Thordendal / Holdsworth pick attack

BlottedMike

BlottedMike

New Member
Hello!
I want to try and get an effect similar to Thordendal / Holdsworth pick attack. Holdsworth's soft attack is achieved almost entierly through his technique, i think (i'm not too informed about the gear he used and his tricks however). But Thordendal used a prototype of an effect pedal that altered the sound and was controlled by breath. The most notable example is probably the solo from Missing Time




The thing i want is actually the pick attack on Future Breed Machine solo. The effect is not that intense as on Missing Time solo but it's still there. I assume Fredrik used the same pedal.
There are probably a lot of ways to do this, but i want to get the effect using AXE III.
So how do i do that?
 
It sound like it is tapping only with a gate , or a super fast volume swell effect. But yes the tapping trick don’t fit with the super speed scale part . That’s an effect yes . That’s nice
 
It can be a very big edited part in the daw too, recorded in midi . There is no live thing of this song sadly so …
 
You might want to experiment with a volume block controlled by a dynamics modifiers.

By playing with the damping parameter as well as start and end values, you may be able to create a similar swell.
 
Thanks for the link jaycal6!
How could i forget that the guy who made the pedal is actually Haake's brother lol!
I understand that easiest way to get the effect is to get an actual pedal. But i wanna see if the Axe-Fx can give me something similar.
 
Very cool effect. I’m a huge Holdsworth fan. If I could have any lead sound, it would be that. Not sure how to get it on the Axe.
 
Johnnyh64 said:
Very cool effect. I’m a huge Holdsworth fan. If I could have any lead sound, it would be that. Not sure how to get it on the Axe.
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Yes, and he had a pretty complicated setup, but I haven't seen much in the way of Allan presets out there. maybe just one that has been out a while. Here is what his typical setup looked like. But really 99% of his sound, was well, him.
 

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xgman said:
Yes, and he had a pretty complicated setup, but I haven't seen much in the way of Allan presets out there. maybe just one that has been out a while. Here is what his typical setup looked like. But really 99% of his sound, was well, him.
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The "effect" you're hearing with Allan is purely technique. Looking at his rig won't help you there.

It's all about his pick attack...
 
So i tried fiddling with knobs blindly and got nothing out of it (shocking).
Any ideas on how to do the thing? Like what do i actually have to do?
Yes, Holdsworth's sound's properties are probably 90+% technique, but Thordendal managed to mimic them very well, especially on cleans. Remember "Tathagata" progression at the end of Sublevels?
 
BlottedMike said:
So i tried fiddling with knobs blindly and got nothing out of it (shocking).
Any ideas on how to do the thing? Like what do i actually have to do?
Yes, Holdsworth's sound's properties are probably 90+% technique, but Thordendal managed to mimic them very well, especially on cleans. Remember "Tathagata" progression at the end of Sublevels?
Click to expand...
You can try adding a Volume block with Type set to auto-swell... You might be to get something in that vein, but your not going to get a real breath controller effect without one.
 
Don't rule out the fact that a lot of Allan's crazier sounds from Atavachron onwards came from a Synth-Axe.

There's a channel on YouTube that does awesome Holdsworth lessons, but has occasionally gone over his gear, too. I believe his channel is TurrigenousOfficial.

I wonder if you could accomplish something with the vocoder block. Maybe you could use a microphone and hum into it to "blow", allowing the notes to come through without affecting the pitch? Someone else should chime in on that; I'm pretty dumb and don't understand even vocoders.
 
I wonder how he is getting the really short fast notes at 1:46 in the OPs video? Seems like the end of the note is chopped off or something. Anyone any idea?
 
Sounds like a guitar synth to be honest...maybe a gr-55 or axe fx.....try the synth block
 
Really the only way I could see this being achieved, short of the breathalyzer, is a momentary switch attached to the sequencer to a volume block with a slower attack, and the fastest release allowed. Then you would mimic your foot as you would your breath.

You could also might get away with a volume block controlled by an expression pedal, but adjust the slope and scale as to hide the immediate pick attack transient, then jump to 100% so you would have less travel of the pedal to have the full timbre of your note.

I'm well aware of the breathalyzer, being a huge Meshuggah fan, but I've never really researched the mechanics of it. If it's achieved by mechanical means to activate a switch, you can replace the breath activation with a foot controlled method. Just have to get your attack/release and damping dialed in, as well as be coordinated lol
 
biggness said:
Really the only way I could see this being achieved, short of the breathalyzer, is a momentary switch attached to the sequencer to a volume block with a slower attack, and the fastest release allowed. Then you would mimic your foot as you would your breath.
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I think you will never get that breath analyser sound of the Axe that way. Some notes have a slow attack and other notes are chopped off (gated) at the end. Check the second video 0:48 of the video. I see no way how this can be done in the Axe in the same way.

Sounds really cool though. I am very curious how this breathalyser works exactly. Any info on that? How do you attach it to your gear? Is it for sale?
 
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