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skolacki said:
I’m a big Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule fan. They did a blues album after the lockdowns. Heavy Load Blues. It’s interesting the way it was recorded. Everyone in a small space with no isolation and a lot of vintage gear. No digital all analog. Plenty of space and dynamics with that band and great guitar tones. I have learned a lot about fitting in with songs from Warren Haynes. There’s a vid on the tube. Snatch it Back and Hold it. That album is saturated with many of the tones we are all chasing.
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A lot of vintage gear! The album very much reminds me of early Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, especially the one with Eric Clapton, the “Beano” album.
 
The thing people always overlook, and honestly has become almost a meme because it's so often brought up, is the difference is the guitarist.

"TOAN IS IN THE HANDZ" but it's fking true. You HAVE TO CRAFT THE PATCH TO THE PLAYER. Everything about how you play (strings, pick material, pick attack, how hard you pick, the angle, etc), not to mention the guitar setup - action, pickup height, active/passive, tone pots, etc - dictates so much about how things sound, that you have to craft the signal chain and settings around that, or else it sounds wrong.

A guitarist's tone chain, whether it's analog with tube amps and pedals or all-digital with something like the AxeFX, is intensely personal. It's like picking up another guitarist's guitar and going "wow I can't play this for shit" because it's not set up how you like it. The entire rest of the signal chain is the same way.

Build your own. Use presets as a starting point, but realize that it's never going to sound exactly right for you. Luckily, Fractal gives us every switch, button, and knob we could want to craft our perfect sound. Take the time to learn, you won't regret it.
 
too many variables in presets, if I build a preset you'll need my guitar, cords, set up in every way for it to sound the same, then if I palm mute chances are you'll never sound 100% like me, its best to build your own to your ears and equipment
 
Greg Ferguson said:
A lot of vintage gear! The album very much reminds me of early Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, especially the one with Eric Clapton, the “Beano” album.
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Greg Ferguson said:
A lot of vintage gear! The album very much reminds me of early Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, especially the one with Eric Clapton, the “Beano” album.
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Yes it has a very stripped down sound. Essentially a live band sound. I really love this record, but I'm an old fart haha!
 
skolacki said:
I’m a big Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule fan. They did a blues album after the lockdowns. Heavy Load Blues. It’s interesting the way it was recorded. Everyone in a small space with no isolation and a lot of vintage gear. No digital all analog. Plenty of space and dynamics with that band and great guitar tones. I have learned a lot about fitting in with songs from Warren Haynes. There’s a vid on the tube. Snatch it Back and Hold it. That album is saturated with many of the tones we are all chasing.
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Thanks! Love everything Warren does. Will have to check that out. :)
 
rossipedia said:
The thing people always overlook, and honestly has become almost a meme because it's so often brought up, is the difference is the guitarist.

"TOAN IS IN THE HANDZ" but it's fking true. You HAVE TO CRAFT THE PATCH TO THE PLAYER. Everything about how you play (strings, pick material, pick attack, how hard you pick, the angle, etc), not to mention the guitar setup - action, pickup height, active/passive, tone pots, etc - dictates so much about how things sound, that you have to craft the signal chain and settings around that, or else it sounds wrong.

A guitarist's tone chain, whether it's analog with tube amps and pedals or all-digital with something like the AxeFX, is intensely personal. It's like picking up another guitarist's guitar and going "wow I can't play this for shit" because it's not set up how you like it. The entire rest of the signal chain is the same way.

Build your own. Use presets as a starting point, but realize that it's never going to sound exactly right for you. Luckily, Fractal gives us every switch, button, and knob we could want to craft our perfect sound. Take the time to learn, you won't regret it.
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Yes! And add in the fact that EVERY guitarist I have ever met, played with, or listened to
dial in their gear has a specific sound in their head that they aim for.

I know some who can make virtually any chain of gear sound the same. They tweak until
they get to THAT sound they personally hear as ideal. To them.
 
la noise said:
I think that's all of us. But only if we are honest and self-aware enough to admit it. :)
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And yet I love tones from:
Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eddie Van Halen to John Petrucci to...
Neil Schon
Alex Lifeson
David Gilmour
Jimmy Page
Davey Johnstone
Roger Fisher
Brain May
Richie Blackmore
Tom Morello
Angus Young
Ty Tabor
Randy Rhoads
Neil Young
George Harrison &
Nuno Bettencourt
Can the Axe Fx do all these? (J/K)
 
TSJMajesty said:
And yet I love tones from:
Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eddie Van Halen to John Petrucci to...
Neil Schon
Alex Lifeson
David Gilmour
Jimmy Page
Davey Johnstone
Roger Fisher
Brain May
Richie Blackmore
Tom Morello
Angus Young
Ty Tabor
Randy Rhoads
Neil Young
George Harrison &
Nuno Bettencourt
Can the Axe Fx do all these? (J/K)
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If you can play like those players, you'd get those sounds. I generally avoid YT but theres lots of vids of guys who took the time to nail sounding like someone else.
 
la noise said:
Wow! Thanks! Totally checking that out. :)

Edit: purchased.
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One more recommendation: Mastering Audio by Bob Katz. I read Milner's and Katz's books back to back years ago, but I had not thought about the Katz book for a long time. Whereas Perfecting Sound Forever is a really fascinating history of recorded music that talks about how the loudness wars began, Bob Katz's book is really a textbook of dynamics. He goes into great detail about his views on the concept how to apply them. I read this long before I knew about shows like Pensado's Place, or the fact that you can now find interviews and/or tutorials with your favorite audio engineers all over YouTube. so I'd just try to find the few books I could on any kind of audio engineering (this reminds I need to search any kind of interview with Michael Barbiero). To me it was always like this dark magic, in the awesomest way, just this way to coax hidden power out of music, an attempt to make audio as compelling as music itself. I still feel like audio is a very tough thing to master, despite the current plethora of tutorials on the web. I think it can be an art in itself, where people really try to say things, where their mastery of sound can just transport you the way cinematography can, or photography can; these people are not creating the subject matter, but they are making art from it, and sculpting their own shape out of their subjects. I remember also reading stuff like The Adventures of Mixerman around that time, which was witty, hilarious, and a total joy, but Katz's book really goes to the heart of this particular matter, in great detail.
 
State of Epicicity said:
One more recommendation: Mastering Audio by Bob Katz. I read Milner's and Katz's books back to back years ago, but I had not thought about the Katz book for a long time. Whereas Perfecting Sound Forever is a really fascinating history of recorded music that talks about how the loudness wars began, Bob Katz's book is really a textbook of dynamics. He goes into great detail about his views on the concept how to apply them. I read this long before I knew about shows like Pensado's Place, or the fact that you can now find interviews and/or tutorials with your favorite audio engineers all over YouTube. so I'd just try to find the few books I could on any kind of audio engineering (this reminds I need to search any kind of interview with Michael Barbiero). To me it was always like this dark magic, in the awesomest way, just this way to coax hidden power out of music, an attempt to make audio as compelling as music itself. I still feel like audio is a very tough thing to master, despite the current plethora of tutorials on the web. I think it can be an art in itself, where people really try to say things, where their mastery of sound can just transport you the way cinematography can, or photography can; these people are not creating the subject matter, but they are making art from it, and sculpting their own shape out of their subjects. I remember also reading stuff like The Adventures of Mixerman around that time, which was witty, hilarious, and a total joy, but Katz's book really goes to the heart of this particular matter, in great detail.
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The Adventures of Mixerman was freaking GREAT !
 
State of Epicicity said:
One more recommendation: Mastering Audio by Bob Katz. I read Milner's and Katz's books back to back years ago, but I had not thought about the Katz book for a long time. Whereas Perfecting Sound Forever is a really fascinating history of recorded music that talks about how the loudness wars began, Bob Katz's book is really a textbook of dynamics. He goes into great detail about his views on the concept how to apply them. I read this long before I knew about shows like Pensado's Place, or the fact that you can now find interviews and/or tutorials with your favorite audio engineers all over YouTube. so I'd just try to find the few books I could on any kind of audio engineering (this reminds I need to search any kind of interview with Michael Barbiero). To me it was always like this dark magic, in the awesomest way, just this way to coax hidden power out of music, an attempt to make audio as compelling as music itself. I still feel like audio is a very tough thing to master, despite the current plethora of tutorials on the web. I think it can be an art in itself, where people really try to say things, where their mastery of sound can just transport you the way cinematography can, or photography can; these people are not creating the subject matter, but they are making art from it, and sculpting their own shape out of their subjects. I remember also reading stuff like The Adventures of Mixerman around that time, which was witty, hilarious, and a total joy, but Katz's book really goes to the heart of this particular matter, in great detail.
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Absolutely! I think in some ways, it's like being drawn into a movie, by the lighting, the way the camera moves, and the music behind the action.
I can usually tell if it's going to be a good movie in simply how those elements create the mood I sense when it begins.
When I hear early VH mixes, yeah they're raw and all that, but the songs don't move me in the way they do when I listen to the Ted Templeman tracks.
 
IMHO, you should be able to get about 80-90% of the way to your desired sound (minus effects of course) with just the amp and cab blocks. If you find yourself needing 27 different EQs and compressors and boosts and spinner wheels and curb finders and tweaking every advanced parameter in the blocks, you've probably picked either the wrong amp or wrong cab or both for what you're trying to do or you're using the wrong guitar and/or pickups. So many presets I've downloaded use way too much gain and have so much added crap in them that is completely unnecessary. The first thing I do is bypass all the extra crap they've added and it almost always sounds 100% better. Keep it simple.
 
CT76 said:
I will say, I recently did a show and went direct with the JP preset in the fractal new presets and the sound guy only had to turn me up. I didn't do any cuts or anything just loaded and went, he said best tone he had all year in 2021
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That's awesome! :)
 
skolacki said:
Yes it has a very stripped down sound. Essentially a live band sound. I really love this record, but I'm an old fart haha!
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There's SO much to learn about leaving holes in the sound to let it breathe, about letting the amps sit just at the edge of breaking up and controlling them from the guitar's knobs.

I'm a major fan, and practitioner, of plugging straight in and letting the guitar and amp talk.
 
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