CECamps
New member
Hey guys, my intro thread that I posted last week brought a lot of warm welcomes and great compliments from you all. I know I said it about a thousand times in the thread, but I'm gonna say it again: THANK YOU! You guys rock, I'm digging the vibe of this forum!
Now, I got a lot of requests for clips of the Brigand amp--particularly of heavier stuff--which is obviously the point of this thread. Although I like metal, I'm no kind of metal guitarist.
I don't even have any of my guitars set up for drop tuning. So in a pinch, without having any metal guitarists within arm's reach, I had to turn to that trusty DI we all have come to know & love (or maybe hate at this point...sorry!), the infamous "Rose of Sharyn" DI clips.
But let me first start by explaining a bit about what makes Brigand tick as it is a bit different than what most folks are used to when it comes to the higher gain stuff. Brigand's high gain channel (channel 2) is designed to really allow you to shape the distortion character of your tone quite considerably. So it doesn't lock you into one particular sound. It does this through multiple controls that give you pretty finite reign over the midrange. The downside of that for me is it is tough to give you an idea of everything it is capable of in one clip, or even two. So I will start with one clip and then over time do my best to post more with varied settings to illustrate the variation that can be achieved using the same reference source (the DI's).
Quick Brigand controls crash course
Here's the amp of course:
And here is a closer look at the channel controls, with channel 2 on the bottom (obviously
Modes
As you can see, channel 2 has two modes: rhythm & lead. Rhythm mode has less bass response than lead mode, and a bit less gain on tap. I really designed this to work well in the context of a mix, and allow the guitarists to be able to both riff and chord without mudding up the mix or step on the bass player's toes (especially the down-tuned guitarists). Lead mode kicks in the added low end and additional gain to allow for those full sounding leads that differentiate themselves from the rhythm parts distinctly. However, Riffing and chording can also be pulled off in lead mode--even in a mix--depending on how it is set.
Gain and Body Controls
Both modes have their own gain and "body" controls, but they both share the same EQ. The body control is actually a gain control as well, but it only affects the gain of lower midrange and bass frequencies. Essentially, it controls the gain of everything from around 600Hz-700Hz down without affecting the gain beyond that point. The curve does shelve off toward the bass end of the range though, so for all intents and purposes it is predominantly a low-mid gain control. So the body control is used to set somewhat of a ratio between your lower midrange and upper midrange frequencies. This happens prior to the gain control in the signal chain, so as you might expect, the gain control takes that ratio that you set and runs with it. However, the frequency curve across the whole guitar range does change with gain control adjustments as well, but does so in a very intuitive or natural way.
The EQ
As you can see, the EQ has standard T-M-B controls but there is also a "mid sweep" control. This is the other critical area to dialing in your tone. The mid sweep control determines which portion of the midrange frequencies becomes predominant. Fully counterclockwise puts the emphasis on upper midrange and attenuates low mids, while fully clockwise does the opposite. Then of course you have all the settings in between that. So traditional modern metal tones are probably going to be more readily achieved with more counterclockwise settings on the mid sweep. The more clockwise you go, the more of those low mids come into the picture and the distortion gets more gnarly. So sludge guys will probably lean to more clockwise settings.
So all that said, on with the clips!
Clip 1
This clip was recorded with a single SM57 which was in the same position for all tracks. My workbench 2x12 was used and is loaded with Eminence Wizards. The cab is internally baffled (making it essentially two 1x12's), so it doesn't have the same kind of low end response you'll get from a good 4x12. So I did compensate a bit on the amp's EQ. Here are the settings used:
-Rhythm mode
-gain @ 10 o'clock
-body @ 8 o'clock
-mid sweep @ noon
-bass @ 3 o'clock
-mid @ 9 o'clock
-treble @ noon
-master volume @ 9 o'clock
As you may or may not know, this set of DI clips contains FOUR high gain rhythm guitar tracks. All four were used, with two panned left and two panned right. I did not use the octave track, but did use the clean tracks which were done on channel 1 crunch mode (but dialed back clean) with arbitrary EQ settings. There is no post compression on the guitars at all here. There is a little bit of post EQ as I dipped out some 500Hz that became predominant from the mic placement and brightened the top end a touch. Quicky recording is quicky.
Finally, yes I know it is not as gainy as the original track. Remember that the gain is only at 10 o'clock here. I will do some more recordings with different settings.
Here it is:
Hope you enjoy! Like I said, I plan to record some more with different settings, upping the gain, etc. Stay tuned!
EDIT: Added clips below!
Clip 2
Here is a clean Strat clip. This was recorded with a single SM57. Amp was on channel 1, clean mode, with the bright switch on. Pretty neutral EQ settings and the pre-drive & gain controls were both at around noon.
Clip 3
OK, here is the "Rose of Sharyn" DI's again, only this time I only used two guitar tracks (the first clip used four guitar tracks). Still recorded with a single SM57 using the same cab. Settings are below:
-Lead mode
-gain @ 2 o'clock
-body @ noon
-mid sweep @ 9 o'clock
-bass @ 1 o'clock
-mid @ 11 o'clock
-treble @ 1 o'clock
-master volume @ 9 o'clock
Competes with the quad tracked recording!
Here is the right panned track isolated:
Now, I got a lot of requests for clips of the Brigand amp--particularly of heavier stuff--which is obviously the point of this thread. Although I like metal, I'm no kind of metal guitarist.
I don't even have any of my guitars set up for drop tuning. So in a pinch, without having any metal guitarists within arm's reach, I had to turn to that trusty DI we all have come to know & love (or maybe hate at this point...sorry!), the infamous "Rose of Sharyn" DI clips.But let me first start by explaining a bit about what makes Brigand tick as it is a bit different than what most folks are used to when it comes to the higher gain stuff. Brigand's high gain channel (channel 2) is designed to really allow you to shape the distortion character of your tone quite considerably. So it doesn't lock you into one particular sound. It does this through multiple controls that give you pretty finite reign over the midrange. The downside of that for me is it is tough to give you an idea of everything it is capable of in one clip, or even two. So I will start with one clip and then over time do my best to post more with varied settings to illustrate the variation that can be achieved using the same reference source (the DI's).
Quick Brigand controls crash course
Here's the amp of course:
And here is a closer look at the channel controls, with channel 2 on the bottom (obviously
Modes
As you can see, channel 2 has two modes: rhythm & lead. Rhythm mode has less bass response than lead mode, and a bit less gain on tap. I really designed this to work well in the context of a mix, and allow the guitarists to be able to both riff and chord without mudding up the mix or step on the bass player's toes (especially the down-tuned guitarists). Lead mode kicks in the added low end and additional gain to allow for those full sounding leads that differentiate themselves from the rhythm parts distinctly. However, Riffing and chording can also be pulled off in lead mode--even in a mix--depending on how it is set.
Gain and Body Controls
Both modes have their own gain and "body" controls, but they both share the same EQ. The body control is actually a gain control as well, but it only affects the gain of lower midrange and bass frequencies. Essentially, it controls the gain of everything from around 600Hz-700Hz down without affecting the gain beyond that point. The curve does shelve off toward the bass end of the range though, so for all intents and purposes it is predominantly a low-mid gain control. So the body control is used to set somewhat of a ratio between your lower midrange and upper midrange frequencies. This happens prior to the gain control in the signal chain, so as you might expect, the gain control takes that ratio that you set and runs with it. However, the frequency curve across the whole guitar range does change with gain control adjustments as well, but does so in a very intuitive or natural way.
The EQ
As you can see, the EQ has standard T-M-B controls but there is also a "mid sweep" control. This is the other critical area to dialing in your tone. The mid sweep control determines which portion of the midrange frequencies becomes predominant. Fully counterclockwise puts the emphasis on upper midrange and attenuates low mids, while fully clockwise does the opposite. Then of course you have all the settings in between that. So traditional modern metal tones are probably going to be more readily achieved with more counterclockwise settings on the mid sweep. The more clockwise you go, the more of those low mids come into the picture and the distortion gets more gnarly. So sludge guys will probably lean to more clockwise settings.
So all that said, on with the clips!
Clip 1
This clip was recorded with a single SM57 which was in the same position for all tracks. My workbench 2x12 was used and is loaded with Eminence Wizards. The cab is internally baffled (making it essentially two 1x12's), so it doesn't have the same kind of low end response you'll get from a good 4x12. So I did compensate a bit on the amp's EQ. Here are the settings used:
-Rhythm mode
-gain @ 10 o'clock
-body @ 8 o'clock
-mid sweep @ noon
-bass @ 3 o'clock
-mid @ 9 o'clock
-treble @ noon
-master volume @ 9 o'clock
As you may or may not know, this set of DI clips contains FOUR high gain rhythm guitar tracks. All four were used, with two panned left and two panned right. I did not use the octave track, but did use the clean tracks which were done on channel 1 crunch mode (but dialed back clean) with arbitrary EQ settings. There is no post compression on the guitars at all here. There is a little bit of post EQ as I dipped out some 500Hz that became predominant from the mic placement and brightened the top end a touch. Quicky recording is quicky.
Finally, yes I know it is not as gainy as the original track. Remember that the gain is only at 10 o'clock here. I will do some more recordings with different settings.
Here it is:
Hope you enjoy! Like I said, I plan to record some more with different settings, upping the gain, etc. Stay tuned!
EDIT: Added clips below!
Clip 2
Here is a clean Strat clip. This was recorded with a single SM57. Amp was on channel 1, clean mode, with the bright switch on. Pretty neutral EQ settings and the pre-drive & gain controls were both at around noon.
Clip 3
OK, here is the "Rose of Sharyn" DI's again, only this time I only used two guitar tracks (the first clip used four guitar tracks). Still recorded with a single SM57 using the same cab. Settings are below:
-Lead mode
-gain @ 2 o'clock
-body @ noon
-mid sweep @ 9 o'clock
-bass @ 1 o'clock
-mid @ 11 o'clock
-treble @ 1 o'clock
-master volume @ 9 o'clock
Competes with the quad tracked recording!
Here is the right panned track isolated:
