H9 Max: help with Harmonizer parameters for ‘Black Waters’ by George Lynch

[greg soljak]

I’m trying to emulate the pitch-shift & delays used by George Lynch (Lynch Mob) in the first 1:26 of the instrumental ‘Black Waters’ from the album ‘Sun Red Sun’. YouTube link to the instrumental here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yG_paTTVzE

I’m new to harmonizers and have tried mucking around on my H9 with some of the harmoniser algorithms, but I’m not really getting close. I don’t care about getting the effects exact, something approximate would satisfy me. I think there is a delay in unison (maybe some sort of bandpass as only the higher pitches are prominent???), but there is also some pitch-shifting going on as well. Any help or ideas greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I actually sent the artist an email about the effects (and he was kind enough to reply, which I really appreciated!), but he said, “I have no idea. I was playing through a borrowed Fractal Axe-Fx and just found & dialed in a random preset”. So, I now know he wasn’t using the gear that I have (and I don’t want to pay $2000 for an Axe-Fx just so I can have identical effects for the one instrumental I’m interested in). But if anyone out there can help me emulate the pitch-shift and delays used in ‘Black Waters’, I’d be hugely appreciative. Many thanks.

[brock]

I don’t know that you’ll get ALL of those clip components in a single H9 algorithm.  It might take two, in a parallel spilt.  I hear elements that could be done in H910/H949, HarModulator, HarPeggiator, PitchFuzz …

Maybe Diatonic or Crystals, as 2nd choices.  DynaVerb for the background, choral ‘sheen”.  I’m assuming the rapid ‘triplets’ are effects-driven: triggered, not individually picked?  Are you primarily after those, or the less-busy octaves jumping in?

[greg soljak]

Hey Brock, many thanks for getting back to me, I really appreciate it. Ultimately (haha) I’d like to figure out all of the processing that;s going on. I am wondering if the choral ‘sheen’ that you mentioned (starting with the initial high Eb open string note that is pedalled over the first Eb arpeggio with massive sustain) is maybe a separate track? I’m noobish and can’t think how you’d get that high Eb open note sustaining that long, without causing the same effect on the other played notes if it was all one track? I think you’re quite right about the triplets being effects-driven rather than played notes. Thanks for the ideas around parallel split for the pitch-shifted delays. It is probably cheaper to maybe try out a demo copy of the H949 (if that’s the appropriate unit) as a plugin in my DAW so I can create as many parallel pitch-shifted signals as I need, rather than buy a second H9. Thanks again.

[brock]

greg soljak wrote:

… I’d like to figure out all of the processing that;s going on. I am wondering if the choral ‘sheen’ that you mentioned (starting with the initial high Eb open string note that is pedalled over the first Eb arpeggio with massive sustain) is maybe a separate track? I’m noobish and can’t think how you’d get that high Eb open note sustaining that long, without causing the same effect on the other played notes if it was all one track?…

That would work, but I think it’s also possible using an H9 algo with a ‘freeze’ function.  Maybe one with a slower ‘attack’ capability, like BlackHole or DynaVerb.

https://www.eventideaudio.com/comment/31523#comment-31523

greg soljak wrote:

…I think you’re quite right about the triplets being effects-driven rather than played notes. Thanks for the ideas around parallel split for the pitch-shifted delays…

Actually, I was thinking of the parallel split for the high octave note entrances.  To me, those appear to be 100% wet pitch shifts of the actual picked notes; singled out, shifted, and delayed longer than the ‘triplet’ processing.  In a separate, parallel leg past the split to the ‘triplet’ processing.

greg soljak wrote:

It is probably cheaper to maybe try out a demo copy of the H949 (if that’s the appropriate unit) as a plugin in my DAW so I can create as many parallel pitch-shifted signals as I need, rather than buy a second H9…

Caveat:  I haven’t tried any of this yet.  Of course, a DAW plugin version would be more cost-effective & versatile for this application.  I still believe the ‘triplet’ processing could be approximated in any of the H9 algorithms I mentioned above.  Just not sure which one would come the closest, without a little experimentation first.

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