22 Mar Breaking News: Back in Black Tone Found? (AUDIO UPDATE)
Another one, this one is “You Shook Me All Night Long”
Same settings as for the solo, guitar on 6-6.5
Slightly different equalization, moved towards 3khz
Author: SoloDallas
19 Mar AC/DC’s “Back in Black”: THE Tutorial (Rhythm)
Back in Black tutorial from SoloDallas on Vimeo.
Okay, so the moment has come. One of the reasons I did this blog thing, was for this: tutorials.
Let’s concentrate from now on and for a good while, on AC/DC (tutorials-wise, I mean), “heroes” of Rock and Roll for many of us here. Will also do some other bands as time goes by.
As it was for my very first tutorial I did on YouTube, “Back in Black” was first, and I wanted to replicate this also here. (more…)
19 Mar John Mayer & Keith Urban Live Solo Clip
Whoa, this is something worth watching.
Please.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad7lenMmYJI[/youtube]
18 Mar Updated: The “What Do You Want Me To Do Next” Post: Top 10 update
Fil’s Update as of Fri March 18th: Shooting of the first tutorial officially begins. Today will be the day of the Back in Black tutorial.
Rhythm and Solo.
Thanks for voting! I plan on doing a few of these before I leave for a two weeks long trip. I will try to leave you with a bunch of hopefully tutorials to work on.
Love,
Fil 🙂
Top 10 Update as per March 07 by Banane
1. Back in Black
2. You Shook Me All Night Long
3. Hells Bells
4. Highway To Hell
5. If You Want Blood
6. Whole lotta Rosie
7. Down payment blues (8 and most votes)
8. Stiff upper lip (8 votes, same as No. 7, had to throw a coin)
9. Ballbreaker (8 votes)
10. Rock’n Roll ain’t noise pollution (7 votes)
Not so much changes in the last week. Ballbreaker got one more vote, so Rock’n Roll ain’t noise pollution went from 9. to 10. Beating around the Bush got 2 more votes, so the next ones after Rock’n Roll ain’t noise pollution are now: Beating around the Bush (5 votes), Bad Boy Boogie (5 votes). All other songs got only 4 votes and below.
We had also request for songs from other bands like Peter Green, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Free, Bad Company, Foreigner, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith. Maybe Fil is somday in a mood to play them 🙂
Have a nice week!
Banane (more…)
18 Mar More on Mic Techniques (never enough)
Shamless Plug from ProGuitarShop
Mic Techniques
Often times, in our quest for the ultimate tone, we guitarists are so focused on finding the perfect guitar, amp, or pedal that we forget one of the most important parts of the signal chain – the microphone. Whether you’re rocking a live show or recording an album in the studio, you’ll be depending on a properly placed microphone to faithfully translate your “ultimate tone” to the audience. In this article we will focus on the “properly placed” part of this equation and cover some tried-and-true mic techniques you can use to get great guitar tones.
Distance & Depth
Perhaps the most crucial element of good mic technique is finding the optimum distance from the mic to the sound source. Your wall of sound will crumble quickly without an understanding of the profound affect distance has on your microphone’s bass response and clarity, as well as the sense of depth heard in the final product.
Mics with directional polar patterns (cardioid or figure-8) will show a marked increase in bass response the closer they are to the sound source. The technical term for this phenomenon is “proximity effect”, and all directional microphones are subject to it in varying degrees. A good example is the Shure SM57, easily the most common cardioid mic used on guitar cabinets. In common use the ’57 will often be shoved right up onto the grill of a speaker cabinet to maximize the proximity effect. This technique works well with the SM57 because it complements the ‘57’s natural frequency response, which exhibits a sharp bass roll-off below 150Hz and a sharp increase in mid and treble frequencies above 3000Hz. The natural frequency curve of the Shure SM57, with added low-end from proximity effect, results in a guitar sound that exhibits both good clarity and respectable low-end.
Microphones with flatter frequency response and deeper bass, like the Sennheiser MD421, or the Royer R121 ribbon mic that we use here at the PGS studios, often need to be placed further away from the speaker to avoid the low-end mud and distortion that can result from a build up of proximity effect. For example, we usually place our Royer figure-8 ribbon microphone 6-8 inches from the speaker of our Fender Deluxe. In addition to achieving a more balanced overall tone, moving the mic back further from the amp also gives the sound space to “breathe” and interact with the room before it hits the microphone diaphragm, making for a lively, organic guitar tone that sounds more like what your ears hear in the room.
Shure SM57 (more…)17 Mar My “SECRET-1” Tone Demo/Review
As my confidence with recording audio and video grows – given all the new technology I have been employing – my hunger for video production grows. Which I hope is going to be good for us.
What interests me much is continuous comparison, A/B among guitars, amplifiers, cabinets, recording techniques and much more. It’s really interesting and I do it a lot on my own.
I’d like though to start publishing more of what I do on my own. So here is a demo of the boost pedal I like the most, among all the ones I tried so far (Klon, MXR 10 bands, Ibanez original 1980s Tubescreamer. RAT and some others).
I am waiting on some other ones coming to me, such as the “box of rock” and two different boosts, a mid boost and a treble boost. Besides all this, you also know that I’m working on the Vega units. So a lot is to come, hopefully.
However, this pedal here is what really flicked the switch in my mind about 10 days ago, when I started to massively test Marshall-Tube-Amps-Input-Channel-Boosting for AC/DC “things”.
Please note: this video is circa 25 minutes long. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show! (more…)
16 Mar Let There Be VEGAs: the Quest formally begins.
So,
here they are to us (these three later Cetec-Vega Diversity units). “Us”, I would say, as I hope you’ll follow this one closely with me, as you have always.
These wireless, Cetec-Vega Diversity units here were intended mostly for microphone transmission (levalier), not guitar. In order to try and match what I think is closer to the original Schaffer-Vega Diversity Units (which is the core of this project), they will have to be modified (mainly and hopefully, the input jack type – see pictures – and a few components on the transmitter only).
They have arrived just now, three complete units (One receiver and one transmitter per complete system). In short, the following are my facts and hypothesis (both of which took me years to put together) from which I am officially starting my quest: (more…)
15 Mar Keith Urban’s Tour Rehearshal Video
I am not really into Keith Urban, that I need to let you know. So don’t be scared: SoloDallas.net is not going to turn into country lol
I have listened to several things of him, and it’s not exactly my style of music. However, some country-rock or rock and roll tunes by him may raise some interest.
What always should raise interest – because we learn from these people anyway – is technical aspects, production, arrangement, sounds, gear and also, in the case of Mr. Urban, a terrific positive attitude and approach. I know he used to have alcohol and drugs problems, which I really hope he’ll solve (or has solved): alcohol (I don’t drink) and drugs (I did some many years ago, so I tried: worst thing on the planet and NOT helping creativity-wise, despite the false myths about it) but he still seems a very good person.
Here I present a short clip of his rehearsals for touring. Good thing. Great place where to rehears, placement of the instruments, see how they are simulating to have an audience in front of them, with musicians already positioned, etc.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJYYcwU7bGE[/youtube]
He’s playing a ’50s Goldtop with PAFs. I believe that guitar had gotten flooded and was completely soaking wet. Glad he was able to recover it.
Also, and I found this out the other day, the coincidence here is that Urban is a Kiwi! (New Zealand). Wife is Nicole Kidman, an Aussie!
Two more videos of his gear/guitar tech: