Metal89
Ambassador of Orchestral Brewtality
So, i heard back from my buddy about the song...he loves it...he takes slight issue with the keyboard tone. not how i played, not my note choices, he loved all that...just the tone itself...(Like i said in another thread... super freaking critical but gotta love the guy.) I told him, well...unless i get a $1,000+ keyboard...not much i can really do about that, which he understood. BUT this got me thinking.
So he's in the process of thinking of lyrics, thinking what direction he wants to take this song. I have this gut feeling that he's going to want me to come up to austin and record it all again...why? He believes that recording with their setup is easier, i once tried to convince him that I can record at my home, email him the tracks and do it all that way very similar to how i did bass for Ramo... and I'm going to push for this again..because honestly...i don't see why not other than he really likes to hang out and we don't get to much anymore and he uses THAT as an excuse.
So ok...cool, not a big deal, this song i kept simple, I would have to email over the drum tracks which i don't think would be an issue, and i THINK i can even email over the drum program that i used...I can't afford a new keyboard, so that's just going to have to be unless he wants to borrow one from someone else, if he does, cool, the parts arent hard to play, just have to reteach myself how i played them. However, I got thinking about my guitar... last time i was over when i was using his DAW there was some built in amp sims which sounded really cool...but unless you pay for them, you where stuck on whatever settings and effects it was on....not cool. I love my 100 watt solid state Marshall head...but their new recording rigs are...upstairs and even though its not a tube amp..still a B**** getting gear up there.
So I began thinking, i need to try to keep things compact...lightweight....and on a pretty decent budget as im currently making payments on 2 guitars and im not quite ready to auction off a kidney right now. So keeping in mind that a lot of our favorite artists recorded off of 5-10-15 watt amps because they too didn't like lugging around heavy crap everywhere (who woulda thunk it) I started to look at combo amps, trying to keep the price within the ballpark of $200-250.. which isn't much but depending on what it was, i may had been willing to stretch it.
For a bit there was two amps that caught my eye. The Boss Katana 50 watt, and the blackstar ID core 100. Ok yea...the wattage was a bit over what i was looking for but the boss coming in at $250 and the blackstar at $350..... i was very tempted...so at work ive been watching video after video after video, doing research and while both can handle metal the basic feeling i got from was...it's alright for that sort of thing. Then it hit me....what about a lunchbox head? I remember hearing a LOT of good things about Joyo zombie specifically so i looked into that. Well the darn thing is modeled after a freaking messa boogie dual rectifier. I've watched review after review on it, saw shootouts where its even put up against the very amp its modeled after and the tone is DAMN close....unless they showed the amps....i wouldn't of been able to tell which was which, there were some differences, don't get me wrong...but it was very slight and at times...i almost preferred the tone of the joyo... only issue was....those little lunch box amps don't come with reverb....which i absolutely love and use ALL THE TIME.... screw it...
Joyo Zombie II BanTamP XL Mini Guitar Amp Head with Footswitch | GearTree | Reverb
this is showing up at my door on tuesday... i also ordered Stax Digital Reverb Pedal Ocean Verb Guitar Effect Pedal Room/Spring/Shimmer Models for Guitar | Stax Music | Reverb
As far as reverb goes...realistically i could of gone with just about anything as i only add a touch so the tone isn't so dry...only thing negative i saw about that pedal is that the shimmer setting isn't great...the other two options where really good though.. well, time will tell. I already have a EQ pedal so im set there. right now i can't afford a new cab at the moment or else i'd maybe be looking at an orange 1x12 but you know what...if i had to take my 2x12.... not the worst thing, still will be a pain but at least that would be the worst part and damn...do those VHT chromebacks sound awesome.... my buddy already has an audio interface...the only other thing i would NEED to get would be an sm57 mic.
Bass? Well I use a super clean tone for that so, im sure that theres an amp sim on that that i can use for the bass so im not super worried about that. even in my own recording set up i use a VERY generic bass amp sim and that works just fine for what i use it for. So yea i'd be going from a Marshall tone to a Mesa tone but for metal...you really can't go wrong tone wise, and i have an Orange Micro Terror so i know lunchbox amps are killer just the Orange isn't quite the tone im going after and im thinking long term...its a one channel amp where as the Joyo zombie 2 is two channels and comes with a freaking foot switch, also the joyo wouldn't require a distortion pedal to get the tone im after where as the orange micro terror, if you really crank it you can get some old school black sabbath tones but not the high gain tones i usually go after for my songs..
OR! he could just say "you know what, lets try it your way, let me do the vocals, email it to you, you slap it on on your end and baddabing we are done"... oh no....i just got a killer freaking 20watter for no reason.. what ever shall I do...except write more symphonic doom metal on the thing.
Oh woe is I... How will I ever live with myself?
So he's in the process of thinking of lyrics, thinking what direction he wants to take this song. I have this gut feeling that he's going to want me to come up to austin and record it all again...why? He believes that recording with their setup is easier, i once tried to convince him that I can record at my home, email him the tracks and do it all that way very similar to how i did bass for Ramo... and I'm going to push for this again..because honestly...i don't see why not other than he really likes to hang out and we don't get to much anymore and he uses THAT as an excuse.
So ok...cool, not a big deal, this song i kept simple, I would have to email over the drum tracks which i don't think would be an issue, and i THINK i can even email over the drum program that i used...I can't afford a new keyboard, so that's just going to have to be unless he wants to borrow one from someone else, if he does, cool, the parts arent hard to play, just have to reteach myself how i played them. However, I got thinking about my guitar... last time i was over when i was using his DAW there was some built in amp sims which sounded really cool...but unless you pay for them, you where stuck on whatever settings and effects it was on....not cool. I love my 100 watt solid state Marshall head...but their new recording rigs are...upstairs and even though its not a tube amp..still a B**** getting gear up there.
So I began thinking, i need to try to keep things compact...lightweight....and on a pretty decent budget as im currently making payments on 2 guitars and im not quite ready to auction off a kidney right now. So keeping in mind that a lot of our favorite artists recorded off of 5-10-15 watt amps because they too didn't like lugging around heavy crap everywhere (who woulda thunk it) I started to look at combo amps, trying to keep the price within the ballpark of $200-250.. which isn't much but depending on what it was, i may had been willing to stretch it.
For a bit there was two amps that caught my eye. The Boss Katana 50 watt, and the blackstar ID core 100. Ok yea...the wattage was a bit over what i was looking for but the boss coming in at $250 and the blackstar at $350..... i was very tempted...so at work ive been watching video after video after video, doing research and while both can handle metal the basic feeling i got from was...it's alright for that sort of thing. Then it hit me....what about a lunchbox head? I remember hearing a LOT of good things about Joyo zombie specifically so i looked into that. Well the darn thing is modeled after a freaking messa boogie dual rectifier. I've watched review after review on it, saw shootouts where its even put up against the very amp its modeled after and the tone is DAMN close....unless they showed the amps....i wouldn't of been able to tell which was which, there were some differences, don't get me wrong...but it was very slight and at times...i almost preferred the tone of the joyo... only issue was....those little lunch box amps don't come with reverb....which i absolutely love and use ALL THE TIME.... screw it...
Joyo Zombie II BanTamP XL Mini Guitar Amp Head with Footswitch | GearTree | Reverb
this is showing up at my door on tuesday... i also ordered Stax Digital Reverb Pedal Ocean Verb Guitar Effect Pedal Room/Spring/Shimmer Models for Guitar | Stax Music | Reverb
As far as reverb goes...realistically i could of gone with just about anything as i only add a touch so the tone isn't so dry...only thing negative i saw about that pedal is that the shimmer setting isn't great...the other two options where really good though.. well, time will tell. I already have a EQ pedal so im set there. right now i can't afford a new cab at the moment or else i'd maybe be looking at an orange 1x12 but you know what...if i had to take my 2x12.... not the worst thing, still will be a pain but at least that would be the worst part and damn...do those VHT chromebacks sound awesome.... my buddy already has an audio interface...the only other thing i would NEED to get would be an sm57 mic.
Bass? Well I use a super clean tone for that so, im sure that theres an amp sim on that that i can use for the bass so im not super worried about that. even in my own recording set up i use a VERY generic bass amp sim and that works just fine for what i use it for. So yea i'd be going from a Marshall tone to a Mesa tone but for metal...you really can't go wrong tone wise, and i have an Orange Micro Terror so i know lunchbox amps are killer just the Orange isn't quite the tone im going after and im thinking long term...its a one channel amp where as the Joyo zombie 2 is two channels and comes with a freaking foot switch, also the joyo wouldn't require a distortion pedal to get the tone im after where as the orange micro terror, if you really crank it you can get some old school black sabbath tones but not the high gain tones i usually go after for my songs..
OR! he could just say "you know what, lets try it your way, let me do the vocals, email it to you, you slap it on on your end and baddabing we are done"... oh no....i just got a killer freaking 20watter for no reason.. what ever shall I do...except write more symphonic doom metal on the thing.
Oh woe is I... How will I ever live with myself?
