HELP!!!! Need an "instant 80s" preset collection

FullThrottle64

FullThrottle64

Inspired
I've been asked to play a musical theater production of "Rock of Ages", which consists entirely of 80s hair metal and similar material. Sounds like fun, right? Well, I thought so until I started thinking through the list of sounds and patches I'm going to need, and the expectation is to sound as close to the original as possible. Here's the list of bands I need to cover:

Quiet Riot
DLR/Vai
Poison
Nightranger
Starship
Styx
Twisted Sister
Warrant
Foreigner
Bon Jovi
Foreigner
Quarterflash
Pat Benatar
Whitesnake/Vai
Europe
Journey
Damn Yankees
Lita Ford
Joan Jett
Asia
REO Speedwagon
Steve Perry (Waddy Wachtel)

Naturally, there's also the usual complement of acoustic work, but I'm guessing that this is going to be a real workout just to get the presets and scenes set up, as theater work often runs fast between themes, with no break to change. Add to it the fact that some of these will have to be set up with the virtual capo....ugh.

Anyway, my question is whether anyone has a preset library of this sort of material that they would be willing to share/sell, or if any of the pro preset builders have a package that would cover some or all of this material. I could probably build them all out myself, but I'm definitely not above cheating to get this set up. All will be played direct into the house sound system, so I would be looking for presets with IRs included (or using stock IRs); I have a few decent IRs, though, so I could work my way around this.

Any ideas or thoughts anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!
 
FullThrottle64 said:
I've been asked to play a musical theater production of "Rock of Ages", which consists entirely of 80s hair metal and similar material. Sounds like fun, right? Well, I thought so until I started thinking through the list of sounds and patches I'm going to need, and the expectation is to sound as close to the original as possible. Here's the list of bands I need to cover:

Quiet Riot
DLR/Vai
Poison
Nightranger
Starship
Styx
Twisted Sister
Warrant
Foreigner
Bon Jovi
Foreigner
Quarterflash
Pat Benatar
Whitesnake/Vai
Europe
Journey
Damn Yankees
Lita Ford
Joan Jett
Asia
REO Speedwagon
Steve Perry (Waddy Wachtel)

Naturally, there's also the usual complement of acoustic work, but I'm guessing that this is going to be a real workout just to get the presets and scenes set up, as theater work often runs fast between themes, with no break to change. Add to it the fact that some of these will have to be set up with the virtual capo....ugh.

Anyway, my question is whether anyone has a preset library of this sort of material that they would be willing to share/sell, or if any of the pro preset builders have a package that would cover some or all of this material. I could probably build them all out myself, but I'm definitely not above cheating to get this set up. All will be played direct into the house sound system, so I would be looking for presets with IRs included (or using stock IRs); I have a few decent IRs, though, so I could work my way around this.

Any ideas or thoughts anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Everything you have there will work
With a Marshall Plexi /800 or variant like Freidman

You will need a Chorus , tube screamer , digital delay
I would tune to eb on the main guitar
 
FullThrottle64 said:
I've been asked to play a musical theater production of "Rock of Ages", which consists entirely of 80s hair metal and similar material. Sounds like fun, right? Well, I thought so until I started thinking through the list of sounds and patches I'm going to need, and the expectation is to sound as close to the original as possible. Here's the list of bands I need to cover:

Quiet Riot
DLR/Vai
Poison
Nightranger
Starship
Styx
Twisted Sister
Warrant
Foreigner
Bon Jovi
Foreigner
Quarterflash
Pat Benatar
Whitesnake/Vai
Europe
Journey
Damn Yankees
Lita Ford
Joan Jett
Asia
REO Speedwagon
Steve Perry (Waddy Wachtel)

Naturally, there's also the usual complement of acoustic work, but I'm guessing that this is going to be a real workout just to get the presets and scenes set up, as theater work often runs fast between themes, with no break to change. Add to it the fact that some of these will have to be set up with the virtual capo....ugh.

Anyway, my question is whether anyone has a preset library of this sort of material that they would be willing to share/sell, or if any of the pro preset builders have a package that would cover some or all of this material. I could probably build them all out myself, but I'm definitely not above cheating to get this set up. All will be played direct into the house sound system, so I would be looking for presets with IRs included (or using stock IRs); I have a few decent IRs, though, so I could work my way around this.

Any ideas or thoughts anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
When ROA was here in Vegas they were using EVH amps for the whole show. They had Fractal as a backup and I helped them set up all the presets in the Axe-Fx II's (at the time). All presets were created to just mimic how the EVH amps were being used, effects etc. The main Guitar 1 at the time was really only using a clean/crunch/lead sounds so presets weren't designed to sound as close to the original.

Congrats on the gig though, it's a great show and I hope it comes back to Vegas again! I was learning the Guitar 1 to be a Sub when the show closed here, would love to do that again if they come back!
 
Randalljax said:
Everything you have there will work
With a Marshall Plexi /800 or variant like Freidman

You will need a Chorus , tube screamer , digital delay
I would tune to eb on the main guitar
Click to expand...
Yeah I know that I could build these up individually, but there is a BIG difference between Vai's tone, Waddy Wachtel's, and CC Deville's, so it's not going to work with just one preset. I'm hoping to find some of these already built up to save a bunch of time.

And no, I don't get to decide what key the songs are in. Theater work is played from a score, so we generally work solely in standard tuning or DropD.
 
FullThrottle64 said:
Yeah I know that I could build these up individually, but there is a BIG difference between Vai's tone, Waddy Wachtel's, and CC Deville's, so it's not going to work with just one preset. I'm hoping to find some of these already built up to save a bunch of time.
Click to expand...
It might work though.

Are the bass and drums going to change tones? If your guitar tone is changing and theirs isn’t it may sound unbalanced among songs.
 
MattBowman said:
When ROA was here in Vegas they were using EVH amps for the whole show. They had Fractal as a backup and I helped them set up all the presets in the Axe-Fx II's (at the time). All presets were created to just mimic how the EVH amps were being used, effects etc. The main Guitar 1 at the time was really only using a clean/crunch/lead sounds so presets weren't designed to sound as close to the original.

Congrats on the gig though, it's a great show and I hope it comes back to Vegas again! I was learning the Guitar 1 to be a Sub when the show closed here, would love to do that again if they come back!
Click to expand...
Very cool!

How did you like the "Final Countdown" twin lead passage? :eek:
 
chris said:
It might work though.

Are the bass and drums going to change tones? If your guitar tone is changing and theirs isn’t it may sound unbalanced among songs.
Click to expand...
The keyboard will be changing patches with every new song. Why would you think that the drums need to change just because the key player changes from Rhodes to DX-7 to B-3, or because the guitar changes to a different sound - or to acoustic or nylon-string?

I've never understood why anyone ever says this, honestly. Coming from a symphonic background where the change of instruments playing off of each other is core to the sound quality, it really makes no sense to me.
 
chris said:
It might work though.

Are the bass and drums going to change tones? If your guitar tone is changing and theirs isn’t it may sound unbalanced among songs.
Click to expand...
Listen to this wise advice… it took me years to realize what Chris is saying! If the entire band isn’t “sounding like the record” and you are, it can make your perfectly matched tone sound wrong. In addition, our sound man expressed his difficulty in getting my wildly changing presets EQed for FOH. This got me chasing a more centered tone that was a better match for the live sound environment, and it worked beautifully. It also makes the time you do switch to a specific song part (Owner of a Lonely Heart, for instance), really come through.
 
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FullThrottle64 said:
The keyboard will be changing patches with every new song. Why would you think that the drums need to change just because the key player changes from Rhodes to DX-7 to B-3, or because the guitar changes to a different sound - or to acoustic or nylon-string?

I've never understood why anyone ever says this, honestly. Coming from a symphonic background where the change of instruments playing off of each other is core to the sound quality, it really makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
Ok.
 
I played songs from most of those bands back in the 90s using a Marshall combo amp. If you play the songs well and use your volume/gain knob effectively you can do exactly what Chris suggested without a hitch. Subtle changes in EQ/Effects will keep things interesting and the crowd engaged. I don't recall ever seeing a live band bring 20-30 different amps / cabs to a gig to sound 'exactly' like the recordings and although the AxeFX makes this possible I personally never considered doing this. You will likely be on your own to put these presets together since you know what you want to hear better than we do.
Best of luck to you.
 
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I played that show and IIRC had basically high, med and low gain scenes. It was too much work to do a preset per song.

It was on the AxeFx II so I don't have a preset for you. Although, I did a few presets for a cover band that include some of those / similar artists. Not sure how they'd translate to your guitar + fingers.
 
FullThrottle64 said:
The keyboard will be changing patches with every new song. Why would you think that the drums need to change just because the key player changes from Rhodes to DX-7 to B-3, or because the guitar changes to a different sound - or to acoustic or nylon-string?

I've never understood why anyone ever says this, honestly. Coming from a symphonic background where the change of instruments playing off of each other is core to the sound quality, it really makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...


People say it because they realized no one in the audience cares

“How was the show Honey ? Well it was good and all, but the backing guitar player was using a jcm800 to play a part that was clearly originally recorded using a jcm900 so that ruined my night, but otherwise good”

No one is going to care save for that one guy at a gig who stands there arms crossed the whole and then wants to talk shop for 45 minutes, but that guy will just always have an opinion no matter what, so don’t sweat the small stuff.
 
FullThrottle64 said:
Yeah I know that I could build these up individually, but there is a BIG difference between Vai's tone, Waddy Wachtel's, and CC Deville's, so it's not going to work with just one preset. I'm hoping to find some of these already built up to save a bunch of time.

And no, I don't get to decide what key the songs are in. Theater work is played from a score, so we generally work solely in standard tuning or DropD.
Click to expand...
Everyone that you have named is a Marshall minus CC that was a solid state Crate and Nightranger that was a Mesa Mark
The biggest difference will be the player , guitars used and effects
CC Quiet Riot and those Guys have a ton of chorus
VAI is more raw , some of the other stuff is less gain more classic
I think if you download Leon Todd’s 80s cleans , used a JCM800 for Crunch and and SLO for leads
That would cover the stuff you want
 
Rick said:
Listen to this wise advice… it took me years to realize what Chris is saying! If the entire band isn’t “sounding like the record” and you are, it can make your perfectly matched tone sound wrong. In addition, our sound man expressed his difficulty in getting my wildly changing presets EQed for FOH. This got me chasing a more centered tone that was a better match for the live sound environment, and it worked beautifully. It also makes the time you do switch to a specific song part (Owner of a Lonely Heart, for instance), really come through.
Click to expand...
Great advice!
 
Randalljax said:
Everyone that you have named is a Marshall minus CC that was a solid state Crate and Nightranger that was a Mesa Mark
The biggest difference will be the player , guitars used and effects
CC Quiet Riot and those Guys have a ton of chorus
VAI is more raw , some of the other stuff is less gain more classic
I think if you download Leon Todd’s 80s cleans , used a JCM800 for Crunch and and SLO for leads
That would cover the stuff you want
Click to expand...
Thanks! 👍

Yeah, LTs 80s "rack clean" is one awesome base sound for this stuff - and I've already got it loaded up and modded slightly to fit my rig/playing/style. (I've used it before, and love it.)

My normal "go-to" for band work is based on Bogner XTC gain and lead (Euro Blue, Euro Red), which I think is a bit too polished and 90s sounding for this gig....hence the request in the OP.

There's a part of me that wants to just load up the JCM800 half-stack and Torpedo Live for this one....but prior experience with this tech crew leads me to believe that it would not be well received.... :laughing:
 
lqdsnddist said:
People say it because they realized no one in the audience cares
Click to expand...
This is certainly true, but only to a point. Covering Santana with a Brad Paisley sound isn't really going to work very well.....

Point taken, though, that a lot of this material has very similar DNA in terms of the underlying sound and gear that was in use.
 
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