"Rush" to Judgement about my tone!

rpmartino · Post by **rpmartino** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:35 pm

I thought I'd share a little rough experiment I put together in my first attempt to get a decent recorded Rickenbacker tone (my 4001v63). The title gives away the big influence... I'd be happy to get some constructive feedback good or bad.

http://wavearts.com/Rob/mp3/RushToJudgement.mp3

Rob
http://robmartino.com

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:58 pm

I like it. It's got a good beat. I give it a 9.

Seriously, I do like it. Your tone is very similar to my favorite Rickenbacker sound. It also reminds me of a certain Canadian bassist's tone.

bobcat · Post by **bobcat** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:04 pm

It sounds really, really cool. I like your bass sound (it's a Ric, of course I'd like it . . .), and the song itself is very driving and cool . . . my compliments to your drummer as well.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:08 pm

Good playing and good tone ... if you want to sound more like Geddy then lower the action and hit the strings harder ... but it sounds good the way it is ... it has a nice warm sound ...

the only thing I suggest is to add a some compression ... and maybe a little distortion ... that is my taste ... I go for the John Wetton sound a lot ...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:24 pm

Rob, that's very sweet tone...and a nice composition! Did you play all the instruments? There is one part about 55 seconds in that really reminded me of Natural Science...in a good way! One of my fave Rush songs!

nattiep · Post by **nattiep** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:03 pm

Wow... That's an amazing sound. Good song too.

Actually it reminds me more of "Cygnus X-1" than "Natural Science". But that's just me.

The tone I'm driving for is Ged's sound on "A Farewell to Kings".

thinneckrick · Post by **thinneckrick** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:42 pm

Has a great Geddy feel . Cant go wrong there !

anoukane · Post by **anoukane** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:28 am

Nice sound! Not really the Geddy sound Im looking for(cinderella man, farewell to kings). Maybe a little overdrive would do the trick. The song is very nice! Good job!

henny · Post by **henny** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:01 am

It's very clunky, almost plughole-like.

I can see the attraction. Not my cuppa' per tone, however - good composition.

Well done.

bob_the_bass · Post by **bob_the_bass** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:11 am

Rob .. love the sound (pick or plucking ?)
Good playing as well

Bob

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:23 am

Rob ... for comparison here's my bass tone on a few sound clips ... http://www.3dentourage.com/425/jeffbass.htm

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:24 am

Great sound, how did you find a guitarist willing to play like that.[LOL]

rpmartino · Post by **rpmartino** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:20 am

Wow you guys are very kind!

Thanks for the comments.

I do notice that the harder I dig in the more Geddy-like it gets (like the section about 55 sec in that sounds like Natural Science... I admit the piece is more of a Rush ripoff than a composition) It's funny that tone that sounds good by itself isn't always great in a mix and vice-versa. When I'm really wacking the strings and getting all kinds of nasty fret buzz it ends up sounding OK in the contaxt of the "band".

Other times I notice the tone gets a little more clunky in the lower end and looses some depth, when I listen closely to Hemispheres or Signals I notice Geddy is able to get a rich somewhat overdriven kind of sound way down to the low E... when I try to increase the preamp gain or distortion I start to lose definition and it gets "flubby" for lask of a better description. I may try experimenting with dual chain setup where I process the low end and higher end separately.

Then again I'm hardly taking a purist approach to my amplification... both the guitar and bass are processed completely on the computer with Native Instrument's Guitar Rig software, which I find is a huge step forward in the amp/cabinet simulation field (I suppose it may never be like the real thing, but it's getting better). I played a Godin Exit 22 for the guitar parts and tapped the drum parts in with a MIDI drum pad, using a software based sampler (Kompakt). Tapping the parts is more prone to errors but I prefer it to using pre-made loops and rigid quantized drum parts, since there is more of a "human" feel to it. It was all recorded in Logic.

In this particular setup I'm using a Rectifier amp model for the basic Rick tone, the next version of Guitar Rig will actually have an Ampeg SVT model which I'm anxious to try out.

Nice tone Jeff... you've got some of that thicker bottom end I'm looking for... are you using more traditional amp/miced speaker approach to recording?

I have more info and sound clips (albeit not RIck related) at my general website, I've also been focusing on the Chapman Stick a lot lately.

Rob
http://robmartino.com

rpmartino · Post by **rpmartino** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:49 am

Oh yeah.. I'm plucking between the two pickups. I need to let my fingernails grow a bit longer, as it's much easier to dig in that way.

I tend to lose my fingernails when one of my Boston sports teams is playing important and/or close games (baseball playoffs last month, Patriots this month)...bad habit.

Rob
http://robmartino.com

anoukane · Post by **anoukane** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:05 am

Jeff-->
I like your tone on "its been a while". How did you get that sound? With the Bass Pod?