brianv4
Fractal Fanatic
I was working on a patch for Bad Company’s song Can’t Get Enough. I developed the correct harmonies but the overall sound wasn’t realistic - like 2 guitars harmonizing. So here’s what I did.
The first guitar (grid line 2) was created for the main rhythm guitar sound. It includes a T808OD into a Fender Twin amp with the cab block utilizing TAF’s IR: 2x12 Doubleverb M160 IR then into a Studio Verb. A little dark but very close to the original tone (without doing a tone match).
Next I developed the harmony parts. Pitch block 1/X is for the first part of the solo using C mixolydian. The next section uses Pitch block 1/Y and is G melodic minor. And the 3rd and last solo section uses Pitch block 2/X with C diminished.
So the scenes were developed. Scene 1= straight rhythm guitar w/ a touch of verb. Scene 2= solo section 1(adds pitch block 1/X). Scene 3= solo section 2(adds pitch block 1/Y). Scene 4= solo section 3(adds pitch block 2/X). Scenes 2,3 & 4 also added some delay. I also adjust the solo scenes in Layout>Out so the solo section is slightly louder than the straight rhythm part.
This works very well but I wasn’t all the way happy. The harmonized guitar parts still sounded artificial. So I thought about it and here’s what I did:
I moved the pitch blocks to Grid Line 3 and added Amp Block 2 & Cab Block 2 AFTER the Pitch Blocks. I then set the pitch blocks to 100% mix so it was more like an actual 2nd guitar feeding a different amp. I also kept the delay & reverb block intentionally off the pitch shifted signal to keep it as clean as possible.
This achieves the effect of a 2nd guitar (pitch shifted), through a different amp then blended with the original unshifted rhythm part.
Btw, the 2nd amp block is a 1987x. The cab block uses OH H-SB-75 (scumback). Both amp blocks are using user IR’s so if you don’t have the same ones I used, substitute whatever sounds good to you. It’s not necessarily about the amps & cab tone as it’s about the grid layout and my approach to achieving a more realistic harmonized guitar. Afterwards I used amp 2/Y so I could blend a small amount of it to scene 1 for a little more edge to the rhythm part.
(You can ignore/delete the wah and looper blocks, they’re not relevant to this layout. Scenes 5-8 are not utilized either.)
This is all done in mono, by separating into stereo, the effect would be even better. Amp tones were dialed in using a Gibson R9LP with Duncan/Bonamassa pickups. I uploaded the patch to Axe-Change so you can check it out. Hope you enjoy!
Axe-Change - Download Preset - Bad Company-Gtr Harmonies - by brianv4
Forgot to mention...the harmony guitar is the lower part, play the upper guitar part! Placing the harmony on a lower part also helps with authenticity as you won't get the chipmunk effect
The first guitar (grid line 2) was created for the main rhythm guitar sound. It includes a T808OD into a Fender Twin amp with the cab block utilizing TAF’s IR: 2x12 Doubleverb M160 IR then into a Studio Verb. A little dark but very close to the original tone (without doing a tone match).
Next I developed the harmony parts. Pitch block 1/X is for the first part of the solo using C mixolydian. The next section uses Pitch block 1/Y and is G melodic minor. And the 3rd and last solo section uses Pitch block 2/X with C diminished.
So the scenes were developed. Scene 1= straight rhythm guitar w/ a touch of verb. Scene 2= solo section 1(adds pitch block 1/X). Scene 3= solo section 2(adds pitch block 1/Y). Scene 4= solo section 3(adds pitch block 2/X). Scenes 2,3 & 4 also added some delay. I also adjust the solo scenes in Layout>Out so the solo section is slightly louder than the straight rhythm part.
This works very well but I wasn’t all the way happy. The harmonized guitar parts still sounded artificial. So I thought about it and here’s what I did:
I moved the pitch blocks to Grid Line 3 and added Amp Block 2 & Cab Block 2 AFTER the Pitch Blocks. I then set the pitch blocks to 100% mix so it was more like an actual 2nd guitar feeding a different amp. I also kept the delay & reverb block intentionally off the pitch shifted signal to keep it as clean as possible.
This achieves the effect of a 2nd guitar (pitch shifted), through a different amp then blended with the original unshifted rhythm part.
Btw, the 2nd amp block is a 1987x. The cab block uses OH H-SB-75 (scumback). Both amp blocks are using user IR’s so if you don’t have the same ones I used, substitute whatever sounds good to you. It’s not necessarily about the amps & cab tone as it’s about the grid layout and my approach to achieving a more realistic harmonized guitar. Afterwards I used amp 2/Y so I could blend a small amount of it to scene 1 for a little more edge to the rhythm part.
(You can ignore/delete the wah and looper blocks, they’re not relevant to this layout. Scenes 5-8 are not utilized either.)
This is all done in mono, by separating into stereo, the effect would be even better. Amp tones were dialed in using a Gibson R9LP with Duncan/Bonamassa pickups. I uploaded the patch to Axe-Change so you can check it out. Hope you enjoy!
Axe-Change - Download Preset - Bad Company-Gtr Harmonies - by brianv4
Forgot to mention...the harmony guitar is the lower part, play the upper guitar part! Placing the harmony on a lower part also helps with authenticity as you won't get the chipmunk effect
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