The New Tone Thread

[JDOD]

Sounded cool. Both are good rock sounds, personally I preferred the 2nd one until towards the end when you've got the volume up and you're starting to play a little faster. The notes seem to mush together a bit.

Amp sounds great though, I'd love to hear it with a bit more gain doing something punky.

 

[rayc]

It's OK Greg,
I discovered that the EQ had been adjusted on the computer h/phone line, (the Mrs was listening to Steve Balsamo on Utub), - it had the bass reduced & treble increased - sound thinner- less mid/bottom end with that setting.

 

[Greg_L]

Sounded cool. Both are good rock sounds, personally I preferred the 2nd one until towards the end when you've got the volume up and you're starting to play a little faster. The notes seem to mush together a bit.

Amp sounds great though, I'd love to hear it with a bit more gain doing something punky.

Thanks for checking it. I've been in an anti-gain frame of mind lately. What I like about this particular amp is that it responds wonderfully to how you play. Even a ham-fisted shit-player goon like me can coax some variety out of it without any pedals or channel switching. You can go from clean and plucky to full roaring punk rock blitzkrieg all with your right hand. Fast powerchords sound better to me without a lot of gain. You gotta downstroke them though IMO. That up and down alternate strum shit doesn't cut it. I'll try some Ramones riffs today if I get a chance.

It's OK Greg,
I discovered that the EQ had been adjusted on the computer h/phone line, (the Mrs was listening to Steve Balsamo on Utub), - it had the bass reduced & treble increased - sound thinner- less mid/bottom end with that setting.

Ah, I see. As my room closes in on me with drums and guitars and amps and shit, I've pretty much banned my wife from coming in here. She's not happy about it, and I do feel bad about it because she's so awesome, but I think she understands.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I've pretty much banned my wife from coming in here. She's not happy about it, and I do feel bad about it because she's so awesome, but I think she understands.

I've had to ban my wife from touching any of my stuff ..... it's weird but she inevitably breaks something ..... knocks something over ..... puts magnetic discs on a speaker ... opens something I didn't want open etc.

I finally told her not to so much as touch any of my stuff ........................... so now I don't get any sex. "I ain't touching that!"

 

[JDOD]

Gents,

Been loving The New Tone Thread (a lot) been great to get advice off someone on how to actually develop my tone in to what I want, little more bass in the mix and put the low up a bit on the Jackhammer too. I think I have found my perfect tone... for now. Basically absolute grunge.

Bonus point if you can guess the song that inspires this one:
https://soundcloud.com/brother-number-one/test-milk

 

[minerman]

Hey guys, finally got my stuff set up at the new pad....I finished moving last night after work, & didn't even lay down until about 6-6:30 this morning, but, I'm pretty much done, other than little odds/ends like my wall hangers for my guitars, & little piddly shit like that...I hope I never, ever have to move again....lol....Shouldn't though, as this place will be mine (even though it'll take a long time...) eventually....I do have to say it looks killer, & the new woman helped me move, set it all up, basically helped me do everything, even with the all-nighter last night....Here's a few pics:







Probably won't be any tones tonght, as it's getting kinda late, & we're about to stuff our faces & kick back for the evening , but I will definitely get some clips up tomorrow....

Really, really happy with the new house, but it feels strange having cell signal 24/7, & not being surrounded by hills/trees on all sides....

 

[JDOD]

Looks great. Bet that's a great place to kick back, have a glass of wine and write tunes. Can't wait to move into my new place.

 

[Greg_L]

Gents,

Been loving The New Tone Thread (a lot) been great to get advice off someone on how to actually develop my tone in to what I want, little more bass in the mix and put the low up a bit on the Jackhammer too. I think I have found my perfect tone... for now. Basically absolute grunge.

Bonus point if you can guess the song that inspires this one:
https://soundcloud.com/brother-number-one/test-milk

My ears are still sort of plugged up but that seems to sound real appropriate for the style. Nice work.

Hey guys, finally got my stuff set up at the new pad....I finished moving last night after work, & didn't even lay down until about 6-6:30 this morning, but, I'm pretty much done, other than little odds/ends like my wall hangers for my guitars, & little piddly shit like that...I hope I never, ever have to move again....lol....Shouldn't though, as this place will be mine (even though it'll take a long time...) eventually....I do have to say it looks killer, & the new woman helped me move, set it all up, basically helped me do everything, even with the all-nighter last night....Here's a few pics:



Probably won't be any tones tonght, as it's getting kinda late, & we're about to stuff our faces & kick back for the evening , but I will definitely get some clips up tomorrow....

Really, really happy with the new house, but it feels strange having cell signal 24/7, & not being surrounded by hills/trees on all sides....

That's super awesome dude. Nice room there. The Chupa/DSL halfstack looks menacing sitting there in the corner.

 

[Greg_L]

I'll try some Ramones riffs today if I get a chance.

Well I said I would....

I'm now all contagious and hopped up on cold medicine and have plugged ears, so the wife and kids went out to dinner without me. Cool! Just bring me back something. In their absence I flipped on the Plexi and whipped out the fake drums just to record a pseudo-mix with some Ramones-ish style. This is the Hallmark Mosrite clone and the Plexi giving everything it's got. All knobs on 10. Literally, all knobs on 10. With this guitar, this is the most gain the amp can have without help from boosting the front end.

Ahhh and they just got home. Take a look at this heart attack in a bowl. Grilled chicken and spiral macaroni swimming in alfredo sauce and cheese.


Anyway, here's the little wannabe mix with some fake drums and direct bass.

Hallmark 60 Custom - SD P-Rails bridge pickup P-90 mode
Marshall Plexi 1959 SLP
Everything cranked to 10
Top input 1 only
Marshall 1960A 4x12
L Rhythm - G12-65 - Audix i5 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge.
R Rhythm - Greenback - SM57 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge.
Carbona Not Glue


Here's the original, and sadly I'm not even close, but what can ya do?

 

[Greg_L]

There's not much old school live footage of this song. It got banned as soon as they released it, and they never played it live again until the end of their career. This vid is pretty good. Johnny still has his first original blue Mosrite Ventures II. This is the one he supposedly bought for 50 bucks on his lunch break while working construction before the Ramones. Dee Dee worked in the mail room and went with him and bought a Danelectro bass at the same time. Just like the Ramones were born.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Gents,

Been loving The New Tone Thread (a lot) been great to get advice off someone on how to actually develop my tone in to what I want, little more bass in the mix and put the low up a bit on the Jackhammer too. I think I have found my perfect tone... for now. Basically absolute grunge.

Bonus point if you can guess the song that inspires this one:
https://soundcloud.com/brother-number-one/test-milk

I like your 'No Woman No Cry' quite a bit.

 

[antichef]

Carbona Not Glue

just listened with headphones - kickass sound! That's like the perfect amount of gain for me

OK - continuing with my education, I took the acoustic guitar track that got the most votes earlier and ran it through some compressors. I didn't spend too much time with them - just twisted knobs / pushed buttons until I thought it sounded good with the needles moving just a little - I hate too much compression on acoustics:

View attachment acoustic-dry.mp3

View attachment acoustic-compressor1.mp3

View attachment acoustic-compressor2.mp3

What do you think? I think I may like the dry best. As a practical matter, I'm sure the compressed ones would be a lot easier to work with in a mix because of the tamed transients.

edit: sorry I've been breaching protocol by not posting the equipment - here goes:

guitar: 1972 Martin D-28
mics: AKG C-451E - X-Y pointed at 14th fret
preamp: Great River MP-2NV (set with low gain for cleanliness, impedance switch on)
converter: Lynx Aurora 16
-> Logic Pro X

Compressors (not in recording chain - added later using lynx for round trip):

Compressor 1: pair of Tube-Tech CL 1B stereo linked (probably should not have linked them)
gain: +10
ratio: 3 to 1 (I think - 10 o'clock on the knob)
threshold: above 0
attack: fixed/manual
release: 1 o'clock

Compressor 2: API 2500
gain: manual / 6
threshold: just above 0
attack: 3
ratio: 3
release: 1
tone: med
"thrust": loud
type: old
link: 80%

 

[rayc]

Greg,
Good sounds - your fake drums do quite well.
Greg,
Are you going to add vocals & real drums when you're well enough?
That amp would've been dangerously loud - the Mosrite copy sounds great.
Given you meal perhaps you could've renamed it Carbonara Not Glue!
Nice live video - the snare cuts right through the muddy recording.

Minerman, Nice set up!

Lt Bob,
usually my missus only enters my space to bring me a cup of tea AND asks where to place it these days.
The phones she tweaked are on the upstairs 'net computer.

 

[Tadpui]

Hey guys, I know this is the tone thread, but I just pulled the trigger on a set of e-drums...Pretty cheap/low-end set to start with, the Yamaha DTX400....Should have 'em around the first of the week (Tuesday I'm guessing), & I'm having 'em shipped to the new pad...Gonna finish moving my shit this weekend, should have some pics & clips (I'll probably take some pics of the new music room, but won't post any clips of my fabulous drumming....lol...I'm gonna record some new clips with the Chupa/DSL at the new pad....) around Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon hopefully...

That's the same e-kit that I have. Honestly, as a non-drummer, I love them. I've had them about a year now. The pros are that the pads feel excellent. Sticks rebound off of them very convincingly, and they're tough as nails. All sorts of customization that you can do with each kit piece as far as velocity curve, midi note, etc. And it's small enough to fit in the corner of a small studio room like mine. It's tough as nails once you get everything fastened down. The only downers to me are that there aren't any expansion jacks if you want another cymbal, bass pedal, etc. And that damn snare/hihat arm tends to droop if you get carried away with whacking the snare too hard. Tighten that thumbscrew with both hands, really lean into it and it'll stay put for a while.

Have fun man, it really is a great entry level e-kit. Considering the step up in price to add any fancier features, this one is killer for the price. Enjoy, and prepare to break out the ice pack to soothe those sore calves after that first night of hammering away on the kick and hihat pedals

 

[Tadpui]

Finally got the fucker sorted.
https://soundcloud.com/brother-number-one/pd-2015
Quite happy with the tone. The hi hat is still tinny as fuck but I'll get a mate to put live drums on it after I move house anyway.

Nice full-bodied tone there. I like the midrange presence of it. Not too grainy, although it does have a bit more grit than I'm used to. But this is a good heavy/dirty tone. Different than your last one that was more mid-scooped and metal sounding.

 

[Tadpui]

My back is feeling better but now I'm sitting here with a bad bad cold, so I needed some volume to knock the muck out of my head. My ears and sinuses are all clogged with snot and crud anyway, so might as well do some Plexi clips. I guess this is like a semi-shootout between my hottest output guitar and my lowest output guitar through the same amp settings with lots of guitar vol rolling and pickup switching and bad playing. It's pretty un-scientific and just some stupid shit I made up on the spot.

Marshall Plexi 1959 SLP
Presence - 2
Bass - 6
Mid - 4
Treb - 5
Vol 1 - 6
Vol 2 - 0
Top input 1
PPIMV max - disengaged
Marshall 1960a 4x12 - G12-65 - SM57 center - Audix i5 edge - both mics on axis, on grill, 60/40 blend 57/i5
No EQ, little bit of reverb added in DAW
Both clips with exact same settings

Gibson Angus Young SG - Angus sig bridge pickup/57 Classic neck

Hallmark 60 Custom - SD P-Rails bridge (P-90 mode)/stock Hallmark neck

I can't hear very well right now, so tell me what you think.

Damn, that amp really cleans up with the volume rolled back. That's pretty awesome that it doesn't get dark or anything. I think I like the Hallmark on full tilt best of all, it really punishes that Plexi and the result is a nice stout, stiff kind of breakup.

 

[Tadpui]

Well I said I would....

I'm now all contagious and hopped up on cold medicine and have plugged ears, so the wife and kids went out to dinner without me. Cool! Just bring me back something. In their absence I flipped on the Plexi and whipped out the fake drums just to record a pseudo-mix with some Ramones-ish style. This is the Hallmark Mosrite clone and the Plexi giving everything it's got. All knobs on 10. Literally, all knobs on 10. With this guitar, this is the most gain the amp can have without help from boosting the front end.

Ahhh and they just got home. Take a look at this heart attack in a bowl. Grilled chicken and spiral macaroni swimming in alfredo sauce and cheese.


Anyway, here's the little wannabe mix with some fake drums and direct bass.

Hallmark 60 Custom - SD P-Rails bridge pickup P-90 mode
Marshall Plexi 1959 SLP
Everything cranked to 10
Top input 1 only
Marshall 1960A 4x12
L Rhythm - G12-65 - Audix i5 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge.
R Rhythm - Greenback - SM57 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge.
Carbona Not Glue


Here's the original, and sadly I'm not even close, but what can ya do?

That guitar tone sounds awesome! Perfect fit for the song. And this is fake drums? Coulda fooled me. But fake drums is all I have so I guess that I"m used to it!

Seriously though, that guitar/amp combo is just a beast.

 

[minerman]

Greg: Finally go around to your clips dude....they sound great, even your fake drums are good....I like the SG clip a little better, it's got more body to it, but the Mosrite clip has more bite, which I like too, but I pick the SG.....And again, I'm impressed on the fake drums dude, gives me hope about mine...... Hope your cold doesn't last too long dude, that shit's been going around here, & from what I've seen people around here have, it's pretty damn bad....hang in there....

JDOD: Cool clip man, sorry about the confusion a day or two ago, I thought you were using Amplitube 3 but apparently I was wrong....sorry 'bout that...lol.....Sounds good dude....

Tadpui: Thanks for the tips on the DTX400, but I'm already ahead of you on getting the kit pieces tight....My set will be here in a few days, & the corner across from my desk is where I'm gonna put 'em...I'll post some pics when I get 'em....I'm actually as excited about these things as I was getting my new amps last year, which is a lot....Should make things go a lot faster song-wise once I get a handle on 'em....

Antichef: I like the 3rd clip best dude, it seems smoother to me....all of 'em are good, but it sounds smoother to me on the 3rd clip....sounds pretty good on all of 'em, it'd be hard to pick one over the other for a song/mix....

 

[JDOD]

Greg, The tone on your Ramones cover is awesome but that must have been really loud!!! Were you in the room with it? Also, dinner looks like a total heartstopper.

Miner, would be cool to have a clip of you playing them drums, I think a kind of demo recording of them by someone that isn't trying to sell you them would be really useful.

Lt. Bob, I really like my version of No Woman No Cry too!! Hmmm, can't work out why my soundcloud always does that.

 

[JDOD]

Tadpui,

Yeah, on Greg's advice I added more mid on the amp and a also turned the bass up slightly on the Jackhammer pedal.

Gotta admit, I do like a scooped metal tone occasionally.

Edit, just checked. That's a different song there, you're talking about my earlier one. I've done another test taking into account Greg's comments on that one and posted up a test of it. Much prefer the tone.