Michael Nielsen (Big Hairy Guitars ) Ask Me Anything?

Hey Michael, great to see you!
I really dig your channel. You were a major contributor to the vintage rack gear G.A.S. I suffered through during the corona apocalypse. :rofl

You and your partner in crime here Leon really got me hooked. I love it though, they're so much fun! I'm a fan of your Big Hairy Cabs IRs too. I use them for recording all the time. Keep up the good work brudda. :beer
 
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Hey Michael, love the channel.

Big question since you have great taste. I have been playing quite a while and have gone back and forth on gear. I love the idea of tube amps, but I cannot crank them up at all due to other family members in the house and maybe don't want to deal with maintenance on them???

What would you suggest in the way of a perfect STEREO set up to just play at home if cost is not too big of an option? I have a Suhr Modern Pro and a Suhr Classic S Metallic, lots of great effects pedals(Strymon, Keeley, JHS, etc), two 1x12 Fat Baby Zilla Cabinets. Do you love the Synergy stuff? I was just thinking about getting two Fryette PS-2's to use as power amps, then I can use either a modeler or pedals? Looking for all best options.

My apologies for all the questions, I just really admire what you strive for in sound. Long live the 80's!

All the best!
 
Whizzinby said:
Agreed. Vulgar Display of Power might be the best metal guitar tone ever. All balls, tight AF, and sounds like it’s ripping through your speakers.
Click to expand...

Can't help but think Terry Date had a little to do with that. He did the same with Helmet. Definitely
had some "mojo" as a Producer around that time. Loved the drum sounds (kick!) he got on tape, too.
 
@BigHairyGuitars Would love to hear any and all musings on the subject of the Moon Knight score/ soundtrack. Of everything on your very impressive resume, this jumped out at me. I'm a dumb rock guy for the most part, but these Egyptian (etc.) melodies and timbres really resonate for me. I'd love to get some kind of a start on better understanding this music, as both a listener and a musician.

I just stumbled on this article, but it's pretty light fare. Not much that actually relates to the score:

www.forbes.com

‘Moon Knight’ Composer Hesham Nazih Talks The ‘Musically Inviting’ World Of The New Marvel Series

All six episodes of 'Moon Knight' are now streaming on Disney+.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
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Riffraff said:
Hey Michael, great to see you!
I really dig your channel. You were a major contributor to the vintage rack gear G.A.S. I suffered through during the corona apocalypse. :rofl

You and your partner in crime here Leon really got me hooked. I love it though, they're so much fun! I'm a fan of your Big Hairy Cabs IRs too. I use them for recording all the time. Keep up the good work brudda. :beer
Click to expand...
Just watched Deliverance last night :rofl
 
Riffraff said:
Hey Michael, great to see you!
I really dig your channel. You were a major contributor to the vintage rack gear G.A.S. I suffered through during the corona apocalypse. :rofl

You and your partner in crime here Leon really got me hooked. I love it though, they're so much fun! I'm a fan of your Big Hairy Cabs IRs too. I use them for recording all the time. Keep up the good work brudda. :beer
Click to expand...
HA! Awesome! I'm so glad to hear that you like the cabs too! :)
 
cyclingrepublic said:
Hey Michael, love the channel.

Big question since you have great taste. I have been playing quite a while and have gone back and forth on gear. I love the idea of tube amps, but I cannot crank them up at all due to other family members in the house and maybe don't want to deal with maintenance on them???

What would you suggest in the way of a perfect STEREO set up to just play at home if cost is not too big of an option? I have a Suhr Modern Pro and a Suhr Classic S Metallic, lots of great effects pedals(Strymon, Keeley, JHS, etc), two 1x12 Fat Baby Zilla Cabinets. Do you love the Synergy stuff? I was just thinking about getting two Fryette PS-2's to use as power amps, then I can use either a modeler or pedals? Looking for all best options.

My apologies for all the questions, I just really admire what you strive for in sound. Long live the 80's!

All the best!
Click to expand...
I totally understand. I'm in a similar boat at home. If you want to use guitar cabs (which is very satisfying) then maybe go with a Fryette or Synergy stereo power amp. It will be less cumbersome, and 1U. A pair of Power Station's is a great thing as well. OR (what I do) is run a master volume amp with an FX loop in 1 side, and send the FX loop out to a Power Station for the other side. Stereo. BUT, that require a tube amp. Honestly, I've gone through a LOT of amps. The only amps that have ever required maintenance, or even tube changes are 40+ years old. Anything remotely modern should last you pretty much forever. Especially if you're playing at low volumes in a climate controlled home.

OR, you can run into a Power Load IR sorta box, then into a pair of nice studio monitors. That sounds great at very very low volumes, but not as satisfying as a pair of 1x12 cabs. At that point, you can just use a plugin in a computer out to monitors.

Synergy is great. Really is. They're never as HUGE sounding as the real amp counterpart, but definitely capture the characteristics, and sound very good. Totally legit. Most of the modules are great, there's a couple bummer modules, but 9/10 are killer.
 
la szum said:
Can't help but think Terry Date had a little to do with that. He did the same with Helmet. Definitely
had some "mojo" as a Producer around that time. Loved the drum sounds (kick!) he got on tape, too.
Click to expand...

Terry’s really modest about it and I’m not sure if he’s that way out of respect for Vinnie and Dime now that they’re gone or because it really went down that way, but he’s been saying for a while that Vinnie was very hands on and between him and Dime, they both had a very clear vision of what they were going for. Dime with his guitar tone and Vinnie with the overall sound of the album. I have to think there’s a certain amount of modesty because Terry’s body of work speaks for itself.
 
Hey Michael from Welsh Wales in the UK.
I'm addicted to your channel (might need to seek professional help 😃)
All your work is under the microscope so with that in mind are you fussy about your cables ?
Do you have favourites ?
Guitar to board ?
Patch cables ?
Board to amp ?
Cheers Mark
 
mbenigni said:
Would love to hear any and all musings on the subject of the Moon Knight score/ soundtrack. Of everything on your very impressive resume, this jumped out at me. I'm a dumb rock guy for the most part, but these Egyptian (etc.) melodies and timbres really resonate for me. I'd love to get some kind of a start on better understanding this music, as both a listener and a musician.

I just stumbled on this article, but it's pretty light fare. Not much that actually relates to the score:

www.forbes.com

‘Moon Knight’ Composer Hesham Nazih Talks The ‘Musically Inviting’ World Of The New Marvel Series

All six episodes of 'Moon Knight' are now streaming on Disney+.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
Click to expand...

Moon Knight was interesting. I loved the show, it got weird, but still I like it. I loved Moon Knight comics as a kid. The score was definitely interesting. I liked that it was different and went (what seemed like) authentically Egyptian. It's also nice to see a different name in the scoring credits, rather than the same 5 guys all of the time *Marvel, I'm avail! :).

The big action stuff didn't really knock me out. But that's not because it wasn't good, it just felt like big epic action stuff which we do all day. But the stuff I really liked was the more ethereal and textural score parts. That was really cool. Overall, I give it a thumbs up though. Good stuff!
 
DrewJD82 said:
Terry’s really modest about it and I’m not sure if he’s that way out of respect for Vinnie and Dime now that they’re gone or because it really went down that way, but he’s been saying for a while that Vinnie was very hands on and between him and Dime, they both had a very clear vision of what they were going for. Dime with his guitar tone and Vinnie with the overall sound of the album. I have to think there’s a certain amount of modesty because Terry’s body of work speaks for itself.
Click to expand...

Apparently they loathed compression (Vinnie and Dime). Squish it too much and
the Vulgar Display Of Power is neither Vulgar nor Powerful. ;)

Man, if I could have anyone produce an hard rock/metal album it would be Terry.
Kind of crazy how he has confessed that he was never that into "metal" and always
wanted to branch out more, but that's not how things went down.

Very cool guy. Post '80s Hard Rock and Metal would not be what it became without him.
 
DrewJD82 said:
Terry’s really modest about it and I’m not sure if he’s that way out of respect for Vinnie and Dime now that they’re gone or because it really went down that way, but he’s been saying for a while that Vinnie was very hands on and between him and Dime, they both had a very clear vision of what they were going for. Dime with his guitar tone and Vinnie with the overall sound of the album. I have to think there’s a certain amount of modesty because Terry’s body of work speaks for itself.
Click to expand...
JiveTurkey said:
Terry Date's discography is NUTS. Look at all these gems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Date
Click to expand...
Terry is such a legend. Amazing producer and mixer. Listen to his Limp Bizkit records. They're HUGE sounding.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs8aOJKJOhk
I wish they'd put out instrumental versions. 🤣

White Zombie Astro Creep, massive!

Terry produced the first Dream Theater album (When Dream and Day Unite), so ages ago I custom ordered it. it sounded terrible! hahah. I always wondered if he just signed his name to that to help out new band.

In every interview I've read with Terry, he's so minimal. Just great ears, and simple EQ, compression, and puts it all together right!
 
Your videos have inspired me to break out my old Mesa Quad preamp and go analog again after a period of trying to make digital work, but hating menus and struggling to find tones. Is there anything that simulates a power amp the same way Cabinets are simulated with IR's? If my end goal is to play through my studio monitors, how would you go about using the quad?

Thanks for your awesome content, I thoroughly enjoy it!
 
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BigHairyGuitars said:
Terry is such a legend. Amazing producer and mixer. Listen to his Limp Bizkit records. They're HUGE sounding.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs8aOJKJOhk
I wish they'd put out instrumental versions. 🤣

White Zombie Astro Creep, massive!

Terry produced the first Dream Theater album (When Dream and Day Unite), so ages ago I custom ordered it. it sounded terrible! hahah. I always wondered if he just signed his name to that to help out new band.

In every interview I've read with Terry, he's so minimal. Just great ears, and simple EQ, compression, and puts it all together right!
Click to expand...
That's my favorite DT album :bag

Metal Church was AWESOME (David Wayne RIP!) and The Years of Decay is probably my favorite Overkill album :satan
 
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