Best Way Of Getting A Dual Guitar Sound? (i.e. Thin Lizzy)

[Magiciv]

1st post! Up to now I've managed to survive via the forums and patch downloads for my new HD500X.  I play in a 3-piece rock covers band (UK) and have found my new toy (3 months old now) to be certainly up for it when it comes to delivering the sound required to make a small band sound big!

 

I currently run the POD into 2 amps (left to a Marshall, right to a Trace Elliot) to help spread the sound - will be working on the setup through the PA soon but until then this will do.

 

I have downloaded quite a few patches but as yet have not found one that gives that dual-guitar sound with a harmony (octave) so that I can get that Thin Lizzy sound during certain parts of the song.   To me, a lot of stuff either sounds really bad OR starts good but then goes squiffy!  (maybe I haven't found the right one yet).

 

I have also tried messing about with the patches and settings, and also trying to make my own work but just cannae get it right, captain!   Maybe adding more than one harmoniser into a chain would help?

 

If anyone could point me in the direction of some good patches they've found or created, OR even give me a few pointers for creating that harmonised sound I'd appreciate it.  Having forked out for this good bit of kit I really don't want to go out and buy an actual harmony pedal.

 

Thanks for any input.

[jandrio]

Try something like the attached demo patch.

The "smart harmony" is located on path A, is controlled by FS2, and has VARIABLE KEY+SCALE params, controlled by the EXP-2 pedal.

So, the max position gives you B-Harmonic-Minor, whereas min position changes to A-Major (Hotel California style).

Also, the mixer is slightly panned 22% L & R, you could change to 100% L & R for the dual amps.

 

PS

This is NOT a Thin Lizzy patch.

2HC Bharm-min+Amajor.zip

[Magiciv]

Thanks for that - I'll have a play with it once the missus stops hassling me to go shoppong, wrap pressies, and put up the decorations!   Merry Xmas.

[MIKEY9966]

Try one amp clean with a comp and other high gain dial in the tone and vol

[gckelloch]

Hehe, where'd you get that idea MIKEY! ;) Yeah, that might not be quite what he is talking about, but it's a good place to start. 

 

If you just use an octave pitch, you don't need to worry about the key you're in.  If you run a smart harmonizer after distortion, it might get confused as to where the pitch is and it might spaz out whenever you play chords.  The "Pitch Glide" pedal might be what you are after.  Just set it to an octave.  If you set it up an octave,  you might want o use an eq to roll off the highs above ~4.5kHz so it doesn't sound so much like a sped up recording of a guitar, like those old Les Paul recordings did.

[AParedes]

there are a couple ways to go about this as already discussed, but I wanted to add one point: the "mix" on the smart harmony seems to be "even" around 33-35% for most of the applications I have used when creating dual guitar sounds such as Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, etc.  I tend to put these after the cab/mic modeling which sounds more "natural" to my ear (but use whatever works best for you).  If you decide to use this approach, these links show examples of how to program for the two/three part harmonies.

 

Brian May-style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQGFTCQ1LE&feature=youtu.be

 

JImmy Page-Style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1t0FYTu5RM&feature=youtu.be

[ftuller]

I played around with the pitch glide through headphones in a single amp patch and got the best results at the front of the chain at 50% mix. Not that what I found is ground breaking but here is what I came up with...

 

+12 octave up, -12 octave down of course. +5 single notes with distortion gave a decent 2 note power chord tone (perhaps useful for fast playing). +7 gave a decent harmony. +0.1 clean gave a nice chorus sound. +0.1 with distortion provided some depth to single notes which could be good for a solo. +0.3 gave a tremolo tone. -12 with the exp pedal max 0 and min -12 let's you use the pedal like a whammy bar. 

 

I also had decent success with the pitch glide +0.1 mix 50% in path B (in a single amp patch with a digital delay 50 ms in path A for thickening purposes) for single notes for soloing.

 

As gckelloch mentioned, the pitch glide seems to add some high end so you may want to account for that.

[jandrio]

@AndyParedes:

 

Andy, I totally agree with you, regarding the placement & mix of the smart harmony..

However, for stereo sounds, I would place the smart harmony on path A or B, after amp/cab/mic, raise the mix around 50% and pan the mixer left/right.

Check my  demo patch above.