Matching Guitar Sounds - Att: Benoni

[Jerry S]

Hey Benoni,

I have been battling with my 11R to match the guitar sounds of some of my favorite bands like Chevelle, 10 years, Killswitch Engage, etc. with not much success. I don't have the greatest ear in the world thus I always look for any other types of help I can find.

I was browsing elevenrackpresets.com and stumbled upon one of your rigs.

"Peavey 6505+
Pickup Position: Bridge Pickup Type: Humbucker
Artist: Peavey 6505+ Amp
Author: Benoni
Comments: I used samples from the Peavey website, loaded them into Pro Tools and put a Waves PAZ Analyzer on them so I could get the frequencies really close..... BUT without a parametric eq with Q control in the Rack, i could not get them as close as I wanted to. I could do it with another plugin, but that would defeat the point of sharing a preset."

I know next to nothing about spectrum, parametric and PAZ analyzers but it seems with some of these tools, you can get pretty close to the sound you are looking for.

Do you have any suggestions as to where to go to get more knowledge about these tools as well as which tools you suggest I aim to get moving forward?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I posted this on the forum instead of a private message hoping others would join in on the discussion. Thanks again guys!

[Benoni]

I like the analyzers from Waves. Maybe this will help you out.


http://www.waves.com/Manuals/Plugins/PAZ.pdf

[Jerry S]

Originally Posted by Benoni

I like the analyzers from Waves. Maybe this will help you out.

Originally Posted by Benoni

http://www.waves.com/Manuals/Plugins/PAZ.pdf

Thanks Benoni. I re-read what you posted in the Rig description and now understand that if you had a Parametric EQ, you could have dialed the sounds in even better. I was mistaken at first thinking you meant, if owned you have a PEQ, instead of PAZ, you would have gotten better results.

I am reading the PAZ manual for the second time. Also, I see how important it would be for Avid to add a PEQ in the 11R update (if it ever happens) ::raising my hands in prayer to the sky and getting down on both knees::. I never cared much for EQ's until I got the 11R, I usually just ran with my Triple Rect as is. I am slowly learning how powerful an EQ can be for your sound in many instances.

[Benoni]

ah ha! I knew I had a video some where, where a dude was using the PAZ. Its called Intro To EQ from HowAudio.com..... unfortunately I guess they went out of business, so you cant buy it anywhere, but I found part of the video on Youtube. And while its not really about analyzers, its about EQ's..... you can see how the guy uses the Waves PAZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWuTj-y5NEE

[Jerry S]

Originally Posted by Benoni

ah ha! I knew I had a video some where, where a dude was using the PAZ. Its called Intro To EQ from HowAudio.com..... unfortunately I guess they went out of business, so you cant buy it anywhere, but I found part of the video on Youtube. And while its not really about analyzers, its about EQ's..... you can see how the guy uses the Waves PAZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWuTj-y5NEE

Awesome Benoni, I really appreciate it. Now I can really begin the tone chasing. lol

Any tips on what types of audio clips to use like CD vs. mp3? Should I aim to grab clips where it's just the guitar, no bass, drums or vocals if possible? Should the clip be of any specific length? Lastly, if I am understanding this right, whatever clip I choose, I would then be playing the same chords/riff through the rig to be edited correct?

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Jerry S

Awesome Benoni, I really appreciate it. Now I can really begin the tone chasing. lol

Any tips on what types of audio clips to use like CD vs. mp3? Should I aim to grab clips where it's just the guitar, no bass, drums or vocals if possible? Should the clip be of any specific length? Lastly, if I am understanding this right, whatever clip I choose, I would then be playing the same chords/riff through the rig to be edited correct?

Grab whatever you can. I use Videos some time and just delete the video track. Some time you can only grab a 5 second section that is guitar only, thats enough to get the main body of the sound. Drums, especially cymbals and vocal will screw up your read out.

You dont really have to play the same riff, or even tune the same, the minor changes in tones dont have a huge effect on the main body of sound.

I usually play the sound im trying to match with a PAZ on the track, then freeze it (the PAZ), then have another PAZ on the 11R track, and go from there. Use your ears too.

Now that I think of it, i grabbed the whole Intro to EQ tutorials from Youtube. So if you want all the videos I'll up them for you. its about 102MB, so it wont take long to download.

[Jerry S]

Originally Posted by Benoni

Grab whatever you can. I use Videos some time and just delete the video track. Some time you can only grab a 5 second section that is guitar only, thats enough to get the main body of the sound. Drums, especially cymbals and vocal will screw up your read out.

You dont really have to play the same riff, or even tune the same, the minor changes in tones dont have a huge effect on the main body of sound.

I usually play the sound im trying to match with a PAZ on the track, then freeze it (the PAZ), then have another PAZ on the 11R track, and go from there. Use your ears too.

Now that I think of it, i grabbed the whole Intro to EQ tutorials from Youtube. So if you want all the videos I'll up them for you. its about 102MB, so it wont take long to download.

I would be all over those videos. I can download them as soon you they are up. Thanks again!

Which version of PAZ would I be going for, TDM or Native?

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Jerry S

I would be all over those videos. I can download them as soon you they are up. Thanks again!

Which version of PAZ would I be going for, TDM or Native?

well you would want RTAS since you are on PT LE. TDM is for Pro Tools HD.

Im uploading them now. I also have some VTC videos i got from youtube uploaded.

[Jerry S]

Originally Posted by Benoni

well you would want RTAS since you are on PT LE. TDM is for Pro Tools HD.

Im uploading them now. I also have some VTC videos i got from youtube uploaded.

Ok cool, so Native it is. I am looking to see what kind of deals are out there for PAZ. I'm seeing $180-$200 so far...

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Jerry S

Ok cool, so Native it is. I am looking to see what kind of deals are out there for PAZ. I'm seeing $180-$200 so far...

if you got 4K laying around, grab the Mercury bundle on eBay.

If you want the VTC Professional Recording videos i got from youtube here it the link.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=28DFO3ZR

there is 20 videos, some about editing, Reverb, Nyquist theory, latency....
about 55MB, so a quick DL.

Youtube is great for free tutorials, but sometimes you have to dig through the dirt to find the diamonds.

If you want to purchase some tutorials, then I highly suggest the ones from www.Lynda.com They have a few that focus on Pro Tools. Like PT8 Essentials, and Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools. Also http://multi-platinum.com/mpp/platinumlabs.html is good, as well as VTC and Groove3.