Tone Matching a Violin/Viola/Cello ?

G

Gavriel

Member
I posted a thread last week asking if the Axe FX would be useful for me as my one-stop touring rig as string player and guitarist (the answer turns out to be yes)...

Now I'm wondering if the tone-matching feature might work for my acoustic viola. It is powered by a Fishman piezzo and is usually going direct. Would the Axe-FX be able to listen to my unplugged bowed sound through a microphone and overlay this acoustic tone over the raw piezzo sound?

Thanks!
 
It is common for people to tone match an acoustic guitar from a mic signal while playing the acoustic direct with a pickup installed. It improves the direct acoustic guitar sound quite a lot. It would work the same for your case, and you can use a recorded sample clip of your viola with a mic signal for the tone match. It would also be possible to use an isolated track of any viola from a professional recording as the base for the tone match as well.
 
Actually you don't need to record yourself. Use Live Mode and just play your viola at the same time through a good mic and preamp and through your piezo and that's pretty much all you need to do. Read the TMA primer in the manual for wiring and you'll find amazing results.
 
Thanks guys, I will definitely give all of the above suggestions a try. Step one is selling off my current Strymon based rig and actually aquiring an Axe-FX :D

*edit

Hey Pat, are you suggesting performing with both a microphone and piezzo signal through this Live Mode?
 
I wonder how many people would be interested in a professional quality IR pack of acoustic instrument responses (guitar, banjo, violin, etc.)?

I've been looking but haven't found IRs that I liked and the ones I've done of my (one) acoustic guitar didn't really work out.
 
Gavriel said:
Thanks guys, I will definitely give all of the above suggestions a try. Step one is selling off my current Strymon based rig and actually aquiring an Axe-FX :D

*edit

Hey Pat, are you suggesting performing with both a microphone and piezzo signal through this Live Mode?
Click to expand...

No. In the comfort of your home or studio, do a tone match of the Sound of your violin using as good a a mic and pre as you can get. Your pre goes into an input in the back (can't remember which), the piezo in the front. When you start the tone match process, the TMA block will analyze the difference between one and the other and create a very detailed filter curve which you can then store as a User Cab. You then use that cab when using your piezo and it should sound like you're playing through your expensive mic. It works quite well. It won't sound EXACTLY like your mic but it should sound really good and eliminate a lot of the irritating qualities of the piezo.

It'll also allow you to play louder without feedback.
 
Thanks so much Patzag! I'm extremely excited to get my hands on an Axe. I'll let you guys hear the results eventually on Soundcloud.
 
I mentioned this in your other thread, but I've done that to my upright bass. It's a huge improvement over the piezo sound, especially for bowing. It's still not as good as a mic, but if a mic is 100% and a piezo is 0%, then the tonematch is 60-70%.
 
Enjoyed this thread, and was wondering something for my attempts at tonematching.

What kind of preamp should I get for tone matching my acoustic guitars with a mic for the 1st baseline tonematch. Or can I just use a mic right into the rear input? Any suggestions would be great.
 
PRS513 said:
Enjoyed this thread, and was wondering something for my attempts at tonematching.

What kind of preamp should I get for tone matching my acoustic guitars with a mic for the 1st baseline tonematch. Or can I just use a mic right into the rear input? Any suggestions would be great.
Click to expand...

The signal chain for the reference signal, the mic and preamp, would be the same as if you are tracking your acoustic guitar with a microphone.

Recommendations for the mic technique, mic type, preamp type, etc. would be the same if you were recording.

Setup the best acoustic guitar recording chain you can get and then use that as the reference into the Fractal for the tone match.
 
Thanks for the info, i guess what i meant is that i didn't know if a preamp box was required to mic an acoustic into the rear Axe input for the 1st reference tone.

I was going to buy a little preamp just for that purpose (which is why i through the question out there) when i realized, i could probably use my Shure wireless headset as a the preamp for this purpose. It has a separate mic "in" if you want to use it to send to the board, so perhaps it's enough of a preamp for this purpose.
 
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