blending amp sounds together

[warhead]

Can someone tell me something about blending different amp sounds together? I`m going to studio in January next year. What`s the "theory" behind blending different amps sounds. I personally have a Framus Cobra(a monster amp by itself). The guys at the sutio have a few Marshalls and a Triple Rectifier. If I could get more poweful sound with blending my amp with another, I`d go for it.
And I play Death/Thrash.

[data187]

Re: blending amp sounds together

i have no studio experience with this.
however, i was using a duoverb one day which lets me play 2 amp models, one on the left and one on the right speakers.
i was using a slo model only and it sounded kind of muddy. i decided to use a recto on left and a slo on right and all of a sudden, magic. the amp sounded great and i was sold on mixing amp sounds together.
i don;t know how it would work in a studio setting, but i would imagine it to be the same.

[markD]

Re: blending amp sounds together

i blend amps all the time. i'll set up one amp to have all the highs for more cut (really it's just tweaked to be brighter than my live tone), and another amp that's "muddy". i also run more gain on one amp, and set the other just a bit dirty. sometimes i'll add another amp that's totally clean, and then another with a fuzz face or big muff to fill out the mids. the important part is to think of each amp taking a specific frequency in the "soundscape" of the song. it gets tough sometimes because you need to leave room for the bass guitar and kick drum (that's where 99% of the meat in your song comes from).

for instance, blending a rectifier with a 5150 makes a great tone. you get the highs and the cut from the rectifier and the mids and higher bass from the 5150. you let the bass guitar handle the lows.

if you blend a couple of amps that are pretty distorted play with how you pan them. but if you blend the amps and you use moderate gain, it's easier to get a crushing sound because the tones will be more distinct.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: blending amp sounds together

hell if you have the tracks just run multiple amps simultanouesly while you record. Have fun afterwards during mixing. It it is better if you have slightly different amp tones tho. I used to run a few amps live all the time, at least two would be on all the time for distortion and just a 3rd for clean parts. You can get some cool sounds. For metal playing I found that a cleaner JCM800 distortion with an overdriven JCM800 sounded great to my ears. When you turned one or the other off it was a huge difference to me. The two mixed were perfect together. It does take a fair amount of experimentation but I think its cool.

The same goes with different guitars on different takes and mixing them together...so much you can do. You should play around (experiment) before you go in the studio so the dollar meter isn't on while you figure what will and will not work for you [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[ June 24, 2004, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: Shawn Lutz ]

[jgcable]

Re: blending amp sounds together

Here are good amp blends for a high gain metal sound tried out on a Vetta:
Marshall Jubilee and Peavey 5150
Marshall Plexi and Engl Powerball
Ubershall and Soldano SLO100
In the studio using regular amps we would record 2 identical tracks for a base rhythm. Most of the time they were a Marshall JCM800 and a Mesa Dual Rectifier. The Marshall had the mids up,the gain dimed out, it was turned up REALLY loud and it was mic'd off axis with another mic across the room. The Mesa had a soft V EQ and was recorded half as loud as the Marshall with plenty of gain and bottom but with a mic directly in front of the speaker.We would then mix them and then bounce both tracks to 1.

[warhead]

Re: blending amp sounds together

Thanx very much for advices guys. You really gave me a lot of info!!
I think that probably the biggest problem will be with leaving enough space for bass and drums. But I guess that the producer should do some work too [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
It would be great if I had all the amps on disposal before going into the studio, but that`s not the case.
But I`ll think that I`ll definitelly try scooped AND more middy sound just with my Cobra, Marshall for a bit of higher end and Recto for whatever.....man...... how will that turn out....I hope It`ll all go well.

[Fragle]

Re: blending amp sounds together

i also have only very limited studio experience but i guess you would play one track with your framus, then go back and double it with the rectifier and mix it together. you can also try to double certain parts with your framus but different settings....so for example one time you play that riff with a scooped sound and then double it with a middy one.

i guess james hetfield (for rythm) and randy rhoads (for lead) are masters of double/triple/whatever guitars. if i recall correctly there are certain parts in for example "to live is to die" that have 12 guitars running at the same time - not counting lead guitars. if you want a really thick sound i suggest playing every riff about 6 times: 3 times with your usual framus sound, panning left-middle-right, then using for example the rectifier and playing it another 2 times, panning it left and right, and then play it a last time with your framus, but a different setting and pan it in the middle.....ive done this once (not in the studio, but a pc recording) and hell, it sounded great. the tracks by themselves sounded kinda weak, but together they absolutely crushed. a pity that i lost that mp3 (because of fuckin windows [img]graemlins/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] )

of course its a lot of work, and your playing has to be absolutely tight or it will sound like shit [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

greets
fragle

ps: one thing you could also try is playing a bass heavy scooped sound with little top end with lets say the rectifier, and then go back and use the marshalls for the top end. metallica did this for the black album (or maybe justice? dont know...)

[El Bastardo]

Re: blending amp sounds together

For me blending multiple amps was definately working out. I can only suggest you try this with those marshalls and boogies at the studio and see if it works for you.

Cheers,

Leon..