I understand that he used a delay on this track, but there is a "shimmery" quality to his tone that is eluding me. Is there some other front end effect or a process in the final mixdown that creates this? Thanks for any help...

The shimmery thing you're refering too is something achievable with a nice analog flanger... I can get this with my FL-9 flange. He's known for his chorus use, but that flange thing is something I've always admired, subtle yet harmonic.

Aha...I thought it might be chorus but you confirm the flanger...I'll have to try this out...thanks G!

.. been thinking abit more aqbout this...

this might be obvious, but anyway.

I suggest you fool around with

Comp->Flange->Delay

Adding a comp might get you closer to that type of sound... but if you might already tried that... just thought I'd let you know.

Wassup G? Naw, man nothing about any of this is obvious to me...I was just thrilled to even get close to his sound. You just know when something is missing but can't isolate it...see I would have put the flange after the delay, so you're definitely giving me more insight to work with! I haven't worked with a compressor much yet, do you have any tips on dialing that in...I definitely don't want to quash my dynamic range too much, thanks again!

Happy to be of help!

As far as setting for a compressor...
this will vary depending on the output of your pickups, your pick attack...

I'd suggest you max the treshold, put the level at about 1 o' clock, set the "sustain" or comp knob(this vary from pedal to pedal!) once you get a sound you like, back off teh threshold untill it's quiet... fine tune it and you should be set. Of course if you use a different comp pedal like a dynacomp or one with 4 knobs... it'd be totally different.

Anyway I suggest you adjust with treshold maxed out first and then back it to the fine tune point. This should even out your response especially on clean sounds... wich is why I suggested this for a Police Andy Summer type of sound. It's not rocket science tweak and enjoy.

Hey Glorbz...you were right on the money! The missing ingredients were flange and compressor. I can get the similar chimey, shimmering sounds on the chord hits now...I understand what I've beeen hearing all these years. Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!

I'm just glad someone else's into that sound.
Happy to be of some help.

8)

Hey Glorbiz,
I appreciate the info on the Police tone. I was curious if you could suggest usuable settings for my Boss CS-3 (four knobs) comp.
I was recently given one and have never used one, although I notice almost all the pros use them. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Cody Mac,

I don't have the same comp pedal as you do... what I have is an Ibanez CP-9 3 knobs comp.

I always suggest this with comp tho... set treshold to max(it'll be noisy) tune in the comp sound you like, than back off the treshold to where it's not noisy anymore and fine tune your setting a little to your taste.

There's always a knob on any comp pedal that act as treshold... labeling vary from one to one. You can usually easely figure out wich knobs control this.

Hope this is somehow helpfull

Thanx Glorbz for the info.

hey i'm pretty sure that's a deluxe memory man you're hearing with the delay and chorus modes on. it could be an electric mistress though i can totaly nail that tone with my memory man. if you do get one though it sucks a lot of tone so get it true bypassed!

I think the Electric Mistress was an important part of his sound. Check out the link provided:

http://web.tiscali.it/andatta/effectspage.htm

Thanks for sharing that link! I always like reading about this.