Do whatever you can to monetize these videos! This is the world we live in and there should be no judgement about it. Your content has all been super helpful and direct. There's really nothing else like it and despite the fact I've mostly moved back to tracking with pedals and amps, the ideas still apply and there's no reason not to take advantage of all the amazing tools out there. Seriously, I get really excited every time you put out new content. Thank you!
FAILURE is 100% the reason I’ve ever even tried using distortion on the bass. Nothing beats those bass tones... from “Comfort” to “In the Future...”. Stay safe gents and thx for all the sounds ...❤️
I guess i could do an episode on vocal mic techniques and recording, etc. I just don't consider myself very knowledgeable at all about singing in and of itself. I think I do a lot of things wrong!
Your voice is still freakin awesome tho...i consider it in my top 3... I don't really like whats considered proper singing... I like character...you can tell yiur vocals are true and real... Not melodyned to death and completely stripped of its character... The vocals are definitely not a weak element in failure...
@@KenAndrewsMusic This! Would love to hear any thoughts how you approach vocals in any project, or mixing or anything related :) Even about the "wrong singing technique things" because it sounds awesome. Does help that Failure has great songwriting so you don't have to do any vocal acrobatics to "disguise" bad songs :) On that note, video about thoughts on songwriting would be interesting :D
Humble request for future video. Some in-depth stuff about what it took to produce Failure 1992-1996. Every aspect of production would be interesting to me (you told me once about getting the original layout artist involved), especially what all was done with Fantastic Planet. The more the better, but could just be a short video too. Glad to see you’re doing well, and still cranking out great content! - Michael R
This is my favorite channel. Even though I don't use Pro Tools or Fractal this video, as well as every other episode, totally gets my creativity going(both musically and visually(film makerly...?) and this is an invaluable resource for people who make art. Just pure awesome stuff. Keep up the great work.
Thanks, Ken! I am a bassist who primarily uses AxeFX. I've been wrestling with my tone a lot recently, so this video was eerily well-timed! I appreciate it very much!
Thank you for showing us not only Secrets Of The Lost Satellite in the past, but also secrets of the cool and intense bass tones in the present. Distorted Fields blew my mind strongly & became one of my favorite songs of all time when I listened to the very first sound for the first time. I'm surprised that you don't use any drive stomps. I've enjoyed the bass tones with RAT or Big Muff (by only Greg or both of you?) in the 90s but I'm also into the new tones!
Ken, if you were to sure a powered PA speaker for practice and to monitor live, what brand/model would you or have you chosen? You know... Something fairly accurate where your not flexing too much to adjust your bass tones between live an recording, other than maybe tweaking a bass or treble control, but leaving the rest the same... In that note, I remember the first time I heard fantastic planet and how fantastic it sounded and how fantastic the sounds were! It surely deserved more airtime! It accompanied me through some hard times.
Love the synth bass. These days Steinberg's Halion 6 has become my Fractal equivalent for synth work. It feels like an inflection point has been reached where software is good enough to be "played" rather than "planned."
Every time you talk about the Fractal it makes me drool a little. Such flexibility in a little box. Thanks for the video, Ken. Glad y'all are all safe and healthy. I'm quite interested in the gear recommendations/promos, actually -- been putting together my home studio and diving headfirst into learning how to record and mix properly. And I'm finding myself rewatching your earlier videos so I can fully digest everything. Looking forward to learning more.
Hey Ken, huge fan... I did have a question for some of the rest of us out here without those sweet Fractal rigs... Let's say we did want to re-create or re-craft some of the same principles the Fractal unit does... but within ProTools itself... might you explain your approach under those conditions? At a bedroom-studio, in which we can't play HUGE/LOUD, could you explain how you might track a dry signal off a bass guitar... and then apply some of these same signal-flows within the effects strip in ProTools? Asked another way, how do you recommend capturing the cleanest and driest bass signal INITIALLY before applying a similar effects-chain in a DAW like ProTools? Is it as simple as a decent DI box? Or would you recommend any sort of compression or processing to a dry bass output before it hits the AtoD processor? I totally understand alot of bassists might be well down the path of a TON of discrete effects pedals, maybe like you were doing way back in the day before Fractal and ProTools. For this question, I am more interested in your advice about capturing a pure/dry bass signal INTO a DAW/ProTools, than a bunch of different pedals. Any thoughts on that? Also, on your left hand, middle fingertip... is that a bruise? did you SMASH your fingertip under something? Storytime?
Humble request for a future video...would love to get a peek at your typical mix bus or any other mixing tips. Not that you’d give away your secret spice, but I’d be down to sponge up any advice you’ve got. ☺️
What this the same process with Heliotropic? I mean the bass just sound so rich & meaty. As if your vocals were there to compliment the bass as opposed to being up front like in most other’s songs.
he did Heliotropic in another video, but it’s a Wal bass through a Turbo Rat ( and maybe a Big Muff, but at least the Rat ). He notes that there may not be a bass amp in that process, but there’s also a bowed upright bass at certain stages. If you wanna cop the tone, try a P bass or a Stingray through a Proco Turbo Rat or a Fuzzrocious Heliotropic ( a pedal named after the song in order to easily get the tone ).
Check out the Tronographic Rusty Box. Get’s a great overdriven/distorted bass sound. It’s based on a Traynor TS50b amp used a lot by Steve Albini, especially by the bassist in his band Shellac
Brilliant!, I used a pro-co RAT into either my ashdown bass head or a mesa 400 kemper profile for a good while, like you said the pedal cuts off the low end and you gotta make it up which doesn't always work too well. I don't have an axe fx but looks really good, the closest to this sound I've got is German producer Kristian Kohle's Bass profile I bought for the Kemper profiling amp which is a guitar amp run into an ampeg cab miced with an Sm7b blended with something. so it has amp drive and all the low end in the right places so I don't have to mess around too much in the mix. which is great and jives with your ethos on bass tone here.
As a bass player who has been searching for this type of dynamic MASSIVE driven bass tone since the early 90's, this SINGLE video nearly summed up everything I have been trying to make happen. Thank you Ken. Longtime fan and REALLY dig the informative stuff you are putting into this channel. By all means MONETIZE away! I am sure it feel like someone put a big wall between your and and a payday. We can't wait for more music but these classes/videos will do for now. Thanks for doing what you do. The latest album is a masterpiece.
Thank you for the wealth of information and tips!!! Soooooo many possibilities, nice to know some good places to start! Keep 'em coming, the purchase options aren't a nuisance! 😜 Glad to hear everyone's healthy, including Kellii! ♥️🤘♥️
Such a great series. Dusted off my bass to learn and play along sans effects, and realizing I need a pedal or something to get anywhere near this kind of tone!
With my previous death metal band I used to always think that I needed some distortion or overdrive pedals to get that mammoth sound, despite playing through a Mesa M-Pulse and a Bassman 4x10. I was new to running that big of an amp and it was my guitarists rig, so I ran off his recommendations, which always seemed to limit me. That and the entire EQ channel was apparently shot. After trying pedals, it only made it weaker, so I just started cranking it up higher at shows so I could actually hear and feel it, on top of running heavier guage and installing a Seymour Duncan 1/4 PJ set. Now out of that band, not playing any shows, and working on building up my own studio. You're videos are a tremendous help and inspiration to get this setup rolling, I'm happy to see you back in this fold and to hear despite the chaos these days that everyone in your camp is healthy. I look forward to whats to come!
Depending what the amp block is emulating, cranking the Master is probably emulating the Phase Inverter distorting, more so than actual power tube distortion.
I waiting so long for this episode and it was worth it. Great job at explaining the source of your distortion; could’ve fooled me you were using a stomp box lol.
where do you get the inspiration for Failure lyrics? when i listen to any Failure album i find myself always singing along at the top of my lungs. I mean you write the best lyrics I've ever heard.
Many places, sometimes personal experience, sometines not. Also, I'm one half or less of the lyric team in Failure. greg edwards writes great lyrics that I like to sing.
Hey ken. I have a question. Nit all of us can afford fractal or helix processors... And i know you were a boss gt 3 user during year of the rabbit.... I know my boss gt 8 or my gt 100 will never sound or feel as real as fractal axe fx.... But what do you think about less expensive options for modeling for us guys who can't afford fractal... My boss gt 100 does alot of what your fractal does and sounds great. I apply alot of your tips to my own gear and it works.... Especially the 20 milisecond delay.... I guess my question is this... Can us poor guys soubd great with more modest gear?? Or do I need to s Ave up for atleast an axe f2f ultra?
Cheap gear sounds incredible these days. Absolutely no need to upgrade your set up. Great modeling (software) will get cheaper and cheaper as well. Compared to what I had in ‘89, you already have a space station.
Very cool reply brother.. That helps me alot knowing what I have is adequate. Especially since your tips are helpful to anyone who is interested... Keep up the badass videos man. Ive wanted this for YEARS. These videos are tge best musician videos that ever existed.... And my guitar tone was upgraded without ever having to spend a dime just by getting to get some sit down time with your gear on here. Thanks man. You rock.. I use all your tips and they work.
You know, Greg doesn't really get into programming the Fractal himself. Instead, he just describes what he wants, or maybe plays me an example, and then I try and build it for him. Neither of us have the patience to watch the other do something slower than we could. That goes for playing parts as well. Many times, one us of will come up with the basics of a part, only to hand it off to other because you know they can actually play it better and faster. I'm just faster on the fractal because I spent more time with it. And honestly its kind of a cool thing for us to do it this way with the fractal because greg isn't bogged down with the technical process, he is free to use his imagination more when thinking about what kind of tone he wants and I like that. its a nice challenge for me as well.
Love your channel. Similar arc to what you described in the Gibson "Behind the Boards" Interview - I started with a handful of records- 80's pop and metal (for me it was the "Columbia Record and Tape club" twelve cassettes for a penny) and then fell into The Cure's back catalog at 13 years old... never again able to listen to music without picking it apart completely to figure out what makes those recordings "tick." More content please!!!
Ken. This is so good. The underlying synth idea is kinda blowing my mind. A couple questions for you: 1) Was the synth done through a sequencer or through a pedal or through another patch on the Axe FX? 2) In the mix since you have a stereo bass signal do you pan the R and L back toward center at all or do you leave it fully wide open?
The two synth bass tones came from VIs within ProTools. Can't remember which ones! Sorry! Yes, I keep the bass stereo file hard panned in the mix, because within that file the dry bass tone is already straight up. It's only the ambience that is stereo.
Hey Ken! first off, thank you and the guys for all the amazing music. Including YOTR and the others. You are a music hero of mine. Thanks so much for sharing this stuff with fellow music and hear heads like me =) I have very little mixing experience at all - but I especially struggle with what frequencies to push or pull out of instrument tracks to get the wall of sound vibe, a synth or lead to cut through a mix, vocals, really layered tracks like with some Oasis songs - but ESPECIALLY punchy drums. I do everything except play drums so I have no frame of reference whatsoever to mix it. Could you do a video on drums, and maybe later on some vids for the other things I mentioned? Maybe some comparisons between different EQ styles for reference? I think it would be really amazing as a staring reference point. Thanks man, looking forward to seeing you live again! (I saw you twice, most recently at Warsaw in Brooklyn!
Hey Ken. Hope you and yours are still doing well. I've been reading the book "Failure Is Not An Option" by Gene Kranz this weekend, and it occurred to me that you might enjoy the book if you have some down time. Kranz was a flight controller for NASA during the initial Mercury missions through the Apollo program. If you remember the film "Apollo 13," Kranz was played by Ed Harris. The book is a memoir of the very beginning of US spaceflight, and is pretty fascinating in that it highlights how almost ridiculously lo-fi the early missions were, and how amazing it is that we made it to space at all. Kranz's main job during the Mercury missions was to draft the definitive procedure and troubleshooting manuals for missions: a pretty amazing task considering the difficulty of writing these documents relating to events that have never been done before. Anyway, reading the book has gotten me thinking about a sort of "theory" of troubleshooting; a way that one can find a solution to a problem in the least amount of steps. It occurs to me that whatever time I get to spend doing home recording these days, at least some of that time is spent troubleshooting some element or other. Especially everything taking place in the box, since software is so much less intuitive to troubleshoot than hardware components. Do you have any general procedures you use for troubleshooting when recording or mixing? Or perhaps when some track responds to processing in an unexpected way? Sorry for the lengthy comment. At the very least, the book is well-worth the price of admission, imo.
Great work as always Ken. I just watched all 10 videos again yesterday while also constructing bass tones. Great inspiring lockdown content. What's on your mixbuss these days, I see you've migrated to using IK stuff??
So awesome, my takeaway from this is that layering bass sounds, like the Bass Gtr + String layer in Heliotropic and the Bass Gtr + Synth layer in this, can achieve a super phat bass tone, that doesn’t compensate low end, but adds ton of BITE (distortion, harmonics) to the sound, edgy as fudge, 90s, all my favorite stuff. Your work here is invaluable, inspirational, thanks a mil Ken. And I welcome ways to support the channel and the band during this crazy time!! I’m about to spring and get the 90s albums on digital here pretty soon, can’t wait to re-live those!
Thank you so much for this Ken. I've been a big fan since the 90s in LA. I never would have imagined that I'd get the chance to learn from you. This lesson was brilliant and extremely helpful. Again, thanks!
Among other things, you are a touring musician who cannot tour right now. Don’t feel guilty. Sell me stuff and keep the videos coming.
Do whatever you can to monetize these videos! This is the world we live in and there should be no judgement about it. Your content has all been super helpful and direct. There's really nothing else like it and despite the fact I've mostly moved back to tracking with pedals and amps, the ideas still apply and there's no reason not to take advantage of all the amazing tools out there. Seriously, I get really excited every time you put out new content. Thank you!
Thank you for this comment and I absolutely agree with you that pretty much everything I talk about is applicable to analog and digital workflows.
Brutal! The synth bass is a kick in the teeth, hearing it isolated and then combined is like stumbling into gravity well; that's some heavy stuff. 🤯🔥👏
Glad you like it!
FAILURE is 100% the reason I’ve ever even tried using distortion on the bass. Nothing beats those bass tones... from “Comfort” to “In the Future...”. Stay safe gents and thx for all the sounds ...❤️
DUUUUUUUUUUDE, PLEASE UPLOAD VIDEOS MORE OFTEN. pretty please and thank you.
What im sayin
i miss you can you also do some stuff like this but with singing techniques or something like that
I guess i could do an episode on vocal mic techniques and recording, etc. I just don't consider myself very knowledgeable at all about singing in and of itself. I think I do a lot of things wrong!
@@KenAndrewsMusic thank you I would love that. I love your voice so much is so dreamy.
Your voice is still freakin awesome tho...i consider it in my top 3... I don't really like whats considered proper singing... I like character...you can tell yiur vocals are true and real... Not melodyned to death and completely stripped of its character... The vocals are definitely not a weak element in failure...
@@KenAndrewsMusic This! Would love to hear any thoughts how you approach vocals in any project, or mixing or anything related :) Even about the "wrong singing technique things" because it sounds awesome. Does help that Failure has great songwriting so you don't have to do any vocal acrobatics to "disguise" bad songs :) On that note, video about thoughts on songwriting would be interesting :D
Ken, I would pay serious money to watch you record, mix and master a song from start to finish.
me too
As would I...
Same here. He's a good instructor, and easy to follow. Reminds me of my electrical trade school, haha.
I concur. Would pay for a retreat course.
Humble request for future video. Some in-depth stuff about what it took to produce Failure 1992-1996.
Every aspect of production would be interesting to me (you told me once about getting the original layout artist involved), especially what all was done with Fantastic Planet.
The more the better, but could just be a short video too.
Glad to see you’re doing well, and still cranking out great content!
- Michael R
Get. In. Me.
Update - every bit as good as I expected. Mammoth indeed.
Thanks Leon!
This is my favorite channel. Even though I don't use Pro Tools or Fractal this video, as well as every other episode, totally gets my creativity going(both musically and visually(film makerly...?) and this is an invaluable resource for people who make art. Just pure awesome stuff. Keep up the great work.
It's still such a signature Failure bass sound. Super distinct. Fascinating to see how you got it there.
Thanks, Ken! I am a bassist who primarily uses AxeFX. I've been wrestling with my tone a lot recently, so this video was eerily well-timed! I appreciate it very much!
Thank you for showing us not only Secrets Of The Lost Satellite in the past, but also secrets of the cool and intense bass tones in the present.
Distorted Fields blew my mind strongly & became one of my favorite songs of all time when I listened to the very first sound for the first time.
I'm surprised that you don't use any drive stomps. I've enjoyed the bass tones with RAT or Big Muff (by only Greg or both of you?) in the 90s but I'm also into the new tones!
Have you heard the new HUM??!
sounds MASSIVE!
It's an absolute masterpiece! I can't stop listening to it!!
Its their best work
It's just epic!
Yes, and I love it!
Ken, if you were to sure a powered PA speaker for practice and to monitor live, what brand/model would you or have you chosen?
You know... Something fairly accurate where your not flexing too much to adjust your bass tones between live an recording, other than maybe tweaking a bass or treble control, but leaving the rest the same...
In that note, I remember the first time I heard fantastic planet and how fantastic it sounded and how fantastic the sounds were! It surely deserved more airtime! It accompanied me through some hard times.
That Duncan Quarter Pounder pickup is a huge factor for this tone as well. Such a great sounding pickup. I have one in both of my P Basses.
Love the synth bass. These days Steinberg's Halion 6 has become my Fractal equivalent for synth work. It feels like an inflection point has been reached where software is good enough to be "played" rather than "planned."
Every time you talk about the Fractal it makes me drool a little. Such flexibility in a little box.
Thanks for the video, Ken. Glad y'all are all safe and healthy. I'm quite interested in the gear recommendations/promos, actually -- been putting together my home studio and diving headfirst into learning how to record and mix properly. And I'm finding myself rewatching your earlier videos so I can fully digest everything. Looking forward to learning more.
Hey Ken, huge fan... I did have a question for some of the rest of us out here without those sweet Fractal rigs...
Let's say we did want to re-create or re-craft some of the same principles the Fractal unit does... but within ProTools itself... might you explain your approach under those conditions? At a bedroom-studio, in which we can't play HUGE/LOUD, could you explain how you might track a dry signal off a bass guitar... and then apply some of these same signal-flows within the effects strip in ProTools?
Asked another way, how do you recommend capturing the cleanest and driest bass signal INITIALLY before applying a similar effects-chain in a DAW like ProTools? Is it as simple as a decent DI box? Or would you recommend any sort of compression or processing to a dry bass output before it hits the AtoD processor?
I totally understand alot of bassists might be well down the path of a TON of discrete effects pedals, maybe like you were doing way back in the day before Fractal and ProTools. For this question, I am more interested in your advice about capturing a pure/dry bass signal INTO a DAW/ProTools, than a bunch of different pedals. Any thoughts on that?
Also, on your left hand, middle fingertip... is that a bruise? did you SMASH your fingertip under something? Storytime?
Bring back the Wal Bass!!!!!
Humble request for a future video...would love to get a peek at your typical mix bus or any other mixing tips. Not that you’d give away your secret spice, but I’d be down to sponge up any advice you’ve got. ☺️
What this the same process with Heliotropic? I mean the bass just sound so rich & meaty. As if your vocals were there to compliment the bass as opposed to being up front like in most other’s songs.
he did Heliotropic in another video, but it’s a Wal bass through a Turbo Rat ( and maybe a Big Muff, but at least the Rat ). He notes that there may not be a bass amp in that process, but there’s also a bowed upright bass at certain stages.
If you wanna cop the tone, try a P bass or a Stingray through a Proco Turbo Rat or a Fuzzrocious Heliotropic ( a pedal named after the song in order to easily get the tone ).
Check out the Tronographic Rusty Box. Get’s a great overdriven/distorted bass sound. It’s based on a Traynor TS50b amp used a lot by Steve Albini, especially by the bassist in his band Shellac
Thanks for this video, I will try to replicate this on my FM3. Song has kind of a Porcupine Tree vibe to it!!!
Brilliant!, I used a pro-co RAT into either my ashdown bass head or a mesa 400 kemper profile for a good while, like you said the pedal cuts off the low end and you gotta make it up which doesn't always work too well. I don't have an axe fx but looks really good, the closest to this sound I've got is German producer Kristian Kohle's Bass profile I bought for the Kemper profiling amp which is a guitar amp run into an ampeg cab miced with an Sm7b blended with something. so it has amp drive and all the low end in the right places so I don't have to mess around too much in the mix. which is great and jives with your ethos on bass tone here.
As a bass player who has been searching for this type of dynamic MASSIVE driven bass tone since the early 90's, this SINGLE video nearly summed up everything I have been trying to make happen. Thank you Ken. Longtime fan and REALLY dig the informative stuff you are putting into this channel. By all means MONETIZE away! I am sure it feel like someone put a big wall between your and and a payday. We can't wait for more music but these classes/videos will do for now. Thanks for doing what you do. The latest album is a masterpiece.
Anyone have details on these stand-up bass/guitar stands Ken is using? Vulfpeck use them too. Straps suck. Save your back.
K & M walk up stand tall
Monster Bass sound, great song too.
Thank you for the wealth of information and tips!!! Soooooo many possibilities, nice to know some good places to start! Keep 'em coming, the purchase options aren't a nuisance! 😜
Glad to hear everyone's healthy, including Kellii! ♥️🤘♥️
Such a great series. Dusted off my bass to learn and play along sans effects, and realizing I need a pedal or something to get anywhere near this kind of tone!
Another quality vid! Probably my favourite song off the latest album. The first time I heard it, it brought me back to '99-'00.
With my previous death metal band I used to always think that I needed some distortion or overdrive pedals to get that mammoth sound, despite playing through a Mesa M-Pulse and a Bassman 4x10. I was new to running that big of an amp and it was my guitarists rig, so I ran off his recommendations, which always seemed to limit me. That and the entire EQ channel was apparently shot. After trying pedals, it only made it weaker, so I just started cranking it up higher at shows so I could actually hear and feel it, on top of running heavier guage and installing a Seymour Duncan 1/4 PJ set. Now out of that band, not playing any shows, and working on building up my own studio. You're videos are a tremendous help and inspiration to get this setup rolling, I'm happy to see you back in this fold and to hear despite the chaos these days that everyone in your camp is healthy. I look forward to whats to come!
Once Kellii is upto it again, chuck out some of the band stuff who are doing Zoom gigs.
Would happily pay to watch you guys perform live online.
Depending what the amp block is emulating, cranking the Master is probably emulating the Phase Inverter distorting, more so than actual power tube distortion.
Crazy timing on this one. I was literally just using Stuck On You as a reference for a song I’m mixing, specifically the bass guitar and snare
Wow! Thanks for doing this. The first time I heard "Distorted Fields" all I could think was, "How the hell did they get that bass sound?"
F A N T A S T I C !
Purchased the box set about a week ago but never received the digital download code :/
I’m so happy that He is doing well! You guys are one of my favorite bands and I am thankful for your help with music!
Curious if the synth bass carries sub-frequencies? Is that it's purpose? Great stuff!
Yes, the synthbass has some buzzy top and some sub to it as well.
I waiting so long for this episode and it was worth it. Great job at explaining the source of your distortion; could’ve fooled me you were using a stomp box lol.
I usually dont understand the majority of what you discuss, but im a fan of all your work and its really interesting to see you at work. Thanks Ken!
I guess the only question I have is: Where did the Wal go!???
I'd love to see an analysis of secret things
Wow, I never even thought about adding synth bass to an actual bass. That is brilliant! Also note, I'm new at recording lol
Hell yes. This is one of the episodes I've been waiting for. Thank you!
Thanks for this video! Crafting some big distorted bass presets has been on my list of things to do, have some great new ideas now.
My day gets a just a litte brighter with each of your videos. Thank you!
Quarter pounders on the P? Pole pieces look huge.
If you're going to do a video on mammoth bass tones, "Distorted Fields" is just about the best example out there 🤘
I was curious about this song/tone. Thanks for the great video!
I am so grateful for you and your videos. Whatever you need to do to keep this going is absolutely fine.
Got the Axe fx III last weekend. it's wild!
Great news about Kelly and welcome back!!!
where do you get the inspiration for Failure lyrics? when i listen to any Failure album i find myself always singing along at the top of my lungs. I mean you write the best lyrics I've ever heard.
Many places, sometimes personal experience, sometines not. Also, I'm one half or less of the lyric team in Failure. greg edwards writes great lyrics that I like to sing.
Thank you for this! Looking forward to the offers in the next episodes.
What kind of SD pickups do you have in there? They're not quarter pounders, are they?
Not sure, could be, be nice if pu companies had small indicators on face of PU so you would have to take the whole thing apart!
Love it. Makes me think of Wolfmother even though that's a distorted organ
Missed these videos! Thanks for keeping up with them!
Hey ken. I have a question. Nit all of us can afford fractal or helix processors... And i know you were a boss gt 3 user during year of the rabbit.... I know my boss gt 8 or my gt 100 will never sound or feel as real as fractal axe fx.... But what do you think about less expensive options for modeling for us guys who can't afford fractal... My boss gt 100 does alot of what your fractal does and sounds great. I apply alot of your tips to my own gear and it works.... Especially the 20 milisecond delay.... I guess my question is this... Can us poor guys soubd great with more modest gear?? Or do I need to s
Ave up for atleast an axe f2f ultra?
Cheap gear sounds incredible these days. Absolutely no need to upgrade your set up. Great modeling (software) will get cheaper and cheaper as well. Compared to what I had in ‘89, you already have a space station.
Very cool reply brother.. That helps me alot knowing what I have is adequate. Especially since your tips are helpful to anyone who is interested... Keep up the badass videos man. Ive wanted this for YEARS. These videos are tge best musician videos that ever existed.... And my guitar tone was upgraded without ever having to spend a dime just by getting to get some sit down time with your gear on here. Thanks man. You rock.. I use all your tips and they work.
It would be interesting to have Greg on to see differences in how the two of you might build a patch.
You know, Greg doesn't really get into programming the Fractal himself. Instead, he just describes what he wants, or maybe plays me an example, and then I try and build it for him. Neither of us have the patience to watch the other do something slower than we could. That goes for playing parts as well. Many times, one us of will come up with the basics of a part, only to hand it off to other because you know they can actually play it better and faster. I'm just faster on the fractal because I spent more time with it. And honestly its kind of a cool thing for us to do it this way with the fractal because greg isn't bogged down with the technical process, he is free to use his imagination more when thinking about what kind of tone he wants and I like that. its a nice challenge for me as well.
@@KenAndrewsMusic That sounds like a great way to work, and shows a strong level of trust. Thanks for sharing!
Love your channel. Similar arc to what you described in the Gibson "Behind the Boards" Interview - I started with a handful of records- 80's pop and metal (for me it was the "Columbia Record and Tape club" twelve cassettes for a penny) and then fell into The Cure's back catalog at 13 years old... never again able to listen to music without picking it apart completely to figure out what makes those recordings "tick." More content please!!!
That bass tone is soooo sick! I now follow you.
Ken. This is so good. The underlying synth idea is kinda blowing my mind. A couple questions for you: 1) Was the synth done through a sequencer or through a pedal or through another patch on the Axe FX? 2) In the mix since you have a stereo bass signal do you pan the R and L back toward center at all or do you leave it fully wide open?
The two synth bass tones came from VIs within ProTools. Can't remember which ones! Sorry! Yes, I keep the bass stereo file hard panned in the mix, because within that file the dry bass tone is already straight up. It's only the ambience that is stereo.
Ken Andrews got it! Giving me new ideas. Thank you so much!!!
This is amazing. Thank you.
"you can actually go past 100% and go SUPER wide"
so... it goes to 11? great video, Ken!
Wow, never thought of cranking up the output volumer, I always headed for cranking gain. Now I need to try it somewhere in my recordings!
Couldn't click on this channel fast enough!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't know you had your own channel. Awesome!
Damn I'm a year late🙃 but this is priceless. Been searching bass forums when I could've come straight to the source! THANK YOU!
Another great video. Thanks!
Your videos are informative and helpful. Thank you Professor Andrews 🤗❤🤗❤🤗
Hey Ken! first off, thank you and the guys for all the amazing music. Including YOTR and the others. You are a music hero of mine. Thanks so much for sharing this stuff with fellow music and hear heads like me =)
I have very little mixing experience at all - but I especially struggle with what frequencies to push or pull out of instrument tracks to get the wall of sound vibe, a synth or lead to cut through a mix, vocals, really layered tracks like with some Oasis songs - but ESPECIALLY punchy drums. I do everything except play drums so I have no frame of reference whatsoever to mix it. Could you do a video on drums, and maybe later on some vids for the other things I mentioned? Maybe some comparisons between different EQ styles for reference? I think it would be really amazing as a staring reference point. Thanks man, looking forward to seeing you live again! (I saw you twice, most recently at Warsaw in Brooklyn!
Hey Ken. Hope you and yours are still doing well. I've been reading the book "Failure Is Not An Option" by Gene Kranz this weekend, and it occurred to me that you might enjoy the book if you have some down time. Kranz was a flight controller for NASA during the initial Mercury missions through the Apollo program. If you remember the film "Apollo 13," Kranz was played by Ed Harris. The book is a memoir of the very beginning of US spaceflight, and is pretty fascinating in that it highlights how almost ridiculously lo-fi the early missions were, and how amazing it is that we made it to space at all.
Kranz's main job during the Mercury missions was to draft the definitive procedure and troubleshooting manuals for missions: a pretty amazing task considering the difficulty of writing these documents relating to events that have never been done before.
Anyway, reading the book has gotten me thinking about a sort of "theory" of troubleshooting; a way that one can find a solution to a problem in the least amount of steps. It occurs to me that whatever time I get to spend doing home recording these days, at least some of that time is spent troubleshooting some element or other. Especially everything taking place in the box, since software is so much less intuitive to troubleshoot than hardware components.
Do you have any general procedures you use for troubleshooting when recording or mixing? Or perhaps when some track responds to processing in an unexpected way?
Sorry for the lengthy comment. At the very least, the book is well-worth the price of admission, imo.
Great work as always Ken. I just watched all 10 videos again yesterday while also constructing bass tones. Great inspiring lockdown content. What's on your mixbuss these days, I see you've migrated to using IK stuff??
Such high quality information.... Incredible!!! Thanks for all you do for us on UA-cam
So awesome, my takeaway from this is that layering bass sounds, like the Bass Gtr + String layer in Heliotropic and the Bass Gtr + Synth layer in this, can achieve a super phat bass tone, that doesn’t compensate low end, but adds ton of BITE (distortion, harmonics) to the sound, edgy as fudge, 90s, all my favorite stuff. Your work here is invaluable, inspirational, thanks a mil Ken.
And I welcome ways to support the channel and the band during this crazy time!! I’m about to spring and get the 90s albums on digital here pretty soon, can’t wait to re-live those!
Thank you so much for this Ken. I've been a big fan since the 90s in LA. I never would have imagined that I'd get the chance to learn from you. This lesson was brilliant and extremely helpful. Again, thanks!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Damn this is good
Brilliant sound, riff and song
I play with flatwound strings; I hope I can get em this damn powerful sounding!
Thank you Ken! Good stuff!
So the band uses only fractal axe3 for live? Including bass?
Yes
And sum pedals
I love these videos dude. You’re a huge inspiration to me, and being new to recording these are really insightful. Thank you!
Need more videos please!
Amazing! Thank you Ken!
Thank you so much for your videos. Some real gold in there. Please do a video on how you got that amazing drum sound in the intro song :)
Amazing video! Love the idea of creating the patch straight into the DAW/Live.
This was awesome Ken. Thank you.
ohhh thank you soooo much this made my day
You are the master.🖖
We need a new video my man
0:36 Damn
Happy to see you’re back!
humbling.
great tone !
Prayers for Kelly.
Epic Ken! Always wondered how you got that bass tone
Damn, that sound is huge!
It’s been a hot minute, I hope you and yours are well and happy.