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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 28, 2023 17:20:46 GMT -6
I was testing this out cuz I've got a bunch of live recordings with really crappy sounding piezo acoustic guitars. Plus I'm looking for ways to get passable acoustic guitar sounds from my rehearsals without having to mic up the acoustic and deal with all that. Anyway, I thought I'd post this because I was shocked to find this plugin being panned even on the UAD forums. Maybe people don't know how to use it? What you hear here is my beater Epiphone AJ-45 with stock pickup. The guitar is bright and mid rangey. This recording is bright and midrangey. You can hear me A-B the plugin through this clip. I mean... it's night and day. Who are these people saying the plugin sucks? Close your eyes and see if you can tell which is which. (Kidding... Helen Keller could hear the difference.) soundcloud.com/adoniram-lipton/sound-machine-wood-works-test |
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 15,005 
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Post by ericn on Jul 28, 2023 17:38:53 GMT -6
Live acoustics with pick ups are such a pain unless you like chug chug, god I hate Taylor’s with pickups. The secret weapons are great EQ, on your GS3K don’t be afraid to patch out of one ch into another for more bands, careful use of HPF and dynamics. Actually a nice XTA or BSS dynamic EQ goes a long way.
You said no mic, but my favorite trick is to always put a mic on AC, aligned with the pickup just a touch of the mic can bring out the real sound.
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Post by Ward on Jul 28, 2023 18:16:48 GMT -6
Helen Keller called to complain about the piezo.
Seriously though, that plugin sounds like a winner!!
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 28, 2023 18:30:20 GMT -6
Live acoustics with pick ups are such a pain unless you like chug chug, god I hate Taylor’s with pickups. The secret weapons are great EQ, on your GS3K don’t be afraid to patch out of one ch into another for more bands, careful use of HPF and dynamics. Actually a nice XTA or BSS dynamic EQ goes a long way. You said no mic, but my favorite trick is to always put a mic on AC, aligned with the pickup just a touch of the mic can bring out the real sound. Great idea on patching EQ's in serial. I've never thought of doing that on a board. Genius! To clarify, I am going to mic the acoustic guitar but I need a signal I can fall back on. Plus I'm not going to amplify the miked sound of the acoustic. But the real reason I was interested in this plug is cuz I've been taking a lot of board mixes out when we play shows with digital boards and the acoustic sounds are just nauseating. This is almost good. I'm gonna say it, it actually is good if you put it in the mix with a whole band. I did cheat a little bit and pop a little EQ on there... so it's not 100% the plugin. There was some weird ringing that the plugin created around 5k when the guitar was strummed that I dynamic EQ'd out. But we're talking like 2db. |
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Post by drumsound on Jul 28, 2023 21:02:06 GMT -6
I did a live record back when I had my RADAR. The band's FOH guy made sure he brought his Martin because he thought it was so much better than the singer's acoustic. It still sounded like shit. When I was mixing I sent the track out to Heathkit amp and miced with a 4050 (I think). I used ZERO of the direct signal in the mix, just the amp. (luckily he only played acoustic on a handful of songs). One day they came by to hear mixes and the FOH guy was with them. He heard one of the acoustic songs and said "I told you my Martin sounded good plugged in." Ah....NO.
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Post by sirthought on Jul 30, 2023 16:39:30 GMT -6
I've never demo'd this plugin. Maybe should give it a shot.
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 30, 2023 18:19:29 GMT -6
I was testing this out cuz I've got a bunch of live recordings with really crappy sounding piezo acoustic guitars. Plus I'm looking for ways to get passable acoustic guitar sounds from my rehearsals without having to mic up the acoustic and deal with all that. Anyway, I thought I'd post this because I was shocked to find this plugin being panned even on the UAD forums. Maybe people don't know how to use it? What you hear here is my beater Epiphone AJ-45 with stock pickup. The guitar is bright and mid rangey. This recording is bright and midrangey. You can hear me A-B the plugin through this clip. I mean... it's night and day. Who are these people saying the plugin sucks? Close your eyes and see if you can tell which is which. (Kidding... Helen Keller could hear the difference.) soundcloud.com/adoniram-lipton/sound-machine-wood-works-testYeah I demo’d it one time when I had a direct acoustic one time…and was pretty blown away. |
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Post by mcirish on Jul 30, 2023 18:30:06 GMT -6
For acoustic instruments, I think I have a great solution. First, I have K&K pickups in all my guitars and mandolin family instruments. They don't quack as bad as under saddle pickups. I setup a recording where one input is the piezo pickup and the other is a mic. I record them for a few minutes of playing. Then, I setup a matching EQ, from Ozone, and match the piezo to the mic. I take that EQ profile and run a sweep through it and save that as a wave file. Then I use voxengos deconvolver to turn that sweep into an impulse response. I clean up the beginning and end in a wave editor and then load the IR into an ir loader pedal. I have a few but lately I use a Mooer GE300 lite.
The sound is as close to a mic as I've ever heard. No feedback. The tone Dexter does this same kind of thing but I wanted more control. I've made IRs for all seven of the instruments I play live. Works great.
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Post by notneeson on Jul 31, 2023 9:09:14 GMT -6
I have used IRs to greatly improve piezo recordings.
It’s not 100% but still so much better than that wretched DI sound.
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Post by ninworks on Jul 31, 2023 10:04:01 GMT -6
I have an 80's Guild D40 with a K&K Pure Mini pickup I installed under the bridge. It sounds OK on its own but when I put it through this..... i.postimg.cc/gJ2xrcdT/Guitar-Zone-mod-2.jpgit sounds fabulous. It doesn't have that "amplified-acoustic-guitar" tone. I HATE that! It sounds like a real one and it will drown out the drums if needed. That's only 1 of the cabinets. There are 2 if needed for more coverage. I have a compressor going into a stereo 15 band EQ, out of that into the other EQ channel, into an old el cheapo Mackie mixer, into a stereo 400 watt Hafler power amp. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 31, 2023 18:16:08 GMT -6
For acoustic instruments, I think I have a great solution. First, I have K&K pickups in all my guitars and mandolin family instruments. They don't quack as bad as under saddle pickups. I setup a recording where one input is the piezo pickup and the other is a mic. I record them for a few minutes of playing. Then, I setup a matching EQ, from Ozone, and match the piezo to the mic. I take that EQ profile and run a sweep through it and save that as a wave file. Then I use voxengos deconvolver to turn that sweep into an impulse response. I clean up the beginning and end in a wave editor and then load the IR into an ir loader pedal. I have a few but lately I use a Mooer GE300 lite. The sound is as close to a mic as I've ever heard. No feedback. The tone Dexter does this same kind of thing but I wanted more control. I've made IRs for all seven of the instruments I play live. Works great. I haven’t really looked in years, but the K&K Pure Mini was the only only one I heard that didn’t sound terrible. |
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Post by mcirish on Jul 31, 2023 18:23:57 GMT -6
The K&K is better than under the saddle but the real trick is the IR. Turns it from ok to great
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