Smart Harmony issues

[spawn2031]

Hey guys, I am trying to get a particular sound out of the smart harmony,  the kind of sound common in Bullet for my Valentine songs and Avenged Sevenfold.  You can hear an example in Bat Country in Synester's solo around the 2:50 mark.  My issue I guess is with everything in the settings.  Where is the best place to put this at in the chain and what kind of harmony is that?  They usually play in drop D tuning.  I've going through all of them one at a time but am not having much luck.  Any help or pushes in the right direction would help out a ton guys.  Thanks!

[CrispyFunk]

  i would  set a pitch glide to +12 and mix to 50% , after that add the smart harmony set it to Key D, scale minor, shift 3rd. that should get you in the ball park. 

 

i would put that after your amp before any reverb. youll have to play around with the high gain amps to get the tone you want good luck

 

you can try to move the pitch glide in front of the high gain amp and the smart harmony after the amp.maybe a compressor after the smart harmony if you think it needs it.

[stumblinman]

I use smart harmony at the start of my chains to get the most pure signal for tracking. You may want to put one in each mixer path(L and R) so the pitch glide and harmony don't trample each other and then put your amp just after the mixer to sum them. Then add your other effects to round it out. Good luck!

[pianoguyy]

Drop D tunings has nothing to do with the Key of D minor. 

[CrispyFunk]

if the Pitch glide is not in front of the harmony you wont get the correct harmonizing tone , i think (shrug) im not really sure 8) but i think the tone your needing is a 10th and the harmonizer stops at 9th so to get it up to a 10th you would need the octave before the 3rd 

[mdmayfield]

an example in Bat Country in Synester's solo around the 2:50 mark.  My issue I guess is with everything in the settings.  Where is the best place to put this at in the chain and what kind of harmony is that?

 

Sounds to me like multiple layered tracks of guitar. Although I'm unfamiliar with this style of music, it sounds like the same harmonizing technique as used by Boston or Queen.

 

To simulate this in the HD500 live with one guitarist, the key is to put the harmony *after* the amp model (though probably before any reverbs or delays). That way, it'll sound like two separate guitar tracks, instead of like two notes played by one guitar.

 

Note that you must play only one note at a time for this to work. Any double-stops or chords will cause the Smart Harmony to glitch out, which can be interesting, but it's too unpredictable for most styles.

 

The exact key and shift settings will be based on music theory and the composition of the song. I'd suggest first trying just one Smart Harmony in the key of the song with a shift of + or - a 3rd, depending on whether you're physically playing the lower or higher of the two harmonized tracks.

[musical1212]

The tuning (Drop D) doesn't matter but the key that the song is in does matter. Sounds to me like the key of Dm with following chords Gm, Cm, A7 for starters. So, choose Dm for the key of the harmonizer and a 3rd (not -3rd). If you are having trouble hearing it, play the notes of the scale slowly while you are looping the lead section of the song. The scale would be D pure minor which are the same notes as F major. That would be D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and C. You could start out using the Master Puppet Solo patch 08A on the best of HD in Bank 1 of the original HD500X sounds and just change the key to Dm.

[spawn2031]

Thanks a ton for all the good suggestions here guys I will try them all out and see what gets the closest.  Musical1212, yes the Master of Puppets solo is very close to that sound... I must have missed that patch when I was going through the pod originally.  I'll get back with you all and let you know what had the best effect.  Thanks again all!

[wilson69978]

Another, happy camper!  Good job everyone.