The Axe-Fx does the 80's Part 1

Secret80'sMan

Secret80'sMan

Experienced
Ok, so my postings have been a bit scarce lately but I plan on making up for it in the coming weeks with a bunch of recording postings. This first one kicks things off with a bang, it is a live rendition of Van Halen's Jump recorded at a club we regularly perform at.

Now, I want to put it out there that I am not Eddie, have never ever felt that I could play like him :? (am more of a Gilmour pupil) and never really had the confidence or comfort level to attempt his material. However, when I initially heard the Axe-Fx I heard two presets that blew me away (Crazy Train and Brown Sound). When I played through both of these I felt that I was channeling these legendary guitarists (in my own way of course) and because of this felt confident enough to attempt both Crazy Train and Jump in a live band setting and so am posting Jump for the world to comment on, compliment, trash, whatever. I don't think I nailed the solo note for note but I feel that I got the essence of it which for me was a big accomplishment. The preset is pretty much stock but I messed with the panning a bit to center and tweaked the EQ to match my pickups (Lace Sensor Hot Gold Dually).

http://soundcloud.com/marconix1/jump

Enjoy! :D
Marco
 
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Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Fun song to play but tough on a rhythm section (the breakdown). That solo either happens for me from start to finish or the train just falls off the rails and the whole thing is a disaster. :eek:

Was pleasantly surprised when I reviewed the recording. When I was playing through a Pod X3 Live I could never get that correct mixture of meaty muted tone and sizzling highs like you hear in the pre-chorus licks. The tone was never vintage Eddie either, now I feel like it at least is a decent approximation. :D
 
That sounds great man! I didn't read your post until after I heard it. After the solo I said to my wife, "Wow, that guy can play!" so don't be concerned about that. You nailed that solo dude.

I felt the same way when I heard the crazy train patch. I was playing yesterday and my wife told me that I "made it look easy"... which I'm sure was at least 1/2 BS.

How was this recorded? Direct from the board it sounds like. I don't particularly care for the type of reverb on the vocals, but that's getting nitpicky. You guys rocked this.
 
Oh yeah... that was da shizznits!!!

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Sidivan said:
That sounds great man! I didn't read your post until after I heard it. After the solo I said to my wife, "Wow, that guy can play!" so don't be concerned about that. You nailed that solo dude.

I felt the same way when I heard the crazy train patch. I was playing yesterday and my wife told me that I "made it look easy"... which I'm sure was at least 1/2 BS.

How was this recorded? Direct from the board it sounds like. I don't particularly care for the type of reverb on the vocals, but that's getting nitpicky. You guys rocked this.
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Thanks man, when you're inspired by a tone it does feel like it is easier to play something. :D Regarding the recording method everything was recorded direct but discretely. We run a clean stage (use no amps on stage whatsoever) so our soundman has the ultimate control over everything since he isn't fighting stage volume. We have five live vocal mics on stage so they tend to pick up the room quite a bit which may be what you hear and don't dig. My tone also sounds a wee bit wetter than normal, I would attribute this to the same factors.
 
I enjoyed both songs, did a great job. I have to agree fully, when your tone is right, it will inspire, one of the reasons i purchased my Ultra. Again great stuff!!!!!

Was wondering what keyboard your using in Jump?
 
senseix said:
I enjoyed both songs, did a great job. I have to agree fully, when your tone is right, it will inspire, one of the reasons i purchased my Ultra. Again great stuff!!!!!

Was wondering what keyboard your using in Jump?
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The other song isn't really a song but rather just me vamping over a drum loop after having received my Mission Engineering expression pedal. It felt so good and close to a real wah that I just set up a basic clean wah preset and went for it. I would bet most people can't tell that it ain't the real thing but the wah in the Axe-Fx.

Regarding the keys we use a bunch of soft synths because we don't want to lug a ton of keyboards around. We trigger most of them via an M-Audio controller. Think it may have been an Oberheim sim or similar. I'm not the keyboard guy in our band although I do play on several songs. They just tell me what button to press for my sound and I'm off to the races. :D
 
Stringtheorist said:
Excellent! You did a great job of capturing the sound and the vibe. So did you use a stock preset or one of your own?
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Hey Craig, stock preset, Brown Sound believe it or not. Changed some panning and EQ to match my pickups but that's Cliff's baby all the way. I'll likely be posting a version of Whitesnake's Here I Go Again using the preset that you helped me design (thanks!). I've tweaked it quite a bit to make it work for me but I think you'll be impressed when you hear it and I definitely want to give credit where it is due. I'll post that preset at the time I post the song since I don't think there is really a good one floating around that nails Sykes' tone off of that legendary record.
 
Nice job! It sounded really good! I've always loved "Jump" by VH. Good stuff!!!
 
Secret80'sMan said:
That solo either happens for me from start to finish or the train just falls off the rails and the whole thing is a disaster. :eek:
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LOL! :lol:
We used to do that tune in a band I was in throughout college. I know exactly where you are coming from with this comment. Just the other weekend I found a live CD of my final show with that band while cleaning the garage that I had forgotten about. It was given to me as a going away gift and was a surprise at the end of that night's gig. I was like "Oh shit, you were recording that?" :lol:

Needless to say we were drinking heavily since it was my last show and of course Jump was our encore tune at the end of the night. Somehow I got lucky and managed to get a good rip on that solo for the recording. That solo alone made me feel like I actually accomplished something in that band besides just punishing my liver. :D
 
Secret80'sMan: I just noticed your website in your sig. I went through your clips.

Nice man. Verrrrrry nice. The vocals are super tight. And the sounds are superb. Of course: I kind of wished you hadn't cut Hungry Like The Wolf short in the clips. But I'm biased towards Duran Duran. ;)
 
iaresee said:
Secret80'sMan: I just noticed your website in your sig. I went through your clips.

Nice man. Verrrrrry nice. The vocals are super tight. And the sounds are superb. Of course: I kind of wished you hadn't cut Hungry Like The Wolf short in the clips. But I'm biased towards Duran Duran. ;)
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Ian,
We're going to start recording a lot more live shows, we just bought an HD24 on Ebay so we should be able to get some great recordings, I'll see what I can do about getting a good take of DD on there for ya real soon! ;)
 
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