GR-55 - hard Tenor Sax sound a la GR-33

Started by ddeavenport, April 13, 2012, 01:34:14 PM

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ddeavenport

Hi -

I used the GR-33 for years, and had a pretty decent sax sound that combined both the regular tenor sax and the "hard" tenor sounds. The hard sound had a sort of growly overblown distortion to it that I can't seem to duplicate on the GR-55. Has anybody had any luck trying to get this sound? Thanks for any tips.

Dave

Jim Williams

Try taking a Tenor sax and increasing the resonance of the filter.
Skype: (upon Request)

Everything from modeling to the real deal, my house looks like a music store.

curteye

Aloha D,

I too loved the tenor sax sound in the '33 but I found to my ears that it only sounded good in the lower ranges.
Play it higher and the sample starts to sound more like a harmonica/organ thingy.

However using the GR55 I find that:

1-'410 Tenor Sax 2' is a good starting point for that Grover Washington smooth jazz sound
and
2-'406 BreathyTenor' is a good starting point for that Clarence Clemon's  rock sax type sound. (add a lil dirt to it)

HTH(hope this helps)

{'-'}
If yer gear ain't breakin' down, you ain't workin' much.

ddeavenport

Hi Jim & Curteye-

Thank you for your response. Sorry for the delay in acknowledging your answers, I haven't been on line here as much as I would like. I will definitely try these ideas out. Thanks again!

Best,
Dave Deavenport

melodymann

A neat little trick is using a ring modulator in the MFX block, you have to mess with the frequency parameter to get it just right but
the real trick is to assign it to the expression pedal so you can in fade the 'growl' as needed. Most people think it sounds great but
of course sax player's think it sounds stupid!  Yet i have never heard a sax player sound like a guitar.... i love sax because you never
have to play chords, but the trouble with real sax is......you can't play chords!

Good luck

Terry

curteye

Quote from: melodymann on June 15, 2012, 11:23:15 AMi love sax because you never
have to play chords, but the trouble with real sax is......you can't play chords!

Beautifully put!
{'-'}
If yer gear ain't breakin' down, you ain't workin' much.

pedwards2932

I tried messing with this last night and never got what I was looking for.  I hooked up my GR 30 and played with the sax sound I used and I believe the PCM for it was called Tenor Growl.  I tried resonance and then tried the ring modulator.  I don't think I know enough about how the ring modulator works to get anything workable.  I tried some amp models and played with the gain and did get some distortion that sounded pretty decent but still wasn't getting the growl that I was looking for.  I tried distortion pedals and they sounded unnatural to me.  Not sure where to go with this I just know the Moody Sax just doesn't seem to have that rock and roll sound to me.  Any ideas on some general settings on the ring modulator frequency you are using.  I'd like to try that again to see if I can get it to work. 
Curteye when you say add a little dirt....what are you using to add the distortion?

pedwards2932

I played a gig this week and I have been using the "Moody Sax" patch and while it works well on slower tunes it just is unacceptable for faster rock tunes.  I am really missing that "growly" sax sound.  When I was messing with the different sax pcm sounds I couldn't find any that seemed to give that overdriven sound.  Has anyone got a patch they built that would give that rock overdriven sound? (something like Loggins and Messina's "Mama Don't Dance)

pedwards2932

I may have resolved this....at least it sounds better to me.  I noticed on the "Moody Sax" patch there was a saw lead 1 in the pcm 2 slot that was turned off.  I turned it on and noticed there was an interesting distortion with the sax but it was way to prominent.  I rolled the level on the saw lead to about 20 and changed to Tenor Sax2 on the pcm 1 and also changed to a plate reverb.  Sounds pretty decent to me.  Haven't gigged with it yet but I will try it this weekend and see how it goes.