How to create Van Halen Sound

[Marco Fanton]

Today live tutorial

 

[ToneRanger]

Great video. btw does not work well with low tuned guitars I play in C standard. Eb and above sounds great.

 

[Colorado Axeman]

thanks.

Not sure if this could be mimiced on a Fractal unit, but this is the closest studio brown sound I've heard:

 

[jaymanfm3]

I cranked up the band commander model with a little boost into a Friedman dynacab and it is actually pretty close to the fender sound above. Very alive and bright but also has a bass thump you don't get quite the same way in Marshall type models. Also tweaked many other parameters to sweeten it like variac and tape preamp, but the band command and cab are 90% of it. I'll post the patch if anyone is interested.

 

[Piing]

I cranked up the band commander model with a little boost into a Friedman dynacab and it is actually pretty close to the fender sound above. Very alive and bright but also has a bass thump you don't get quite the same way in Marshall type models. Also tweaked many other parameters to sweeten it like variac and tape preamp, but the band command and cab are 90% of it. I'll post the patch if anyone is interested.

That sounds good. Yes, it would be interesting if you could post that patch. Thank you!

 

[DaveO]

if i may chime in, there's always the players finger technique that makes up the big sound, beside that the amps and effects are important, as well as the mix, no one is going to have the same guitar too..., same pup's..., ect.... fingering..., but amps, effects tone are all a go with FAS echo system..
Lets see that patch to share....
Cheers,

 

[jaymanfm3]

Ok here it is. Scene 1 is the band commander. Scene 2 is a Plexi 100 watt high on channel b for comparison. The band commander E string chugs quite differently than the Marshall.

There are numerous other little tweaks like amp block neutral gain pedal, variac, gain enhancer, and tape preamp, so poke around the amp and cab blocks for everything. The EVH standard fare delay in front of amp, frown eq, phaser, flanger, pitch detune are there but turned off. Of course a nice EVH style reverb at the end of the chain.

 

[scottp]

@Colorado Axeman Wow! Thanks for posting that video! I'm a life long VH fan and have not seen anything like that.
So cool!

 

[spv]

Ok here it is. Scene 1 is the band commander. Scene 2 is a Plexi 100 watt high on channel b for comparison. The band commander E string chugs quite differently than the Marshall.

There are numerous other little tweaks like amp block neutral gain pedal, variac, gain enhancer, and tape preamp, so poke around the amp and cab blocks for everything. The EVH standard fare delay in front of amp, frown eq, phaser, flanger, pitch detune are there but turned off. Of course a nice EVH style reverb at the end of the chain.

Thanks for sharing. This is a great foundational preset.

 

[rzjd]

In the spirit of giving, here's a Superior Drummer 3 VH type sound that I use for playalongs. The actual VH snare is instrument 1 . Due to the fact that the sample has reverb ingrained I had to try to match it. The midi sample shows that the snare hits are performed by both Instrument 1 and the kit snare. Just thought I'd throw it out there. Adjust to taste. fyi, it's a Death and Darkness preset + the sample