Tips for a Good Piezo Tone?

[boltrecords]

I just had the graphtech ghost system installed on my gibson les paul traditional pro courtesy of Shotgunn mods. I was just looking for any advice on getting a good piezo acoustic tone.
The only acoustic IR I have so far are is a Taylor Earthworks IR, which sounds decent. Sound kind of hollow sounding, but I guess that should be since its emulating a hollow body guitar.

If anyone has any good presets or tips or IR's I can try I am open to suggestions.

I do have the system running in stereo so I can mix two signals which seems pretty cool.

Thanks all

[Rex]

Tone-match a recorded acoustic tone that you love. That's the quickest and most accurate way to zero in on a great acoustic tone. It works great.

[antcarrier]

I'd recommend tone matching to a nice acoustic recording, but use the Taylor IR as part of the local signal that the TM block receives. I find this method to sound more realistic than tone matching alone (this works by the same principle that its best to dial an amp as close as possible and shoot an IR of a cab prior to amp matching). Here's an example, albeit this one is slightly more complicated in that it is stereo: Acoustic Simulation 2 Mono works great too.
I am really looking forward to the new dynamic TM stuff in FW 10 to make some new acoustic matches!

[NJBengals85]

New dynamic TM stuff??? Really??? I don't go onto the forum for a few days and FW 10 is being teased...does Cliff not sleep?

[Briancch]

I have loaded some Fishman Aura image to my Axe Fx with very good result!

[Norppa78]

This fremens Acoustic simulator works nicely with my EBMM piezo.

[brokenvail]

yup acoustic IR's take piezo to the next level in the axe. A good TM works wonders too

[Patzag]

This should help.
Preset and Cab are posted in Axe Change too.

Wow! Now THAT's what I'm talking about! Acoustic Tone From Heaven!

[boltrecords]

I've tried a bunch if acoustic ir's that I've found on the forums and so far I still like the sound with no cab block and just a compressor and eq the best.

All these ir's sound so hollow and tinny to me.
Has anyone thought this too? Ill try and post a clip tomorrow of the differences. I wish I had a better ear for what was a good acoustic tone. I've never been much of an acoustic player so I just don't have an ideal sound in my head to reference.

[Rex]

All these ir's sound so hollow and tinny to me.
Has anyone thought this too?

I've found acoustic IRs to be very guitar-specific. I had to go through a lot of them to fine one that sounded good with my guitar, and even then, I had to blend in some direct signal to make it fly.

On the other hand, tone matching works great for me. That's even moer guitar-specific, but it's specific to your guitar, so the search is over.

One pitfall when creating an acoustic tone is guitar itself. There's so much sound coming to your ear directly off the guitar. It gives you a distorted sense of what your amplified tone sounds like, and you can wind up EQing it all wrong. Closed headphones can help here, but you still have to be careful.

That tinniness you hear is probably good old piezo quack. A notch near 7 KHz goes a long way toward taming that. If you've tone-matched, you may not need to deal with it at all.

[antcarrier]

I think part of the problem with using IRs might be that when you use an acoustic IR these tend to give a impression of air or distance (or some other descriptive term like that) as they are attempting to emulate a miked acoustic guitar a moderate distance from the instrument. I find this gives the impression that your guitar is being played by someone else a bit further away as in a recording, and this can take a bit of getting used to. This sound is very different from the direct signal, which sounds very close and immediate, more akin to how you're used to hearing magnetic pickups - and this feels quite natural when playing an electric guitar.

If you add some 'air' in the cab block when using IRs this will blend in some of the direct signal and provide a more... 'direct' feel, which I suspect might be what you're liking in the piezo tone, while retaining some miked-up character. I agree that many acoustic IR's remove some bottom end. However, this really depends on the guitar you're using, and also the content of the playing in the TM block when matching. If when matching there's too much treble in the resultant match, play higher up on the neck during the local TM stimulus without altering the reference signal. If not making your own matches, to remove tinniness it might be worth experimenting with mics such as the R121 or U87 which can beef things up a bit. I would highly recommend making you're own over using the IRs of others. They will sound much better when matched to your own guitar!

While a compressor might sound good and may be necessary in certain contexts (esp. fitting into a mix), this will make the feel of the piezo 'behave' less like a acoustic and more like an electric (as amplified electric guitar tone is characterised by compression). This probably wont bother you, especially if you don't play much acoustic. Personally I don't like compression on my acoustic signal because it sounds too electric-y.

[boltrecords]

I'm having a tough time finding a decent acoustic track to match. Like I said I'm not much of an acoustic player and I really don't listen to it much.
Can someone recommend a good artist/song with an awesome acoustic tone that I could look for. Or maybe somewhere I can get raw tracks for this?

[simeon]

look for guitarist magazine demos of acoustic guitars on youtube, or maybe some tommy emmanuel stuff. find stuff that's as good quality as you can for matching

[boltrecords]

heres a quick little clip i made of the tone match i did so far. sounds pretty good for a piezo i think. maybe needs a little less low end.
what do you think?

[boltrecords]

https://soundcloud.com/boltrecords/acoustic-test-1

[Rex]

Sounds good! I think it would ride well in a mix. Too much low end? I don't know. I'd have to hear it in context.

[boltrecords]

Sounded a little bassy in my headphones. Right now I have no cab to test it with. My rcf should be here Tuesday.
Sounds pretty natural to me though.
Any specific effects or settings that help thicken up an acoustic? Light delay or maybe a pitch block?

[babuka]

Search for tips on how to record acoustic guitars. You can usually find some well mic'd tracks with simple licks that are easy to replicate while tone matching within this search. And don't forget to tone match more than once for good results. Sometimes the tone match block smoothing feature can help erase some of the weirdness you can find with the feature while keeping the overall benefits.

[Rex]

Any specific effects or settings that help thicken up an acoustic? Light delay or maybe a pitch block?

It's kind of like asking what effects and settings to use for an electric guitar. It all depends on what you're going for.

With acoustic, you're usually trying to emulate a guitar's unplugged sound, so most people go light on effects. A little chorus, reverb or delay are sometimes used. Beyond that, the sky's the limit—again, depending on what you're going for.