These days I'm busy programming sounds for Quantum 2.0 firmware. The whole process has me thinking about my approach, and I wanted to share a few thoughts about it with you. I've just read that on the Brown sound guide thread :
Bingo ! This mirrors exactly my experience. Trying to nail a recorded sound exactly is often detrimental to the feel, probably because of the extreme settings necessary. There's an explanation for that, it may be not universal but it's what I feel about it. "The systematic mixing guide" by Ermin Hamidovic has a great explanation about that. When we play guitar, we often crave for the biggest, largest sound possible, and we do the same when recording. However during the mixing stage we need to poke holes in the guitar sound, to make space for other instruments and vocals. So the recorded, mix-ready guitar sound (and all the stems we download) is not the original sound at all, it's a post-production processed sound. It's how I approach preset programming : instead of making record-ready sounds, I always try to make sounds that feel and sounds great. Most of the time, my presets have too much low end and not enough sizzle, but I don't care - live, I'll tweak the GLOBAL EQ 1 for the FOH, cutting the lows (but not boosting the highs because mos FOH here in Mauritius have an unpleasant high end). I use OUT 2 to monitor myself so I'll tweak GLOBAL 2 EQ according to what I want to hear/feel.
This is one of the reasons why I almost never try to nail a recorded sound exactly (some people are good at tonematching recorded sounds from specific artists, however the resulting presets never works for me - the feel isn't there imho). When covering a specific song, I'll make a preset which is in the ballpark, and which suits me, rather than using the exact amp model with the same settings with the same IR with the same effects etc etc of the original. So, not 100% authentic ? I don't care, for what it's worth, I've lost count of times that after a gig I was told by someone from the audience "dude, you have nailed the sound from [insert song name here]" - I know it's not true, but if the audience buys it
When I try to match every last detail of those final recorded tones that were carved into vinyl, down to the final EQ shape, etc, it becomes a very unnatural experience from a guitar-playing perspective,and at the end of the day, I'm still just a guitar player. I can get REAL close by carving out even more low end, tweaking the highs, adding some preamp EQ in the cab block, and messing with a multi-band compressor afterwards. And there are times when I can get to 97% of that original tone -- it's so damn close! -- but the attempt to gain that additional 7% comes at a loss of playability, and to an extent a loss of fun.
Bingo ! This mirrors exactly my experience. Trying to nail a recorded sound exactly is often detrimental to the feel, probably because of the extreme settings necessary. There's an explanation for that, it may be not universal but it's what I feel about it. "The systematic mixing guide" by Ermin Hamidovic has a great explanation about that. When we play guitar, we often crave for the biggest, largest sound possible, and we do the same when recording. However during the mixing stage we need to poke holes in the guitar sound, to make space for other instruments and vocals. So the recorded, mix-ready guitar sound (and all the stems we download) is not the original sound at all, it's a post-production processed sound. It's how I approach preset programming : instead of making record-ready sounds, I always try to make sounds that feel and sounds great. Most of the time, my presets have too much low end and not enough sizzle, but I don't care - live, I'll tweak the GLOBAL EQ 1 for the FOH, cutting the lows (but not boosting the highs because mos FOH here in Mauritius have an unpleasant high end). I use OUT 2 to monitor myself so I'll tweak GLOBAL 2 EQ according to what I want to hear/feel.
This is one of the reasons why I almost never try to nail a recorded sound exactly (some people are good at tonematching recorded sounds from specific artists, however the resulting presets never works for me - the feel isn't there imho). When covering a specific song, I'll make a preset which is in the ballpark, and which suits me, rather than using the exact amp model with the same settings with the same IR with the same effects etc etc of the original. So, not 100% authentic ? I don't care, for what it's worth, I've lost count of times that after a gig I was told by someone from the audience "dude, you have nailed the sound from [insert song name here]" - I know it's not true, but if the audience buys it