Euro2 Air Test

M

mitch

Experienced
With all of the talk about the new "Air" feature, I figured I'd play around with it for a bit to get used to the effect and figure out how I might incorporate it. I'm starting to really like it on high gain stuff. It seems to be the cure for any "blanket over the speaker" perceptions (though I never really had any issues like that).

Anyway, here's a quick test track I recorded. It's a basic Euro2 patch (drive->amp->cab) that I double-tracked. The first section is without the Air effect and the second part is with the Air at 36.2% and a frequency of 3162Hz. There's some moderate multiband compression on the mix as a bandaid to tame some out of control low-end, but it doesn't affect the sound of the Air.

The track:
http://www.mitchbrody.com/axefx/Euro2_AirTest.mp3

The patch:
http://www.mitchbrody.com/axefx/Euro2_AirTest.syx
(FYI...this patch has a bunch of other bypassed junk in it that wasn't used.)

One area that I'm playing with now is to offset some of the harshness of the Air by turning up the cab drive a bit. Seems like there's some fun to be had there.

Enjoy and by all means crank it up! :D
 
The first part sounds awesome as is, but somehow the second sounds, well I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, it has kind of a more in-your-face kind of sensation to it. Like it has more balls, but without changing the overall character of the tone. Like it pulls it into the room with you.

You know what I mean?

What a powerful thing this "AIR" is.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys.
Guitar-Tiz said:
The first part sounds awesome as is, but somehow the second sounds, well I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, it has kind of a more in-your-face kind of sensation to it. Like it has more balls, but without changing the overall character of the tone. Like it pulls it into the room with you.

You know what I mean?

What a powerful thing this "AIR" is.
Click to expand...
Glad you like it and I know exactly what you mean. Every time I play the Euro2 model I get a huge stupid grin on my face. It's got such a ballsy character and really harmonically rich. I should actually try out a real Ecstasy one of these days. :lol:

The air is very interesting. The direct sound of a high gain amp is a buzzy mess, so I wouldn't have even thought of blending it in, but it really is a nice way of opening up the high frequencies and seems to add some definition throughout the spectrum. When I want more sizzle, I think I'll probably end up reaching for this first, rather than overdoing the amp eq and presence. Whenever I hear good high-gain tube amp sound clips, they always have this wild hairy high-end that most modelers lack. I think the air will really help in this regard.
 
Hey Mitch... at first listen I thought this is a great example of what AIR can do as well... but then I thought to myself, is it really the AIR or that the second part just sounds louder than the first... any way you can level both guitar parts to have equal db volume?

Edit: I manually turned up the first part and then turned down the second part... via my headphones, I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
 
mortega76 said:
I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...

Really no offense intended, but I think you might. :lol: On my studio monitors, the difference is staggering and very impressive.
 
ElectricPhase said:
mortega76 said:
I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...

Really no offense intended, but I think you might. :lol: On my studio monitors, the difference is staggering and very impressive.
Click to expand...

The difference is definitely there when you play the track "as-is" but when I manually raised the volume during the first part, then lowered the volume on the second part (manually)... they sounded very similar.

Either way, I still need new ears! :D
 
Well done and easy to hear.

I've found that I like similar settings, but I have the AIR 'mix' up at 75%. :D

Fun!
 
mortega76 said:
ElectricPhase said:
mortega76 said:
I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...

Really no offense intended, but I think you might. :lol: On my studio monitors, the difference is staggering and very impressive.
Click to expand...

The difference is definitely there when you play the track "as-is" but when I manually raised the volume during the first part, then lowered the volume on the second part (manually)... they sounded very similar.

Either way, I still need new ears! :D
Click to expand...

I just tried that. Even lowered the volume of the second half well below the first. Regardless of volume, the second patch has a much crisper, more present high end.
 
mortega76 said:
Hey Mitch... at first listen I thought this is a great example of what AIR can do as well... but then I thought to myself, is it really the AIR or that the second part just sounds louder than the first... any way you can level both guitar parts to have equal db volume?

Edit: I manually turned up the first part and then turned down the second part... via my headphones, I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...
Mo, that's a good point about the loudness. It didn't look significantly different on the meters, but it is perceptually louder. If I get some time tonight, I'll try soloing the guitars, match levels and post another clip of just guitars.

Regardless of levels, it's definitely different. I'm currently just monitoring on KRK RP5's, which aren't particularly bright sounding. I doubt your ears are bad, as you consistently put out some pretty killer mixes. :D How loud do you crank and do you use hearing protection? When I play with a drummer, I almost always use ear plugs and I rarely crank levels when mixing/recording at home. I would think hearing damage could affect the ability to hear the air difference.
 
ElectricPhase said:
I just tried that. Even lowered the volume of the second half well below the first. Regardless of volume, the second patch has a much crisper, more present high end.
Click to expand...
Ok it's settled... I need new ears. :D
 
mortega76 said:
ElectricPhase said:
I just tried that. Even lowered the volume of the second half well below the first. Regardless of volume, the second patch has a much crisper, more present high end.
Click to expand...
Ok it's settled... I need new ears. :D
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it....I'm sure Cliff will figure out a way to provide replacement human ears as part of a future upgrade. ;) :lol:
 
mitch said:
mortega76 said:
Hey Mitch... at first listen I thought this is a great example of what AIR can do as well... but then I thought to myself, is it really the AIR or that the second part just sounds louder than the first... any way you can level both guitar parts to have equal db volume?

Edit: I manually turned up the first part and then turned down the second part... via my headphones, I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...
Mo, that's a good point about the loudness. It didn't look significantly different on the meters, but it is perceptually louder. If I get some time tonight, I'll try soloing the guitars, match levels and post another clip of just guitars.

Regardless of levels, it's definitely different. I'm currently just monitoring on KRK RP5's, which aren't particularly bright sounding. I doubt your ears are bad, as you consistently put out some pretty killer mixes. :D How loud do you crank and do you use hearing protection? When I play with a drummer, I almost always use ear plugs and I rarely crank levels when mixing/recording at home. I would think hearing damage could affect the ability to hear the air difference.
Click to expand...
Hey Mitch, I missed your post... Awesome if you could do that!

When recording/mixing I crank the shit out of my Sony MD-600's (I think), during practice I get a loud as possible (just enough to drown everyone else out), enjoy it for about 5-10 minutes before we all start jamming, then I pop in my ear plugs. :D I kinda feel for the other guys... sometimes... maybe... not. :D

Strange thing our ears... when I'm standing right next to my two stacked 4x12's they sound good, then when I back up close to where my drummer/bass player are (about 10-12 feet), it's loud as fuck just with one cab!!!!

P.S. Thanks for the compliment on mixing bro! I just plugged in some old computer speakers with a sub that I had... because I just couldn't get my latest track to sound "right"... listened to the track for all of two minutes (right before I had to go to my brother-in-law's B-day dinner at Chilli's) and I could instantly hear that I needed to turn up the guitars and give them more bass... damn, I really need some studio monitors.
 
Scott Peterson said:
Well done and easy to hear.

I've found that I like similar settings, but I have the AIR 'mix' up at 75%. :D

Fun!
Click to expand...
Yeah....it's easy to crank up the AIR mix because it just sounds so good (with a reasonable frequency setting). I was intentionally trying to keep it a bit less obvious on this clip.

Scott, since you seem to really have a good handle on the whole EQ game, I'd be interested to hear your philosophy on using AIR relative to the multitude of other frequency related controls at our disposal. There are now so many ways to skin the cat, that it can lead to tweaker's analysis paralysis! Are you using the cab drive much lately? I'm starting to like cranking the cab drive up around the point where it really starts messing with the signal and then backing off a tad.

I'm also kind of wondering now how steep the low-pass filter is, and how much of a bump it's creating at the cutoff. Other than simply mixing in direct signal, it would seem to also give us a way to effectively emphasize frequencies around the cutoff point. I guess a parallel chain with a parametric eq would provide more flexibility in this regard, but the air controls provide a good quick way to get the job done without more complex routing and additional blocks.
 
Hey Mitch, I forgot to mention that I really love the "grit" that this track has... really great stuff!
 
Nice track, the difference is clearly audible. It is the same kind of coloration difference that changing mic position and/or EQ can generate, however. IMO both sounds work well in the context of the track. Were I looking for the second sound, I'd bet I could just apply some EQ to the non-"Air" preset and get there.
 
mortega76 said:
mitch said:
mortega76 said:
Hey Mitch... at first listen I thought this is a great example of what AIR can do as well... but then I thought to myself, is it really the AIR or that the second part just sounds louder than the first... any way you can level both guitar parts to have equal db volume?

Edit: I manually turned up the first part and then turned down the second part... via my headphones, I couldn't tell that much of a difference (if any at all)... damn... I may need some new ears!
Click to expand...
Mo, that's a good point about the loudness. It didn't look significantly different on the meters, but it is perceptually louder. If I get some time tonight, I'll try soloing the guitars, match levels and post another clip of just guitars.

Regardless of levels, it's definitely different. I'm currently just monitoring on KRK RP5's, which aren't particularly bright sounding. I doubt your ears are bad, as you consistently put out some pretty killer mixes. :D How loud do you crank and do you use hearing protection? When I play with a drummer, I almost always use ear plugs and I rarely crank levels when mixing/recording at home. I would think hearing damage could affect the ability to hear the air difference.
Click to expand...
Hey Mitch, I missed your post... Awesome if you could do that!

When recording/mixing I crank the shit out of my Sony MD-600's (I think), during practice I get a loud as possible (just enough to drown everyone else out), enjoy it for about 5-10 minutes before we all start jamming, then I pop in my ear plugs. :D I kinda feel for the other guys... sometimes... maybe... not. :D

Strange thing our ears... when I'm standing right next to my two stacked 4x12's they sound good, then when I back up close to where my drummer/bass player are (about 10-12 feet), it's loud as fuck just with one cab!!!!

P.S. Thanks for the compliment on mixing bro! I just plugged in some old computer speakers with a sub that I had... because I just couldn't get my latest track to sound "right"... listened to the track for all of two minutes (right before I had to go to my brother-in-law's B-day dinner at Chilli's) and I could instantly hear that I needed to turn up the guitars and give them more bass... damn, I really need some studio monitors.
Click to expand...
Jeez....be careful there, man! Headphones can really kill your ears. I know it sounds great without plugs, but even 5-10 minutes cranked at every practice can be bad over time. Plus, you may be messing up your hearing a little for the rest of the practice too. To be honest, I sometimes indulge as well, but I'm a little paranoid as I really don't know what I'd do if I severely damaged my hearing. (btw....I think my hearing is already a bit gone in the critical "wife frequencies." ;-) )

I'm impressed that you're doing those mixes mostly in phones....excellent! I need to invest in a good pair of headphones as well as some larger better monitors just to get some additional perspective.
 
mitch said:
btw....I think my hearing is already a bit gone in the critical "wife frequencies." ;-)
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: That's awesome!!!

Mine were gone almost instantly the moment I said, "I do"...
 
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