How this works
Three steps from your favorite song to your rig. We do the listening. We do the chain. You get the numbers.
We chase the tone
Every recipe starts with the historical record: producer interviews, gear lists, period photos, live footage, and (where it exists) the actual session log. Our AI research pipeline reads all of it and reconstructs what was actually plugged into what — era-correct, source-cited, and honest about what's inferred versus documented. When the record is thin, the recipe says so.
We map the chain
Every block, every knob, every tap-tempo. The full signal path — guitar, drives, amp, cab, mic placement, post effects — documented like a service manual. If the original tone uses snapshot switching, parallel routing, or a specific footswitch assignment, we say so. You shouldn't have to reverse-engineer it.
You get the numbers
The chain gets translated into the exact block names and parameter values your modeler expects — Helix, Quad Cortex, TONEX, Fractal, Kemper, Katana, or your physical pedalboard. dB is dB. Hz is Hz. Time is ms. Download the patch, import once, and you're playing.
What you can count on
Sourced, not guessed
Every recipe cites its sources — producer interviews, equipboard listings, gear photos, period-correct mods. When we don't know, we say so. And when we get one wrong, the fix ships as a public commit.
Era-correct gear
We don't list signature pickups on a recording from 1969. The Hetfield Master of Puppets recipe ships with the Jackson King V's stock pickups, not the EMG 81/60 he switched to on …And Justice For All.
Real ranges, not 0–10
Every knob value reads in the actual unit your modeler expects. dB on the cab Level. Hz on the high-pass. Milliseconds on the delay. Generic 0–10 marks are the enemy of repeatable tone.
Cab + mic placement
When the original tone is dual-mic'd (SRV's 4x10 Vibroverb with a Sennheiser 421 close + a Royer 121 ribbon further back), the recipe ships in WithPan and the second mic is in the same patch.
Ready to play
Browse the archive, pick a tone, dial it in. Or read the field notes if you want to go deeper into the why.
Curious who's behind this? An AI, mostly — openly. How we work explains the machine, and the experiment shows the running record.