Satriani "Starry Night" Tone

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Satriani "Starry Night" Tone

Postby Zeppelin17 » Mon May 29, 2023 3:33 pm

Hello!

I've been using Amplitube 5 to play for a couple of months now. I'm loving it. But I am also struggling to get tones right due to the overwhelming amount of options and tools to tweak with the sound.
My current "obsession" is getting Joe Satriani's "Starry Night" tone. I have his signature pickups and yet can't seem to get it right. I tried many different amps, different cabinets, speakers, mics, effect pedals, even messed with equalisers, but there's always something I can't get right.
Whenever I increase the gain to match his sustain, it either get's too crunchy or I get a muffled tone that bugs me like hell!
I tried many different overdrive pedals as well, and also distortion. I was able to get a nice result using Joe's distortion pedal, but I still get the muffled tone when adding those pedals, specially on the three upper strings (E, A and D). I sometimes get too much treble as well, but when I turn it down to get the annoying noises, it also cuts the "plexi-like" and brightness characters (although I was able to fix that in a few of the combinations I made).
I've been going over it for almost two weeks, 2-3 hours a day experimenting, and I still haven't achieved something that doesn't frustrates me. So I am now resorting to the forum, to hopefully get some pointers and tips. Anyone interested in working on making a preset for this song with me? :mrgreen:
Zeppelin17
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:50 pm

Re: Satriani "Starry Night" Tone

Postby Zeppelin17 » Tue May 30, 2023 2:15 am

Could it be the string height? Maybe his guitar's strings have the upper strings (E, A and D) further away from the pickups, so that the lower ones (G, B and E)have higher gain? Because i am thinking that the problem to me is exactly on the upper strings, which get too much gain in comparison to the lower ones...
Zeppelin17
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:50 pm

Re: Satriani "Starry Night" Tone

Postby Zeppelin17 » Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:25 pm

I got an Axe I/O One now, and it helped somewhat. I tried something Joe mentioned in an interview, which is to lower the gain and increasing the volume. I was able to grasp some new improvements, but not quite there yet. If I reduce the gain too much, the tone looses that weight and richness and becomes dull. But if I increase the gain to make the sound more colorful and intense (like on the song), here comes that annoying subtle buzz and muffleness (mainly in the E, A, D strings) that kills the song's "sweetness vibe". Really, I think I'm kinda obsessed with it now. There are so many things that could be causing this. Maybe it's the lack of the high-pass filter Joe uses on his guitars? Maybe it's my guitar's material that's bad? Maybe my guitar's bridge, or the string's condition...? Or maybe it's just that I lack expertise in tone shaping, or it's just that Joe uses his supernatural powers to do that...
Zeppelin17
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:50 pm


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