Alex Lifeson Live Acoustic Piezo Tones...WOW! How?

fatandugly

Experienced
Just saw Rush last night in Tampa...what an amazing show. Spectacle on par with Delicate Sound Of Thunder Floyd. And their fans? Forget it...maniacal love fest. When they broke into the hits in set 2, people were running around crying and hugging each other like crazy folks. Most amazing crowd ever. I was blown away with the acoustic piezo tones Alex gets on his Les Paul. Is he going straight AxeFx for that? Anyone have an inkling of how he achieves such a great acoustic simulation? I mean it sounded better than 95% of any live acoustic tone I've ever heard.
 
I clicked "Like" but that doesn't convey just how amazing it would be if Alex shared that tone match. I was at the Tampa show too, and not only were the acoustic sounds simply AMAZING, but I think Alex's tones on this tour in general are my favorites of his that I've ever heard in the last 20 years. I guess it's time to load up FW 9 beta to have a crack at some Jubilee tones...
 
Woah, this is a great example of the way of fusing the studio tones with live tones. mmmmh, masterpiece this axe-fx is.
 
Maybe a dumb question but is it feasible to achieve a decent/usable acoustic tone without peizo's?
 
Maybe a dumb question but is it feasible to achieve a decent/usable acoustic tone without peizo's?

Oh... yes it is. There are multiple ways to do it too.

I personally use a JTV-59 USA and a preset I created on the Axe-FX II. Alex Lifeson uses a tone match to an actual studio recording of an acoustic and his personal piezo's. As has been noted (in the OP and in other threads and across the web) Alex's live acoustic tones from his Les Paul's rivals the best mic'd up acoustic live tones heard. I bare witness to that opinion too. His live acoustic tones were honestly jaw dropping.
 
I am actually working on that.

I'm really looking forward to trying these out. Thus far I haven't been very successful with the TM results obtained using my piezo equipped guitars.

One thing I'll have to keep in mind... Piezos can sound very different from one guitar to the next. I have guitars with Fishman, LR Baggs, and RMC piezos and each one sounds different.
 
The acoustic tones are 100% Axe-Fx II. They are Tone matched direct from the original studio recordings.

Can you share any details of the method used to tone match from the recording?

If we want to tone match our own acoustic guitars, use the default TM block settings and just play the same part with both the piezo input and the mic'ed AC GTR too?

Richard
 
Oh... yes it is. There are multiple ways to do it too.

I personally use a JTV-59 USA and a preset I created on the Axe-FX II. Alex Lifeson uses a tone match to an actual studio recording of an acoustic and his personal piezo's. As has been noted (in the OP and in other threads and across the web) Alex's live acoustic tones from his Les Paul's rivals the best mic'd up acoustic live tones heard. I bare witness to that opinion too. His live acoustic tones were honestly jaw dropping.

Scott,
So your doing this using the JTV's humbuckers without the modeling?
 
Scott, I'm guessing you are using one of the acoustic models in the variax?
I also have a JTV-59 and would be grateful if you could share your patch.
(btw, the latest Variax FW makes their acoustic models sound even better, which I found out this weekend)

thanks
Jeff


Oh... yes it is. There are multiple ways to do it too.

I personally use a JTV-59 USA and a preset I created on the Axe-FX II. Alex Lifeson uses a tone match to an actual studio recording of an acoustic and his personal piezo's. As has been noted (in the OP and in other threads and across the web) Alex's live acoustic tones from his Les Paul's rivals the best mic'd up acoustic live tones heard. I bare witness to that opinion too. His live acoustic tones were honestly jaw dropping.
 
Oh my...that would be so great. He seems to be about the coolest dude on the planet. He was doing his eyebrow trick during parts of solos while the camera was close up on his face Saturday. 20,000 people were roaring with laughter. Just about the finest concert I've ever seen. Still buzzing about it today.

I am actually working on that.
 
Scott, I would be interested in this patch as well. Ever since Line 6 did the first acoustic patch update, I've hated my JTV59 acoustics and just can't seem to fix it with the Axe. Jeff is there a version 3 update you are speaking about? I'll have to hop on monkey and see if they have something new...it's been almost a year since I checked for updates.

Oh... yes it is. There are multiple ways to do it too.

I personally use a JTV-59 USA and a preset I created on the Axe-FX II. Alex Lifeson uses a tone match to an actual studio recording of an acoustic and his personal piezo's. As has been noted (in the OP and in other threads and across the web) Alex's live acoustic tones from his Les Paul's rivals the best mic'd up acoustic live tones heard. I bare witness to that opinion too. His live acoustic tones were honestly jaw dropping.
 
I don't remember what the new Variax FW is, but it's probably newer than what you have, if it's been that long. Check it out!
I've noticed that I tend to roll off the volume knob on the Variax to be able to get some good dynamics from it. I also roll off the tone.
On the Variax acoustics, the volume and tone controls don't actually control those functions, but DO change the timbre.
 
Maybe a dumb question but is it feasible to achieve a decent/usable acoustic tone without peizo's?

Oh... yes it is. There are multiple ways to do it too.

I personally use a JTV-59 USA and a preset I created on the Axe-FX II. Alex Lifeson uses a tone match to an actual studio recording of an acoustic and his personal piezo's. As has been noted (in the OP and in other threads and across the web) Alex's live acoustic tones from his Les Paul's rivals the best mic'd up acoustic live tones heard. I bare witness to that opinion too. His live acoustic tones were honestly jaw dropping.

But aren't both of the examples you cite (your JTV and Alex) depending on the Piezos? Warrior was asking about doing it without.
 
I am actually working on that.

Matt, not to be greedy because I'm sure we would all take anything we could get, but is there any chance to get more (all) of Alex's patches for the Axe? I would totally understand if Alex and/or his tech were unwilling, but that would be the holy grail for us Alex fans.

I have been trying for years to mimic some of his classic tones (Spirit, Limelight, YYZ, etc.). I know it's all possible through tone matching and I've been able to get a lot closer thanks to that, but man I would kill for his actual patches.

I personally would even be willing to pay something for artist patches (I think this has been brought up before, so don't shoot me).
 
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