The Van Halen “Brown Sound” conspiracy #shorts
More videos like this on my TikTok channel (Wampler Pedals). This YouTube short discusses if the Brown Sound is one sound or a is that a misnomer? #guitar #guitarcover
#Van #Halen #Brown #Sound #conspiracy #shorts
Originally posted by UCdVrg4Wl3vjIxonABn6RfWw at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvmbMoqCD-o
I think there is a reason why Eddie put a knob labeled “Tone” on the Frankstrat’s single volume pot.
Such iconic riffs. Eddie was a genius. You don’t hear guitar intros like these anymore.
And all three of those sound completely different than the tones I hear on my end when I listen to my stereo lol. It’s maddening all the variables there are in that sound if you’re trying to come as close as possible to the tone
He was using his Ibanez Destroyer, Flying V or Frankenstrat. Tone came from different guitars.
What a perfect comparison. Thank you!!!!! You have done that dead horse a great service!! ????
Its the exact amp, cab, speakers and player with different mixing, EQing and mic technique. Still the brown sound that he's famously been misquoted for as describing his tone as a "brown sound" that he got the name from describing Alex's snare sound and applied it to his guitar tone.
There's definitely a difference in EQ and the amounts of gain used but it's really his attack and the way he plays that pulls it all together. It's his hands.
Beautiful Girls & Dance the Night Away were mixed in a different studio all together which is why VH ll sounds so different to Van Halen 1.. that part of Feel Your Love is all bottom strings and You can really hear the Sound City Studio reverb chamber that Templeman over used on the whole album..Ed hated it.
I feel like that is just the eq, it’s still the same sound just eq differently in each song
I mean, they all sound very similar in terms of core tone. Just different parts with different attack and dynamics.
the true brown sound is heard in the bathroom after taco bell
It’s all in the fingers
The good old volume knob on a cranked amp for those tone changes. Along with chorus in dance the night away
The reason they sound different is because throughout the 2 albums he added a Phat cap on V2 on his Marshall Plexi for VH2 which makes the amp tone sound brighter+cleaner. It could also be that he most likely lowered the variac down to somewhere around 77 volts on VH2 and VH1 most likely around 87 volts on the variac. Im not saying its true but based on what I have heard, it sounds like a Phat cap on V2 was installed for Van Halens 2nd album.
Sorry, bit I'm waiting for . . .
Yeah but I would say the two VH2 ones sound fairly similar while the VH1 one is quite different and is THE tone people think of when they talk about the brown sound.
RIP KING EDWARD!!
Things that are understood need not be discussed
it's in his head & his fingers.
it's always essentially similar.
i've played thru' famous rigs &
it ALWAYS sounds like me hacking on other folks' (borrowed) gear. i can only suppose that Brian May souns like Brian May no matter what amp he's using. EVH, same thing…
The sound they refer to, is the gain stage or amps distortion, the pickup, and the guiar. Biting, crunchy, and not oversaturated. I hear the same "tone" in each clip just eq'd a bit differently or mic moved one way or another.
Anybody who has ever used a superlead or any plexi learns very quickly that there are few amps that REACT like a Plexi does. Everything factors into the tone. Different guitars have different characteristics. In fact… the SAME guitar with the volume on 8 is completely different than if its on 6.
Eddie had a handful of different guitars. But he also played with different necks and different pots.
There are tons of videos out there about the dynamics of a Plexi. While i love my 5150 its a more… uniform tone. Most guitars with humbuckers sound the same. Its just a more modern tone and gain stage.
I'd take a Plexi over any amp out there today… the new Friedman Plex is phenominal
eddie backed off the distortion on VH2…they used smaller amps in the studio….he never went back to the VH1 tone again…just diff variations…
I think what makes this sound great is layered Marshall's. If I was trying to get that magic "brown sound" I'd just get a marshall wall.
The ONLY difference is a bit of EQ changes other than that it's in his fingers. the brown sound as it's called was in his fingers. it died with him.
You remember the brown tone the one when played over large speakers induces bowel movement to those standing directly in front of the speaker excuse me for the rotten imagery it's funny though
The" brown sound" is a modded plexi with too much reverb
Every song was mixed different , he used mulitiple guitars and amps . His picking and being in the pocket on rhythm parts is a thing of beauty. The tone isolated sounds like an angry can of bees but in the band mix it was a thing of beauty …..EVH one of a kind
They're different but similar. Nuance.
Actually, i think the tone from Dance the night away, was from a modded MXR phase 90. Also, earlier VH albums most was mic through effects and amp; towards 1984 (diver down) they started using Eventide Harmonizers etc because it is more controlled with guitars and keyboards.
The brown sound was achieved imo by eddies picking dynamics
that's not "brown sound"
there's definitely something authentic and unique to his tone. Every famous guitarist has it. Even as it evolved during the Hagar Era, it still had his fundamental underlying signature tone. The best I can describe it is a "light" (in comparison to heavy metal distortion like Metallica) fuzzy distorted sound with lots of punch and sustain. One thing to remember is the audio engineer who mixed these tracks easily could've contributed to the shape of his tone between songs and albums when EQing. The first song presented in this short has a much different fundamental frequency vs beautiful girls and dance the night away which have a much pronounced upper mid range
Not really a fair comparison because you're listening to a track that has had treatment and not the raw, recorded track.
Had this same conversation about the new Beatles mixes for Red and Blue, all done with the Peter Jackson MAL tech.
Different guitars on these songs. Different studio rooms, different mastering settings, different effects, different mixes. Conspiracy? What a goof
The easy answer is this was (of course) the same amp, but the mic setup was different between VHI and II. As such, processing each track was going to give different results. We all need to remember these are isolated tracks, not the raw in the room audio, so there's post-processing on them. Further still, even with the processing, there's still a fundamental to his tone that is consistent no matter what. It's like Metallica's first two albums, there was little change in what gear the band was using, but the way the songs were recorded and processed sure as hell was different.
these are two different albums and different guitars though lol
VH 2 had the best isolated tone- something magical IMO
no 1 its the best
The Brown sound was a term Eddie coined to describe Alex’s drum sound
To me it’s just an adjustment of the guitars volume knob and, probably, some studio EQ’ing. The basis/foundation is still there.