Robben Ford OD Patch?

odourboy

odourboy

Member
I think the selection of Dumblesque amps in the FM3 is fantastic but I can't quite dial in a killer Robben Ford patch. I'm missing that singing quality. Tones that typify this sound can be heard on Jing Chi Live 'That Road', The Miller's Son or the OD sound on Life Song (to name a few). If anyone has cracked the formula and willing to post a patch, I would be most grateful!
 
True, I tend to research the gear and settings an artist used and just replicate those to the signal chain - that always get's me started nicely. Have you found out the common factors contributing to Ford's tone (apart from fingers and guitars of course :))?

I recall using the cork sniffer rhythm as a base for help the poor solo tone, at least I noticed that in my LP I smoothed out the volume and treble a bit (to 8 or something or blend from both pickups), added compressor, and some chime to the high end.

I inspired and will try to find some time to try out few things during the weekend. Perhaps we will get a solid Ford preset covering few different tones from his songs.
 
odourboy said:
I think the selection of Dumblesque amps in the FM3 is fantastic but I can't quite dial in a killer Robben Ford patch. I'm missing that singing quality. Tones that typify this sound can be heard on Jing Chi Live 'That Road', The Miller's Son or the OD sound on Life Song (to name a few). If anyone has cracked the formula and willing to post a patch, I would be most grateful!
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Listening to The Miller’s Son sounds like the amp is cranked and the power-amp is working and just below breaking up. The guitar sounds like a Telecaster or P90-equipped Les Paul, or maybe even PAFs which were pretty high-fidelity.

“ODS-100” is a “Ford”-oriented factory preset based on what’s supposed to be Ford’s actual amp, that’ll handle that side of the sound.

Volume, pushing air, is also important because you need to be acoustically-coupled with the speaker. Cliff talks about that need to help improve the sound and feel of the amps in Headphones and IEMs. I have that preset integrated into another set of ODS-related ones in a preset and was happy with how it sounded when I was messing around a couple weeks ago before we started playing. I have two EV monitors about five feet behind me and was probably about 95db.

The other component is the fingers obviously.
 
So far, I'm finding the Bludotone Ojai Lead is getting me a little closer to where I think I want to be... not that most of the Dumblesque amp models aren't great! (Head and shoulders over anything I could conjure up in Helix land).
 
I had a few minutes and put on my headphones and listed to The Miller's Song and the solo in Life Song. In addition to what I said above, it sounds like he's hitting the pre-amp with an overdrive or boost. It might be the built-in PAB on his Dumble, or something adding some thickness because the lows almost get farty. A Tweed Deluxe could sound that way too, lots of amps could. I'd start with a decent dose of volume first though.
 
odourboy said:
So far, I'm finding the Bludotone Ojai Lead is getting me a little closer to where I think I want to be... not that most of the Dumblesque amp models aren't great! (Head and shoulders over anything I could conjure up in Helix land).
Click to expand...
If you haven't read the Wiki Amplifier models list entries and Yek's associated pages for the ODS-100 and the Bludotone Ojai and the Carol-Ann OD-2 Amamps, you should. There are many variants of the ODS amps modeled.
 
I never sat and tried to match anything, but in my past attempts at Robben Ford type stuff (which is what I think of when someone says "Dumble") I found the CA OD-2 was the one I liked best starting from default settings.
 
My understanding is that Brandon Montgomery (Mr Bludotone) built the Ojai amp after getting access to Ford's 102, so it was not surprising that it got me in the range I was looking for. That said, the Carol Anne models are very juicy. I have a 183 clone myself and the FM3's Ford models (clean, Lead, Mid, PAB) come extremely close to my own amp. Alas, I can't get my own dumble clone to produce that singing tone I hear from RF's recordings, or even some of TAG's recordings.
 
odourboy said:
So far, I'm finding the Bludotone Ojai Lead is getting me a little closer to where I think I want to be... not that most of the Dumblesque amp models aren't great! (Head and shoulders over anything I could conjure up in Helix land).
Click to expand...
That's what I was gonna suggest. I think the Bludotone Ojai model actually sounds closer to my Fuchs ODS 50 than the Fuchs in the Fractal does. I love the Carl Anne models as well. I bought an Ownhammer IR of a EV SRO alnico in a TL806 cab to pair with the "Dumble" models as that's the speaker I use with my Fuchs. Actually, it was Brandon from Bludotone who recommended that speaker when I sent him an email asking about some of his favorite speakers. I like an EV12L as well, but there's something special about an SRO.
 
I've been tinkering with this patch today. It's a WIP but my ears are fatigued so I'm going to knock off, but i thought I'd throw it up here for anyone interested in trying and refining it, or putting up something better!

EDIT: Updated to lower the level
 

Attachments

  • Robben Drive.syx
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odourboy said:
I think the selection of Dumblesque amps in the FM3 is fantastic but I can't quite dial in a killer Robben Ford patch. I'm missing that singing quality. Tones that typify this sound can be heard on Jing Chi Live 'That Road', The Miller's Son or the OD sound on Life Song (to name a few). If anyone has cracked the formula and willing to post a patch, I would be most grateful!
Click to expand...
Wait until 5.0 drops and @Burgs re-works his “Burg’s Dumbles” preset. There’s some real gems in that one.
 
Thx for sharing, my favorite tones are probably in the talk to your daughter album, a bit more smoother / not so harsh as in the laters songs referred to. I had to play through headphones, but here's a quick amateur version for both more smoother (daughter album) and then more harsher to play miller's son, rugged road etc. At least in my setup the latter sounds nice in the opening riffs and then the first smoother works with solos in the daughter album, especially when adjusting the pickups a bit.

Based on the ODS-100 factory preset.
 

Attachments

  • ODS-100 RF (Smooth + Harsh).syx
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Thanks for posting! I've played with this quite a bit and A-B'd with my creation. My personal preference between your smoother and harsher scenes is for your Scene 2 'Harsher' setting. And despite getting there a different way, after matching up the delay and reverb and levels, it's quite similar to my own preset IMHO.
 
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