The New Tone Thread

Oh...I thought you had.
I didn't check out all who was over there, from here, but I did see minerman and a couple of other HR guys.
 
Well, Here goes nothing.
Putting together some tones for the final track on my next project. Tell me what this sounds like as mix. Pick it apart if you must. I've got 5 different guitar parts run through 4 sims and my Vox. At the end, there's a bit of the Vox soloed so you can tell where I'm heading. If anyone's at all interested (I know this isn't about sim tones) The other four parts are Fender MetalHead for the harmonics and chords, a Tiny Terror for the root notes and a Dual Terror for the 5ths. Wish I had all the amps, I'd try to mike em all!

Anyway, give a listen at the end to the tone of the Vox. With a lot of help from my embarrassment thread (where I found out the Vox has TWO channels), and my latest Clinic thread, I've finally gotten something decent out of my mike and Vox.



btw, how do you use the [MP3] bit?
 
You cut off the feedback tail at the very end...don't do that! I'll confine my comments to the Vox at the end. Sounds pretty good. You're light years beyond the early attempts you posted when you bought this amp. I'm hearing an ambiance that isn't flattering your tone. Is that the amp's reverb, or some effect you added after tracking? If it's the amp reverb, I'd dial it way down. It's a nice sounding reverb but a little goes a long way. During the brief time I owned that amp I remember thinking that 3 on the reverb dial was too much. Other than that, it's a perfectly viable tone. It's raw and midrangey, without much low end. But it isn't shrill or harsh. I'm thinking it would sound best in an arrangement with a solid bass line underneath, like the one you have here.
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
If this thread drops off to nuthin' you'll know where it went...
Click to expand...

Well Lou, maybe it will, maybe it won't..I just think it's a shame this thread ended up like this, IMHO, it's the best thing on the internet I've personally been a part of (and I'm honestly very proud of this because of the friendship/brotherhood thing)...

It pisses me off, but breaks my heart at the same time...A lot of you guys here helped me out at a time I didn't know if I'd have a place to stay, or have something to eat from one day to the next...Things were that bad for me last winter, I was teetering on the edge of being homeless, but thanks to some great people here that didn't happen...

But, things change, & I'm afraid our tone thread has arrived at a crossroads...I'm really not sure which direction it's gonna take either...

So yes, I have joined another forum, & have already been involved in a new tone thread...Testing the waters over there, & I may stay there, but I might stay here too...Time will tell...BTW, I'm a member of a lot of forums related to home recording...

I respect all the mods here (fuck, I respect everyone here), & I understand they have a job to do, but I flat-out refuse to agree with the decision that was made. While I still respect them & will honor their decision, I don't have to agree with it, I don't like it, but I do have to live with it...That's part of life, things can change in the blink of an eye, so it's up to all of us to roll with the changes & keep on keepin' on...
 
Robus said:
You cut off the feedback tail at the very end...don't do that! I'll confine my comments to the Vox at the end. Sounds pretty good. You're light years beyond the early attempts you posted when you bought this amp. I'm hearing an ambiance that isn't flattering your tone. Is that the amp's reverb, or some effect you added after tracking? If it's the amp reverb, I'd dial it way down. It's a nice sounding reverb but a little goes a long way. During the brief time I owned that amp I remember thinking that 3 on the reverb dial was too much. Other than that, it's a perfectly viable tone. It's raw and midrangey, without much low end. But it isn't shrill or harsh. I'm thinking it would sound best in an arrangement with a solid bass line underneath, like the one you have here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the reverb was barely on...like below 9:00. I dialed this in for a three string non-power chord part of the whole. It's just strings 3-4-5 (DGB) on the chords of the whole, so it didn't need the bottom. I'm using the Orange sims for the bottom (and my bass).
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
FYI - To those who haven't moved over already. Greg has started a tone thread at the Recording Review forum. Several of the participants here are already involved as well as some of that site's regulars (That jkuehlin dude is a hoot. Reminds me of Victory Pete.)

So if this thread drops off to nuthin' you'll know where it went...
Click to expand...

That thread is already up to 60+ posts - seems to be Greg, miner and JD mainly but getting interest from a few locals. So people will come into that forum, looking for something else, see it at the top of the list (when it is) and think "mmmmm...." and have a look, read a bit, get served up some ads, buy some stuff (because that soooo works...) or not, but maybe stick around, and the forum owners will be really happy.

There's yer traffic argument. :D

You should have copyrighted the name Lou.;)
 
A lot of people are going over there to check out the tone thread Greg started because they like greg. I just started posting in this tone threat fairly recently and I saw greg comment on every tone that was posted. He . Over 1300 posts and he was here from the beginning. I think he made post #2. To a lot of people he IS the tone thread. So, the tone thread is over there now for the most part.
 
I could only suggest that a tone thread could/should have a more wider variety of tone styles.

Now, I do get it...guys will post the types of tones they like...and heck, if you have mostly guys who are dialing in the same style of tones...well that's what you end up with, so I'm not being critical about that.

Like I know what kind of tones Greg likes the most, and if he's the main guy driving that tone thread, like he did here ...well, he's going to post what he likes. :)

I'm just saying that there are other players, different styles, doing different tone flavors...and if you could get more of them in the same tone thread...then it would really open things up to an all inclusive monster tone thread.
But of course...it's up to who is there regularly posting tones. Like if it's all Metal shredders posting tones...they ain't ever going to be posting any Jazz tones! :p

Hey...I know I could have posted more tones....but I've struggled the last couple of years just trying to get some other shit done. I'm hoping this winter I'll have a lot more guitar playing time.
 
I wish the gerg well and am happy he has a new venue to carry on.

With this thread, I guess we'll see what happens. It would be nice to have some diversity.
There's LOTS of different tones out there, and good ones.

This thread on our forum seemed to degrade into a "this is where the kool kids hang out, and the 'losers' can go to the mp3 clinic"

Not healthy, or inclusive.

Well see where things go.
 
I've posted all sorts of tones on here. I did get more involved in posting when I needed to develop tone to match a newer direction in current writing - something a little tougher.
My signature tone was trebly/jangly for a lot of songs BUT I needed a new string for the bow.
I now have a tougher tone, a better/clearer open chord tone and some refinement to my jangle/bite.
Most of this was achieved by learning to better mic my cabs and finding sweet spots in my guitar -> amp minimalist settings.
These things were achieved through experimentation, critical analysis, commentary & suggestions as well as seeing PLUS hearing recommended settings.
That's the Tone Thread.
 
Well, the recording review "The Tone Thread" appears to be working well. Greg's posted up his typical Marshall cranked to death tone, another guy is managing to get a great tone out of a 1/4 Watt (yes, one fucking quartar) Vox, and some guy is posting really gainy 80s metal tones (and its not Minerman!) and the thread seems popular so its working well.

I'll be dialling in a new EQ pedal later on so I'll definitely need a bit of Tone Thread for that.
 
JDOD said:
...another guy is managing to get a great tone out of a 1/4 Watt (yes, one fucking quartar) Vox..
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Very cool. Doesn't surprise me. Got a link?

I've been tracking guitars today through the new Mesa Boogie V 25. I'll have some tones to post, looking for suggestion on dialing it in. The amp's unlike any I have used. Getting tones isn't hard but that closed 1x12 cab with a V30 is taking some getting used to.
 
I've got my mike almost into the wood to get where my tone is. Didn't think that would be right, but the tones are coming out a lot better. Learning to dial back the tone controls on the LP and blend the pickups a bit better. That's been my biggest gain in getting good tones. A little technique would help, I'm sure, but I'm just a semi-self-taught hack...
What I did learn is to start with what you know. For me, that meant getting the tones I wanted from sims and then adding the miked into the mix and fiddling till it made sense. Probably sounds a bit backward to most, but I've never owned anything like a decent amp. I've never miked an amp of any kind. The only time my bass was ever miked, someone else did it...So a lot of my experience is with AT3 and AT4. The mike placements there don't translate to meat very well (at least in my experience.)
 
JDOD said:
another guy is managing to get a great tone out of a 1/4 Watt (yes, one fucking quartar) Vox.
Click to expand...

I've got one of those amps. Little Vox mini-stack - does 4, 1 and 1/4 watt - and I've used it on recordings before, but generally on the 1 or 4 watt settings.
 
BroKen_H said:
I've got my mike almost into the wood to get where my tone is. Didn't think that would be right, but the tones are coming out a lot better. Learning to dial back the tone controls on the LP and blend the pickups a bit better. That's been my biggest gain in getting good tones.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised you're not getting more bottom, with the mic out so far toward the edge of the speaker.
 
Armistice said:
I've got one of those amps. Little Vox mini-stack - does 4, 1 and 1/4 watt - and I've used it on recordings before, but generally on the 1 or 4 watt settings.
Click to expand...

I've been through the very low wattage amp craze (though nothing as low as 1 or 1/4 watt kind of stuff)...and I don't deny that you can get a decent tone out of those little amps, but it often ends up being like one basic tone that hits the sweet spot, but then there's the simple concept of moving air that those little amps just can't do.
I mean...might as well just use a pedal to create the "big amp crunch tone", and turn the amp volume way down on your bigger wattage amp...kinda the same effect, IMO.

Not saying you can't get by without the speaker/cab contribution to tone...but I've totally gone in the opposite direction, and now like to track guitars LOUD, so that the speakers/cabs also come into play...and then you get a tone that is hard to match with a 1/4 amp or some DI/sim setup. Those tones can be OK...but when the speaker is chugging, you're in a different tone zone, and that's the tones that I've come to like best (YMMV/etc/etc).

You need like a bold 30W to 50W amp to really hit that "moving air" tone zone...and there's also something to be said for going with the bigger 100W amps. I thought I wouldn't need any 100W amps for pure studio work, and what I had, I got rid of several years ago...but now, my next amp will most likely be a 100W amp, just so I can add that to the tone color palette. I have a few in the 50W range...and a couple in that 25W range, but I always like the bigger amps more lately when tracking...so I figure, 100W is more than 50W...how can I go wrong with that? :p

It's like the whole going to "11" thing. :D

Seriously though...no one should assume that in a studio setting, there is no need for loud amps.
Of course...if you have other issues (neighbors, sleeping babies)...then that's a different reason to go low.

Oh...I also agree with the notion that you can't do it all with 112 cabs in the studio. You gotta have at least a couple of big-box 212 cabs along with the 112 options...and a 412 wouldn't hurt, which I know Greg always use to also say here.
I had a sweet 412...which is another thing I got rid of several years ago...and kinda wish I hadn't...but I just got my Sour Mash 212 slant a few days ago...and it certainly makes me not miss the 412. Very sweet cab, solid build...Birch throughout (no plywood or particle board crap)...and it's as big as a compact 412. I mean, you could almost fit four 12" speakers in it side by side. It's got the dual 12s set up diagonally top to bottom. Great cab, I recommend the Sour Mash cabs to anyone looking for something custom built.
 
JDOD said:
Well, the recording review "The Tone Thread" appears to be working well. Greg's posted up his typical Marshall cranked to death tone, another guy is managing to get a great tone out of a 1/4 Watt (yes, one fucking quartar) Vox, and some guy is posting really gainy 80s metal tones (and its not Minerman!) and the thread seems popular so its working well.

I'll be dialling in a new EQ pedal later on so I'll definitely need a bit of Tone Thread for that.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised "The Management" are letting this kind of promotion of a rival website stand. :)
 
Robus said:
Very cool. Doesn't surprise me. Got a link?

I've been tracking guitars today through the new Mesa Boogie V 25. I'll have some tones to post, looking for suggestion on dialing it in. The amp's unlike any I have used. Getting tones isn't hard but that closed 1x12 cab with a V30 is taking some getting used to.
Click to expand...
the midrange control is the key .... up to around halfway up, it's just a midrange control ..... past about halfway it also starts increasing gain in that mid area .... so max mids also boosts the gain.
If you want a more Fendery tone (Not counting the graphic) the mid control's gonna be around 9 '0' clock .... even lower maybe.
 
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