User Manual
Marshall Murder One Lemmy Signature
Lemmy
Marshall Murder One Lemmy Signature
A Marshall Super Bass 1976. Or is it?
The Power of Dual Marshall Cabs
The Channel Strip Panel
The Amplifier Panel Controls
The Input Configurations
The Cabinet Section
Presets
Amp Room Ready
Extended Features
Credits
Related manuals
There are a handful of names that come to mind when you think of the absolute greats within the hard rock/heavy metal genre. Some wrote the most inspirational music, some were the best musicians, some were the largest hell-raisers and then there were a few that were just the kind of cool – both on and off stage – that the rest of us could only dream of being. And then, we have Lemmy: the embodiment of all of the above. What Lemmy and his cohorts in Motörhead accomplished, while sticking to their guns as the loudest and most uncompromising band the world has ever seen, demands respect. In fact, so much so, making them beyond reproach by anyone. Period.
If loud abrasive music, with its endless sprawl of genres, was a religion, Mr. Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister would have been its pope. Yes, we are aware of that Lemmy would’ve hated being glorified like this and probably would’ve told us to sod off just for good measure. But still..
Let the sermon begin!
Marshall Murder One Lemmy Signature
Softube has worked closely together with multi-time Motörhead album producer and mixing engineer Cameron Webb and with Marshall Amplification to create a one hundred percent accurate representation of the legendary “Murder One” Marshall Super Bass 1976 amplifier, hooked up to the Marshall MF280L 4x12” and the Marshall 1979L 4x15” cabinets. Murder One is of course known as being the rig of a bass player, but this set-up has a lot to offer a guitar player as well!
It has been said that “your lawn would die if Motörhead moved in next door” due to how loud they played. Now you can enjoy this set-up through the comfort of a digital environment!
A Marshall Super Bass 1976. Or is it?
Lemmy’s Murder One amp is technically a Marshall Super Bass 1976, but as it saw a great deal of repairs and improvements over the years - from different techs, probably all with their own ideas on how to best achieve Lemmy’s preferred tone – it slowly inched away from being “just” a Super Bass into becoming the absolute one-of-a-kind monster amplifier we all know the sound of today. Internally, Murder One’s modified circuitry has in a sense created a hybrid amplifier by merging the characteristics of a stock Super Bass 1976 with elements of a Super Lead, arming the Murder One amp with incredible sonic depth and a wide tonal range. The changes to the circuitry allowed Lemmy to achieve a far brighter, tighter sound while the inherent grind and tone of the Super Bass could still be found in abundance. The power amp is driven by four EL34 power tubes that produce 100 Watts of crushing volume and tone. Additionally, it features two separate channels, three-band EQ and three 12AX7 pre-amp tubes.
The Power of Dual Marshall Cabs
Having a Marshall stack behind you on stage might be a common sight with guitar players, but perhaps not so much with bass players. Lemmy’s preference of a highly distorted, mid-punch sound saw him using a combination of Marshall cabinets throughout his entire career. Marshall partnered up with the man himself and released a signature Lemmy rig; the 1992LEM8 100W amp and the MF280L 4x 12” and oversized 1979L 4x15” cabinets. The two cabinets used in this plug-in were Lemmy’s personal 1992 signatures cabinets. Having handled hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of his intense playing - both live and in the studio - we can confidently say that no other two cabinets can do the Murder One amp better justice than these two.
Longtime Motörhead producer Cameron Webb chose to go for nearfield positioning as this is the setup used to achieve Lemmy’s sound. The microphones used are all dynamic but with their distinct different flavoring: the SM7B, the MD421, the SM57 and the D12 VR. All four microphones are featured on both cabinets.
The two cabinets can be paired with a microphone each and mixed as per usual with the channel strip. A three band EQ, with a sweepable mid-frequency parameter, enables even further sound sculpting and lastly a gate knob for preventing those hot pick-ups from making too much noise.
Power and Standby Rocker Switches
To make it easy to pair up either the amp section or the cab section of the Murder One plug-in with another solution, the Power switch controls the On/Off setting of the amp and the Standby switch controls the On/Off setting of the cabinet section. When a section is switched off it is effectively in bypass mode, leaving the remaining section active and ready to use in combination of something else.
The Knobs
Presence: Increases the amount of presence – a treble boost accomplished by reducing the amount of high frequencies being subjected to negative feedback in the power amp section.
Bass, Middle and Treble: These tone controls determine the frequency content from the amplifier.
Volume I: Controls the volume of the brighter sounding Input I.
Volume II: Controls the volume of the darker sounding Input II.
NOTE: Option+left click (Mac) and CTRL+left click (Win) on a knob will return it to its default setting.
The Inputs
The two Input I sockets provide a bright sound, and the Input II sockets have a darker sound.
Input I (top): This is the high sensitivity input for Channel I - the brighter of the two channels - and is the one Lemmy uses.
Input I (bottom): This is the low sensitivity input for Channel I. It is 6dB lower in volume than the high sensitivity input and has a darker sound as well due to its significantly lower input impedance.
Input II (top): This is the high sensitivity input for Channel II, the so-called Normal channel.
Input II (bottom): This is the low sensitivity input for Channel II. It is 6dB lower in volume than the high sensitivity input and has a darker sound as well due to its significantly lower input impedance.
Patch Switching
There are numerous combinations of the high and low gain inputs for Input I and Input II. You can access those variations by clicking on the input sockets.
Clicking one of the four inputs selects it as the main input from the bass or guitar (black cable). Clicking the selected input again rotates between the available patching patterns (with the short black/white fabric-covered patch cable).
By patching the inputs, you will get different input gain and different tonality from the amp. Input II is very dark sounding, and by combining it with Input I you can work the Volume knobs almost like an EQ.
The most common way of patching is going into Input I at the top, and patching from the low Input I to the top Input II, but feel free to experiment!
1. Microphone select for the Marshall MF280L 4x12” and Mic Bypass
2. Microphone select for the Marshall 1979L 4x15” and Mic Bypass
3. Gate LED
4. Input Gate
5. High Gain
6. Mid Gain
7. Mid Freq Sweep
8. Low Gain
9. Master Out Clip LED
10. Master Out
11. Phase Invert, Pan, In and Level for the Marshall MF280L 4x12”
12. Phase Invert, Pan, In and Level for the Marshall 1979L 4x15”
Channel Strip Parameters
The channel strip is located to the right of the amplifier head. Open it by clicking the aluminum side with the blue ”Channel Strip” sticker or dragging the entire panel to the left. It can be closed again by clicking the same aluminum side, or dragging the entire panel to the right.
Mic Select: Selects which microphone is in use for each of the two cabinets. All of the microphones were placed nearfield on both cabinets.
Pan: Selects the mic’s/cab’s position in the stereo panorama.
In: Activates/deactivates the corresponding mic/cab. Mutes the signal when deactivated.
Phase Invert: inverts the phase of the mic signal.
Volume Fader: Sets the volume level of mic/cab.
Input Gate: Decreases the sound when the guitar is not played. Lower settings let through more low-level sounds, while higher settings make the gate more discriminating.
High, mid and Low Gain: Sets the boost or cut values of each of the three EQ bands.
Mid Freq: Sets the operating frequency of the Mid band.
Clip Indicator: Lights up with the output is too loud.
Master Output: Turn up or down the overall output level.
Off (no Cabinet or Microphone)
Sets the cabinet and microphone emulation in bypass, so that only the direct sound from the Murder One amplifier is heard. This is usually not regarded as a very pleasant sound, but the setting is useful for combining the amplifier with other cabinet/microphone solutions. The channel strip can be opened by clicking the right hand aluminum panel with the ”Channel Strip” sticker. Clicking this again closes the channel strip.
Mono and Stereo Operation
The Marshall ”Murder One” Lemmy Signature is preferably run in mono-to-stereo or stereo mode. The amplifier will always be in mono, but the microphones can be panned separately.
Long-time Motörhead producer and engineer Cameron Webb has dialed in a set of sounds, using only the Murder One plug-in, that could very well have been used on real Motörhead recordings. The remaining presets (that do not carry Lemmy’s name) presented in the plug-in display how versatile this amp really is. Far from being a one-trick pony, this amp might truly surprise you!
See separate chapter for more information regarding Preset Collection.
When purchasing this product, you automatically gain access to running the plugin as a module inside the Amp Room platform. The module can be matched and arranged together with any other native Amp Room module or other Amp Room-ready modules that you might own.
A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.
Patrik Jensen – Project management and manual copywrite.
Kim Larsson and Mattias Olsson – DSP modeling.
Pelle Serander – Framework programming.
Niklas Odelholm – General graphic design.
Ulf Ekelöf - Graphic design.
Cameron Webb, Patrik Jensen, Niklas Odelholm, Pelle Serander and Andreas Mood – Presets.
Emanuel Enbäre - Quality assurance.