The New Tone Thread

minerman said:
While they're not terrible dude, they all have a scratchy, bright thing going on with 'em...I think part of what I'm hearing is just too much gain, I know it's a metal tone, but IMO if you back off the gain just a tad, you'll still have clarity...Needs some low end too, but again, it's not terrible dude...

IMHO, there's not a lot of difference in these 3 tones, if I had to pick, it'd be the Ibanez...Something I can say works with my Ibbby is a Duncan Custom Custon p'up...I threw that p'up in there a pretty good while back, & it just works with that guitar....I tried it in my MIM Strat, but it was shrill, & I didn't like it at all...I'm guessing it's the differences in the wood, dunno for sure....

Rolling back the tone knob a little might help with the scratchy sound dude, you'll just have to keep tweaking....
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Cheers miner, I just had an hour with it now. Rolled a little gain out of the amp and a little off the tube screamer and rolled the tone back on the tube screamer a bit. An instant and huge improvement, still heavy as fuck but it works with my telecaster. I've just spent a good hour going shread crazy. Going down west surfing next weekend but if I am still in love with the tone in two weeks I'll be posting a metal track... Providing I can write one!

I've got proper ringing ears now. Going to bed with a massive grin. Feels like my fingers have been moving a bit like they used to this evening.
 
Lemme aks ya this....if you're using sims, why do you even bother with a pedal? Can't you just dial up pretty much anything you want with sim programs?

I don't think those tones are that bad. If you want "metal" you gotta define your style of metal. Those clips sound kind of 80s metal to me. Not too far off. What kind of "metal" are you looking to get? What they're missing IMO is the chunk of a real speaker moving air. They sound very flat and two dimensional. There's no chunk. Play with whatever cab sims you're using and see if you can get a little "air" into it. I think that will improve your sim tones a lot.
 
Greg, I'd love to be deafening myself with a loud amp. Unfortunately my house shares a wall with an older lady with Downs Syndrome.

Anyway, improved that tone a lot after what miner said. I also watched Colin Scott's "how not to dial in a metal tone" again.

Ideal metal tone would probably be Tool when they're going heavy.
 
A cheap way of adding the feel of an amp being mic'd in a room is to add a very, very gentle reverb to a guitar sim. I think that almost every preset in an amp sim has a reverb on it anyways though.
 
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RAMI said:
Waves GTR 3 actually has an "Air" knob. It's sort of reverb, but it seems to be more of a reverb sound that would have ambience, but not much actual room.
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The AxeFX has an Air in % as well as an "Air Frequency". I have no idea what it does. Just seems to make that frequency range airy.
It's definitely important to get that mic'd feel on a sim somehow.
 
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JDOD said:
Greg, I'd love to be deafening myself with a loud amp. Unfortunately my house shares a wall with an older lady with Downs Syndrome.

Anyway, improved that tone a lot after what miner said. I also watched Colin Scott's "how not to dial in a metal tone" again.

Ideal metal tone would probably be Tool when they're going heavy.
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We all get you can't make noise dude, been there, done that, but what Greg is suggesting is to try to get some air in the ampsim/cabsim....There should be a room mic somewhere in there to play around with....

I'm not sure if you said what you were using, if you did, I didn't catch it...Amplitube 3??? If so, there are room mics for each cab, you might play with those a little to see if it adds anything....

Or, if you can't do it with the ampsim, use a reverb in the daw to simulate a room...

On the tubescreamer, most people use it as a clean boost, level=10, gain=0, tone to taste, that way it just boosts the front end of the amp a little...

Like mentioned, those tones aren't bad/terrible in any way dude, I've certainly heard worse, & used a lot worse myself...
 
RAMI said:
Tone check. :D

I think I posted a version of this here a few weeks ago. I've since done the drums and added some Hammond organ, a la Deep Purple (I wish). I also re-amped the guitars with hopefully better tones.

Wondering how the guitars sit in the mix and how they sound now that I have everything but vocals on this. You guys helped me a lot with my last tune that I posted here before I posted it in the Clinic.
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Sounds pretty good Rami, the only thing for me is the lead guitar has a kind of cocked-wah sound, but that's just me being picky (again....)...Rhythm tones are good IMO, & they sit pretty well in the mix....

Been meaning to ask, what are you using for your bass sounds, GTR3???


RAMI said:
I don't mean to treat this place like the MP3 Clinic. Feel free ignore this. I'm just bored and figured I'd throw it up here in case someone else is bored, too. :D
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I thought that's what this thread is for, dialing in your tones dude, no worries with me....
 
RAMI said:
Thanx a lot, man. The "cocked-wah" sound is probably more about how I played it than what sound it's going through. I played the solos more with the edge of the pick, trying to get some ZZ Top type of harmonics, which didn't happen. :D
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While it does have kind of a cocked wah sound, to me, it's kinda like Mark Knopler's tone on "Money For Nothin" in a way too (which isn't a bad thing to me, I heard that song too many times back in the day, but there's no denying that guy's playing & sound....or to me anyway...), sort of an agressive, mid-range biting thing...I'm terrible describing sounds man please forgive me....:facepalm:.

RAMI said:
Yeah, most of the time now. I have an Ibanez active bass, straight into my interface. Then, I go through the GTR 3, and then into a channel strip for EQ/Compression. I have a bunch of Ampeg bass impulses that I used for the longest time. I still do sometimes, but the GTR has cabinets. So, sometimes, use just the GTR and sometimes I use the GTR with no cabinet, and then run everything into an Ampeg cabinet impulse.
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Cool, do you use anything before the ampsim/GTR3??? I plug straight into my interface too, but sometimes I'll use a compressor on the input fx in Reaper, to help smooth things out a little, my bass is a shitty Carlo Robelli 4-string that I bought at a pawn shop about 5 years ago...While it's not the worst bass in the world, I'd say it isn't too far off...:laughings:.

Something else I've been meaning to ask you (and a lot of other guys here too), is how much automation do you use on your bass tracks??? I usually have a couple compressors, each one just barely taking a little off, then automate where it needs it....
 
minerman said:
We all get you can't make noise dude, been there, done that, but what Greg is suggesting is to try to get some air in the ampsim/cabsim....There should be a room mic somewhere in there to play around with....

I'm not sure if you said what you were using, if you did, I didn't catch it...Amplitube 3??? If so, there are room mics for each cab, you might play with those a little to see if it adds anything....

Or, if you can't do it with the ampsim, use a reverb in the daw to simulate a room...

On the tubescreamer, most people use it as a clean boost, level=10, gain=0, tone to taste, that way it just boosts the front end of the amp a little...

Like mentioned, those tones aren't bad/terrible in any way dude, I've certainly heard worse, & used a lot worse myself...
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Good point, it was very late at night here when I read that (I'd had a couple of rums) and I just assumed that Greg was telling me that the main way to get a good tone is to turn it up to 11!

It's actually a simulated tube screamer in front of a simulated Marshall with a simulated 4x12, a simulated SM57 which is simulated to be pretty close to the grill with reverb set to "bright room".

As you said (and I agree) the pickup comparison one is a little on the shit side. Improved the tone since then and I'll give you the updated one in a few weeks - I'll be interested to see what you think.

The sim I use on my computer is Gearbox! (which is ancient) but then I only want to use the sim while I am recording as I write songs - I go back and record with a live amp when I've finished. I just don't want to piss the neighbours off all day while I am writing. I would rather just piss them off for the half hour or so when I am doing final takes.

I've installed Amplitube on my iPad just so I have something to play through when I am away during the week (I work away every week). I'm also going to try GarageBand.

The above is a roundabout way of explaining why buying a nice amp isn't currently the highest priority for me! I currently use my amp when I am just playing for the sake of playing in the afternoon but not recording. I also just chill and play early in the morning or late at night or early in the morning but I always do this simmed.
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. Like Beetlejuice, any mention of the cave brings in the mutt. He misses it more than anyone. :laughings:

.........
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What was it you always used to say?

Oh yeh I remember..

You're obsessed with me... ease up. It's not good for your health....:)

I already put that Custom out of my head. If I ever get one, I'm going for the vintage already-turned-green ones.
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Those customs can be killer. I personally don't like the solid burst look but hey ho...
 
muttley600 said:
What was it you always used to say?

Oh yeh I remember..

You're obsessed with me... ease up. It's not good for your health....:)
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It's not obsession, it's observation. Any mention of "the cave" and there you are! :laughings:



Those customs can be killer. I personally don't like the solid burst look but hey ho...
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Wanna build me one? I'd play the shit out of a mutt custom. :)
 
I knew a guy or two who's just like that. Ten guitars and five amps and not a single recording or live show to show for it. Lol.
I guess if you really like to aggressively masturbate to your own tone in your bedroom...
 
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