The New Tone Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Telegram Sam
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JDOD said:
Cool, I thought you must have some form of ear protection 'cos you have a shit load of loud amps and you've never complained of hearing problems.
Can you post up a link to them - I might get some better headphones for tracking. My ears were ringing after tracking the motorhead cover the other day and it was all done in a few takes.

I've have a couple of other problems with my ears though from surfing.
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Well first off, for tracking I don't care about how cans sound. When doing drums all I need to hear is the click and/or accompanying stuff that I'm tracking to. When tracking loud guitar or bass, I just need to hear the drums. Pristine sound quality is of no concern to me at that point. All I need is isolation and attentuation because everything I do is loud. The drums are more potentially ear damaging than the amps. They're all loud, but the thwack of drums can be painful. I always wear ear protection when drumming live. Little earplugs. When playing guitar live, it's no big deal. I don't typically play guitar live as loud as I do for for recording.

So for drums or mega-loud guitars, I use these:
Stereo Isolation Headphones - Vic Firth

For less loud guitars, bass, or vocals I use these:
SRH440 Professional Studio Headphones | Shure Americas

They both attenuate and isolate really well.

The Vic Firth cans sound like shit, but that's not what they're for. They do their actual job very well.

The Shures sound much better, and I could probably whip out a decent mix with them, but that's not what they're for either. They don't attenuate as well, but they do a decent job for moderately loud stuff, and they do sound better. They're good for vocals because they sound good and don't leak into the mic.
 
Cheers,

I wouldn't need to go as far as the Vic Firth ones but the Shure ones seem reasonably priced and its no hassle to flip to my AGKs to check what I'm recording in a bit more detail.
 
Greg_L said:
Haha, great song to do, and a nice job playing it.

I think the tone is pretty good, but still a little dark and thick if we're comparing it to the original. But just looking at your settings, even with the bass rolled back, it all adds up. Cranking the preamp gain does fatten the amp up considerably because you're totally bypassing the bright cap. And add all those mids, which overlap with the bass and treble control, it thickens up even more. That Ronson kind of tone would be a good candidate for cranking the master and rolling the gain way back. And use the high input....and a half-cocked wah. :D
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Sweet, thanks man. I think it's yet another example of me being too easily impressed by how it sounds in the room. That preamp knob is like the "awesome" knob for room sound. Like you say, it fattens it up. And then dialing it back sounds thin by comparison. I'll try again tonight with more power and a less preamp and see how it records.

JDOD said:
Tad, that sounds great to me. Its actually a little annoying - something you've just done as a tone test sounds better than anything I've ever recorded!
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Hehe, I'm not so sure about that :) I do appreciate it though. Honestly I thought that your most recent tone was great. You're getting some great mileage out of that Blackstar.

Lt. Bob said:
sounds great to me too .... very nice .... maybe a bit dark but only a bit .....
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob. I'm gonna try a couple of things tonight to brighten it up a bit. I'll report back if/when I get something worth sharing.
 
Tadpui said:
Hehe, I'm not so sure about that :) I do appreciate it though. Honestly I thought that your most recent tone was great. You're getting some great mileage out of that Blackstar.
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Cheers, mate. I am quite please with the most recent tone, gonna play with it a little more tonight.
The amp settings on that were:

B: 9 O'Clock
M: 9 O'Clock
T: 3 O'Clock

So that's the Bass and Mid cut right back and the Treb pushed up really high.

Its quite a dark voiced amp anyway, but I don't think the speaker helps, so the next stage on my quest for tonal Nirvana (and Nirvana's tone) is installing a V30. The clips I've heard and stuff I've read suggest this will brighten the amp up a lot and also make it speak a lot more clearly.

After that I'll be saving up for a more major purchase at the end of the year.

What miking did you use for your clip, Tad? I'm not sure you said.
 
JDOD said:
Cheers, mate. I am quite please with the most recent tone, gonna play with it a little more tonight.
The amp settings on that were:

B: 9 O'Clock
M: 9 O'Clock
T: 3 O'Clock

So that's the Bass and Mid cut right back and the Treb pushed up really high.

Its quite a dark voiced amp anyway, but I don't think the speaker helps, so the next stage on my quest for tonal Nirvana (and Nirvana's tone) is installing a V30. The clips I've heard and stuff I've read suggest this will brighten the amp up a lot and also make it speak a lot more clearly.

After that I'll be saving up for a more major purchase at the end of the year.

What miking did you use for your clip, Tad? I'm not sure you said.
Click to expand...

I bet that a good speaker wouldn't hurt at all. I've been toying with the idea of getting some sort of 1x12 cab to use with my Marshall, just to make it easier to mic. But I dunno. I love the look of this cab so much, I'd hate to displace it with something else.

On that clip, I finally put my SM57 on the 4x10 cabinet. I immediately liked it better than the Audix i5 on this cab. The dust caps on these 10" speakers are pretty big compared to the size of the speaker cone. So the placement was just inside where the cap meets the cone. Which on these small speakers, is really close to center. But also really close to the cone edge :|
 
Well, you've got a good recorded tone and you clearly like the way it sounds in the room so there's probably no point in getting a 1x12 unless its something you can easily afford.
 
Tadpui said:
On that clip, I finally put my SM57 on the 4x10 cabinet. I immediately liked it better than the Audix i5 on this cab. The dust caps on these 10" speakers are pretty big compared to the size of the speaker cone. So the placement was just inside where the cap meets the cone. Which on these small speakers, is really close to center. But also really close to the cone edge :|
Click to expand...

I back off from 10's a bit .... I'll have the mic maybe a good foot away from the grill.
Another thing that's useful for setting a mic ... run some white noise thru your amp and speaker and listen to it ..... get it firmly in your mind as to how it sounds ... then use some good 'phones and listen to the same noise mic'd .... you'll be amazed how easy it is to hear even slight changes in freq response as you move the mic around.
 
Ok, for my next failed trick, I think I'm gonna try to coax some Johnny Thunders-ish "cranked Fender" tones out of this JVM. So I'm gonna start with the clean channel, high gain mode, and we'll see how this goes for starters. Yall let me know what you think. It's been a very long time since I've been in front of a real cranked Fender combo, so keep "Fender amp" in mind, gimme some ideas, and forget that it's a modern Marshall. :D

Gibson SG Gregburst - P-90 bridge pickup
Marshall JVM 410
Clean Channel - Red Mode
Bass - 10
Mid - 7
Treb - 2.5
Gain - 5.5
Ch vol - 6
Master vol - 5
Reverb - 7
Presence - 5
Resonance - 0
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion G12-65
Shure SM 57 on axis, 1" off grill, just outside of dustcap
No EQ or FX in DAW

Amp personality crisis
 
need to scoop those mids a bit ..... Fenders have a fairly emphasized top-end .... on my Mark V I get the clean channel to sound Fendery by using a v-shaped EQ curve ...
 
Lt. Bob said:
need to scoop those mids a bit ..... Fenders have a fairly emphasized top-end .... on my Mark V I get the clean channel to sound Fendery by using a v-shaped EQ curve ...
Click to expand...

Thanks boob. I think you're right. I thought that too after the fact.
 
Greg_L said:
Ok, for my next failed trick, I think I'm gonna try to coax some Johnny Thunders-ish "cranked Fender" tones out of this JVM. So I'm gonna start with the clean channel, high gain mode, and we'll see how this goes for starters. Yall let me know what you think. It's been a very long time since I've been in front of a real cranked Fender combo, so keep "Fender amp" in mind, gimme some ideas, and forget that it's a modern Marshall. :D

Gibson SG Gregburst - P-90 bridge pickup
Marshall JVM 410
Clean Channel - Red Mode
Bass - 10
Mid - 7
Treb - 2.5
Gain - 5.5
Ch vol - 6
Master vol - 5
Reverb - 7
Presence - 5
Resonance - 0
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion G12-65
Shure SM 57 on axis, 1" off grill, just outside of dustcap
No EQ or FX in DAW

Amp personality crisis
Click to expand...

Can't help much at all on sounding like a cranked Fender amp, but FWIW I think this clip sounds fine, other than the reverb...

It does kinda give the Fender vibe, but I'm about like you & fake drums when it comes to built-in reverb on most amps, I usually can't stand it. It's weird, I love the 'verbs that are used in a daw, but again, I can't stand most reverbs that are built into amps...:laughings:.
 
Tapudi - my 1st thought was where's the wah/filter.
Good though.
Greg,
I like the second personally.
 
Here's a similar rhythm tone to what I've been working on recently but used in a full hairy leather trousers context (miner will love it!). Its for a lead exercise I've been working on, playing lead in A Minor instead of E Minor (which comes far more naturally to me having use The Black Album to learn lead when I was 17!).

View attachment Hairy.mp3

Not sure it quite works - too much gain maybe? Too much of a modern tone for the style? There's something I'm not happy with but I can't quite put my finger on it - it might just be the slightly sloppy playing 'cos my hands were freezing when I recorded it. I'm more concerned with the lead tone I'm gonna be using for this but I haven't worked it out yet or mastered the lead lines I'm gonna be playing - I can't keep the speed up without getting massive aches in a my left forearm!
 
Greg_L said:
Ok, for my next failed trick, I think I'm gonna try to coax some Johnny Thunders-ish "cranked Fender" tones out of this JVM. So I'm gonna start with the clean channel, high gain mode, and we'll see how this goes for starters. Yall let me know what you think. It's been a very long time since I've been in front of a real cranked Fender combo, so keep "Fender amp" in mind, gimme some ideas, and forget that it's a modern Marshall. :D

Gibson SG Gregburst - P-90 bridge pickup
Marshall JVM 410
Clean Channel - Red Mode
Bass - 10
Mid - 7
Treb - 2.5
Gain - 5.5
Ch vol - 6
Master vol - 5
Reverb - 7
Presence - 5
Resonance - 0
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion G12-65
Shure SM 57 on axis, 1" off grill, just outside of dustcap
No EQ or FX in DAW

Amp personality crisis
Click to expand...
Sounds good, but it still sounds like Greg screwing the tits off a Marshall to me!
 
minerman said:
Can't help much at all on sounding like a cranked Fender amp, but FWIW I think this clip sounds fine, other than the reverb...

It does kinda give the Fender vibe, but I'm about like you & fake drums when it comes to built-in reverb on most amps, I usually can't stand it. It's weird, I love the 'verbs that are used in a daw, but again, I can't stand most reverbs that are built into amps...:laughings:.
Click to expand...
I don't really like any reverb on guitars unless it's a big spring reverb. Everything else just sound cheesy to me. I just used it on the JVM because Johnny Thunders tone is swimming in reverb.

JDOD said:
Sounds good, but it still sounds like Greg screwing the tits off a Marshall to me!
Click to expand...
Lol. Goddammit. :D
 
JDOD said:
Here's a similar rhythm tone to what I've been working on recently but used in a full hairy leather trousers context (miner will love it!). Its for a lead exercise I've been working on, playing lead in A Minor instead of E Minor (which comes far more naturally to me having use The Black Album to learn lead when I was 17!).

View attachment 96229

Not sure it quite works - too much gain maybe? Too much of a modern tone for the style? There's something I'm not happy with but I can't quite put my finger on it - it might just be the slightly sloppy playing 'cos my hands were freezing when I recorded it. I'm more concerned with the lead tone I'm gonna be using for this but I haven't worked it out yet or mastered the lead lines I'm gonna be playing - I can't keep the speed up without getting massive aches in a my left forearm!
Click to expand...

It does sound pretty hairy in a glam spandex kind of way. It's appropriate if that's what you want. I think it needs some more "air", presence, whatever you wanna call it. But it's not too thick or murky like some of your other clips. It just needs a touch more sparkle to me.
 
Greg_L said:
It does sound pretty hairy in a glam spandex kind of way. It's appropriate if that's what you want. I think it needs some more "air", presence, whatever you wanna call it. But it's not too thick or murky like some of your other clips. It just needs a touch more sparkle to me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll re-record it with a pair of warm hands and maybe try and add a high shelf.

Its the same tone I've been using for my own more grungy stuff - just sounds hairy in this context 'cos I'm playing hairy style rhythm.
 
JDOD said:
Here's a similar rhythm tone to what I've been working on recently but used in a full hairy leather trousers context (miner will love it!). Its for a lead exercise I've been working on, playing lead in A Minor instead of E Minor (which comes far more naturally to me having use The Black Album to learn lead when I was 17!).

View attachment 96229

Not sure it quite works - too much gain maybe? Too much of a modern tone for the style? !
Click to expand...
sounds pretty good .... as greg said .... not muddy or too dark ..... .... depending on the mix and how many gits you track it might work as is ..... it's pretty full so you're not gonna be layering a butt load of guitars with this tone .... doesn't leave room for anything else .... and sometimes that's what you want.

Nice
 
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