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

Admin M@ said:
For musical theater be wary of changing your tone much from one song to the next. 5 core tones ... tops. I might recommend Global Blocks for the Amp and Cab.
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lol

For musical theater, you might have five key changes, five meter changes, five tempo changes, and five different musical genres — all in one song. Your tone might be the only consistent thing you get. Cherish it. :)
 
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.
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If there is budget, the keyboard players rent patches that sound exactly like the original recordings will all the incidental whooshes and whatever.

When I use my e-drums, I'll change kits per song.

It's not out of question to get close to the record, but there is a balance.
 
This reminds me ...

Once upon a time, I saw a cover band play at the enlisted club on an Air Force base in Indiana.

They played Sister Golden Hair by America. One of the players, to my my ears at the time, nailed the lap steel parts.

I was so impressed, I had to ask him after the show how he got that sound. He was playing a Yamaha DX7 synth, using the piano patch and the pitch bend wheel.

So, it was all about getting the notes and phrasing right. The exact tone, in context, didn't matter to the audience in a loud club after a few beers.
 
I can see both sides of this discussion. As someone who uses a preset-per-song approach, and tries to get as close to the original artist as I reasonably can. There is value in keeping your amp and cab choices limited. Especially since that group of songs is from the same genre.

My latest versions of "Artist" presets have slowly migrated closer together in overall EQ balance. But having tones that reasonably mimic the original tones does not go as unnoticed as some may think. I constantly get great comments (some times in tears) from new listeners about how we 'took them back' to a great memory from their past. An old love, a deceased friend or family member. That doesn't happen from just 'covering' a song. You have to recreate it in some detail. Music and certain smells can do that. It's almost magical!

Many of my personal live presets are copies of my Brit-800 preset with the names edited, and a few song specific changes. We play many of the songs/bands from your list. I get asked 'how do you nail all of those sounds'. They look at me funny when I say that many of them are essentially the same preset.

Back on topic... In many cases the effects will have more to do with selling the illusion than the Amp and cab. Some well placed extra blocks placed before and after the Amp and Cab can tone-shape enough to get you into the intended territory while still being routed in the familiar base tone.

But even when the tones are setup right, You, are the other part of the equation. Maybe the biggest part of the equation? A great performance can make you believe.

P.M. me. I might be able to help?
 
Check out the new Gift of Tone from Dweezil Zappa. Based on Eruption tone. That should be fine. Spandex & Hairspray is another awesome factory preset for this stuff. I saw Rock of Ages on broadway and they used EVH amps the entire time and didn’t change tone. The broadway album version with the same cast I saw, doesn’t seem to sound like a lot of changing tones either.
 
Rex said:
lol

For musical theater, you might have five key changes, five meter changes, five tempo changes, and five different musical genres — all in one song. Your tone might be the only consistent thing you get. Cherish it. :)
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Yeah, I do a lot of theater work, as a player, occasional stage performer and as MD.

There's one piece in "Addams Family" that cover 7 or 8 totally different styles in a matter of two or three pages. It's a dance number that goes through several different decades of rock (Chuck Berry, surf, 70s, metal) along with a couple of latin and pure dance grooves. It's a tapdance on the pedalboard no matter how you cut it. I think I used 4 instruments for that one - electric, steel-string, banjo and ukelele.

Gotta love it when you're sight reading and turn the page into a key change to Cb major, (Newsies) or hit a piece in 13:8 time (Cats). Even worse are the old hand-written scores that are full of mistakes and omissions - Little Shop of Horrors has a hand-written score by Alan Mencken and Phil Spector that requires the pit to compare notes between everyone's book and figure out which roadmap to follow, because they're all different (not joking - it's just plain awful).

So yeah, that's just the way those gigs are. Add in a MD who may want something completely different than the last time you played that show, and it keeps things interesting.
 
Jipps0525 said:
Check out the new Gift of Tone from Dweezil Zappa. Based on Eruption tone. That should be fine. Spandex & Hairspray is another awesome factory preset for this stuff. I saw Rock of Ages on broadway and they used EVH amps the entire time and didn’t change tone. The broadway album version with the same cast I saw, doesn’t seem to sound like a lot of changing tones either.
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I listened to that Broadway album version, and it honestly made we want to puke. They had basically stripped 100% of the energy out of those songs......ugh..... Nothing against the playing at all, but it seemed as if the vocalists had been directed to do everything they could to NOT sound like 80s rock.

I'll check out those presets - thanks for the tip.
 
lqdsnddist said:
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.
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It took me a lot of year to figure this one out. Spot on. I've been shooting for a clean, crunch, medium gain, medium/high gain, and a 2-3 dB boosted lead. Adding an 808 here and there to change the flavors. I run these as presets mostly because I dont want a Poison style lead tone on a lighter rock Bryan Adams tune. Anyway, just chiming in as I do 80's and 90's rock covers. Most times I can get away with a clean and an 808 for a country tune here and there.
 
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Goonie said:
It took me a lot of year to figure this one out. Spot on. I've been shooting for a clean, crunch, medium gain, medium/high gain, and a 2-3 dB boosted lead. Adding an 808 here and there to change the flavors. I run these as presets mostly because I dont want a Poison style lead tone on a lighter rock Bryan Adams tune. Anyway, just chiming in as I do 80's and 90's rock covers. Most times I can get away with a clean and an 808 for a country tune here and there.
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I’ve tried this too as I play in cover bands and the main issue I find is (at least for me personally) it is very difficult to go from soloing with more gain to less gain multiple times a night. Idk what it is but I think it’s my brain and ears being used to more and then struggling to adapt to less. More gain also triggers different kinds of lead lines and soloing. I think it would be different if it was all your own originals and your own tone and your own band but with cover bands, you go from brown eyed girl to poison to The Anthem etc. The gain or distortion is all over the spectrum with these songs so usually now I just say screw it and make the “hot marshall” work for everything lol
 
Jipps0525 said:
I’ve tried this too as I play in cover bands and the main issue I find is (at least for me personally) it is very difficult to go from soloing with more gain to less gain multiple times a night. Idk what it is but I think it’s my brain and ears being used to more and then struggling to adapt to less. More gain also triggers different kinds of lead lines and soloing. I think it would be different if it was all your own originals and your own tone and your own band but with cover bands, you go from brown eyed girl to poison to The Anthem etc. The gain or distortion is all over the spectrum with these songs so usually now I just say screw it and make the “hot marshall” work for everything lol
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I hear ya. The gain thing gets me too most of the time. I tend to run a preset for clean and each type of gain, so maybe like 4 or 5 presets total. Each gain preset has scenes that add some effects and also a boosted lead scene that uses the same gain so I can do leads for lighter rock. I can then go to the higher gain preset for Ratt, GnR, etc and that one will have a boosted lead scene. Idk if that makes sense, and I'm sure others have brilliant workflows for some of this stuff. Also, I understand that the OP was from someone that plays at a higher level than what I do as I typically do 3 or 4 piece bar, club, outdoor gigs. In my opinion, being the only guitar player in the band with a fractal, you have to be careful of being "too accurate" on your tones. If the rhythm guitar player is only playing though a marshall combo all night and you are switching tones and EQ's the whole night, that can sound wierd. I'm just rambling now. I can move on, I may have hijacked the OP. Lol.
 
Oh man…this really hits home for me. I’m playing guitar 2 for Rock of Ages in January.

Building my set list almost exclusively around Austin Buddy’s Naked Amp JCM800 preset. Added a tube screamer, Timmy and RCB for drives and I feel like I’m in the ballpark for my stuff.

I A/B’ed that with the Spandex and hairspray preset and I think I like what I’ve got a little better. Still intrigued by the EVH comments from other posters though. May investigate that a little further.

Honestly, I’m most worried about the acoustic stuff. I’m running both an a real acoustic and a strat with a Ghost pickup. Our chart for Dead or Alive is in a freaking brutal key. I’ll just downtune the strat for that song alone or use the virtual capo.

On a brighter note, we’re all going all out, costume-wise, with big ass wigs! Gonna be an absolute blast.

Small world though, @FullThrottle64, I think I’m gonna get asked to play Addams Family in April. I know exactly the tune you’re talking about where we’re switching from electric to classical to uke.

Doing Footloose in June as well. Really wish we had more theater guitar discussion here. I could really benefit from you cats that just sightread this stuff! I’m only half as good so I’ve got to work twice as hard.
 
Downtown2112 said:
Oh man…this really hits home for me. I’m playing guitar 2 for Rock of Ages in January.

Building my set list almost exclusively around Austin Buddy’s Naked Amp JCM800 preset. Added a tube screamer, Timmy and RCB for drives and I feel like I’m in the ballpark for my stuff.

I A/B’ed that with the Spandex and hairspray preset and I think I like what I’ve got a little better. Still intrigued by the EVH comments from other posters though. May investigate that a little further.

Honestly, I’m most worried about the acoustic stuff. I’m running both an a real acoustic and a strat with a Ghost pickup. Our chart for Dead or Alive is in a freaking brutal key. I’ll just downtune the strat for that song alone or use the virtual capo.

On a brighter note, we’re all going all out, costume-wise, with big ass wigs! Gonna be an absolute blast.

Small world though, @FullThrottle64, I think I’m gonna get asked to play Addams Family in April. I know exactly the tune you’re talking about where we’re switching from electric to classical to uke.

Doing Footloose in June as well. Really wish we had more theater guitar discussion here. I could really benefit from you cats that just sightread this stuff! I’m only half as good so I’ve got to work twice as hard.
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Sadly, the G2 part doesn't have any of the solos. I had to be happy with big hair and an improv guitar battle during exit.

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Downtown2112 said:
Awesome! I still need more "bling", but I've got the hair now. :)
Tech week starts a week from Monday.

View attachment 113880
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Something like this may be cool :

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Shit. I was hoping someone had made patches for 80's rock bands that I could just download. You see a lot of these in the Line 6 POD and Helix community.
I found some a long time ago for my Digitech GSP 2101 and they were pretty spot-on. Queensryche, Ratt, Dokken, Whitesnake...and, of course, Eddie's "Brown Sound".

I dont know if I'm up to the task of recreating these from scratch. I wonder if I can manually copy the settings (delay times, EQ, etc) from the Digitech unit into the Fractal and get similar results...or if its a total apples-to-oranges kind of comparison.
 
Kidfixer said:
Shit. I was hoping someone had made patches for 80's rock bands that I could just download. You see a lot of these in the Line 6 POD and Helix community.
I found some a long time ago for my Digitech GSP 2101 and they were pretty spot-on. Queensryche, Ratt, Dokken, Whitesnake...and, of course, Eddie's "Brown Sound".

I dont know if I'm up to the task of recreating these from scratch. I wonder if I can manually copy the settings (delay times, EQ, etc) from the Digitech unit into the Fractal and get similar results...or if its a total apples-to-oranges kind of comparison.
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Worship tutorials has an awesome free def leppard preset.
 
I've played in various rock-oriented bar bands for almost a decade now and I've never had any luck with using others' presets whether they're factory or downloaded off the internet... I don't know if it's my playing style or the fact that I use weird pickups or what but I always build my own. I share others' opinions about just sticking to a small range of amps/sounds and maybe a single preset... as long as you capture the gist of what the original tone was (99% of the time a boosted Plexi or SLO) then nobody will know the difference.
 
This is my main 80's style patch, 4 scenes, and the bundle includes Mikko's "best IR in the world" and Mikko's GoT cabinet but I find I like the factory cabs a bit better for this particular guitar. It works for a lot of 80's style tunes. Keep in mind it was dialed in around an SPL of +90db using a stock Jason Becker super strat (mahogany body/ maple neck).

My monitors are Event Opals and I have a pair of Atomic powered wedges so YMMV ;)
 

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