Michael Nielsen (Big Hairy Guitars ) Ask Me Anything?

[bbunk]

Hi!

Thanks!

The British Green, and more recently the Alien Green is my favorite TwoNotes / IR cab.

You know, I have to agree with you on the Matchless cab. That cab belonged to the session great Greg Leisz. It's a pretty good specimen. Matchless grill clothes are REALLY thick, and they have wood across the center of the speaker cone to cut down on the highs. Maybe in the capture that translates too dark and thick. To be honest, with a normal amp, the cab sounds dark and thick, but with an ice picky bright amp, it's great.

Ha - I read this, killed any cut on the Matchless sim, dialed up the tone knob and let it go negative feedback-less crazy, and - yeah, I think I get it now. I might have to try something crazy like having tonex model the FM3's Bad Cat and 'Hot' AC-30, and give those a demo through it.

I tried comparing Tonex's launch SLO-100 captures with the BHS Sold pack, swapping out both for a balanced Greenback set of IR's to just hear what they did in the Amp section. I'm not sure what I expected, but the Tonex ones were...not great. I don't think I learned anything from it, because it felt more like they just hadn't gotten the best out of the amp, not that the capture was bad. Well - I did learn that the 'Chunk' profiles you did on the Sold pack, through pretty much IR I throw it into that isn't too dark, with just a little High-Pass to focus on that low-mid girth is chef's kiss spectacular. The gift that keeps giving!

I guess all I really 'learned' is that I definitely want to hear what you're going to do with Tonex. Can't wrangle a hint on when we can try some of those out???

 

[MichaelB]

Hi, me again. I was wondering how you ended up with Vai's cabinets? Auctions? If so I'm going to the wrong ones. lol.
I was trying out the two notes software (mostly because of Vai's cabs) but it took me a while to find something that worked for me. I think you just get partial to a sound of an IR and everything else doesn't sound quite right, and I've been using Neural DSP's for the IR's out of my amp and preamps (and amp tones... Abasi, Cali, Gojira and Rabea). I'll sift through them again before the trial is up though. I like how it's set up. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it...unless you don't know of it's broke...

Listening to your soundtrack and video game work, which is cool. How do you and your partner work together on the composing?

Cheers and thanks.

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for the response. Long time Logic Pro user here too.

On the subject of guitar rack preamps, if you can find an old Jackson JX-3 I'd grab one. I believe Laney made them for Jackson at the time. 1992-93ish I believe. Like an idiot I sold my original one, and the replacement is barely hanging on. Epic 80's shred...even has a "shred" button on the front.

replying to myself here:
FYI I was wrong about Laney, they had nothing to do with them apparently. My search continues...

 

[woody]

Hey Michael,
I have a question that finally condensed in my head, and perhaps you know the answer:
How do you set your amp's master volume when recording with a load box and IRs?
I really struggle with feeling a definitive "best spot" here with some amps.

With physical cabs I find this pretty easy: turn the knob until it has the right amount of cabinet involvement and room excitement and I'm good. Point a mic and be happy.
With load boxes and IRs there is no speaker excursion or cabinet involvement thresholds or room reaction.
Some amps will just cave in with the master set too high, but with some amps there is a big zone of sonic indifference and that's just unsettling.
Do you have any advice on that?

 

[Harley90]

Hi Michael, love the Taco 2 review and the JJ Jr review, gonna buy one.
I tend to play the same stuff as the style you play in demos - VanHalen 1 being the lightest rock to Megadeth, Airborne. Guitars are Suhrs, Les Pauls, EVH's... high gain guy, straight into the amp.
Home player only, occasional jam with friends, no drummer. Low volumes mostly, I have 2 single 16ohm V30 cabs.

Can you recommend the JJ or the Taco 2 based on that type of playing, gear?

 

[santiall]

Hi Michael, nice to meet you here.
I got some questions regarding monitoring when recording guitars... how do you handle natural feedback when recording with IRs for example. My experience is that the guitar tends to feedback at whatever unrelated frequency, mostly independent of what guitar I am using, but it is difficult to make the guitar feedback naturally. I usually resort to having a real guitar amp besides me but I'm curious what your experience with this is.
Also, do you use any "flat" room compensation like Sonarworks/SoundID or the likes?
thanks!

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Ha - I read this, killed any cut on the Matchless sim, dialed up the tone knob and let it go negative feedback-less crazy, and - yeah, I think I get it now. I might have to try something crazy like having tonex model the FM3's Bad Cat and 'Hot' AC-30, and give those a demo through it.

I tried comparing Tonex's launch SLO-100 captures with the BHS Sold pack, swapping out both for a balanced Greenback set of IR's to just hear what they did in the Amp section. I'm not sure what I expected, but the Tonex ones were...not great. I don't think I learned anything from it, because it felt more like they just hadn't gotten the best out of the amp, not that the capture was bad. Well - I did learn that the 'Chunk' profiles you did on the Sold pack, through pretty much IR I throw it into that isn't too dark, with just a little High-Pass to focus on that low-mid girth is chef's kiss spectacular. The gift that keeps giving!

I guess all I really 'learned' is that I definitely want to hear what you're going to do with Tonex. Can't wrangle a hint on when we can try some of those out???

I wasn't blown away with most of the stock ToneX amps. They seem to have designed the interface for the player that has 1 amp, and captures 1 amp. NOT, for someones capturing a LOT of amps and a lot of captures. So, creating pack is slow. I'm starting with a Mesa pack, with a Triaxis, Quad, and Studio Preamp in 1 pack. Hopefully I'll have that cleaned up and ready to go in a couple weeks. Then on to the CAE 3+.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Hi, me again. I was wondering how you ended up with Vai's cabinets? Auctions? If so I'm going to the wrong ones. lol.
I was trying out the two notes software (mostly because of Vai's cabs) but it took me a while to find something that worked for me. I think you just get partial to a sound of an IR and everything else doesn't sound quite right, and I've been using Neural DSP's for the IR's out of my amp and preamps (and amp tones... Abasi, Cali, Gojira and Rabea). I'll sift through them again before the trial is up though. I like how it's set up. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it...unless you don't know of it's broke...

Listening to your soundtrack and video game work, which is cool. How do you and your partner work together on the composing?

Cheers and thanks.

It was one particular auction. They also were selling one of Vai's Jose Mod Marshalls. I got blown out of the water on the Marshall auction, but I went hard on the cab. It was stupid expensive. haha

I find the Neural IR's fairly scooped. I tried the GGD Nolly IR's. They sound boxy and dark. So much of it has to do with how you setup your amp. I find that my, Dave Friedman and Pete Thorn's captures play nicely together. I think that's because we have a similar sensibility in what we like in an amp.

Thanks! We've been buds and worked together for 20+ years. These days we don't really compose anything together. We do run stuff by each other often. It's great to get a fresh set of ears sometimes. We have a studio together and our rooms are right next to each other, so it's easy just to pop my head in next door.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Hey Michael,
I have a question that finally condensed in my head, and perhaps you know the answer:
How do you set your amp's master volume when recording with a load box and IRs?
I really struggle with feeling a definitive "best spot" here with some amps.

With physical cabs I find this pretty easy: turn the knob until it has the right amount of cabinet involvement and room excitement and I'm good. Point a mic and be happy.
With load boxes and IRs there is no speaker excursion or cabinet involvement thresholds or room reaction.
Some amps will just cave in with the master set too high, but with some amps there is a big zone of sonic indifference and that's just unsettling.
Do you have any advice on that?

Yes. with load boxes, the master volume is more of a "thick / tight" knob. I sometimes volume 2 is best for more chugga chugga metal, because you need the tightness and headroom for the low end. Most often I end up at about 4 on most amps, that seems to fill out the body of the tone, but doesn't get too fat and saturated. On my 71 Super Lead it wants to be on 10 though. It's very unnerving with the amp is sending out volume from the power tubes as loud as a practice amp!

I live between 9:00 and 11:00 mostly.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Hi Michael, love the Taco 2 review and the JJ Jr review, gonna buy one.
I tend to play the same stuff as the style you play in demos - VanHalen 1 being the lightest rock to Megadeth, Airborne. Guitars are Suhrs, Les Pauls, EVH's... high gain guy, straight into the amp.
Home player only, occasional jam with friends, no drummer. Low volumes mostly, I have 2 single 16ohm V30 cabs.

Can you recommend the JJ or the Taco 2 based on that type of playing, gear?

Taco2. The JJ is phenomenal is you need a clean channel though. You can always run a Synergy Syn-1 or a preamp pedal through the Taco2 FX loop for a clean tone (4 cable). The JJ gain is also amazing, but it's more clearly in the metal direction. The Taco 2 does the metal, but also VH, and ACDC

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Hi Michael, nice to meet you here.
I got some questions regarding monitoring when recording guitars... how do you handle natural feedback when recording with IRs for example. My experience is that the guitar tends to feedback at whatever unrelated frequency, mostly independent of what guitar I am using, but it is difficult to make the guitar feedback naturally. I usually resort to having a real guitar amp besides me but I'm curious what your experience with this is.
Also, do you use any "flat" room compensation like Sonarworks/SoundID or the likes?
thanks!

Yeah, that's really hard to capture. Sometimes the guitar to amp into load box just sings. But it's hard to get that natural feedback.

I do you SoundID at my home studio. I can easily live without it, but when I'm deeeeep into mixing I'll turn it on to help tame a little bump at 160hz. I usually set it to about 30%, but 100% can reveal sound interesting things in the mix, but the presentation is a little unnatural at 100%. it's a good tool though.

 

[VegasGuitar]

Michael,

Do you plan to do a profile set for the Mezzabarba Nirvana preamp that you demoed? That demo was grreat!

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Michael,

Do you plan to do a profile set for the Mezzabarba Nirvana preamp that you demoed? That demo was grreat!

Yes, next year some time.

 

[David Lo Pan]

 

[la szum]

John Sykes did an album of material with Ray Gillen?? Say whut?!

 

[JiveTurkey]

These amps sound

Are these new versions of these amps @BigHairyGuitars ? Do we need to look for V1 or V2 when shopping for them? The Hot Cat is particularly appealing \m/

 

[Stone]

Hello Michael really enjoyed your show on Zakk The shaved years
man you nailed the tones and the playing very informative video
I enjoyed it

Cheers

 

[Eagle]

HI Michael,
I wanted to ask someone that I KNOW has classic reverbs and delays and knows how to use them.
Is it just me or is the Eventide H9 /H90 just not as good sounding as the older H4000 racks and the delays and reverbs are just incapable of a half decent rendition of the PCM42 and TC2290 . I think the factor pedals sound better and they are supposed to have the same algorithms. There is also a sheen over the sound in ALL the algorithms that I can't get rid of.
A difficult one I know but am I just programmed to like the old classics that I grew up listening too and then playing through?
Or are we all just accepting a cut in audio quality for connivence the same as everyone seems happy to take with audio equipment.

 

[dk_ace]

HI Michael,
I wanted to ask someone that I KNOW has classic reverbs and delays and knows how to use them.
Is it just me or is the Eventide H9 /H90 just not as good sounding as the older H4000 racks and the delays and reverbs are just incapable of a half decent rendition of the PCM42 and TC2290 . I think the factor pedals sound better and they are supposed to have the same algorithms. There is also a sheen over the sound in ALL the algorithms that I can't get rid of.
A difficult one I know but am I just programmed to like the old classics that I grew up listening too and then playing through?
Or are we all just accepting a cut in audio quality for connivence the same as everyone seems happy to take with audio equipment.

I’m curious for his take on this too. I’ve been tempted to track down a PCM unit just to see what I’m missing (if anything). I haven’t mainly because I don’t want to go back to lugging around a rack unit.

D

 

[DavidK_4545]

Michael,
I just bought a used Runt 20 head and love the video review you did on it. I am always surprised at how little info is in the manual on using the XLR out from the back of the head. How did you hook up to your interface/DAW? and set the inputs.
I have an Apollo Solo or a Focusrite Scarlett. Is it XLR straight to XLR on the Interface. I know if I cross over to a 1/4" jack on the Apollo it treats it as high Z input. As its already load emulated I guess just an input with no cab etc loaded onto it..