The Tone Thread

[WhiskeyJack]

Yes exactly my thoughts. being the ness fanboy I am am I would be ok with that expense. Although, i am sort of happy with what I've been getting of this AD30. I've been thinking of selling my Traynor. but at best i might get like 300 bucks for it not much i can get for an upgrade on top of that.

https://reverb.com/p/friedman-dirty-shi ... 4cQAvD_BwE

This might help with that Orange. I haven't used one, but if it's anything like the amp, that would be good.

Beauty!! that might be kind of nice to have kicking around. I'll keep my eye on that guy.

[Bill L]

Being a Marshall fanboy I was very underwhelmed with the Origin. I think it's poop.

As I said, the MIG won hands down. And I bet the MIG would lose to a real Marshall anyway. The Origin I played didn't sound bad at all. But only after we spent a lot of time dialing in a tone. The Traynor was easy to dial in a tone but is most definitely not a Marshall sound. More like a midway between a Vox and a Fender. The H&K was incredibly easy to get a workable tone and had a surprisingly versatile tone. The MIG just sounded awesome no matter where the pots were.

For the record, we were playing out 2 separate cabs; a 16 ohm cab with an Eminence speaker and an 8 ohm British Greenback in an identical cab

Just my very limited experience.

[SweetDan]

Here are a couple somewhat deliberately-made sound clips from the used-but-new-to-me Carvin combo I picked up over the weekend:

moreGtrVol.mp3

lessGtrVol.mp3

Guitar -> Amp -> SM57 on the grille, slightly off-axis (20-25-ish degrees?), over the dustcap/cone seam.

Same amp settings throughout: med/low volume, gain about 5 (out of 10), bass 7, mid 4, treble 7. Left guitar is a tele-clone, bridge pickup, tone all the way up; right guitar is a Dean dual humbucker, bridge pickup, tone again all the way up. I've got each guitar about 60% left/right in the mix, and no EQ or any other processing.

The difference between the more- and less-gtr-volume clips is exactly what it says: on the "more" clip, the tele vol was nearly all the way up, the humbucker was about 70-80% of all the way up; and on the "less" clip, the I rolled the volume control on each guitar back about halfway behind that.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Is Mo' Better'? Or is less?


Update @JD01 - individual guitar parts attached

More...

more-tele.mp3

more-dean.mp3

...or less

less-tele.mp3

less-dean.mp3

[JD01]

Dan, these sound pretty tidy as a start.
Can you post them as separate mono tracks?

[Greg_L]

Here are a couple somewhat deliberately-made sound clips from the used-but-new-to-me Carvin combo I picked up over the weekend:

moreGtrVol.mp3
lessGtrVol.mp3


Guitar -> Amp -> SM57 on the grille, slightly off-axis (20-25-ish degrees?), over the dustcap/cone seam.

Same amp settings throughout: med/low volume, gain about 5 (out of 10), bass 7, mid 4, treble 7. Left guitar is a tele-clone, bridge pickup, tone all the way up; right guitar is a Dean dual humbucker, bridge pickup, tone again all the way up. I've got each guitar about 60% left/right in the mix, and no EQ or any other processing.

The difference between the more- and less-gtr-volume clips is exactly what it says: on the "more" clip, the tele vol was nearly all the way up, the humbucker was about 70-80% of all the way up; and on the "less" clip, the I rolled the volume control on each guitar back about halfway behind that.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Is Mo' Better'? Or is less?

I think those sound okay for the most part. It's hard to tell but I think they might be too bassy for a full mix. There's a lot of low end and resonance in there for guitar tracks. It sounds cool on it's own but it might be too much in a mix.

[SweetDan]

OK, so here's the sound in a mix after tweaking gain/vol/eq knobs a bit. It's a different tune, though (something I noodled up this afternoon), and all the guitars were the tele-clone this time:

mix.mp3

Here is the rhythm guitars sub-mix:

rhythm_gtrs_bus.mp3

There's some EQ on the mixes above. Here are the individual guitars; I think I was able to export them from my DAW as true stems, so the little bit of EQ that was on these in the mix isn't present:

gtrs_ - 02 - dirty rhythm gtr.mp3

gtrs_ - 02 - dirty noodly gtr.mp3

gtrs_ - 02 - clean rhythm gtr.mp3

[Tadpui]

@SweetDan it's good to hear the old Carvin in action. It's cool to hear the character of the amp. And your drums sound vastly improved from just a year back or so.

I think that the EQ works in the song, the bass picks up the low end and fills it out.

The dirty rhythm has a little bit of "fizz" in it, for lack of a better term. I fight that in all of my own amp recordings, so I don't have much advice. I'd be tempted to try it blisteringly loud on the master just to see if the "chunk" of the power section and speaker balance it out. But then there's the family, neighbors, and local cops to think about...so maybe that's not feasible.

[Greg_L]

OK, so here's the sound in a mix after tweaking gain/vol/eq knobs a bit. It's a different tune, though (something I noodled up this afternoon), and all the guitars were the tele-clone this time:

mix.mp3


Here is the rhythm guitars sub-mix:

rhythm_gtrs_bus.mp3


There's some EQ on the mixes above. Here are the individual guitars; I think I was able to export them from my DAW as true stems, so the little bit of EQ that was on these in the mix isn't present:

gtrs_ - 02 - dirty rhythm gtr.mp3
gtrs_ - 02 - dirty noodly gtr.mp3
gtrs_ - 02 - clean rhythm gtr.mp3

I think that's pretty good. I agree with Tad too, your drums sound way better.

[SweetDan]

it's good to hear the old Carvin in action. It's cool to hear the character of the amp. And your drums sound vastly improved from just a year back or so.

I think that's pretty good. I agree with Tad too, your drums sound way better.

Thanks. I have to acknowledge that the biggest improvement to the drums is me listening when y'all were telling me I had to hit them harder.

...The dirty rhythm has a little bit of "fizz" in it, for lack of a better term. I fight that in all of my own amp recordings, so I don't have much advice. I'd be tempted to try it blisteringly loud on the master just to see if the "chunk" of the power section and speaker balance it out. But then there's the family, neighbors, and local cops to think about...so maybe that's not feasible.

Yeah, I'm itching to try it out really loud, but as you say, weighing that against noise and the family/neighbor issues. As long as I shut my office door, I can usually get the volume up loud enough that my wife only has to turn up her TV show in the living room 3-4 clicks above her normal watching volume. And I try to avoid turning up (or playing the drums, for that matter) after 9 PM...definitely not after 10.

There's one other issue I have too. You know the proverbial opera singer breaking a glass with only their voice? Well, I have a fish tank in my office/music room as well. How high an SPL could the aquarium take without structural issues? (How high before the fish freaked out?) For science, though, it would be an interesting experiment...



...on somebody else's fish tank!

[Greg_L]

There's one other issue I have too. You know the proverbial opera singer breaking a glass with only their voice? Well, I have a fish tank in my office/music room as well. How high an SPL could the aquarium take without structural issues? (How high before the fish freaked out?) For science, though, it would be an interesting experiment...



...on somebody else's fish tank!

Lol. Dude. There's no way that amp is loud enough to break a fish tank. Annoy the fish? Sure, maybe. The fish might not like it for long. But I really really doubt you'll hurt the fish and you definitely won't break a fish tank with amp noise.

[WhiskeyJack]

That sounds cool @SweetDan !!! Sorry i am late to the tone party.

It does have a bit of a fizzy tail in the latest and greatest samples you've provided. The foundation of a really great tone is there and i think your acquisition was top shelf!!! What was it you were using before? A Vox or something maybe? As others have said perhaps getting up a bit louder and really making it cook will fix some of that. Drums sound really good too dude!

Yea i went back to A/B some drums of your with the new ones as i really had no point of reference and there is a pretty noticeable difference! good stuff!! You must have been keeping yourself busy during covidcations! ?!

[JD01]

I think they sound good, Dan.
The dirty guitar is a touch on the spikey side, but sounds good in the mix.
The only thing I'd suggest is that all the three solo tones sound very similar so they may build up and cause a problem in the mix - that being said, the mix sounds pretty good so whatever you've done with the EQ seems to work.

Much more fun recording with a live loud amp isn't it, Dan?

[SweetDan]

Much more fun recording with a live loud amp isn't it, Dan?

Oh yeah. The phrase, "Now we're cooking with gas!" seems appropriate.

[Greg_L]

Here's a quick first big volume run through of my new-to-me Green TH30

Not doing anything special here, just playing with the gain and 1/2-1/4 power switching.

Gibson Les Paul - Mutt's PAF-ish medium hot bridge pickup.
Orange TH30 dirty channel
Tone shape knob 12:00
Various gain settings.
Master vol about 2:00
Marshall 1960B 4x12 Vintage 30
Shure SM57 about 3" off grill, on axis, just outside dustcap
No EQ or FX

TH30.mp3

[WhiskeyJack]

I gave this a listen yesterday on my way home from Edmonton on the cell phone but didn't really care to comment as i just wanted to get home. that and someone else kept banging on my shitter door, so i figured there was an emergency greater than all of us here at RecReb.

Sounds better today on my cans. This definitely has that thick Orange voice that made them famous. All the rockerverb none of the verb. Heaps more gain than my AD30. Gobs of it. I would be really curious to hear this amp on different speakers if you ever get another chance to monkey around. I only ever really hear orange amps on V30's.

Whatever little tweak you made @ 4:29 does it for me. that is the tone neighborhood I'd want to be using if it were me. Great acquisition dude. Can't wait to hear it in a song.

[Greg_L]

I gave this a listen yesterday on my way home from Edmonton on the cell phone but didn't really care to comment as i just wanted to get home. that and someone else kept banging on my shitter door, so i figured there was an emergency greater than all of us here at RecReb.

Sounds better today on my cans. This definitely has that thick Orange voice that made them famous. All the rockerverb none of the verb. Heaps more gain than my AD30. Gobs of it. I would be really curious to hear this amp on different speakers if you ever get another chance to monkey around. I only ever really hear orange amps on V30's.

Whatever little tweak you made @ 4:29 does it for me. that is the tone neighborhood I'd want to be using if it were me. Great acquisition dude. Can't wait to hear it in a song.

It's got a shit-ton of gain. Anything past like....1:00 on the gain knob is more than I'd ever want. And I didn't spend any time actually trying to make it sound "better". I didn't even touch the tone control. I just flipped it on and got after it. To me that is the mark of an amp I'd like - just flip it on and it sounds good. This one will need more detail to dial in, but it's not bad.

I'll do more clips soon. It's got more to it than just thick gain.

[Lt. Bob]

It's got a shit-ton of gain. Anything past like....1:00 on the gain knob is more than I'd ever want.

that's how the Tiny Terror was ...... any semblance of clean was with the gain knob at 9 'o' clock or lower

[Greg_L]

that's how the Tiny Terror was ...... any semblance of clean was with the gain knob at 9 'o' clock or lower

This TH30 has a clean channel that sounds really pretty good. I just haven't recorded it yet.

[JD01]

Meant to listen to this today... but had already read the thread so it wasn't marked as unread. Now it's read again I'll probably forget again later too!

[JD01]

Here's a quick first big volume run through of my new-to-me Green TH30

Not doing anything special here, just playing with the gain and 1/2-1/4 power switching.

Gibson Les Paul - Mutt's PAF-ish medium hot bridge pickup.
Orange TH30 dirty channel
Tone shape knob 12:00
Various gain settings.
Master vol about 2:00
Marshall 1960B 4x12 Vintage 30
Shure SM57 about 3" off grill, on axis, just outside dustcap
No EQ or FX

TH30.mp3

That sounds like an Orange alright! Much higher gain that you normally go for - funny to hear you doing metal chugging!
Cool tones - I'm still keeping one eye out for a Tiny Terror! Bet once you've got that dialed in how you want it will sound great on one side with you JCM800 on the other.

What tweak did you make just before the end? I liked the change that made - took some of the typical Orange boom out of it.