Another Radiohead question

[Arno van der Heijden]

I was reading some Radiohead interviews earlier this day and guess what was on when I just turned on Mtv?............ Radiohead!!  :roll:  They were showing a concert from earlier this year.

Anyway, on the end of the live version of the song 'Go to sleep' Jonny Greenwood freaks out on his Tele and does all kinds of really weird fx. It sounded unlike anything I've ever heard before, almost like a Korg Choaspad or something like that. Does anybody know how he gets that sound?

[Rory]

I am no help on this, but I would like to chime in too.  I LOVE RADIOHEAD!!!  The things they've done with guitars and synths is absolutely amazing!  I know they are fans of pretty rare pedals, including way huge stuff and lovetone stuff.  Also, they've been working in conjunction with a British company I believe that makes all sorts of different synths and whatnot.  One of my favorite things they've done is the use of the Ondes Martinodt (not quite sure about spelling) which is basically the theremin that is placed sideways and controlled by a little ring placed on a string.  You can actually get accurate pitches because a keyboard is placed next to it so you can see the notes you're playing.  Really cool sounds.  But, I too would like to know what exactly they're using.  I know that Jonny has a switch installed in his tele that acts as a cut switch so when he flicks it the signal gets cut.  Kind of like the old les paul trick where you turn one pickup off and flick the switch.

[Peter Snowberg]

Ah.... While we're on Radiohead   , does anybody know what the effects and equipment setup was for the rythm part on 'Creep'?

Thanks,
-Peter

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa102400a.htm
has some promising links. But it seems that among other things, vocoders are used.

[Arno van der Heijden]

On one of the Radiohead forums they also had a discussion about this and the general consensus there was that Jonny runs his guitar through his Mac laptop, which can be seen on stage and which can process signals in real-time.

About the gear used on Creep: I only know that a Dunlop tremolo was used on the verses.

[Gil]

DigiTech Whammy is the main to produce that crazy wah tone all over OK computer... AFAIK

[Arno van der Heijden]

A Digitech Whammy doesn't produce wah. It's a pitchshifter/harmoniser.

[Rory]

The whammy was used on subterranian homesick alien on the lead part that starts out on pitch and slowly climbs up.  It was used much more on that album as well, but that (as far as I can remember) is the most prominant use of it.

[Arno van der Heijden]

What about 'My iron lung' (altough it's not on OK computer)?

It can also be heard on 'Paranoid android'. When the song goes "what's thaaaaaat....?" You can hear the whammy in the background.

[Primus]

I'd like to go back and address the original question "Anyway, on the end of the live version of the song 'Go to sleep' Jonny Greenwood freaks out on his Tele and does all kinds of really weird fx. It sounded unlike anything I've ever heard before, almost like a Korg Choaspad or something like that. Does anybody know how he gets that sound?"

I heard this too and it blew my damn mind. I'm not the type to go around copying people's gear setups, but this sound was so revolutionary and almost an organic digital sound I can't forget it. I am going to try and find a sound sample...

[Arno van der Heijden]

I still don't have the answer, but some people think it's done with the iMac that he has on stage. It can process sounds in real-time....

Anyway, the effect can also be heard on some tracks on the new Incubus album.

[travissk]

I don't follow this stuff too much, just learned to play quite a bit of radiohead's stuff, so here's just about all I know:

The "Go to Sleep" stuff is indeed done with the mac, running a program called Max/MSP. A version of this just came out for PC, and a free, open-source version for linux/pc (and maybe mac?) is available called "PD" - http://pure-data.org - not quite as powerful as Max/MSP, but then again it's free vs. a few hundred dollars, and you can experiment with it to see if you can get cool sounds out of it. Kind of like visually programming; I don't know of a good way to describe it, but I've done some stuff with pd for a class I took last quarter. Won't replace stompboxes with the delay/chorus stuff you can do, but then again you can't put a lot of the stuff you can do with a 2GHz processor into analog circuitry. Look at digital stuff as a separate realm from analog and have some fun

He does use a Kaoss pad on some song or another - Everything in its Right Place, perhaps?

I'm not sure on this one, but supposedly the quasi-famous "cha-chink" you hear on Creep right before the chorus is a cheap solid state amp with some distortion in front of it. The distortion during the chorus live is probably either a Rat or a Marshall Shredmaster. I think Johnny has some pretty high-gain pickups too (Red Lace Sensors?).

My Iron Lung uses a whammy set to the +1 Octave preset, so you could use any vanilla pitchshifter.

The awesome background part to Paranoid Android is either done with +2 octaves down around the 3rd fret, or with +1 octave at the ~15th. The distortion later on in that song is probably a Shredmaster.

"Just" is a great example of the whammy - the part that climbs up about 3 octaves toward the middle of the song goes through no effect, +1 octave, and +2 octaves.

Finally, many of the "cutting in and out like a bad cable" effects are due to a custom momentary switch in the Tele - push it in to cut the signal.

I haven't listened to the new Incubus album more than once to hear what is used (didn't care for it too much on the first listen, but maybe I'll borrow it from my Incubus-loving friend again to give it another shot). It's probably some combination of delays and modulation rather than Max, but you never know.

In general, a lot of Radiohead's weird guitar sounds come from the Whammy, envelope filters, and sometimes an external kaoss pad or a computer. There's also some ebow work in there, especially by Ed O'Brien or however you spell his name

[BRENT]

Maybe it is a EH Frequence Analyzer or any other brand of ring modulator devices.  I have played through one with a Tele and in different places on the fret board the signal does all kinds of freaked out things.

[tomtom]

My 2 cents but I have a friend who loves Greenwood sound so we study it (sort of) a bit, mainly during OK computer stuff so I don't know exactly what's up now. I do know what you're talking about Go to sleep, a pretty messy thing with sort of sample and hold thing to it.

Clean sound: Vox AC30 (new one)

Distortion sound: Almost only Fender "red knobs" solid state combo and  Shredmaster,sometimes a SD1 too.

Modulation: Don't forget about the Space Echo !!! (he uses a 201), so if you put your guitar through a filter (DOD440) then a tremolo then a Small Stone into a feedbacky Space Echo, you're almost there for Lucky type of sound. Same for wierd distortion sound, try a real WH1 with the Off switch on the guitar and you have that too (you need several damn good fingers too, harder to find...).
He uses a Mutator whitch is a big dual 24dB/oct. filter with LFO, etc (strange solo of Paraoîd androîd). He has his soundman backstage to tap delay for him too !! (I would love that !).
He uses less distorded tones on stage after Kid A release and adds a French connection "Ondes Martenot" and modular synth to his collection along with Samplers and Keyboards. A Kaoss Pad too, mainly to record/playback Tom Yorke voice but it sounds great on guitars for strange modulation/delay things.
From what I heard at Nîmes this summer, this Go to sleep sound could be a complex processing with Mac as he didn't use neither the switch nor stompboxes or expression pedal to shape his sound.

Hope this help.
Tom

[runmikeyrun]

I'm not sure about their effects but my favorite album is still pablo honey.  Great diversity, great sounds (how about that last track??!!) Put on a pair of headphones to truly appreciate it.

Interestingly, my band did a metal version of the first song off that record, "you".

[modmod]

btw, anyone knows why wh-1 sounds better , or someone here actually got the schematic of the digitech whammy ?

[Rodgre]

Distortion sound: Almost only Fender "red knobs" solid state combo

Actually, I think he's using a Deluxe 85 Red knobber, and as far as I know, that's tube. I have a red knob Twin, which is most certainly tube. "Modern" tube.

Roger

[PB Wilson]

Another site you might want to check out is http://www.sigur-ros.it/franz/RHG/index.html. It has a pretty comprehensive description of the Radiohead gear.

[Ge_Whiz]

No point in having the schematic for any Digitech products - they all use proprietary digital ICs AFAIK.

[BRENT]

When I saw Radiohead last summer, I noticed that Johnny had a pedalboard filled with pedals, a Mac laptop,   a midi keypad, and 2 keyboard/synths along with 2 racks full of processing equipment/whatnots.  Probably doesn't help much