So I’ve been on this EVH trip recently again and experimented around a bit in order to get close to the guitar sound and vibe of the first Van Halen album. Eventually I ended up using some NeuralDSP stuff (Nolly X for the main sound, Petrucci for the Phaser and Flanger, let me know if you’re interested in more details on the sound/mix)
Ain’t 'Talkin 'Bout Love is surely one easiest Van Halen songs guitar wise but it’s still my absolute favourite one so I had to do it (and a good excuse to not try something more difficult…)
Sure! I already posted a quick summary on the NeuralDSP subreddit so here we go:
My signal chain in the video was as follows:
Charvel San Dimas direct into my RME Fireface UCX into Cubase. From there:
Petrucci → EchoboyJr (can be replaced with the pre-ampstage delay in Nolly X) → Nolly X-> Slate FG-116 (for some very light compression, doesn’t do too much but apparently they had an 1176 on the guitars on the album)
Then there is an FX send to IK Multimedia Sunset Sound Studio Reverb (which models the actual plate reverb used back then on the record, can be obviously replaced with something else)
I panned the guitar track 50% left since I didn’t want to go to the all extreme hard pan that the album has. Still works quite well I think.
In the recording session I have automated when the phaser and flanger of Petrucci engage. The flanger is only used in the intro riff on the 3-2-3 part on the A string and at some other occasions like some of the divebombs to make them sound more gnarly. The phaser comes on during the solo parts.
I haven’t really found a sweet spot setting for the flanger though, on the album it sounds way more aggressive. Maybe that’s really only doable with the MXR one, I dunno but it’s still close enough for me.
For the delay it’s important that it is in front of the amp, not after! 300ms with one repeat and low volume should get you there. As said I used the Soundtoys EchoboyJr since I thought it sounded a bit better but the one included in Nolly should do the trick as well.
The guitar sound itself is in Nolly X the second amp with the third cab. All knobs full on the amp (except Output). In front I have the Overdrive 2 with Gain 0, Level noon, Bass 0, Treble Full. In the Post EQ section I massively boost the highs (Nolly’s Mod engaged), like 4.7khz by about 5db, 8khz by 7.7db and 12khz by 7.4khz.
I uploaded the Neural presets here:
Nolly X Preset for the actual amp sound: Dropbox
Petrucci Preset for the pre-ampstage FX (phaser and flanger): Dropbox
(and a good excuse to not try something more difficult…)