Whats the brown sound like?

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

I like that hairy sound on the first one...Feel your love is especially good

 

[kjrocks]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

They have a pretty good definition in one episode of South Park

 

[LunaticFringe]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

Makes you crap yourself.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

Marshall plexi w/ variac set to approx 90 volts

i think this is a big part of it. old marshalls are tight amps, kinda bright and crunchy and not all that high gain. one thing ive learned is that less voltage = less clean along with less high end, more mids, and a spongier feel.

by lowering the voltage coming in he lowered the voltage on the tubes and made a "browner sound". there wasnt the same sag as with a tube rec but some of the same tonal changes

 

[these_go211]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

i love the sound on the first album. i also love his sounds on all the others too in a different way.

 

[donnievaz]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

One "version" of the Brown Sound, which in my opinion had many variations up until 1991, when it was no longer Brown (as these ears hear it), sounds like the beginning and end of this clip. The middle 50% isn't bad either, but the more prime examples I feel are at the start and at the end.

http://www.funnymoneyband.com/sw/tubesclip1.mp3

Supposedly it's just a guy using a Pearly Gates through a cranked Plexi, but I can't recall exactly.

My favorite versions of the Brown Sound are on Van Halen II, and Women & Children First, which is about as warm & mushy a tone you can have while still spitting out attitude. 1984 is probably my favorite "polished" version of the tone.

Damn! It's funny you posted that, I saw Funny Money at a big private party about a year ago and remember thinking "man this dude's got the EVH tone nailed!"

 

[MattPete]

Re: Whats the brown sound like?

The closest thing I've heard to the brown sound is a "stock" plexi -- no mods, no variac, no funny business. Of all the Plexi variations Marshall made over the years (they changed component values over the years), the 12000 series seems to have that sound.

Here you can listen to Rockstah's Metroamp 12000 series plexi clone. I'm at work now, so I can't listen to those, but I seemed to remember that the Mean Street clip nailed the tone:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=503988