Tonematch observation

Singtall

Singtall

Experienced
Vendor
while making a bass guitar preset ala Doug Pinnick of King's X, i noticed something that i thought i should pass on; i was trying to capture his tone by using the opening few seconds of the song "moanjam" in which he plays all alone on one string for four bars. i then played the same thing while doing the tonematch. i tried this several times and i kept coming up with a slightly bright upper mids frequency preset. though it sounded pretty good, something about it sounded like it could be improved on.

today, i tried it again. this time i played the same part on a different string (bottom string instead of second string). the result is a warmer overall preset, which sounds better to me.


so if you are trying to get a better tonematch, the more strings you can use, the better. if you have to use just one string, try playing on a different string to change the tone.
 
Yeah for whatever reason I get those issues too. I ended up going back to Izotope until something get's fixed, because in Izotope I don't have to play around like that, I just play the same thing I did with the Axe II and it's better every time. Was hoping someday it will be looked at again, probably not unless people like myself want to take time out of my busy schedule to beta test it, but really Izotope works fantastic so unless that stops working I doubt I will make the time. And really have no right to complain since I am not taking the time to troubleshoot it, but wanted you to know that Izotope works for me always better than the II, back before the 9.00 firmware I think it was, the Axe II worked just as well as Izotope in every instance!!!
 
Well , I guess the tonematch is sort of a matching eq. You probably should use the string you you are gonna play for reference.


Singtall said:
while making a bass guitar preset ala Doug Pinnick of King's X, i noticed something that i thought i should pass on; i was trying to capture his tone by using the opening few seconds of the song "moanjam" in which he plays all alone on one string for four bars. i then played the same thing while doing the tonematch. i tried this several times and i kept coming up with a slightly bright upper mids frequency preset. though it sounded pretty good, something about it sounded like it could be improved on.

today, i tried it again. this time i played the same part on a different string (bottom string instead of second string). the result is a warmer overall preset, which sounds better to me.


so if you are trying to get a better tonematch, the more strings you can use, the better. if you have to use just one string, try playing on a different string to change the tone.
Click to expand...
 
This is not a problem with tone matching.

Bass tone is a clean tone and you can't match clean tones simply because they don't excite enough frequencies.

Do you think tone matching would make your voice sound like Barry White? No. Why is that?

Understand what tone matching really is to get better results.
 
FWIW, I spent a little time experimenting using Tone Match to copy some settings from my Sans Amp Bass Driver DI. In creating the tone match for this, I made it a point to play lots of strings, all positions on the neck, chords...anything that would give me the broadest range of tone coming off the bass that I could muster. IMO, the tone matches were extremely close to the original reference, played live (not recorded). Using the Tube Pre in the Amp Block, I was also able to recreate the overdrive characteristics of the BDDI. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process was to dial in, and that the results were so convincing. I used Cliff's video on Tone Matching (using the pedal switch to A/B compare reference to tone match) as the basis for the setup.

http://www.fractalaudio.com/tmp/tma_tutorial.mp4

I'm hoping to post the presets when time permits. YMMV.
 
Exactly. More frequencies needed for matching. If you're matching a simple bass riff you have to be exactly in tune with the recording including bass intonation and how much you change tune by pressing and how loud you play etc. Many things can (and will) go wrong sadly.
 
Clark Kent said:
Exactly. More frequencies needed for matching. If you're matching a simple bass riff you have to be exactly in tune with the recording including bass intonation and how much you change tune by pressing and how loud you play etc. Many things can (and will) go wrong sadly.
Click to expand...

I've considered the tone matches I've done of existing gear, playing live, to be entirely successful. tone matches of prerecorded material? A real mixed bag with a much higher percentage fail rate.
 
I've tried several tone matches, and honestly never had anything good....went through tons of tutorials, the wiki, etc...lost my patience with it..
 
I was a Tone Matching master back before Firmware 10. I had folks asking me to send them my patches, ideas, etc. The best part was that I clicked a button to start recording, and another button to stop, and that was it. Got awesome results every time.

Around Firmware Version 10, I started hearing an "underwater"-type tone that just sounded really strange and I couldn't dial it out. Others mentioned it and how we couldn't quite describe what we were hearing. There have been multiple firmware updates and it has never been resolved.

That was one of my favorite features of the unit so I hope it gets fixed.
 
Edit: since no one has replied to my reply I just removed it. I found my problem. Ref Source defaults to input 2. In most cases I'm not using that input. :face palm:

Wow, TM is an amazing thing when used correctly!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom