Re: A Question For Bedroom Players.
When I had pedals, I was always changing settings to try to match the various tones of the various albums and tapes I played along with: Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Kiss, Crue, on and on. Obviously you can only get within basic range with only a few pedals, mostly around the mids and highs and the gain saturation.
My first rack was a GSP21 Pro. I maxed out the 128 user presets easily just with copping the tones of others as best I could.
Going through that process made me realize that just because a particular player is only going straight into the amp doesn't mean that's what ends up on tape. The engineer has to mix those tones with the vocals and drums and bass and whatever else. Then there's double-tracking in the studio, sometimes with slightly different tones, which can't be replicated live where the massive volume fills in those gaps.
Once I got a drum machine and a bass and started recording my own stuff, I had to figure out how to mix my guitar tones to fit in with the various drum tones of the machine, which themselves had a wide range. Some sounded like rubber, some sounded loose, some sounded deep and boomy, while others just sounded like a kitchen cabinet door.
The 4-track cassette unit I had did not allow for EQing a track after it was recorded, only during playback, so if something didn't quite fit, I had to redo the whole thing.
Eventually I was able to build a few presets that gave me tones that did not need post-work.
Once I got in a band, and the drummer had his entire kit miked and running through a mixer, he was impressed that I could just plug my rack straight into the board or a power amp and cab and not need any tweaks. Once we started recording our own stuff, I spent more time mixing vocals and bass than guitar and drums.
These many years later I've got more rack gear - ADA MP-1 into a Digitech TSR-12 for tone-shaping EQ and effects, GSP1101, the GSP21 Pro and a GSP21 Legend.
Once I got the MP-1, I used that for the preamp and the GSP21 for effects, but because of how it was laid out in the software, I couldn't use its EQ. That's when I got the TSR-12.
At first I was trying to use the MP-1's 3-band EQ in conjunction with the TSR's EQ, and had them MIDIed together so that this patch on one called that patch on the other and back and forth and so on, but eventually just set the MP-1 EQ flat and did all the heavy work in the TSR. I've got 10 patches in the MP-1 that run from crystal clean to "everything on 10", and I can step through those 10 patches to get everything in between. Whether it sounds like Maiden or Metallica is determined by the EQ in the TSR. It's a lot easier to keep track of them that way, but I still have to keep them MIDI linked, since I may just need the same tones with more/less gain.
Lately I've been working with the JCM800 head I got a couple of years ago and pedals, and while I've been able to get good useable tones from it, I'm slowly resigning myself to the fact that those tones are nowhere near as versatile as my rack. At times I consider just running my rack into the power section, but then if I'm going to do that, the head is useless and I may as well just get a rack power amp. I have to keep telling myself I got a Marshall for the Marshall tone, not just so I can say I got a Marshall.
I also picked up a TripleRec head sometime last year, so now at least I can get the majority of Metal tones with just those two.
But, I'm not always able to run the heads, which is a drag, so I've gone back to my racks for instant gratification. I thought that perhaps after spending more time with the heads that I might find my rack tones lacking, but I don't, which lets me know that I either did a great job of setting up the racks or I totally suck as dialing in 6 knobs on an amp :lol:
As for what I do with the tones, as I said, with 128 preset slots, I don't have to overwrite anything and lose it forever. I can get a wide range of tones in just 10 patches from as clean as can be to "too much gain" and another 128 variations of each one with EQ settings.
My original material dabbles in various styles, and so one tone does not fit all those styles. I've got a "Santana" tone I use for a couple of tracks and a "Satch" tone I use on something else. It's not just the EQ but the gain difference as well. I also tend to change drum tones in BFD, depending on if I'm doing something a little more Metal or a little more mellow, so the guitar tones have to mix well right out of the box.
I do not believe in post-production. If you spend the time to get it "right" going in, you have much less work to do when it comes out. While a session player is obviously not afforded the time to tweak their tone endlessly, and that is the engineer's job, I'm not under those constraints. Were I to enter a studio to record my stuff professionally, the engineer would have little to do other than make sure the tracks are lit and the Record button gets pushed.
