Re: [LAU] help with guitarix settings

Cedric Roux wrote:
> ----- "Q" <lists@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>> Presumably you mean the lead guitar rather than the rhythm? I can't
>
> yes, the solo. Sorry.
>
>> But that said, you've omitted a crucial bit of information -- what
>> type
>> of guitar are you using? I'd be very surprised if you'd get near that
>
> "jackson fusion std" is written on it. There are 3 "mikes" (pickups?).
> One is near the attach of the string (sorry, english vocabulary
> missing) and is doubled and 2 are closer to the middle of the strings.
> There is a switch to select which mike to use, one button for volume
> and one button for "presence" or whatever, it seems to do some EQ,
> like removing treble. There are pictures on the internet.

Okay, so it's HSS Strat-style guitar -- that's humbucker (the double
size pickup, at the bridge), single coil (middle), single coil (neck). I
can't find any info on the body material, but as I said before, I can't
see that sort of body style/material having the weight needed to get
that sort of tone, but someone will no doubt prove me wrong.

I couldn't see for certain which pickups May meant by "one and two" in
that video, I suspect the bridge and middle. Having a humbucker will
give a bit of extra body to the sound, but try for yourself which sounds
closer bridge and middle or neck and middle.

>
>> doing a solo like that. I'd say you don't want too much distortion --
>> plenty of gain, but not much drive -- and probably a fair amount of
>> compression going into the amp. (I do wonder though just how close
>> it's
>> possible to get with modelling software rather than hardware.)
>
> okay, I'll dig in that direction.
> I usually put input gain to max, drive to max, bass&treble to max
> and medium to min. I don't know how to use a compressor, so I don't.
> I get a nice sound for extreme metal stuff, but for those solos it
> does not seem to work. Something does not fit, too much treble when
> I attack the string I would say but I don't know...

Hmm, you turn the treble to max (and no mids) and then wonder why it
sounds too trebly?! Queen were not, to the best of my knowledge, an
extreme metal band, so the settings that work well for that are not
likely to work well for Queen, so fiddle with the settings. For a start,
I don't think scooping out the mids is going to help at all, especially
with those gain settings.

I'm into prog rock/classic rock sort of style of playing and I have my
Marshall set with the mids to max (10, not 11!), treble at about 8 and
bass at about 6. My compressor pedals have tone controls and I often
turn the treble up a bit on those as well, when they are in use.

I've spent countless hours trying to get my three-channel amp set up to
my liking. For a metal sound (not something I do often) I might turn
both the channel drive and level up quite high, but for other styles you
don't need that amount of distortion -- it's a balancing act between the
drive and volume for each channel, plus also the master volume.

I don't actually use Guitarix or GX_head, but having found a screen
shot, it has the same three controls. You can have high gain, low volume
and have the master volume high to drive the power amp (assuming the
models are this intricately modelled), or low gain/high volume and
master volume to taste -- as I say, it's a question of getting the right
balance.

I used to crank the amp up to get those searing lead sounds, but they
always ended up too distorted, until I discovered stompbox compressors
-- instead of using (distorted) gain for the sustain, use a compressor.
Stompbox (pedal) comps are usually really simple to use -- for a solo,
turn the attack right down and the sustain level right up :-)

Also, are you using an appropriate amp model? For May, you want a Vox
AC30. I don't know anything about amps and tubes, but I don't think
GX_head has the right models for the AC30's valves.

>
> Maybe I just should put an example of raw input sound for people
> to play with it.
>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmbTA9CAr30&feature=related
>
> the sound is different, no? Is it just my ears (I mean brain)?
>
> thanks for your suggestions.
>

I've seen your other post about this whilst I was typing, but don't
forget that one is a mixed and mastered recording that has since been
trashed into a very low quality MP3 and the other looks like a video
recording of a TV broadcast, recorded some time after the original
studio recording, that will have been trashed by YouTube's compression. :-)

If I were a better player, I might try learning it and installing
GX_head myself, but sadly I'm not very good and not a very experience
guitarist, so take everything I say with a lethal dose of salt ;-)

Hope this perhaps helps a bit.

Q
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Received on Fri Mar 25 20:15:03 2011