need 31102 mid settings

For the side settings, copy off of this image:

Need 31102 side settings

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:

https://preview.redd.it/ajyzzvu1r7yg1.png?width=872&format=png&auto=webp&s=04ebff38a40d641ff622e954cc10047d97717897

And the settings for the Black 76:

https://preview.redd.it/h6yrk2fdw7yg1.png?width=1108&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5773f4894e7c0c13537e76840bd452f4160ba49

(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.

https://preview.redd.it/px2731jas7yg1.png?width=1337&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b5aaa4bc38462ff677c7acc80a31f62c62ac3c6

Additional Notes

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!