NGDx2

[JD01]

Singer and guitarist for the MSP. Well known for playing a white Custom into a DSL.

Lovely looking guitar though. You got 3 LPs now?

Yup. 3 LPs, 2 SGs....and a Chibson Jr which is gonna get a refinish now that I'm a paint master.

TV Yellow?

[Greg_L]

TV Yellow?

I'd like to but it depends on what the guitar wood looks like. TV Yellow is semi-transparent and it needs to have decent looking wood underneath. I don't expect that to be the case with a Chibson so I'm probably gonna do it with an opaque like Pelham Blue.

[Greg_L]

Here's a couple Ramones covers I just did with the Mosrite...because why not.

This one's an old one of theirs that somehow never made it onto a record, so I went for a more "vintage" kind of guitar sound. Plexis and Greenbacks.

SLUG.mp3

This one was more modern and one of their more popular songs. JCM 800 and G12-65s.

Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.mp3

[WhiskeyJack]

Here's a couple Ramones covers I just did with the Mosrite...because why not.

This one's an old one of theirs that somehow never made it onto a record, so I went for a more "vintage" kind of guitar sound. Plexis and Greenbacks.
SLUG.mp3

This one was more modern and one of their more popular songs. JCM 800 and G12-65s.
Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.mp3

Nice buddy. I am more impressed at all the little nuances you threw in the covers more than i like the guits haha. But yea that guit sounds pretty deadly. I like the one SLUG best of the two.

Also a fun little tidbit: the first few times i heard slug back in the day i thought they were saying "Ethyl Eugene" def not S-L-U-G. One of those little ear things i think.

NOw i can finally stop wondering what it sounds like. Maybe now i can sleep soundly.

[Greg_L]

"Ethyl Eugene"

Goddamn it now I'll never not hear Ethyl Eugene.

[rayc]

Sterling covers.
Can't separate the rig preference - the both work superbly.
Nice to hear some of the boys revived.
Love the "touches".

[JD01]

Here's a couple Ramones covers I just did with the Mosrite...because why not.

This one's an old one of theirs that somehow never made it onto a record, so I went for a more "vintage" kind of guitar sound. Plexis and Greenbacks.
SLUG.mp3

This one was more modern and one of their more popular songs. JCM 800 and G12-65s.
Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.mp3

These sound great, Greg. I wasn't familiar with SLUG - but I've looked it up. This is way better than the original.
I prefer your arrangement of Bonzo too, I never thought the keyboards worked well with the Ramones. Only thing with that one, it sounds a bit pumpy and clippy. Yeah, I've downloaded it and listened again instead of streaming it through the site, it is pumping a bit.

The vocal on Bonzo sounds great, particularly when the backings come in "Call The Law" just all hangs together really well.

Guitars sound amazing, particularly the start of Bonzo. Are you actually using milk bottles in this one? Did you fill them by different amounts to tune them?

[Greg_L]

Sterling covers.
Can't separate the rig preference - the both work superbly.
Nice to hear some of the boys revived.
Love the "touches".

These sound great, Greg. I wasn't familiar with SLUG - but I've looked it up. This is way better than the original.
I prefer your arrangement of Bonzo too, I never thought the keyboards worked well with the Ramones. Only thing with that one, it sounds a bit pumpy and clippy. Yeah, I've downloaded it and listened again instead of streaming it through the site, it is pumping a bit.

The vocal on Bonzo sounds great, particularly when the backings come in "Call The Law" just all hangs together really well.

Guitars sound amazing, particularly the start of Bonzo. Are you actually using milk bottles in this one? Did you fill them by different amounts to tune them?

Lol it's a glockenspiel mixed with a xylophone. The xylophone was too dark, the glockenspiel was too bright, so I blended them.

[JD01]

Lol it's a glockenspiel mixed with a xylophone. The xylophone was too dark, the glockenspiel was too bright, so I blended them.

I'm more surprised that you own a glockenspiel and xylophone than I am that you didn't actually use milk bottles!

[Greg_L]

I'm more surprised that you own a glockenspiel and xylophone than I am that you didn't actually use milk bottles!

I do own them. I keep them in a VSTi folder.

[Tadpui]

Love the covers, man. Your guitar just sounds so smooth on the first one, that's just a golden combination of ingredients. I mean, it's aggressive but smooth, no fizz. The 2nd one is much the same, just with more low-mid bark to it.

Vocals on both are great, man. Actually the performances all around are tight and confident.

Now I'm just waiting and listening so the song doesn't stop playing when I click "submit" and the page reloads

[Greg_L]

Love the covers, man. Your guitar just sounds so smooth on the first one, that's just a golden combination of ingredients. I mean, it's aggressive but smooth, no fizz. The 2nd one is much the same, just with more low-mid bark to it.

Vocals on both are great, man. Actually the performances all around are tight and confident.

Now I'm just waiting and listening so the song doesn't stop playing when I click "submit" and the page reloads

Thanks man. I am a very firm believer in the beneficial natural phase cancellation you can get double-miking cabs. I think it works well for me.


Hey, maybe you can do a video about double-miking it if you haven't already.

[Tadpui]

Thanks man. I am a very firm believer in the beneficial natural phase cancellation you can get double-miking cabs. I think it works well for me.

Hey, maybe you can do a video about double-miking it if you haven't already.

I'm definitely interested in experimenting with 2 mics, and making a video on my findings. But I think I'd need some advice to get me started so I don't go deaf before I get there

Most of the time I've done 2 mics, it's to use a near and far mic, to get a little room sound in there (I love those roomy guitar sounds from the early Bowie albums and things like that). Mainly I like that sound on solos. But for rhythm, it just turns into a muddy jumbled mess to have dueling room mics panned here and there.

What do you typically use as your 2-mic setup? It's been too long since we've jabbered about that and I don't recall. Didn't you get a 421 at some point? Do you put them both on the same speaker, or different speakers, or different positions on the same speaker, or one of the other dozen permutations of where 2 mics can go on a single cab...

[Greg_L]

What do you typically use as your 2-mic setup? It's been too long since we've jabbered about that and I don't recall. Didn't you get a 421 at some point? Do you put them both on the same speaker, or different speakers, or different positions on the same speaker, or one of the other dozen permutations of where 2 mics can go on a single cab...

I do have a 421...I actually don't use it that much. e609 too. They don't get too much action.
Although I did some tracks today using the 421 and the i5 and they came out pretty nice. I'll post it when it's done.

My main go-to cab mics are a few 57s, an Audix i5, and an AT 4047. It's usually two of those three in some combination.

I usually multi-mic the same speaker, but sometimes I'll blend different speakers. Not often though. I choose my speakers based on my familiarity with them. I know what speakers to use for whatever sound I'm hoping to get in the mix.

So say I've decided on a speaker. Cool, now I'll think about my mics, how they sound, and which ones I'll want to use. I pretty much always use the two mics in a bright/dark setup. One mic will be the bright mic, usually a super cardioid dynamic like the 57 or i5, and it will point pretty much straight at the dustcap/cone seam, and usually no more than two or three finger widths off the grill cloth. I shine a light through the grill cloth and line up the mic right at the seam. On my speakers with large dustcaps I'll go right inside the seam closer to the center. The dark mic, usually the 4047, and sometimes an R144 ribbon mic, will go right next to the bright mic farther out on the cone of the speaker. I pay careful attention to getting them the same distance off the grill cloth so they'll be in phase as close as possible, more on that in a bit. And that's pretty much it. Crank it up, set the preamps equal, and press record. What I like about doing it like this is it requires little to no EQ. You balance the bright track level vs dark track level to "EQ" simply by using the faders. It's also a very full, natural, and accurate sound. It sounds like what I hear coming from the amp so I'm not having to fiddle anything. If the amp sounds good in the room, then it'll sound good with those two mic tracks. But I hardly ever use them in equal measures. It's always one of them being used a little more than the other depending on the mix and stuff. Maybe a little more dark track sometimes, maybe a little more bright track sometimes. I'm a believer in getting a good track with just one mic but to me it always sounds too small and focused. Two mics done properly sounds full and awesome.

As for the phase, it matters, but it's not super critical because you probably won't end up using the two tracks exactly equally anyway. And if you do EQ one or both of them then it throws all that out the window. Get the phase as close as you can and the rest takes care of itself. And if it becomes problem or you just have to get it perfect for peace of mind you can always zoom way in on the tracks, find a sharp transient common to both tracks, and manually slide one of them to line up perfectly with the other one. Boom, perfect phase.

And a good test to see how your two tracks' phase relationship is doing is to set them equally and simply flip the phase on one of the tracks. When you do this the sound should nearly vanish.. You'll hopefully hear a very harsh static type of sound. You might also hear this low hollow wash kind of sound. That's the gross nasty shit being naturally filtered out of your blended tracks. That's a good thing. You don't want that shit. That's the shit you'd normally EQ out of the mix, but now you don't need to and your tracks will be better for it.

[Tadpui]

@Greg_L thanks for the info! A lot of that is within the realm of things that I've tried and failed at I know that I've tried to match your techniques before and it always seems to fall flat for me. And I think that I finally know what one of the big differences is: the amount of total surface area that the dust caps on my speakers occupy.

On my Fender amp, that 12" speaker has (what I've come to realize is) a pretty large dust cap. So putting a mic right at the seam yields a darker tone. And on my Marshall cab, they're 10" speakers, and the dust caps take up more surface area relative to a 12". So again, miking the seam yields a darker tone. And on my Mesa, well I've come to the conclusion that I flat-out don't like that speaker. It's just a dark speaker, and trying to compensate for that with the amp's EQ just adds fizziness and not anything valuable.

Lately I've started moving my mics inwards and sometimes even dead-on center. And that has made a big improvement in the "rock record" sound. But that fizziness starts to creep in and ruin a good thing. So I'm anxious to give a try to a multiple close-mic setup and see if I can get in the ballpark of your hard-yet-smooth recorded tone.

But first I need to go practice the drums for a while. I suck more at that than I do miking a cabinet

[Greg_L]

@Greg_L thanks for the info! A lot of that is within the realm of things that I've tried and failed at I know that I've tried to match your techniques before and it always seems to fall flat for me. And I think that I finally know what one of the big differences is: the amount of total surface area that the dust caps on my speakers occupy.

On my Fender amp, that 12" speaker has (what I've come to realize is) a pretty large dust cap. So putting a mic right at the seam yields a darker tone. And on my Marshall cab, they're 10" speakers, and the dust caps take up more surface area relative to a 12". So again, miking the seam yields a darker tone. And on my Mesa, well I've come to the conclusion that I flat-out don't like that speaker. It's just a dark speaker, and trying to compensate for that with the amp's EQ just adds fizziness and not anything valuable.

Lately I've started moving my mics inwards and sometimes even dead-on center. And that has made a big improvement in the "rock record" sound. But that fizziness starts to creep in and ruin a good thing. So I'm anxious to give a try to a multiple close-mic setup and see if I can get in the ballpark of your hard-yet-smooth recorded tone.

But first I need to go practice the drums for a while. I suck more at that than I do miking a cabinet

The dustcap/cone seam is just a reference point. Something to aim at. It doesn't really mean anything as far as sound goes. As you have found out, miking the seam on bigger dustcaps gets a darker sound because you're closer to the edge of the speaker. That same seam is very bright on a small dustcap speaker like a Vintage 30. That's why on my large dustcap speakers I mic inside the seam - I know it's brighter in there. You just have to play with it. I'm very used to it at this point.

If you like miking dead center, putting another mic way out near the edge to blend with it will also yield some cool tones. You can get a very clear but very full sound like that, and also get the wonderful fizz canceling.

And there's always the one straight and one off-axis combo. That works really good with two 57s, or a 57 and a 421.

There's tons of multi-mic options, and they're all good and usually better than a single mic if you do them right.

And as always....be loud. Very loud. Loud often kills fizz.

[Greg_L]

Okay one more, this time with the white LP Custom. This one's from the U.S. Bombs, a 90s skate-punk band fronted by the legendary infamous asshole OG skate icon total fucking mess Duane Peters.

All the guitars are the new-to-me LP Custom, JCM 2000 DSL, G12T-75 and G12-65 speakers, Audix i5 and Senn MD421 blends.

Roll Around.mp3

[WhiskeyJack]

Sick man those sound deadly. really big, clear and crispy. about what I would expect of you and some LP's through Marshalls. The solos are searing No nits.

great back ups too.

infamous asshole OG skate icon total fucking mess Duane Peters.

he is a fucking legend.

though he isn't that big of an asshole he doesn't heave a heart. If you haven't seen the documentary "the other F word" i feel like you should. His story is pretty heartbreaking RE: kids. As is Fleas story. 10/10 recommend.

[rayc]

I don't know Duane but if he's a DP then it carries.
The guitars sound huge as does the whole thing.
Ace work.

[Tadpui]

I don't know how much is the LP and how much is the DSL, but this has a nice hard rock edge to it. A little more gain than the others but something else adds weight to it too. Love the texture.