Danny Danzi
Power User
tweaked for new fw still the best! working on anything new Danny?
Haha thanks! Yeah always working on new stuff. New album almost done using Fractal all over it for guitars and bass. I'm so stoked, I can't wait to start mixing. On the patch front, I got new VH patches that use a little different setup than the old.
These also sport pitch blocks for all the proper VH tumings. So if you tune standard and need to play VH a half step down, I got that covered. You're a half step down and need to come up, got it. Other times Eddie played in standard for songs like Hot for Teacher, I'll Wait, Jump, Drop Dead Legs, Full Bug etc. I even did the C# for Unchained due to the tape machine slow down, as well as other various enhancements from the original patches.
The downside is, I'm still messing with it to sound the way I want with the new firmware. It's super close, but I can do better. The good news is, it works perfectly for me using older firmware to where I seriously cannot tell Ed from me.
For some dumb reason, the amp I used for the VH patches took a huge hit with some of our updates. I chose it for specific reasons. I've tried several other amps and I CAN get the eq curve to sound right, it just has this transistor, almost single coil strat sounding artifact in the highs, that doesn't appear in some of the older fw.
A lot of the guys I hear nailing the Eddie tone do nail it, but they have this artifact present in the back that annoys me, and none of them get the Eddie pinch harm squeals that hit you in the heart. Every Kemper and Helix evh sound has the artifact as well. We do 12AX7 simulation way better than the competition.
I stumbled onto an amp last night while tweaking that no one has talked much about. My early tests with it using the new firmware are promising that this may take care of the artifact I'm hearing. This amp is so tube sounding, it made the hair on my arms stand up. It's a hard amp to dial in, but once you get it, I think it can make for the ultimate VH tone. Well see!
The AX 8 version is a little different. The impedance selection that the AXII has that the AX8 doesn't have, has always affected my tones just enough. Lol! It really is amazing how the impedance selection makes a difference for me. But even the AX8 VH tones are coming along great.
The best thing? I get them to sound great through my live rig setups. Even better than the studio. Real cabs are the answer in my opinion. I've tried so many of those FRFR cabs and other simulations....they just to me, make guitar modeling more sterile and synthetic. No offense to anyone who uses them with great results.
I just built a scaled down little rig where I run an AX8 into the the pre-amp in, on a 2x12, 100 watt Fender Champion. It sounds so incredible, no one believes me when they hear the sound. When they see it, they start laughing. When they hear it, they start crying in disbelief.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0nr4w2vjjcqsq2/IMAG0096~2.jpg?dl=0
My personal sounds are amazing in this. Not much Van Halen any more because I quit the tribute band. But the sounds still rock! Thanks for checking up on me.
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