Suggestions for ballparking these ambient tones?

Budda

Axe-Master
I'm not 100% sure what's going on with the effects in this track (reverb with modulation?) but I'd love to ape it. Sorry for the poor audio quality (YT).



I know Cave In use a boss PS-3, and I think this album was a lot of boss pedals. I'm not sure which reverb type and rough settings would get me close to this kind of reverb tone:

It's just super spacey and I'd love to get that kind of thing going.



Thanks for any and all help!
 
For the first one I'd try any of the big "cloud" reverbs as the reverb. It also sounds like there's a tape delay in there with a considerable amount of wow/flutter modulation, and possibly a low speed tremolo.

If you try a combination of those 3 effects it should get you in the ballpark, then it's mostly about experimenting :)
 
yeah, i'd say 8 plex with plenty of detune (and random delay times) and maybe run it into a chorus for the wobbles, or run it wet into the tape delay with lots of mod, as kamil said
 
this stuff is so easy to make in the 3. here's a 10 minute effort. there are some blocks bypassed in there, you can turn on if you want. try the chorus or the delay after the plex. i prefer the delay, myself, although it sounds fine without either. the pitch block (bypassed on load) is emulating what i hear in the first vid (second vid wouldn't play for me)
 

Attachments

  • Big Budda.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 66
I'm really happy you got a III.
+1 Simeon's ambient sample tracks on the FAS website years ago were one of the main reasons I bought a 2XL. The ambient stuff one can achieve with a III is like an acid trip combined with some really good herb. Not that I do that sort of thing any more but, yeah, like that.
 
@simeon Thanks a ton! A bummer that the second video didn't work. I will try your preset tomorrow!

I honestly haven't really gotten into the Plex yet.
 
I think @simeon should do a master class on ambient effects. I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

that's very kind of you to say. i did actually have a long chat with my wife about this last night, because she does a lot of online courses for things and i couldn't get my head around how i might do something like this. distilling 25 years of experience and a fairly intuitive way of building presets into bitesized chunks of useful information seemed like an impossible task, but we think we may have figured out a way to do it. it's important to come away with transferrable skills, so the user can apply what they've learned to their own presets. if i'm going to do it, i'd want it to be really useful for people, so i'm going to get my thinking cap on and see what i can come up with. if anybody has any suggestions or requests about what they'd like it to include, i'm all ears!
 
that's very kind of you to say. i did actually have a long chat with my wife about this last night, because she does a lot of online courses for things and i couldn't get my head around how i might do something like this. distilling 25 years of experience and a fairly intuitive way of building presets into bitesized chunks of useful information seemed like an impossible task, but we think we may have figured out a way to do it. it's important to come away with transferrable skills, so the user can apply what they've learned to their own presets. if i'm going to do it, i'd want it to be really useful for people, so i'm going to get my thinking cap on and see what i can come up with. if anybody has any suggestions or requests about what they'd like it to include, i'm all ears!

That's great man! So many could learn new things that in return, would make for a greater community here. More new ideas would come, essentially making the device even greater. Most, i would assume aren't using the full potential of the device. I know I'm not....

Suggestion, your a wizard when it comes to effects, routing and ambient sounds. I would suggest something along the lines of a special fx master class. Routing, modifiers, controllers, series, parallel, switches, effects, etc....
 
Finally getting around to trying this out - definitely something to work with! I went to grab my jazzmaster (first audition was tele), before remembering it's at my techs getting a once-over. Thanks again Simeon!

Edit: any tips on that cave in reverb are still appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Edit: any tips on that cave in reverb are still appreciated.

i can listen to it on youtube...apart from the squiggly sound in the intro, i don't hear anything "special", just nice reverbs with maybe a touch of analog delay
 
it's important to come away with transferrable skills, so the user can apply what they've learned to their own presets. if i'm going to do it, i'd want it to be really useful for people, so i'm going to get my thinking cap on and see what i can come up with. if anybody has any suggestions or requests about what they'd like it to include, i'm all ears!

There's lots of content out there for developing more straightforward tones and covers. To me, it seems your wheelhouse is conjuring up complex atmospheres and effects that push the limits of what can be done. I'd say focus in on that stuff, and development of blocks like you did on the II... I'd be interested in a series (or preset/block package) based on advanced usage of Pitch, Synth, Delays, Formant, Filter, Vocoder, Ring Mod, Resonator, Phaser, Flanger... presets that use interesting effects and controller/modulation combos to create atmospheres and tones that push the limits of what guitars can generate --and save-able blocks that can be plugged into other presets.
 
Last edited:
i can listen to it on youtube...apart from the squiggly sound in the intro, i don't hear anything "special", just nice reverbs with maybe a touch of analog delay

It's not special per se (done in the 90s, likely with a lot of boss gear) but i dont know what type of reverb to even start with. The mix is on point too.
 
Hey @simeon just trying to figure out something - all the presets I've created are louder than this one, despite having similar amp levels (cab and output are at 0db across all comparisons)

Any idea what I'm missing? I'm only noodling at home or recording ideas so it's not time-sensitive or anything, I'm just curious as to the difference. Many thanks for your time!
 
Back
Top Bottom