The Tone Thread

[Minerman]

From "1984":

Hot For Teacher.mp3

Panama.mp3

[Minerman]

[mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention]
There ya go dude, those are the best isolated VH guitar tracks (to me) I have, there are a couple/few songs I'd like to have, but can't find anywhere...

I have a shitload of other bands/songs too, dunno if you (or anyone else for that matter) would want any, but if you do, hit me up, I might have something you'd be interested in...Most are full songs too btw, isolated bass, drums, guitar, vocals, you can hear what some of the "big stars" did on pro-recordings...I'm positive these aren't studio quality though, these are tracks ripped from video games like "Rock Band" & "Guitar Hero", but it is pretty cool to me to be able to hear a certain sound isolated to get an idea of how they work in a mix...


I've been meaning to post some tones, but my luck is always in, & it's always bad...Last week (last Friday, today makes a week), I had a stray cat attack me & fucked my right hand up...Today makes a week & it's getting better, but it's still swelled & hurts like a bitch...I can hold a pick now, but I couldn't for a few days...I guess that's what I get for trying to be nice & pet a fuckin' cat that ain't mine...I reached down just to pet it, & the motherfucker ate me up...A few trips to the doctor, plus rabies shots were involved...What a fuckin' life...

Next time I'll just just grab the whole pussy like Trump...

BTW, that was one mean pussy...

[Greg_L]

Lol Jesuscristo that's a lot of Van Helen.

You can hear how "VH1" is the tone. That's the brown sound. VHII is really close. Probably the same rig recorded at a different time and place. But the rest are way different.

[Minerman]

Lol Jesuscristo that's a lot of Van Helen.

I knew you'd probably vomit dude... sorry...I do have some Randy Rhoads & other stuff too...

You can hear how "VH1" is the tone. That's the brown sound. VHII is really close. Probably the same rig recorded at a different time and place. But the rest are way different.

I like VH II's "Women In Love" better than any of his "brown sound" tones...I don't have the isolated track, but it seems "softer" to me, like the amp has more sag or something...

On "Diver Down" his sound changed a lot IMO too...I think some of his tones on the album "Balance" are stellar also btw, but as you know, I'm a big VH fan...

[Greg_L]

..I do have some Randy Rhoads & other stuff too...

Lol no thanks.

I like VH II's "Women In Love" better than any of his "brown sound" tones...I don't have the isolated track, but it seems "softer" to me, like the amp has more sag or something...

On "Diver Down" his sound changed a lot IMO too...I think some of his tones on the album "Balance" are stellar also btw, but as you know, I'm a big VH fan...

I do like how they mixed those early VH albums. I like how it's mostly just one guitar track panned to one side and all the reverb on the other. I like that the guitar track *seems* as if it's all one solid take played all the way through. His playing is pretty damn impressive. The way he dances around between rhythm and lead licks all in one go is pretty cool.

But Van Halen also perfectly illustrates what I personally dislike about most guitar heroes - great guitar playing in crappy songs is a total waste for me.

[Minerman]

Those albums were basically recorded live, that's why the guitar parts mesh so good, they supposedly are basically one take, with some overdubs where he wanted rhythm guitar under his leads...

His playing is & always will be amazing for me...For me, that's the thing, his sound just adds that much more to it all...There are millions of technical players out there today, but when he came along, there wasn't, he changed a lot of things by just the way he played...

Most of the post-Roth stuff he did is "meh" to me, the only thing I though had anything worthy was 1995's "Balance", there are a few spots on that album that have some of the fire he introduced when he hit, along with some great (to me) sounds, I could go on but I won't...

[WhiskeyJack]

Jesus [mention]Minerman[/mention] thanks dude. Amazing lol.

This was interesting. I get what greg is saying about the first one being the definitive sound. In all the examples after that in my novice opinion it sounds like someone is spitshining it in the studio too much for it be as legit as the first time a fan would have heard the original songs. I'd say the jam Hang em high is is pretty respectable and not too over the top polished but wtf do i know?

thanks for doing that miner it made my morning coffee really fun!

LOL

I had a stray cat attack me & fucked my right hand up...Today makes a week & it's getting better, but it's still swelled & hurts like a bitch...

Sorry that cats are fucking with you man. Just seem to be getting it from every angle dude.

[Greg_L]

Side note....I actually had cat scratch fever one time. I got scratched by a feral cat and it made me sick. All of my lymph nodes got swollen and I had a mild fever. I thought it was some kind of lymphoma and I was gonna die. I went to the Dr and he ran some tests and saw the infected scratches on my arm and asked how I got them. He then laughed and said "you have cat scratch fever". I was like...."What? STFU. That's not a thing. It's a terrible song." He assured me it's real and that the wild cat's dirty claws caused an infection and my lymph nodes are swollen because they're doing their job.

So I got a small cycle of antibiotics and I was all better.

[Greg_L]

Okay one last chance to dance with this EVH pedal before I happily give it back to it's rightful owner.

This pedal either sucks, or I suck and can't dial in a tone. Probably a little of both, but whatever.

This time it's high gain tube amp vs clean channel + pedal.

It's all the same shit as before, Les Paul, Greenbacks, SM57, blah blah blah.
But this time I'm using one of the all-tube high gain channels on the JVM vs the JVM crystal clean channel + the pedal.

High gain anything is not my forte, but this speaks for itself.
High gain amp channel by itself, then a little clean for reference, then clean plus pedal.

JVM EVH 5150.mp3

[Minerman]

Side note....I actually had cat scratch fever one time. I got scratched by a feral cat and it made me sick. All of my lymph nodes got swollen and I had a mild fever. I thought it was some kind of lymphoma and I was gonna die. I went to the Dr and he ran some tests and saw the infected scratches on my arm and asked how I got them. He then laughed and said "you have cat scratch fever". I was like...."What? STFU. That's not a thing. It's a terrible song." He assured me it's real and that the wild cat's dirty claws caused an infection and my lymph nodes are swollen because they're doing their job.

So I got a small cycle of antibiotics and I was all better.

Yeah man cat scratch fever is actually a real thing, I've known that for years...Sorry you had it, but I'm glad I didn't...My hand looked fucked up enough without it...It's nothing now, but Saturday & Sunday last week, I couldn't close my hand/make a fist because from my wrist to the tips of my fingers were swelled up so bad...My fingers were about the size of a "D" battery & my whole hand was at least twice as thick as the other...

I should've taken some pics but didn't...The cat didn't bite me, it just latched on with it's front paws & kicked me with it's back paws...Almost had to have stitches & the cuts on my knuckles went to the bone...Thankfully they were short, if they'd been any longer, it would've been really bad...

It happened in a split second & as much as I love animals, I would've killed that thing if it'd still been around when I finally got the bleeding to stop...Matter of fact, if I even see it here again, it's history...No growling/yowling, no warning at all...The doc told me I was lucky it didn't latch onto my leg, which would've been really bad...I was showing off my famous chicken legs (you guys have seen 'em because I remember Greg making a comment in one of my drum videos ) by wearing shorts that day, so I guess I did dodge a bullet...

Since it was a stray, I had the antibiotics like you, but I was blessed with 6 separate rabies shots...So, if I ever see it again, I'm gonna return the favor by giving it a shot or two of some lead...That won't happen to me again, but it would be awful if that bastard got hold of one of my cats, or even worse, one of these kids running around the neighborhood...

[Minerman]

Okay one last chance to dance with this EVH pedal before I happily give it back to it's rightful owner.

This pedal either sucks, or I suck and can't dial in a tone. Probably a little of both, but whatever.

This time it's high gain tube amp vs clean channel + pedal.

It's all the same shit as before, Les Paul, Greenbacks, SM57, blah blah blah.
But this time I'm using one of the all-tube high gain channels on the JVM vs the JVM crystal clean channel + the pedal.

High gain anything is not my forte, but this speaks for itself.
High gain amp channel by itself, then a little clean for reference, then clean plus pedal.

That's way, way better than the previous clip you posted dude...It's still got this harsh fuzzy/fizzy thing to it, but I'm gonna bet that's part of the character of the pedal & can't be dialed out...That tone kinda reminds me of the EVH amp I had, it had a similar thing & was a big reason I struggled dialing sounds in I liked...

Every high-gain amp I've tried to record had some of the same thing, until you opened the master volume up...The DSL100H & even the Chupacabra does that kinda until they get to a certain volume/loudness & it goes away...It was always there with the EVH LBX I, maybe it's something that's in the "EVH" od/distortion nowadays & can't be dialed out...

I wonder if the 50/100w EVH amps have the same thing "baked" into them???
If so, add those amps to the list with the EVH LBX & EVH OD pedal, because 'ol Miner wants less to do with those than the hillbilly devil cat that attacked him...

[WhiskeyJack]

Okay one last chance to dance with this EVH pedal before I happily give it back to it's rightful owner.

This pedal either sucks, or I suck and can't dial in a tone. Probably a little of both, but whatever.

This time it's high gain tube amp vs clean channel + pedal.

It's all the same shit as before, Les Paul, Greenbacks, SM57, blah blah blah.
But this time I'm using one of the all-tube high gain channels on the JVM vs the JVM crystal clean channel + the pedal.

High gain anything is not my forte, but this speaks for itself.
High gain amp channel by itself, then a little clean for reference, then clean plus pedal.
JVM EVH 5150.mp3

Vast improvement. I think i like the just regular JVM high gain over the pedal gain but that pedal gain sample is way better to me than the tones you posted the other day by 100 miles. Kudos to getting that thing firing on pistons that work for you.

[Greg_L]

Really? [mention]Minerman[/mention] [mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention] Yall think that pedal clip is good? Weird. I think it's horrible. Different strokes I guess. The JVM by itself is fine. No problem. It has chunk and grit and it's not so fizzy. The pedal section sounds like a Line 6 to me.

[WhiskeyJack]

Really? Minerman WhiskeyJack Yall think that pedal clip is good?

No.

I said it was a vast improvement over some of the sounds you posted the other day. You manged to dial in something that sounded less shit than your previous effort. I could see that sitting in a mix pretty nicely for some kind of like, skatepunk speedy kind of pennywise - propaghandi kind of band.

Doesn't man i think it's good. let's not go putting words in my mouth.

[Greg_L]

No.

I said it was a vast improvement over some of the sounds you posted the other day. You manged to dial in something that sounded less shit than your previous effort. I could see that sitting in a mix pretty nicely for some kind of like, skatepunk speedy kind of pennywise - propaghandi kind of band.

Doesn't man i think it's good. let's not go putting words in my mouth.

Lol. Right ok gotcha.

I think I'm just spoiled rotten. I don't know why else it could be that I just can't get along with any dirt pedals. I've spent a lot of time curating and crafting my gear to be exactly what I want from the pickup to the speaker. Anything that mucks that up is anathema to me. First world problems.

[WhiskeyJack]

No.

I said it was a vast improvement over some of the sounds you posted the other day. You manged to dial in something that sounded less shit than your previous effort. I could see that sitting in a mix pretty nicely for some kind of like, skatepunk speedy kind of pennywise - propaghandi kind of band.

Doesn't man i think it's good. let's not go putting words in my mouth.

Lol. Right ok gotcha.

I think I'm just spoiled rotten. I don't know why else it could be that I just can't get along with any dirt pedals. I've spent a lot of time curating and crafting my gear to be exactly what I want from the pickup to the speaker. Anything that mucks that up is anathema to me. First world problems.

No way dude. you have worked hard at it so i wouldn't say you are spoiled at all. you have worked really hard at keeping it simple. gUITAR>AMP >ROCK AND ROLL. Pedals are just an extra frustrating piece that most times aren't really needed by someone like yourself. there is no added value from a dirt accelerator like the EVH for you. I can't comment on an exact place that a pedal like that EVH would be needed because high gain isn't my thing so much so i don't want to say it is pointless for everyone (RE: My comment yesterday about little bedroom groms rocking out to their favorite iron maiden records)

To be more clear with where i am going it might be easiest to just say you have all the tools you possibly need and you know every little subtle nuance to them. Adding one more moving part would make it weird right ? It would be very difficult to see the value added benefit of something designed to enhance, when you already have a damn near perfect sound without it? Like, say you built a car and you have it customized the yway you want it and it hums along and you keep winning contests and blowing suckers out of the water on a 1/4 mile, then some clown comes along with some special tires that says, this is going to increase your performance.

Is it? it might for the 17 year old you just blew out of the water trying to race you in a modified Chevy Cruze, but for you it might actually work to your detriment because you already have beast machine.

I have had my third office beer so far so none of this will likely make any sense to anyone. So i will just go fill out my time sheets now and go find a Margarita somewhere else.

[Greg_L]

No way dude. you have worked hard at it so i wouldn't say you are spoiled at all. you have worked really hard at keeping it simple. gUITAR>AMP >ROCK AND ROLL. Pedals are just an extra frustrating piece that most times aren't really needed by someone like yourself. there is no added value from a dirt accelerator like the EVH for you. I can't comment on an exact place that a pedal like that EVH would be needed because high gain isn't my thing so much so i don't want to say it is pointless for everyone (RE: My comment yesterday about little bedroom groms rocking out to their favorite iron maiden records)

To be more clear with where i am going it might be easiest to just say you have all the tools you possibly need and you know every little subtle nuance to them. Adding one more moving part would make it weird right ? It would be very difficult to see the value added benefit of something designed to enhance, when you already have a damn near perfect sound without it? Like, say you built a car and you have it customized the yway you want it and it hums along and you keep winning contests and blowing suckers out of the water on a 1/4 mile, then some clown comes along with some special tires that says, this is going to increase your performance.

Is it? it might for the 17 year old you just blew out of the water trying to race you in a modified Chevy Cruze, but for you it might actually work to your detriment because you already have beast machine.

I have had my third office beer so far so none of this will likely make any sense to anyone. So i will just go fill out my time sheets now and go find a Margarita somewhere else.

Lol. That's probably right. I have spent several years buying and tweaking my stuff to have it just perfect...for me. I couldn't be happier with the sound I get from just plugging one of my Les Pauls straight into the 800 or one of the Plexis. Anything in between is mostly yuck.

I do like my effects pedals though. Phasers, flangers, wahs...cool.

The EVH pedal came with a little card of suggested settings. Maybe I should try those. It's weird how other people can get usable tones out of these things and for me it's a pile of ass.

[liv_rong]

Dear [mention]Greg_L[/mention], yeah, that pedal sounds not good. Or you make it sound not good. Either way, stick to amps, lol. And I agree about dirt pedals, Ive never really found one either, but the Blues Driver was kind of ok actually. Amps do it for me too, but I almost am always using the EP Booster at a 11 o'clock setting.

[mention]Minerman[/mention], I love most of those VH tones. I dig me some verb and dirt. If you missed them in my thread of suck, here are a couple of examples of me dabbling with dirt and verb(phone audio):

[Greg_L]

Cool trick with the looper then drums.

[Minerman]

[mention]liv_rong[/mention]
It never crossed my mind you'd like those old VH tones but since you're an fx guy it makes sense...
Awesome stuff using your looper dude, you're a real one man band!!!