Lookin for Guitar tones........ yo Farview?!

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rockabilly1955

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i am looking for two guitar sounds in particular. One is the heavy distortion from a band called Tiger Army and the other is the sound of Brian Setzer from his stray cats days. Here's the catch...... i'm trying to do it "artificially" as i obviously cant afford any big expensive Marshall stack and vintage Gretsch guitars. My recording guitar is an Epi Les Paul standard and I also have an Ibanez artcore hollow body which i usually dont use any more. I usually record all my guitar parts direct and then add effects via VST plugin effects in my DAW. I did a search and came across a clip that Farview had made, called All for Nothing? i believe, with only a POD modeler unit. It sounded very much live and i couldnt believe it was "artificial". If anybody can help, let me know. Particularly any good chain of VST plugins that can help me get that sound. I cannot for the life of me, come up with a recorded sound that I am truly happy with. I really cant mic my amp to record live because 1. My amp sucks, its a Crate and 2. Our recording space is not too big and i wouldnt want any more bleed than we already get.
 
do what you have to and come up with a decent amp.

if you really want to do the plugin thing, try guitarsuite mixed with any of the free overdrive/saturation plugins out there and a parametric eq. add a convolution reverb for some room sound. i think these free plugins can compete with anything that line6 or any other modeling amp company has to offer. you kind of have to think about it all like the inner workings of a guitar amp. create gain stages and tweak with eq, add another gain stage and tweak, etc. play around with this for a while until you find some good combinations and then try to match your favorite guitar sounds from cds. it's a lot of work but you'll learn some cool stuff that will carry over to the real amp world. plus you'll be training your ears to listen for the characteristics that make up guitar tones. good luck man.

when you get tired of this crap, go get a killer amp.
 
I'm sorry, but you just ain't gonna get those kinda tones with plug-ins, at least not the setzer stuff anyway. i dunno as much about tiger army, but their sound is more mall punk than vintage rockabilly, so you might be able to get a bit closer to the tiger army sound with software...

Those Artcores are a passable "poor-man's Gretsch". Dump a real Filtertron in it and you are even closer. plug it into a real tube amp, it doesn't have to be a Bassman (which is Setzer's amp of choice, I believe), try a small Fender Pro Junior or a Peavey Classic. It doesn't ahve to be super loud either, get a less powerful amp and crank it, get those power tubes cooking. No, it won't sound like a vintage Gretsch/Fender combination but it will get you closer than software IMHO.

Most importantly, if you wanna sound like these dudes, you gotta be able to PLAY like these dudes. Brian Setzer could play an Artcore through a POS Crate and still sound like Setzer.
 
I got that SIR reverb plugin that uses IR's and some guitar tracks I was messin with are sounding much more live and real. Guitarsuite is workin good too. Though my crate amp is a piece of s ..... Its one of crates mid range models. Not the very crappy low end stuff. But I am totally gonna tweak the settings. I had some bad setups on it. I like those two tones because that's the two sounds we really use. The tiger army sound and playing is much more simple than setzers. I got less than 2 years of playin so my sound will get better with many more years of playing :-)
 
I almost never do this but if you get a cheapie toneport ux1 you can go dial up user presets from the line 6 site that are tailored to the song you are trying to imitate. I would say get a nice amp as well but for $129 the toneport is a deal and the models are very....ugh...realistic.

Nothing beats a great amp in a great room but who can afford to have all those amps?
 
jamacian said:
Nothing beats a great amp in a great room but who can afford to have all those amps?
Click to expand...
well, really, when you HAVE to have that tone, you can probably find a place that will rent you the amp (and maybe even the guitar, mics and pres). or you could always find a local studio that has said gear and book a couple hours there......and in the meantime practice the shit out of the parts so you can knock em out in a take or two.

even if said studio costs you $400 it's still going to be cheaper than a vintage gretsch hollowbody and a Bandmaster, Bassman, or Vibroverb with the matching speaker cabs (which is what you're REALLY gonna need for that setzer tone).

that's not to say you can't get kinda close with modelers, plugins, and lots of patience. i've got one of those artcores, and for the $200 i paid for it, it's surprisingly good for balls to the wall rock (strangely enough). but keep in mind that unless you have the right tools for the job, you're just gonna get close.

and regardless......there's just something about wood with strings connected to tubes and speakers and feeling your pants legs move. :D


cheers,
wade
 
That song was done with a PodXT. I'm not familiar with tiger army, but the Stray Cats thing should be pretty easy. Try putting a compressor before the amp sim set to a clean Fender setting. You will also need to add a good bit of spring reverb.

The trick is to keep the sound of the guitar mellow, don't pump up the highs. Everything lives in the mids.
 
mrface2112 said:
well, really, when you HAVE to have that tone, you can probably find a place that will rent you the amp (and maybe even the guitar, mics and pres). or you could always find a local studio that has said gear and book a couple hours there......and in the meantime practice the shit out of the parts so you can knock em out in a take or two.

even if said studio costs you $400 it's still going to be cheaper than a vintage gretsch hollowbody and a Bandmaster, Bassman, or Vibroverb with the matching speaker cabs (which is what you're REALLY gonna need for that setzer tone).

that's not to say you can't get kinda close with modelers, plugins, and lots of patience. i've got one of those artcores, and for the $200 i paid for it, it's surprisingly good for balls to the wall rock (strangely enough). but keep in mind that unless you have the right tools for the job, you're just gonna get close.

and regardless......there's just something about wood with strings connected to tubes and speakers and feeling your pants legs move. :D


cheers,
wade
Click to expand...
Preaching to the choir here. Most home users will not be able to afford to do what you say which is why I said what I did.
 
Very true jamacian. I think imma try my luck with a pod or v amp for direct recording. My crate vtx amp actually does ok for our jam sessions. I just had some bad settings dialed in.
 
If you get a V-AMP, get some MIDI cables so you can edit/upload patches. I'll be glad to toss you some patches that are way better sounding than the stock stuff that comes on those modelers.
 
Thanks amra. I just gotta wait for the ol paycheck then i'll pick one up. Actually I think I do have a midi cable lying around somewhere. It isn't usb based for uploading?
 
Not sure about the basic POD, but I think the XT has USB for uploading and stuff.

The V-AMP has a PC based editor that is controlled via midi.
 
For the Setzer sound, use the hollowbody Ibanez either through a clean "pushed" tube amp (or amp sim) . Compress it and use slapback echo (think Sun Records - Elvis sound). That will pass for rockabilly.
 
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