Thanks, I'll look for those. I thought about my question last night and figured Brad just might be moving his hand back and forth across between the neck and bridge on the guitar's body.
GATS/War solos both have a really fast tremolo on them, Brad used an Earthquaker Devices Hummingbird pedal in the studio. He also used the Strymon Mobius and BigSky pedals for really crazy stereo filtering and echo effects, and one or both of those solos probably also has a Moogerfooger MuRF and/or a Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster fuzz on it. ALITS is a lot more straightforward in the studio, it's pretty much just got a typical delay/reverb lead guitar sound, the "sweeping" sound under the tapping section is actually a filtered synth sequence that doubles the guitar (or a copy-paste of the guitar track itself with extra effects on it). The live version of GATS uses a regular wah (Brad's tech controls the wah from backstage) plus some delay and phaser stuff from the Axe-FX II rack unit. ALITS is pretty much the same. Catalyst vocals use the Waves Metaflanger plugin, the most noteworthy thing about it is that the plugin allows you to control how much the "pulse" of the flanger bounces back and forth across the stereo spectrum, so it's actually a flanger + panning effect in one. Mike's vocal has more panning on it than Chester's does. Basically you could use a regular flanger effect, but you'd have to recreate the panning separately to get it to sound right. The Final Masquerade drum thing sounds like they just did a fade in/high pass filter type of thing, kind of like they did with Brad's guitar part on the first chorus of Guilty All the Same.
Thanks so much Astat. That was really interesting and informative! Do you know what Strats Brad uses on tour besides the Rory? I've seen him play a lot of different ones, and they all look like vintage guitars.
The Rory Gallagher Strats were shifted into a backup role after THP came out. The ones he's currently playing are all custom shop "heavy relic" guitars built by Fender master builder Jason Smith. The pinkish-orange one is a Time Machine series guitar that was exclusively released in a very limited run through online retailer The Music Zoo a couple years back, LP's main studio engineer Ethan Mates bought one and Brad ended up using it so much in the studio that Ethan just gave it to him to use on tour afterwards. Jason Smith ended up building 3 more for him a bit later on, a blue one, a black one, and a purple one. Brad's actually never used the purple one live, the only time it made an appearance was at the two Brazil shows that Brad missed and his guitar tech filled in for him. Prior to the Jason Smith Strats, he had a few misc. backup Strats...there was a sunburst Road Worn Strat he used a bit on the Living Things cycle, a silver Classic '60s Strat, and a red American Standard. The silver one is one of their dressing room warmup guitars these days, but I have no idea what became of the other two. I have the box and gigbag that Brad's Road Worn Strat came in, lol...long story.
Wow, thank you again for this incredible information. Brad's used so many different Strats, that it's hard to keep up with which ones he's playing now. Seems like he definitely prefers either very personally customized & modified Strats or relics. That's pretty cool that you have that box and gig bag
You know, I've always wondered what the source of the scratch samples in Lying from You and Hit the Floor are...
I have no idea if samples from either of these records are used in those particular songs, but Joe's two main scratching records in the early years (prior to going digital with software like Scratch Live after Minutes to Midnight) were DJ Babu's Super Duck Breaks and his own "Tasty Gas Station Breaks From the Orient" compilation record. Of course, a lot of his scratch samples were created in the studio as well, and he had a variety of other records in his crate at the time.
Sorry for my ignorance, but I always had this doubt. How LP does that "violin" sound in the bridge of APFMH? (when Chester sings: "you try to take the best of me...") I mean, how they do that sound when they play it live?
I think in the early days, Joe used to have the notes for the samples on his MPC, which he would play live. I haven't really seen anybody play that violin part live recently, so it might be a backing track now. Ask Astat though, his knowledge of LP's gear is incredible.
Yeah, I'm aware of the Gas Station Breaks. I just haven't found a sample on there that really sounds like it. I know the scratch from Don't Stay isn't included on that vinyl, but there's an effect from Numb (but not the prechorus scratch, for some reason) on there and some Session samples too, so Didn't know about Super Duck Breaks though. I'll look into that. I'm just reinterested in this now that I figured out that My December is on TGSB. One Step Closer's scratch still sounds like Chester's scream with effects to me, and I'm sticking to that one.
I got it! Phoenix does that sound with his bass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-8-uTXNF34 (at 3:45) EDIT: Now I'm more confused. At 3:53 Rob does that sound too.
That's a sample Rob triggers with the Pintech pads on his kit, and it's pretty much always been that way, you can see him doing it as far back as this video from Ozzfest 2001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBIBR2vUMjQ During the early Hybrid Theory era before Rob had triggers on his kit, they'd omit that sample entirely and he'd substitute a snare/floor tom thing instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ialJK8QFo8 He also defaults to that method of playing the bridge on the rare occasion they play the song unplanned and he doesn't have the right samples loaded up, like at the Rome 2015 performance where they played it in honor of a fan who had recently passed away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsPYiE7s72g
So that sound actually consists of a note played on the bass and a sample by Rob on top of it? Cool combination I must say.
Damn it, Astat, always making me look stupid To be fair though, I was just trying to make an educated guess for how they recreate things live. I don't watch too many of the band's performances other than their most recent ones. But I could swear that you are a member of LP's entourage, with how much you know.
Yeah, forgot about that being mixed in there too. That's only for the bridge though, when they open the song with that sample before the guitar comes in like they did during the Meteora period, it's just Rob. I actually don't personally know anyone who works for them anymore. Jason Lemiere left to be Gene Simmons' bass tech with KISS a while ago, and Sean Paden's retired from touring. I could probably still be in touch with people if I wanted to be, but I don't want to be that guy who's butting his head in where it doesn't belong either.
Since the thread is hopping again...if anyone has seen the videos by the YouTube user Meteoracp, there's one where he does a scratch cover of In My Remains, using the intro sounds (I have no idea if they're synths or what) as the sample. Is it possible that this is what was done in-studio to record that? Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD94iv0MZ2w