How Authentic Can You Create A Song Or Artist Sound?

[jbailes 3]

Just wondering, for those of you who like to play along with your favorite cds or play covers, how "authentic" can you get your sound to that of a particular song or artist? Or do you just try to ballpark it.

I just spent the last hour or so listening to 4 Metallica cds, all of which had very different tones, and some where quite convincing, almost to where I couldn't tell the difference between the cd and my guitar. But others, well, close but no cigar. Master of Puppets seems to have the same guitar tone throughout and is very aggressive. Had to go insane green w/ eq+boost and still wasn't scooped enough. There seems to be some mids in the amp that just can't quite get all the way out.

Forgive me if I sound a little too OCD, I was just wondering if any others were going through the same thing.

[jbailes 3]

^{Do you guys just read my posts so you can download my thumbnails?}

[fflbrgst 1,845]

Your attached pictures aren't big enough to warrant copying!  ;-)

 

What you have to remember is that any particular artist's "sound" is a combination of: 1) instrument/pickups; 2) FX - could be outboard FX as stompboxes, through an FX loop or internal to the amp; 3) amp/speakers; 4) how it was recorded (which could include the room/studio).  Trying to get exactly the same sound is nearly impossible.

 

As a musician, you hear many more nuances and details on a sound that the typical (non-musician) listener does not hear.  If you are trying to duplicate a band's sound for live performance, another factor is the overall volume.  As you have noticed with your Spider amp, the tone changes as you crank it up and you need to adjust both EQ and FX accordingly.

[jbailes 3]

My primary "template" was just listening to songs on my computer and playing along with them, and trying to adjust gain and tonality on the fly with the edit software.

[Natedog_37 0]

You can get them close and the Artist setting on the 150 are about spot on.  But like said above pickups etc do make a difference.  You can get close though.

 

I know the 5 finger death punch and Metallica are close.

[jbailes 3]

hahahahaha...you got that right, bud. I think Het field got his right arm chopped off and replaced it with a bionic arm! But most of my guitars have emgs, so that should help a lot.

You can get them close and the Artist setting on the 150 are about spot on.  But like said above pickups etc do make a difference.  You can get close though.

 

I know the 5 finger death punch and Metallica are close.

[michaelg131 0]

The "Deftones" button on the amp is about spot on up to Koi No Yokan's tone.  It also translates nicely at high volumes.  My spider IV might make my 6505+ collect some dust.

[jbailes 3]

The "Deftones" button on the amp is about spot on up to Koi No Yokan's tone.  It also translates nicely at high volumes.  My spider IV might make my 6505+ collect some dust.

Back when I had mine, it was the 5150 II and I used a recto cab with it. I had absolutely no need for anything else.

[jbailes 3]

I'll tell ya what's hard, though, is trying to create a decent BLS sound. Zakk, while using a 6 string guitar, will take a .060 gauge low E string and take it down to C or B or even A where the string's just about flappin' in the wind! He must use really high action on his fiddles.

[rjryerson 0]

For my process of learning, that's probably the most important aspect. The closer I am to the sound the more fun I have and more likely to feel that I should play it live. If I don't find it, or it's not close enough I tend to shy away and definitely won't play it until I find it.

 

In my experience, the sounds are different from song to song - at least on the studio recorded version. I am finding a lot of stuff live, it's generally a generic sound.

 

I also find it difficult to start from scratch when discovering the song's sound. At least that's my problem. Also, the settings I find online is generally over-driven too much. Granted, you talked about FFDP and Metallica, some very distorted sounds - but they do have limits.

 

How authentic can I get? Pretty damn authentic. But, other people have told me that. It also takes me a long time to perfect the sound. Yeah, the sound is 90% of the process right there. At least that's my motto.

[ampy2000 0]

Good comments here. The more you work with the Spider 4 the more you'll find out how good it really is. I have a Spider 3 120 and a Spider 4 120 and I always get amazed how much is available in these economy priced amps.

[jbailes 3]

For my process of learning, that's probably the most important aspect. The closer I am to the sound the more fun I have and more likely to feel that I should play it live. If I don't find it, or it's not close enough I tend to shy away and definitely won't play it until I find it.

 

 

I'm very much the same way. It's important to have a tone that inspires. Lately, I've been experimenting with the amp to find various blues/vintage rock tones.

[Natedog_37 0]

Best tip I have here is though you need to practice at the volume you are going to play live with.  Which for my band is about 25% volume on this head in the bars..  I before I learned that I had tones that sounded killer at 50% volume but once backed down I was like what the #$(_#$#$

 

This sounds like poo.

 

Also I do notice I am backing off some of lows with my Gibson but adding lows with my Ibanez.  Which I come to expect.

 

I have stopped using my GNX4 though and for the most part using the amp, and a Metal Zone pedal. 

 

Taking some getting use to but liking it.  Getting a true Studder FX is next.

 

One thing I miss from my GNX is the YA YAA wah.  It was cool to use on some songs.