Big Country - Bagpipes

R

rewddog

Member
Hi guys

I´m a proud owner of a new AXE-FX II and have been playing around with it to dial in U2 / The Edge ish patches / tones and I am absolutely in love with the tones I´m getting with the help of Axeman / Michael and the community from forum.u2guitartutorials.com.

My other tone to get near to is Big Country, mainly the way they get their guitars to sound like bagpipes.

Can anyone point me in the right direction - it is known they used a MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer so a pitch block is about as far as I´ve got and I´m getting confused at the point as I can´t seem to get anything near to a bagpipey type sound.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Try this with a Les Paul on the high frets....I got this set up from watching their 88 Berlin Concert vid.
 

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Try the pitch shifter set one octave up and set the mix until it sounds correct to you.

They used to use MXR Pitch Transposers to get that sound.

Keith
 
The guys play all the pipe riffs above the 12th fret. There are some higher shifts, but most are +20c detune to get a beat frequency going between the shift and the fundamental, and then they give it some delay to give it that bounce off the walls of the Glen feel. I played the pipes for a little bit and outside of the drones, the sound comes from the detuning between the double reeds in the chanter.
 
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Great info guys - Thanks

D.Frog - Thanks for the preset - I think that will give me a clue how to do it on my patches - very many thanks
 
As I understand it they used an ebow to get those sounds. I have to admit, I'm an old fan. ahh the 80s

If you look at any of their album covers, they mention the use of ebows in the credits.
 
Stadanko said:
As I understand it they used an ebow to get those sounds. I have to admit, I'm an old fan. ahh the 80s

If you look at any of their album covers, they mention the use of ebows in the credits.
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In the concert DVD's, their use is pretty selective to some of the slow legato entrances.
 
I would say its a combo of octave up and other times a perfect 5th. thats all those old units can do. "in a big country " per sayis more like a octave up. I loved that band. I havent made any patches But stuart adamson is one of my favorite guitar players/singers and songwriters. RIP Stuart... check out glasgow 82/83 nye concert those are the real tones. The ebow was used too but its the harmonizer octaves that makes the bag pipes imo... with delays too...
 
tikk10 said:
I would say its a combo of octave up and other times a perfect 5th. thats all those old units can do. "in a big country " per sayis more like a octave up. I loved that band. I havent made any patches But stuart adamson is one of my favorite guitar players/singers and songwriters. RIP Stuart... check out glasgow 82/83 nye concert those are the real tones. The ebow was used too but its the harmonizer octaves that makes the bag pipes imo... with delays too...
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If you look at the MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer which is what they were using, it can do a whole lot more than octaves and 5ths.
 
You need fixed tones to do bagpipes. Only the chanter changes pitch, the drones, well....drone. You could probably build up layers with phrase sampling, but no pitch shifter is going to do it on-the-fly.
 
I think the M-129 is used for shifting on the staccato plucks and simply for detune for the bagpipes. I hear no octaves, fifths, or other intervals on the pipes. Nor do I hear drones. Any device that can provide enough detune could do the job. Perhaps it glitched and that's also part of the sound. IMO, the distortion on that guitar is more unique than the detune.
 
AdmiralB said:
You need fixed tones to do bagpipes. Only the chanter changes pitch, the drones, well....drone. You could probably build up layers with phrase sampling, but no pitch shifter is going to do it on-the-fly.
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Several units by Boss, Digitech/IVL, Eventide, and Electro Harmonix can do this. I believe even the Axe can with global custom scales. How much it glitches is the issue.
 
steadystate said:
Several units by Boss, Digitech/IVL, Eventide, and Electro Harmonix can do this. I believe even the Axe can with global custom scales. How much it glitches is the issue.
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"Standard" tones in a three-drone setup are one octave down, two octaves down, and fifth below chanter tonic IIRC. You're right, the units you mention - including the Axe - can do pitch shifting such that (say, in A) no matter what note you play, the harmony voices are A(-2), A(-1), and E. But glitching aside, IMO it won't sound right because the tones aren't droning - they're staccato, along with the melody.

You can get close with envelopes, delays, etc. but it all gets to be a hassle IMO and you wind up having an easier time of it just playing the drone root with harmonies set up into a delay with infinite hold.
 
I don't have the MXR-M-129.

I do have Guitar Rig 5 does any one have any settings to use or any tips.

Regards to all from Sussex UK.
 
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