Part II: Smilefan's Axe II Patch Thread

benson1.jpg

The legendary jazz guitarist George Benson


Some more fun with filters today. Today you get to hear what a Notch filter
sounds like, and how to use one. But first, some more filter basics:

Controls you get with Axe Filters –

Type – reviewed in last post.
Frequency – Sets the center freq of the filter
Order – choice of two different filter slopes (4th order has a more nasal, focused sound)
Q – the relative sharpness or broadness of the filter peak/notch (higher setting = sharper peak)
Gain – The amount of gain at the filter’s center frequency (how big the peak/notch is)
Level – Volume pot
Bal – Set to 0% for stereo, 100% or -100% for hard panned mono
Pan L,R – default is 100%/-100% stereo. Reset both to 0% for mono operation

Today we have a patch with the seldom used (in guitar applications) “notch” filter.
As we reviewed last time, a notch filter cuts a divot out of the frequencies.
If you attach an LFO or other controller to the frequency parameter of a Filter
Block, this filter makes a moving sweep out of the patch’s sound. What does that
sound like? Like the patch below. Very earthy, dark, and jazzy in
this case, because I programmed the sweep in the mid level frequencies.

Try some slow, jazz-y sounding chord progressions with this patch and see how you like it.
 

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Pete-Townshend.jpg

Pete Townsend performing a manual version of the "Chop Trem" :)


Today we have the final installment of our series on Filter blocks.
We will see how to make use of an unusual type of filter,
the “High Shelf”. As reviewed in the 1st part of this series,
the High Shelf allows a segment of the signal’s frequency response
to be boosted after a set point. The “ramp up” of this boost can also
be customized.

Have you ever heard a Tremolo do a “helicopter” effect? That hard
“on/off” sound is created by a square wave setting in the Trem.
You can do this in the Axe’s Trem block, but a similar auditory effect
can be much more dramatically rendered by the use of our heroes,
the Filter blocks.

The filter is panning hard left and right thru the use of a Sequencer who’s
steps are programmed - 100% - 0% - 100% - 0%, etc. Today’s guest, the
High Shelf filter, comes into use as it boosts the high end. A hard, choppy
Trem is loosing a good part of the signal between ‘chops’, and so benefits
greatly from having its high end response dialed back up. Volume and clarity
are restored. The trem (actually pan) tempo is then set by attaching an LFO
(set to 1/8 tempo in this case) to the Level control of the filter.

Thus we have constructed a very radical sounding “Hard Pan/Trem” with our
Filter Block. Try playing between the “chops” for a cool effect.
 

Attachments

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vox_continental.jpg

Vox Continental Organ

farfisa.jpg

Farfisa Organ


For most of my life I’ve been hearing electric organs in Pop and Rock bands,
so I set out to make some decent sounding patches of them.

When talking about vintage electric organs, the two most seen
on Rock stages are the Vox Continental and the Farfisa, both pictured
above. Both have a bright, pop-y sound with that cheesy “roller rink”
rotating speaker waver (an electronic simulation of it). After the
Hammond Organ Co. released the legendary B3, every manufacturer
was trying to cop its vibe. The B3’s drawbacks were its massive
size and weight. So several competitors came out with compact,
stage-ready electric organs that sounded good (though nothing like
the B3), and were big hits with musicians.

You would have to have lived in a cave to have not heard both the
Farfisa and Vox Continental. Famous recordings:
Vox Continental –
The Doors “Light My Fire” (Ray Manzerak used the Vox for most of the Doors history)
The Animals “House of the Rising Sun”
Iron Butterfly “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”
Question Mark & The Mysterians “96 Tears”
The Beatles “I’m Down”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Benmont Tench used a Vox for all their early albums)

Farfisa –
Elton John “Crocodile Rock”
Percy Sledge “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs “Wooly Bully”
Led Zepplin “Dancing Days”
Blondie “Heart of Glass”, “Call Me”
B-52’s “Love Shack”, “Rock Lobster”
Sly & The Family Stone “Dance To The Music” (basically all their hits feature the Farfisa)

Construction – There are no Synth blocks in these. I tried to keep it out so we could play
complex chords with these patches. The two critical elements are the Pitch block, which
I set 2 octaves high to get that organ-y upper octave ring, and the Rotating Speaker
Block. That’s what give it the authentic warble. I used a Resonator block up front to
get note thickness in the upper mids where it was centered on the real units. There is
an envelope-controlled Volume block to cut out note attack, as well.

Turn down your guitar volume if these sound too hot. They were mixed on low output
vintage pickups. Sounds great with Major chord variations (try E Maj 7th) and arpeggiated
chords. Play these on your guitar’s bridge pickup and pick softly. Enjoy.
 

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  • Vox Continental Organ.syx
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The Vox has the Amp and Reverb panned fully to one side. Specififc reasons?
 
The Vox has the Amp and Reverb panned fully to one side. Specififc reasons?

It helped the patch's clarity that way in my live setup. Pan them back to center if that's
where they work for you.
 
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StevieRayVaughn_11-1.jpg


srv2_small-1.jpg


vibroverb-1.jpg



Now this patch was a true labor of love for me. Stevie Ray Vaughn is my
personal favorite guitar player. I pretty much love every note he played.
I also am a subscriber to his philosophy of “big strings, tune down, hit ‘em hard”.
I personally use heavy bottom .011’s, Stevie used .013’s or .012’s depending how
his fingers were doing that night. His guitar tech, Rene Martinez, said Stevie played with
such fire and abandon that the heavy strings would rip the skin right off his fingertips.
SRV then instructed him to glue it back with Crazy Glue so he could continue playing!
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

Stevie used a lot of amps at the end of his career, but is most famous for his two
sequentially serial numbered 1x15” Blackface Fender Vibroverbs (only made ’63-’64).
Having played thru one of these I can tell you, they sounded as much like the earlier
Brownface amps as they do big, clean Blackface amps with their warm, middy gain
and bass-y string ‘pop’. One of the ways Stevie got his giant sound was using multiple
amps. So that’s what I programmed in this patch. Two hard panned mono
Vibroverb 1x15” sims, setup a little different on each side for a big stereo sound.

A very simple patch, it nevertheless required a bunch of micro-tweaking to get the right
balance of clarity on the low strings, fat breakup on the high strings, and middy punch.

Interesting SRV facts:

He played his famous ’62 Strat “Number One” so much, and so hard that
he actually wore down the original 7 ¼” fretboard radius to a flat 9” (according
to famed luthier Dan Erlewine).

The famous left-handed vibrato bridge on “Number One” wasn’t
put there to copy Jimi Hendrix (whom SRV idolized), but because
it was the only bridge available when the original needed replacing
(per his tech, Rene Martinez).

“Number One” originally belonged to Pop musician, Christopher Cross.

At their breakout performance at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival,
SRV & Double Trouble were the only unsigned act ever to play.

David Bowie, saw him at Montreux, tapped him to play on his “Let’s Dance”
album and subsequent tour, reported only paying him $300/show!

The helicopter that crashed, resulting in his death, was originally chartered
for Eric Clapton, who was also playing at Stevie’s last gig. At the last minute,
Eric decided not to fly, as the weather was bad.

In his life, Stevie was nominated for 12 Grammy awards (he won six).
 

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Smilefan, I just want to say how much I appreciate the time you take to do what you do here: Educate at a minimum. Thanks!
 
Smilefan, I just want to say how much I appreciate the time you take to do what you do here: Educate at a minimum. Thanks!

I was lucky enough to live and participate in most
all of Pop music history (the electric stuff anyway).
It breaks my heart that younger folks today don’t seem
to be getting their own scenes and heroes. Music is mostly
all business now, and guitar playing itself is in declining popularity.

I want to pump some interest and excitement back into our little
corner of the Web by recalling all the incredibly fascinating Rock tools,
tones, and personalities I grew up with. Plus, help everyone get the most
out of their Axe’s in the process.

Thanks for your kind comment. I’ll keep doing this as long as my feeble
memory continues dredging this old stuff up, or until you get tired of my
long-winded posts and tell me to shut it.
 
Please do keep it coming, your labor of love is shining bright here, and well-appreciated by all the tone-seekers who inhabit this forum!
 
The 60's and 70's were such a great time to grow up with regards to music and emergence of the electric guitar heros. Again, Smilefan... what an entertaining and informative thread. Well done!
 
People that take the time to share with the members are amazing! Thanks Smilefan and all the others that take the time to share. Simply an amazing group of people on this forum.

Mj
 
TERMINATOR-Arnold-Schwarzenegger.jpg


In my never ending quest to bring you ever more whacked-out
sounds, I stumbled across a great combination. I love messing
with the Vocoder block. Its so exotic to have something like that
at our disposal, I feel compelled to drag something cool out of it.

They were originally designed for coded voice transmission in military
applications, and had nothing to do with music. But in 1970, Robert
Moog (the creator of Moog synth’s, we talked about earlier in this thread)
built one specifically for musical applications. He changed the design to
its present “talking synthesizer” mode. Use of his device took off.
First used by electronic musicians, Tomita, Kraftwerk, and Alan Parsons.

Then a disco producer by the name of Giorgio Moroder began using it
on his dance-oriented albums, and set a huge trend for its use on disco
records (Cher’s “Do You Believe In Love” is a cringe-worthy example).
Rock fans would remember the effect from the “talking robot” sound
on Styx’s famous hit, “Mr. Roboto”.

In all my experimentation with our Vocoder block, it struck me how much
like a static wah pedal it sounds. Far away, squawky, and squished.
So, what happens when you put them together? The Terminator Wah!!
A Wah block, with a Vocoder block do a great job of reinforcing eachother’s
strengths and character. But, to work, the wah has to come before the amp,
and the vocoder after. To hear the effect the Vocoder is having on the
patch, try turning it off and on. Enjoy the madness.
 

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(Cher’s “Do You Believe In Love” is a cringe-worthy example)

At the risk of being that dick that corrects everything, this is actually a common misconception.

This song was actually the first to be recorded using the now ubiquitous Antares Auto-Tune plugin. The producers, recognizing the potential of this effect (a potential that has come to such mind-numbing fruition through the likes of T-Payne) intentionally misrepresented their method and claimed they had used a vocoder in an attempt to guard their "trade secret."

The "Cher Effect" or "T-Payne Effect" is created by purposefully maximizing and minimizing various settings in the plugin to their extremes so that the plugin "glitches" on notes and sounds as unnatural as possible.

See link: Recording Cher's 'Believe'

To offset my dickish correction, I will say that all these patches are phenomenal and you are doing everyone here a great service!
 
That's an amazing anecdote. First time I've heard it, and I got the info on
the Vocoder use out of the trades (Billboard mag.). So I see it was just the
"official" explanation. Make sense. Great story, thanks for posting that.
 
Good Stuff!

I was lucky enough to live and participate in most
all of Pop music history (the electric stuff anyway).
It breaks my heart that younger folks today don’t seem
to be getting their own scenes and heroes. Music is mostly
all business now, and guitar playing itself is in declining popularity.

I want to pump some interest and excitement back into our little
corner of the Web by recalling all the incredibly fascinating Rock tools,
tones, and personalities I grew up with. Plus, help everyone get the most
out of their Axe’s in the process.

Thanks for your kind comment. I’ll keep doing this as long as my feeble
memory continues dredging this old stuff up, or until you get tired of my
long-winded posts and tell me to shut it.

Smilefan,

From some who is a bit long-in-the-tooth also, ;) I very much appreciate your insight, experiences, and tonal facts (and opinions!) It's all good. It's educational, and I look forward to the verbiage as much as I do the patches themselves, if you can believe that! BTW, it's very apparent to me that you love sharing these experiences and info with us. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a "labor of love." Am I correct?

Anyways, thanks again. You have a big fan (and fellow Axe-FX II owner) here!

Bill
 
...addicted to Richard!

At the risk of being that dick that corrects everything, this is actually a common misconception.

This song was actually the first to be recorded using the now ubiquitous Antares Auto-Tune plugin. The producers, recognizing the potential of this effect (a potential that has come to such mind-numbing fruition through the likes of T-Payne) intentionally misrepresented their method and claimed they had used a vocoder in an attempt to guard their "trade secret."

The "Cher Effect" or "T-Payne Effect" is created by purposefully maximizing and minimizing various settings in the plugin to their extremes so that the plugin "glitches" on notes and sounds as unnatural as possible.

See link: Recording Cher's 'Believe'

To offset my dickish correction, I will say that all these patches are phenomenal and you are doing everyone here a great service!

Seems to me that the facts "dick-tated" the correction...thus it was not "dick-ish" of you at all! I for one appreciate the historical accuracy - LOL!

One thing I am sure we can ALL agree on is that the Cher & T-Payne vocal-effect (at this point) is CRINGE-WORTHY!!!

Dick-tastic!

Bill
 
I haven't heard any T-Payne, which may be a blessing based on posts above, but I love hearing new ideas used with artistic flair, so I don't mind saying I got a buzz hearing the effect for the first time on Cher's track. It only gets tiresome to me when it gets copied, overused, abused and becomes a blantant attempt to cash in on someone else's success and originality.

but back on topic: +1 with the thanks Smilefan for your great anecdotes and patches - can't wait to try them out when I get my AF2!
 
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I really learn a lot from these patches.I really liked the synths and filters.Any chance the axe II can do the "ship ahoy" effect from zappa? Its near the bottom of this link Guitar Solos From The Road! - Dweezil Zappa World

I'd love to hear some harmonized stuff with the pitch transposer as well.Keep up the kick ass job! You should make patches for cliff.Thanks again.
 
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