The Number of the Beast
The title track's driving, harmonized riff. Dave Murray drove his black Stratocaster — a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge — and Adrian Smith his red Ibanez Destroyer (the guitar Smith said he 'recorded Number of the Beast on, the song, the solo, and everything') into cranked Marshalls, with an MXR Distortion+ adding the singing lead bite. Martin Birch tracked the twin parts at Battery Studios, London. Standard tuning; the aggression is in the picking hand and a tight gate.
The Number of the Beast
What we checked
Computed by a program, on this recipe, every time this page is built. How this works
Preset files — 1 of 3 complete
- Helix builds complete — every block in the recipe is in the file
- Quad Cortex 6 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Replaced with a stand-in: Noise Gate, Studio Comp, MXR D+, 4x12 Greenback, Plate, Tilt EQ. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
- Katana 1 block missing from the file; 4 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Not in the file: Reverb. The recipe calls for this block, but we have no verified model ID for it on this platform, so the preset is written without it. Add it by hand using the settings above.
Replaced with a stand-in: Crunch, Noise Gate, Booster, Reverb. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
What we didn't check
- Nobody played this through a real amp. There is no human listening test behind any number on this page.
- The settings are reasoned from the sources below, not measured off the record.
- No audio has been rendered for this recipe yet, so you cannot hear it before you load it.
- 3 platforms on this page (TONEX, Kemper, Fractal) get a model pointer, not a preset file — nothing was built or checked for them.
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