The Tone Thread

[JD01]

I've just sorted out my mate's fairly cheap Fender acoustic (I've checked the serial No. and its a Samic).
Anyway - I've popped played it and my Martin together.

Martin on the left - Fender on the Right.

I think the Fender sounds OK actually.
The Martin is a lot brighter and has much more detail in it. But the Fender is 1/3 of the price.
You'll notice at the end that the Martin has shit loads more sustain.

Guitars are hi-passed at about 100 - (the Fender was actually pretty boomy!)
Rode NT1 about 10-15cm off the 15th Fret.

Tiny bit of verb added 'cos why the fuck not - its acoustic.

Also - I had the metronome up super sound so I could hear it easily over my playing!

Martin and Fender.mp3

Oh, they've both got new sets of Elixirs on too. About 5 days old on the Fender and about 20 mins old on the Martin.

[Greg_L]

Sounds like acoustic guitars

[JD01]

Sounds pretty good. I definitely like the Martin better but that's a very usable sound anyway for a single LDC more or less just placed in a logical position - I'm sure you didn't spend hours and hours moving it here and there.

Yeah - I just popped the mic up roughly where I'd usually put one and pressed record.
I think people have a tendency to over complicate recording acoustic guitars. Most important seems to be to play well, have a decent quality guitar, then stick a pretty flat (in terms of EQ) condenser in front of it.

Every time I've tried various hints and tips that you read about, putting an SM57 behind the bridge, sticking mics behind the body, neck, whatever other mic technique. They always just end up sounding shit to me and I've never bothered keeping that bit of the recording. They're probably just possible turd polish for not having a good sound to start with.

I always listen to Joni Mitchel's guitar sound and think its brilliant - but she's a brilliant player, playing a nice Martin, really well.

Listening back to this this morning I can hear how much trickier it is for me to play that Fender. The bass notes are boomier and I can't hold them for as long and comfortably before I have to move my finger to play the top of the chord (I'm using the same index finger for the bass notes and top notes)

[rayc]

Samick made some OK cheapies in the 90s.
It sounded fine the other sounded better but the Samder/Fendick sounded fine.
The recording was nice too.

[JD01]

On just about every Jongleurs track I have two acoustic guitars panned L and R both double mic'd playing the same thing. And in most of them, this time around as I was remixing I ended up nixing the second mic and concentrating my efforts on EQing the main mic better, instead of thinking I needed two and ending up with really complex EQs. I used SDCs rather than LDCs. And in most cases that SDC (AKG451B) was pointed at the 14th fret body join from about a foot away with the other end of the mic swung a little towards the right hand end, rather than at right angles - my Maton Messiah is a great live performance guitar acoustically and because of that it's a little bit harder to mic, so I turned the mic up the fretboard a touch.

Eventually when I realised that it sounded like it sounded and that wasn't like a Martin, then I became happier with the final results. So yeah - the KISS principle applies, although it took me a long time to work that out - so much simpler with just one - especially if you're double tracking.

Solo performance, different, but for what I mainly do, and what you just did, one is enough.

I've always been really pleased with my acoustic sound using the AGK C1000S SDC. Even though I think the NT1 sounded good I haven't done a direct comparison as yet. I will do at some point.

I bet things like Martins cost a fucking fortune in Aus.

[WhiskeyJack]

I've just sorted out my mate's fairly cheap Fender acoustic (I've checked the serial No. and its a Samic).
Anyway - I've popped played it and my Martin together.

Martin on the left - Fender on the Right.

I think the Fender sounds OK actually.
The Martin is a lot brighter and has much more detail in it. But the Fender is 1/3 of the price.
You'll notice at the end that the Martin has shit loads more sustain.

Guitars are hi-passed at about 100 - (the Fender was actually pretty boomy!)
Rode NT1 about 10-15cm off the 15th Fret.

Tiny bit of verb added 'cos why the fuck not - its acoustic.

Also - I had the metronome up super sound so I could hear it easily over my playing!

Martin and Fender.mp3

Oh, they've both got new sets of Elixirs on too. About 5 days old on the Fender and about 20 mins old on the Martin.

Together in a mix they balance each other nicely. I'm not even hearing that characteristic boxy flub noise that i usually hear from the cheaper fender acoustics.

[WhiskeyJack]

I use this MIDI search engine first ..... most of the time you can put a song name in and find it ... also try artist names if you don't find it by song name.

http://www.vanbasco.com/

There's a zillion MIDI's out there and every site with one MIDI you want has dozens or hundreds more.
Now they're not all good ...... sometimes the first one you find is great but sometimes you have to listen to several from different sites.
And even once you find one they often need editing to be the way I want them.
I think I went to maybe 3 different versions of this .... found one I liked ok and worked with that.

I'm really quick with the editing because this has been how I've earned my living the last 14 years.
At this point I've done maybe 1500 sequences altogether because I'm always wanting more so I don't get bored.

I can do 'em from scratch but it takes several nights so if I can't find it with VanBasco I will buy them.
I have 4 or 5 sites that I buy them from ..... even theirs need editing though so I use stuff I find with VanBasco anytime I can find the song using it.

Try it ...... take some caffiene cause you'll be up the next day still downloading MIDI's .....

And they don't take up any space .... my entire songlist of around 750 songs only takes up around 40Meg

thanks Boob! I'll check that out here soon and see what might be in there that tickles my fancy.

[WhiskeyJack]

Figured you guys might (not) enjoy this.

I was asked to provide a sound sample of my old Danelectro pedal to some buddies for shits. So i made a quick vidja.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xwDTXZxRcNkdz9it9

[mention]CrowsofFritz[/mention] [mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] I think this tuning and this pedal is ugly and angry enough to throw in with your cattle and drum machine.

[CrowsofFritz]

Figured you guys might (not) enjoy this.

I was asked to provide a sound sample of my old Danelectro pedal to some buddies for shits. So i made a quick vidja.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xwDTXZxRcNkdz9it9

@CrowsofFritz @vomitHatSteve I think this tuning and this pedal is ugly and angry enough to throw in with your cattle and drum machine.

Dew it.

[vomitHatSteve]

Figured you guys might (not) enjoy this.

I was asked to provide a sound sample of my old Danelectro pedal to some buddies for shits. So i made a quick vidja.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xwDTXZxRcNkdz9it9

@CrowsofFritz @vomitHatSteve I think this tuning and this pedal is ugly and angry enough to throw in with your cattle and drum machine.

Heck, yeah!

[Greg_L]

Figured you guys might (not) enjoy this.

I was asked to provide a sound sample of my old Danelectro pedal to some buddies for shits. So i made a quick vidja.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xwDTXZxRcNkdz9it9

@CrowsofFritz @vomitHatSteve I think this tuning and this pedal is ugly and angry enough to throw in with your cattle and drum machine.

Yikes that's gnarly.

[Lt. Bob]

nice!

[JD01]

LOL - I think that's the ugliest guitar tone I've ever heard. I love it.

[Greg_L]

Nothing says stoner doom death tone like aggressively stomping on stompboxes in plaid fleece house slippers.

[WhiskeyJack]

Nothing says stoner doom death tone like aggressively stomping on stompboxes in plaid fleece house slippers.

This is why i don't pedal. I have no off switch. I have one gear. "HIT IT". It is entirely why that poor old shitty Dano pedal is missing a knob.

That and technically i should have been working and not showing old buddies an old pedal half way through the work day. Kind of a let's just get this over with so they stop asking kind of thing.

[Greg_L]

Okay Rebs, here's THE OTHER BOOB!

First test run with actual guitar sound.

Hallmark 60 Custom - bridge pickup - cuz [mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] has one of these too.
Mojotone 18W TMB kit amp
Marshall 1960B 4x12 - Celestion Vintage 30
SM57 at dustcap edge, AT4047 cone, both on axis about 3" off grill, 50/50 blend
No FX or EQ in DAW

First up, the "normal" channel. This one's really basic, just volume and tone. If anyone likes a "pedal platform", this channel is it. This clip is just me rolling up the amp volume, the tone knob stays pretty much at 12:00 until the end. The end is fully cranked volume and tone.

18W TMBoob Ch1.mp3

This is the TMB channel. This channel has a master volume and gain control. Typical Bass, mid, treble tone stack. This clip has the master vol at 12:00 as I roll up the gain incrementally. The very end is fully cranked everything. Tone controls stayed straight up at 12:00 for all of this.

18W TMBoob Ch2.mp3

[WhiskeyJack]

Heck. It all sounds really good man. Outstanding.

Just about every setting sounds mint dude. Great job. I could make use of one of those for sure!!!

[rayc]

Feral pedal Shan.

[rayc]

Drat the 1st sample won't play but the 2nd did and WOW, that's a very cool 18w. I LOVE it. Well done.

[Lt. Bob]

that's fucking awesome!!
That bonk is there at around 3:15 on the second clip.

That's bad ass.

The problem I'll have with this boob and the other boob is choosing which to use>
I guess I'll use one one week and the other the next week.
Maybe I need a second cabinet