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Chris Wolstenholme: The Sticky Ver. 1

#361
Wow, If I could just make a quick observation here. As much as I dig Kaput's videos, and find Chris W an interesting player. You had to see this coming. When anybody steps up and claims to be an absolute authority on any particular player, at some point, there is gonna be a person who challenges that. To think that equipment is the way to cop someones tone, live or in studio, is only half true.
My favorite players are Bob Weston(Shellac) and David WM Sims(Jesus Lizard). So I bought a Rusty Box. It did get me close to that tone, but it wasn't for me. I realize that it's more important to find my own tone.
I do enjoy Kaput's video's. I like to take in any information possible. But I feel that it might have been a better idea to just be humble and thank Juan for his observation and move on.
To say something like "Until I came along, NO ONE IN THE WORLD had a convincing Hysteria tone, at least that they publicized." is a little much.
I think players have prob come close, but most likely tailor it to their own sound rather than claim Chris's.
I guess what I'm saying is, while this sticky is informative. Maybe taking it so seriously is not the best approach. After all, finding your own tone is the fun part. Thanks Kaput, your info and dedication to Chris W's sound is useful and entertaining. Wether it be live or in studio.
 
#362
franksgbass said:
To say something like "Until I came along, NO ONE IN THE WORLD had a convincing Hysteria tone, at least that they publicized." is a little much.
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Agreed, besides its all subjective, i actually prefer my hysteria tone which is just a prunes and custard, i tried the animato/muff combo & didnt like it.



I think that sounds better than a WM or Deep impact when played live, perhaps its stupid to say it sounds better than how Chris W actually does it
but i choose to do what i think sounds better rather than emulate/copy.
 
#363
honotron said:
Agreed, besides its all subjective, i actually prefer my hysteria tone which is just a prunes and custard, i tried the animato/muff combo & didnt like it.



I think that sounds better than a WM or Deep impact when played live, perhaps its stupid to say it sounds better than how Chris W actually does it
but i choose to do what i think sounds better rather than emulate/copy.
Click to expand...


Great tones there. For the Hysteria tone, I would use a parallel blender with the P&C in one loop + some variety of a muff in the other. I wouldn't say that the P & C nails it by itself though; it sounds like it is missing more of the underlying fuzz and actually sounds like it has too much of the wrong kind of synthiness. Actually, now I think about it, I really want to try my Magnetar in one loop and a P&C the other.
 
#364
JBNeedsBeer said:
Great tones there. For the Hysteria tone, I would use a parallel blender with the P&C in one loop + some variety of a muff in the other. I wouldn't say that the P & C nails it by itself though; it sounds like it is missing more of the underlying fuzz and actually sounds like it has too much of the wrong kind of synthiness. Actually, now I think about it, I really want to try my Magnetar in one loop and a P&C the other.
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I think you're right, i think having something synth like (prunes, oxide, brown dog) mixed with a muff, animato, hardwire cm2 is the key to it, i always thought the animato/muff mix was 2 distortions fighting against each other and sounded wrong.

I used a animato/oxide(gated) mix for this cover,



the blend isn't quite right & it could probably do with a slight mix of oc2 before it but its getting there.
 
#365
honotron said:
I think you're right, i think having something synth like (prunes, oxide, brown dog) mixed with a muff, animato, hardwire cm2 is the key to it, i always thought the animato/muff mix was 2 distortions fighting against each other and sounded wrong.

I used a animato/oxide(gated) mix for this cover,

. I wouldn't put a lot of the P&C into the mix, just enough to know that it is there.
Click to expand...
 
#366
honotron said:
i always thought the animato/muff mix was 2 distortions fighting against each other and sounded wrong.
Click to expand...

The muff is a fuzz, and the Animato is a distortion. 2 completely different animals.

I will say I think the key to nailing his sound is the amp. No matter the bass plugged in, or the mix of pedals, the tone is most times very close, even clean.

As for the "end all be all authority", I do not believe I am. I simply put things together to educate from my experience. The comment about hysteria is true though. Up until I posted my take, no one came publicly close. Is that conceded? Sure, but true. I am not an egomaniac about this, I just hate having people drum up all sorts of BS regarding what this idea was all about. Here are the facts.

-No one I have seen anywhere is using this combination of gear, except Wolstenholme himself (publicly, not saying I am the only one who owns this stuff)
-Those that are, have taken settings and said it was the magic and everything fell into place.
-Those that have bits and pieces (honotron is an example) find some things not quite right about some sounds.

It is a guide. Live, you would be amazed at what it sounds like. Maybe things are not translating well over video? Who knows, but the facts remain. The only reason I take this as serious as I do, is that I have laid out massive amounts of time, from editing and filming, to deconstructing sounds, all for free. Misinformation is a terrible thing to spread, and I take misinformation as a disservice to the community.

Is everyone supposed to buy everything I have to do this? No... But they can. It is meant as a guide to get closer, and really get the sound for that cover you want. Looking at this as anything other than a live application is silly. No one in their right mind would spend the $20K I have to copy this for studio work. Thinking about EQ and compression in terms of recording is not the purpose, and to be brutally honest is a given in a recording scenario.

I hope you understand what I mean, and don't take things the wrong way. I may come off as a person that is protecting my work, which I am, but ask anyone out there... I am just as easy to approach with a question regarding this as the next guy. I give this info out for free, to help those get where they want to be, not to brag that I am better than you.
 
#370
juan_king said:
Are you going to keep what he told you a secret?
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No, it's just that it has no bearing on the topic. He talked about small recording tips, some producer tips and some technique to record, but nothing specific to Muse.

juan_king said:
Are you in a muse cover band?
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No, and you would see that if you watched more than one video on my channel.

juan_king said:
How do you justify spending that kind of money on emulating a specific bassist?
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Most of the pedals I have acquired were before emulating his sounds, and were the talk of the town at the time. The Deep Impact, OC-2, Muff, P+C, Woolly Mammoth, Bass Synth Wah and LS-2 were all bought because they were great. I stumbled upon an Animato for cheap, and bought it and the FM4 was to try out, but I kept it. As for the amps, I have been playing Marshall DBS and Bass heads since 2002, which is 1 year before I got into Muse. The Pedulla came later, only because I got to play one, and after playing it, it was the only bass for me. I have had many basses from Ibanez to Schecter and Warwick.

Your issue is that you think that this is all I do. You think I wake up everyday thinking about Muse, trying to be Muse, and doing everything I can to do it. This is not the case. I spent a solid year learning this stuff, and now I don't even bother. I seriously prepped for like an hour on the 4th video, and that included learning the songs.

The Animato to me is the best bass distortion pedal to match with a guitar player and a blend. It fits the right frequency response and give grit with space. It is not muddy, or too shrill... Just perfect.

juan_king said:
You being in a Muse tribute band would make a lot of sense.
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Nope, never have never will. I have played a few Muse covers in a few bands over the years, but never been in a tribute band, and have no plans to do so.
 
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#371
honotron said:
Kaput, what do you think he uses for Helsinki jam? OC2 & Mastotron maybe?
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I think OC-2 and Animato, potentially P+C. The mastotron is just a gated fuzz, and there is something else to his sound. He may have capped off the sound by squishing it with a gated fuzz, but I just use the Animato after the octave, and it works perfectly.
 
#372
Hi everyone! I have a little problem with Hysteria. I managed to get the sound out, but it has also tons of annoying noise. But, if i put there a noise suppressor/gate, it just destroys the tone. What the hell am i supposed to do? :D

Btw, here is a video, where you can somehow hear the sound: The chain is: Bass - Muff - Digitech Bass Synth Wah - Darkglass B3K - Sound card/pro tools. Yeah, i know. Lot of mistakes, noise and not the pedals that Chris uses :D
 
#380
I was just messing around with my B3K, and found, or at least i think so, a great tone for UD. What do you guys think:



I know, my playing isn't perfect, but hey, I've been playing slap for so short time, that even a song as easy as UD is is tough for me. The main point here is the tone.
 

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