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  #16  
Old 05-20-2019, 09:07 AM
Trevor B. Trevor B. is offline
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I may be wrong but the consistent tone in many of Calum Graham's recent solo releases could be due to the use of a ToneWood Amp setting. He attributes the tone of his guitar in the video below to a "plate setting" on an attached ToneWood Amp (about 1.17 in). I don't have one but it would be interesting to see how much closer someone who does have a ToneWood Amp and a willingness to experiment with it could get to his sound.



Just a thought.
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  #17  
Old 05-20-2019, 10:15 AM
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Old 05-20-2019, 10:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
I like to occasionally see how close I can come to the sound of some recording I like. I usually fail miserably, but it's educational. Last night I tried something a little different for me. I happened across Calum Graham's tune "Grace" and was struck by how "cinematic" it sounded. Calum has a tutorial on playing it, and there, his guitar just sounds pretty normal, like someone playing guitar on a webcam :-) So it seems like there's some interesting stuff going on in Antoine Dufour's recording and mix. We had a thread about Antoine and Calum a while back, so I thought I'd give this a shot.

Calum's track can be heard here:

https://calumgraham.com/grace

I used the album recording (down in the list of tunes), not the video, which may be the same mix, but is a lot quieter.

So right off the bat, the obvious stuff is the pad that comes in during the opening, and seems to keep going right thru the tune. Also, lots of reverb... And a nice warm sound with a big bottom end. This is very different than the sound I usually go for, but it was interesting to try.

The pad is an Em chord, and I created it by just playing GBE at the 12th fret, and then putting on a *long* shimmer reverb, fading it in. My shimmer verb doesn't seem to accentuate the same notes as what's on the recording. I'm not even sure this is a shimmer, maybe it's a synth pad...

For reverb, I used a Lexicon Hall reverb, about 3 seconds, with an 80 ms pre-delay, and laid it on heavy :-)

Calum seems to get a pretty big bass sound on the recording that's not at all there on his instructional video. It may be from a pickup to add some solid end. But I've also seen that Antoine uses the MaxBass plugin. I don't have that, but I have the UAD VoiceOfGod plugin, which is similar, so I used that. A bit of EQ to try to match somewhat, a little compression, and I'm as close as I'm going to get, I think.

Calum's recording is pretty hot. For a quiet, gentle ballad, it measures -12LKFS. I level matched mine in Audition, tho it's not perfectly matched.


Anyway, here's what I came up with, for better or worse. Not exact for sure, maybe not even close, but it was fun to try. This was recorded on my Tom Doerr guitar. Standard tuning, 1/2 step down. I used both Schoeps and Brauner mics.



If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, or tries this themselves, it'd be great to hear what you think.
Just guessing here:
First I agree with rick one big difference is the guitar placement in the front to back sound field with his being more forward. So besides compression, it could be (could be) in the mix technique with the pad ( and I also think his is a using a synth pad) being spread full hard L and R and if the guitar is stereo it may be more inboard of hard L and R maybe 45% or less L and R .

I also think I am hearing a shimmer on his recording and I think it has more high end frequencies in play

And there may (may) be some delay as well as verb, on his guitar.

Just some speculative thoughts
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  #19  
Old 05-20-2019, 10:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor B. View Post
I may be wrong but the consistent tone in many of Calum Graham's recent solo releases could be due to the use of a ToneWood Amp setting. .
The tonewood is interesting, but I doubt it's used on the recordings Antoine's producing. Having tried one briefly, I'd just say that it's no match for a studio reverb. A fun toy, for sure, and I hear a few videos where it seems to sound nice. My guess is that the sound Calum is getting is part him, part Antoine Dufour's production, which is the part I was most interested in here.
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Old 05-20-2019, 11:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Just guessing here:
First I agree with rick one big difference is the guitar placement in the front to back sound field with his being more forward. So besides compression, it could be (could be) in the mix technique with the pad ( and I also think his is a using a synth pad) being spread full hard L and R and if the guitar is stereo it may be more inboard of hard L and R maybe 45% or less L and R .

I also think I am hearing a shimmer on his recording and I think it has more high end frequencies in play

And there may (may) be some delay as well as verb, on his guitar.

Just some speculative thoughts
Good thoughts, Kev. That's the kind of stuff I was trying to figure out - and that's pretty hard to know for sure - like guessing a recipe by tasting a finished meal. I assumed the shimmer sound was coming from the pad, but it could be on the guitar reverb.
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  #21  
Old 05-20-2019, 11:15 AM
RGWelch RGWelch is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
Yeah, coated strings would help, and I could certainly kill them with RX. I notice a very "fundamental" sound in Calum's guitar, even on his unprocessed tutorial video. The guitar I'm using has lots of overtones, which may contribute (plus I just learned these few bars a few minutes before recording them, so I've not got it down smoothly...)
Yeah, maybe he's using an all Mahogany model? I know my EIR back guitar is a lot squeakier then my Mahogany one.
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  #22  
Old 05-20-2019, 11:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
Good thoughts, Kev. That's the kind of stuff I was trying to figure out - and that's pretty hard to know for sure - like guessing a recipe by tasting a finished meal. I assumed the shimmer sound was coming from the pad, but it could be on the guitar reverb.
Perhaps the shimmer is on the guitar (had not thought of that) but also some shimmer (pedals anyway, so I assume plugins also) can adjust to focus on higher or lower frequencies
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  #23  
Old 05-20-2019, 12:34 PM
Trevor B. Trevor B. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
The tonewood is interesting, but I doubt it's used on the recordings Antoine's producing. Having tried one briefly, I'd just say that it's no match for a studio reverb. A fun toy, for sure, and I hear a few videos where it seems to sound nice. My guess is that the sound Calum is getting is part him, part Antoine Dufour's production, which is the part I was most interested in here.
Okay, it makes sense that if you've got all the pro gear in a professional studio at your disposal the ToneWood effects wouldn't be the go to (lol). I also noticed on closer scrutiny of the two "Grace" youtube videos I've watched that the audio track in both cases features a Mario Beauregard guitar not a Lowden which he appears to be playing in the river shoot (looks like Stratford, ON to me).
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  #24  
Old 05-21-2019, 08:06 PM
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I thought a bunch of us were going to try this experiment. I realized that wasn't the case so I pulled my posts off, sorry OP.
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  #25  
Old 05-22-2019, 07:05 AM
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Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I thought a bunch of us were going to try this experiment. I realized that wasn't the case so I pulled my posts off, sorry OP.
Why pull them ? I would be interested in what you can come up with and details of how ? I can't speak for anyone else but personally the reason I have not posted anything is I simply could not replicate that kind of fingerstyle instrumental note for note or even close.
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  #26  
Old 05-22-2019, 07:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor B. View Post
Okay, it makes sense that if you've got all the pro gear in a professional studio at your disposal the ToneWood effects wouldn't be the go to (lol). I also noticed on closer scrutiny of the two "Grace" youtube videos I've watched that the audio track in both cases features a Mario Beauregard guitar not a Lowden which he appears to be playing in the river shoot (looks like Stratford, ON to me).
Just guessing here but the outdoor shoot (if any sound was recorded and used) I am guessing may be only the wind noise. Or it could also be a canned Foley wind effect with only video footage actually being recorded outside.
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  #27  
Old 05-22-2019, 11:25 AM
hurling frootmi hurling frootmi is offline
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Assuming you are doing your mixing in the box . . .

Check out a free plugin called Nova-67p. It's a multiband compressor. Very useful in sculpting the compression and EQ curve on the guitar. Any multiband will work.
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  #28  
Old 05-23-2019, 07:53 AM
Trevor B. Trevor B. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hurling frootmi View Post
Assuming you are doing your mixing in the box . . .

Check out a free plugin called Nova-67p. It's a multiband compressor. Very useful in sculpting the compression and EQ curve on the guitar. Any multiband will work.
Here's the newer "all dressed up" version by TDL. It's a great tool.

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  #29  
Old 05-23-2019, 08:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hurling frootmi View Post
Assuming you are doing your mixing in the box . . .

Check out a free plugin called Nova-67p. It's a multiband compressor. Very useful in sculpting the compression and EQ curve on the guitar. Any multiband will work.
I downloaded it late last night. I'm going to play around with it this weekend, thanks.
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  #30  
Old 05-23-2019, 09:43 AM
Dirk_Z Dirk_Z is offline
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Here is my try :-)

http://www.polyphon-recording.de/grace_dz.mp3

Most of the sound comes from Calums playing, so copying the sound of the recording is pretty hard not beeing him. Then comes his guitar.

IŽd really like to hear the raw tracks of Callums recording. In opder to hear how
much of the sound is due to mixing.

Dirk
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