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Free Bird Intro

A

AlexGuitar

Member
Everyone,

My band, as so many cover bands do, plays a cover of free bird. Unfortunately, we do not have a keyboard player, so the intro is never as recognizable as we would like. Given the amazing capability of fractal products, I was wondering if anyone had some ideas as to how to approach the intro sound - I found the stock preset Ric-O-Twelve, which got close with a little tweaking, but I wondered if anyone had a better idea.

Thanks!

Note: I already posted this on the FM9 forum, so if the dual post is an improper way to do this, let me know and I'm happy to change it - I just wanted to make the post as visible as possible.
 
lp59

lp59

Experienced
There are presets that simulate an organ sound, I’m not in front of my Axe to tell you, but with a little research you’ll find some. Take a look to axe-change.
 
hippietim

hippietim

Fractal Fanatic
There's organ, piano, acoustic guitar, and a clean electric guitar in the intro. As @lp59 mentioned, you can find organ patches. The basics of that are to use a pitch block in Dual or Quad Chromatic mode. Add a couple higher octaves and a lower one (you'll need the Quad for this). Then mix the octaves to taste.

To do the acoustic guitar, there are patches for that as well. The basics of that are to use an IR of an acoustic guitar in the Cab block. It helps a lot if you have a piezo pickup in your guitar. I'm sure someone has tried a Tone Match as well.

To do the piano, you have 3 options:
1) get and EHX Key9 and see if the Rhodes sound works for you
2) Get a Roland GR-55 and put a GK pickup on your guitar
3) Get a keyboard player
 
hippietim

hippietim

Fractal Fanatic
jlynnb1 said:
or just modify the intro to work better with what you have available. These songs aren't the holy grail.
Click to expand...

This is true for just about any song ever written. But Freebird is among the holy grails of rock and roll. The fact that it has been played so poorly by so many over the years, does not diminish it's standing.
 
jamongrande

jamongrande

Inspired
It’s not all in the box, but I regularly use an EH Superego to achieve an organ pad doubling. guitar->Axfx3->signal split post amp block to output 3 to Superego-> Superego “send” to input 3 (this is the only way to get a drykill from the Superego)->input 3 through rotary block w lots of drive (>5)->rotary connects back to “dry” guitar path.

I only want the superego to give me the effect, thus the signal split and using the SuperEgo’s send instead of its output. Strum a chord and step on the super ego, and you get a solid organ pad. Better than using the EHX B9 for what you want (when subbing on a gig, I had a vocalist say “why doesn’t our guitarists organ pedal sound like that?).
 
DougB415

DougB415

Experienced
I'd say either find a keyboardist (yeah right) or don't worry about doing a spot on cover. Just be warned that people will expect you to play it at every gig once they hear it. Our band got sick of it and had to drop it, but that didn't stop the masses yelling for it.
 
hippietim

hippietim

Fractal Fanatic
DougB415 said:
I'd say either find a keyboardist (yeah right) or don't worry about doing a spot on cover. Just be warned that people will expect you to play it at every gig once they hear it. Our band got sick of it and had to drop it, but that didn't stop the masses yelling for it.
Click to expand...
The problem with getting a keyboard player is that they'll be playing the guitar part with some cheesy patch on songs that don't have keyboards. Or worse, they'll want to bring a keytar to a gig. Imagine a guy playing keytar with some horrible brass sound playing along to AC/DC.
 
TSJMajesty

TSJMajesty

Fractal Fanatic
hippietim said:
The problem with getting a keyboard player is that they'll be playing the guitar part with some cheesy patch on songs that don't have keyboards. Or worse, they'll want to bring a keytar to a gig. Imagine a guy playing keytar with some horrible brass sound playing along to AC/DC.
Click to expand...
And once you get a keyboard player, you pretty much have to re-work your whole set.
 
Habuman

Habuman

Power User
Are you picking each note/strings of the intro chords or strumming? I pick each note and everyone recognizes with no problem.
 
A

AlexGuitar

Member
DougB415 said:
I'd say either find a keyboardist (yeah right) or don't worry about doing a spot on cover. Just be warned that people will expect you to play it at every gig once they hear it. Our band got sick of it and had to drop it, but that didn't stop the masses yelling for it.
Click to expand...
Oh they certainly want to hear it at every gig... As a guitar player, it's kinda fun (I get to play pentatonic licks for 5 minutes), but it can get annoying to constantly be asked about it.
 
DougB415

DougB415

Experienced
AlexGuitar said:
Oh they certainly want to hear it at every gig... As a guitar player, it's kinda fun (I get to play pentatonic licks for 5 minutes), but it can get annoying to constantly be asked about it.
Click to expand...
They'd yell for it thru the whole show. Yeah yeah, we'll get to it, hold on...
 
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