Hi all - I'm a new HD Pro user, and a complete noob when it comes to multi-FX units, looping, etc (used individual stompboxes for years and years, however). Hoping for suggestions / answers to a tricky situation I need to solve for a particular song: "Moonchild" by Iron Maiden, which I'm doing with a tribute band that I just joined in the Dave Murray role and which just added this song to the setlist for a gig coming up in 3 weeks.
In this song, there is a single acoustic guitar under the start of the intro. As the last acoustic chord rings out, a distorted, sustained power chord swell comes in underneath, and shortly after that the other guitarist comes in with a melody. So I need to execute that power-chord swell, while the last acoustic chord is still ringing out. The overlap between the two different sounds is not very long, but there does need to be a little overlap between the decay of the acoustic chord and the distorted power chord swelling in.
Can I do either of the following to achieve this, while keeping the two tones separate, and if so, how?
(1) Use some sort of effect on my acoustic patch to prolong the sustain of that last chord while I switch to a distorted tone, turn my volume knob down, hit the low-E power chord, and then swell it? Or:
(2) Record that power-chord swell as a loop, and trigger the loop right after I hit the last acoustic chord so it comes in while the acoustic part is still ringing out, and switch to my distorted rhythm patch while the loop plays back?
The real Iron Maiden does this song live today using three guitarists - Dave does the acoustic part, Janick hits the power-chord swell, and Adrian comes in with the melody. When Maiden had only two guitarists, they did this song live with the intro as playback from the album, then switched to live playing at the beginning of the verse as the band ran out onto the stage (as they did with Aces High when they started the show with that song). We've gotta do it with only two guitars.
I'm running the HD Pro with mono output into one channel of a Marshall 9005 power amp, output mono into the speaker cab with the other channel unused. So if any suggestions involve stereo operation, I'll have to change my setup somewhat. Thanks!