VG-99 - Brian May Patch Competition

Started by papabuss, December 14, 2010, 08:03:50 AM

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papabuss

Hi everybody...
I'm still missing a GOOD! Brian May sound on my VG99
Who posts the best?

Some ideas here:

Greetings
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

papabuss

#1
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

audiotrax

I'm glad someone posted this question, as I was just going to ask the same thing.  I also use that same You Tube video for reference. My little Vox VT30 amp does a fantastic job of Brian's Red model AC30, especially with a Seymour Duncan HotRail on my Strat.  I've tried many times to get something close with my VG-88.  Even with putting a wah stuck in one position in front of the amp - no deal.  Can't get anywhere near the VT30.
Owner of: VG-88, GI-10, Cubase 5, Kontakt, SampleTank, var VSTI's, Roland JV1080.  Strat with GK-2A, two Roland GR500 analog guitar synths

LPHovercraft

QuoteAnd finally...

If you really want to look and sound like Brian, you'll need to grow your hair long and curly. Get yourself some long curly guitar leads and some white clogs. Remember to use the whole stage and give it plenty of 'action' when soloing. When the solo ends and you have to get back to the mic to sing, make sure you are at the opposite end of the stage so you have to make a frantic dash back to the mic!

Money... it's the hair!
;D

That's really interesting - makes me wonder how to get that phase-cancelled pickup sound. It seems that's the start of everything. Man, I really enjoyed that video. He seems like a very down-to-earth guy, for a rock god and all... That sound and Prince's Mesa tone are two at the top of my list.
Houston Haynes - LPHovercraft

Elantric

#4
Secret to Brian May tone:

He used:
Brian May guitar with hand wound pickups wired in Series, really thick dark P-90 type.


Typically roll the tone control down to 3 or 4


Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster "Treble booster" (same as Clapton used on the Mayall beano album)  between the guitar and the Amp.




Vox AC-30 Top Boost  amp

He used many mics to "mic" the Vox AC-30 amp, one close, one 3 meters away, another 12 meters away, another down the hall and up the concrete stairwell. Mixing a composite mix of all the mics result in numerous physical "out of phase" time alignment cancellations, which become the dominant "Brian May tone"  -

Run the mix of all the mics into a 1950's tube leveling amp, like the Teletronix LA-2A tube limiter,


designed for radio broadcasts, restores the out of phase level drop outs on specific notes that resulted from the out of phase mic  arrangement above.

I used to get close to simulating Brian May tone with my old ADA Flanger in the manual pedal mode, and dial in a specific phase cancellation depending on the key of the song.


To simulate these studio effects live, you mic the stage amp, then at the FOH board there is an engineer controlling numerous effects in real time, like  a rack of:
Eventide H3000 Harmonizers,


and TC 2290's


set on different delay settings, and compressors to restore the phase cancellations.


Owning any One of the items above will still not get you his tone.

Brian May Tone requires all the above mentioned devices to be employed in the signal chain.

And it really helps if you can let Brian May be the original signal source! ;)
Hope these ideas help.



papabuss

THX for all the details....have you got a patch?
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

Elantric

#6

papabuss

THX again Elantric....I ve already tried this patch some time ago ....it's quite good......who can bring it "to the top"?
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

papabuss

FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

papabuss

2 more useful Guitar lessons....






Keep on rocking!
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

imdurc

Papabuss, I may have something for you. I've spent many, many hours stuck in front of my VG-99 and Atomic Reactor amp, creating Brian May patches. Nothing really had me 100% happy until recently when I made one by A-B'ing between my BHM guitar (2006 copy with SUPER pickups - these are identical to Brian's!) using the Vari/P-90 combo I'd made up. It's not perfect, but it definitely sings well. And it reminds me of his raw live sound.

I came back to these forums recently to find out if anyone had made anything in the 3 years I've been absent from my VG, but alas, it doesn't look like they have  :(
Anyway, I have created some other Brian sounds, but I'm not sure whether I'll post those or not. If someone can guide me on how to get patches onto the computer (little rusty), I can post something soon. Let me know because I think you (and others) may like it. I've been meaning to post a Brian May patch for a long, long time. FYI, I haven't had my VG-99 in service for a very long time.

Anyway, get back to me with the info I need and I can get something uploaded to the site soon-ish!  ;D

Elantric

Welcome back Imdurc.

This thread explains how to save VG-99 patches in a suitable format for submission
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=64.0

A2theT

imdurc, I'm looking forward to hearing your patches! 
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

aliensporebomb

#13
OK first of all I compared the "Real Brian May" patch here:
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=664.msg8138#msg8138

To the tones in the video at the top of this thread.  The VG-99 patch has WAY too much high end and sounds much too direct - just "too much!".  But I used it as a starting off point.

I tried a suggestion using my mag pickups instead of the hex pickup (since Elantric made a point that backing off on the volume seems to clean up more like a tube amp this way) and then switched the twin AC30 emulators to have the mic distance set to "off mic" rather than "on mic" and then backed the treble off to around 70.  This reduced much of the "ice pick in the forehead" effect.  Then to get a little closer to Brian's saturation in the video I set the "direct level" to 27.  That may be too high but on my stratocaster it seems to work.

Listening to Brian in the video, it sounds like he's using a lot of overdrive, not much treble but with more presence and the other thing I noticed is that on May's real rig if you back off on the volume control and the highs return and if you max out the volume control the high dissappear as you get that rounded horn like lead tone. 

On the VG version, if you back off on the highs too far so you get the round tubby lead tone
you lose the highs on the open strings when you clean up the sound by backing off on the volume knob.

So there's a problem - you either go back and forth from A to B with two different settings on the amps or you find a happy medium.

Here's what my version sounded like.  But I haven't tried it with the hex pickup yet, just my regular magnetic pickups.  AND I can't play any Brian May licks at all so I just tried to fart around in E and A like Brian was doing in that video.  I still think there is probably too much high end but thems the breaks - his tone also has more THUMP on the extreme bottom end.  More later.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Elantric

#14
Suggest watch this clip - about 1 minute in,  Brian May interview begins, then at 3:32 minutes, Brian May explains his Guitar's PU settings and out of phase relationship of Neck +Middle PU to get classic Queen Bohemian Rhapsody tones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNT7mt-GsCc&feature=player_embedded#!

aliensporebomb

Grabbing my guitar with the phase switches....

:)

My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

imdurc

Quote from: Elantric on March 06, 2012, 08:35:13 PM
Suggest watch this clip - about 1 minute in,  Brian May interview begins, then at 3:32 minutes, Brian May explains his Guitar's PU settings and out of phase relationship of Neck +Middle PU to get classic Queen Bohemian Rhapsody tones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNT7mt-GsCc&feature=player_embedded#!

Just to give some Brian info here... That clip from the recent BBC show on Vox amplifiers showcases Brian's current setup. The main difference seems to be the Fryer treble booster giving a softer/rounder and less cutting sound than his pre-1998 setup. In the years before this, he used the Pete Cornish treble booster. Personally, while I still find the Fryer to lend a very nice sound, I do prefer his tone before 1998. You can see an early version Fryer booster here - http://www.brianmayworld.com/treble_booster.htm - I think he uses a new variation called the "touring" booster these days.

As for my patch, I'll drag a laptop up to my music room and see about getting the librarian installed. Hopefully, I'll get it all done for tomorrow. I think I'll include my Bohemian Rhapsody solo patch, too. :P

imdurc

#17
Here is the patch!
-----------------------------------------------------

PATCH NAME: Brian May gtr B/M

Version: 1.00

Category: Queen

Style: Rock

Description: Brian May guitar with Bridge and Middle pickups (in-phase) going through AC30 amps. Definitely a raw live sound!

FileType: mid

Keywords: Brian May, Queen, treble booster, Electric.
-----------------------------------------------------

The MP3 sample was recorded from my live setup which goes something like this:

Guitar > VG-99 (set to Roland JC120 in global) > Atomic Reactor 112x50 = Zoom H4n recorder

I played the following - Tie Your Mother Down riff, It's a Hard Life solo, BoRhap rock guitar part, Hammer To Fall riff and CTL1 which activates the 3-part delay Brian uses live for harmony guitars on-stage. As a side note, CTL2 adds more of a room sound reverb. And finally, the D-Beam is tremelo drop effect. The real reason for that is due to my guitar never keeping very good tune after a real trem drop, so I was glad of the VG-99's drop effect!

Hope this works with everyone's setup and sounds somewhat similar! Let me know how it goes :)


EDIT: I have uploaded a new version after being told the first wasn't working. Hopefully it will work this time!

aliensporebomb

#18
I haven't had a chance to try the patch yet but your MP3 of playing is excellent and I got goosebumps at the three part delay point!  WOW!

Hmmm.  It loads but doesn't do anything.

Try this - with the patch up in your editor are you going to:

FILE
EXPORT SMF
PATCH
and saving it then?
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

imdurc

Just seen your message. I'll have a look tomorrow. Thought I did everything as the tutorial said to do it.  ???

A2theT

Imdurc, great sounding patch!  Keep it up.  Looking forward to hearing anything else you've created./
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

imdurc

#21
Quote from: A to the T on March 09, 2012, 06:41:43 AM
Imdurc, great sounding patch!  Keep it up.  Looking forward to hearing anything else you've created./

Did you download it and get it to work? If not, I'll get right onto the transfer again very soon.

EDIT!: I have re-upped the new patch transfer which should hopefully work this time!! Let me know if it does or doesn't.  :-\

A2theT

The old one wouldn't work but the mp3 sounded great.  Anyway the new one works perfectly.  Thanks!
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

imdurc

Just out of curiousity, what does the patch sound like on your own setup? I'm curious to hear a sample to see if it has travelled well!

Also, while getting the patch transferred properly earlier, I made a new Brian May patch! lol It's not quite there yet, but it does have a much richer sound. I'm really starting to enjoy the power of the VG-99  ;D

A2theT

sounds pretty good to me. I did have to make an adjustment though. Basically I had to enable all the noise gates on guitars and fx rack just because I dont like to hear that idle hiss.  Also I added the -2 major harmony for the last note in bicycle race solo.. heres an mp3 if you want to compare. basically i just played direct through vg-99 into cakewalk sonar.  guitar is an ibanez using gk-3.
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars