The Most Important Part of Allan Holdsworth's Tone [it's all about the DELAY] 

Gary. Great comment and history. You were there when it was all happening. So cool. I have the UD, DG-80, DG-Stomp, and a few MagicStomps and, as I like to joke, I still can’t play like him! Lol But if you don’t mind, I’m jumping in here cuz I’m wondering if you might either point me to a resource, or have any experience yourself as I’ve not been able to find anything using the usual search channels. I turned on my UD-Stomp for the first time in years and it makes a loud digital noise, a kind of digital machine gun sound for lack of a better description. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

If you buy a used UD Stomp, is there a way to do a factory reset on it so you can get all of those Holdsworth patches back to the original presets?

@@VegasCyclingFreak yes. You can reinitialize to get the factory settings

Yep - another device that can get the ambient pad swells is the Lexicon Vortex, I created a patch I called "The Alien Murk" that basically is that AH pad swell sound (I even uploaded it to the Vortex patch database that Andy Butler was running). But yeah, a pedal format 8-delay box is a dream and I never actually found one and it was out of production by the time I could afford one. The only one I found used locally was beaten to heck. I still hope to find a clean one for this purpose.

yet Allan was using H&K Switchblades, Allan was using 4 Stomps on a table next to him, would hit them with his fist

that intro was a wow......................what a break...........................serious touch.

I'd say his genius transcended his instrument. He was just a genius of music in general. Profoundly brilliant composer as well.

Its legato.

Check out the Rick Beato vid on YT about string gauge, you will be surprised!! What has light strings to do with making it easier to play stretched chords? Does those magically makes the frets being closer together? I have guitars with light and heavy gauge strings, and believe me, it won’t make any difference regarding to grab those streched chords. The main reason for Allan using light gauge strings was that they make legato playing more comfortable and the way you can give them a certain vibrato. Especialy on (streched) chords you still can give these a nice vibrato with just your fingers. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wGXj_NQONYM.html

Actually he was more influenced by jazz and the saxophone playing of John Coltrane To be specific

@@joanstone6740 I'd agree that melodically he was most influenced by coltrane. But in terms of tone he sought to get the smoothest sounds he could, to mimic a string section with his chords, or a pure-sounding woodwind like an oboe with his lead playing. He comes close to a soprano sax sound sometimes actually, like on The Un-Merry-Go-Round

Absolutely, I'm with you on this one ! :) and I never though about the dsp, it might be an issue indeed :(

I have the A/DA STD-1 and going to the send/return of my amp. Does it need 2 amps to work better?

@@VDthrash First off, you lucky S.O.B.!! 🙂 I suppose the need for 2 amps would depend on what you consider to be :"better". Certainly, it will sound more spacious in a true stereo arrangement. Rotary speaker emulator pedals sound pretty okay in mono but become HUGE in stereo, so I have little doubt that the STD-1 would sound more impressive in a 2-amp arrangement. But I also acknowledge that's bulky and expensive. A simple mixer, taking a feed from the A and B outputs - even a basic passive one - would allow you to send a mono signal to the STD-1, and provide a mono signal back to the return jack, but with *both* STD-1 outputs combined. If that mixer allowed for mix or adjustment of L & R levels, that could be a step up from a basic mono signal. Bear in mind that while the unit allows for assigning the taps to L or R outputs, it does not allow for adjustment of their respective levels, should you wish to blend them or provide a more complex mono signal. A simple 2-in-1-out mixer would let you do that.

@@markhammer643 First off, thanks for the fast reply, because there is so little info for this on the net. Ok, that's a good thing to sound nice with 1 amp. My setup does have a line mixer like you suggested! mesa boogie > tc parametric > gate/expander > a/da std-1 > out A / out B to line mixer's independent channels and then back to mesa boogie's return. So i only need to adjust with the pan from the mixer? Because i always had them centered, and thing is it sounds a bit box-ey. Maybe i need two cabs for this?

@@VDthrash All time-based effects that employ very short delays, be they flanger, chorus, or even vibrato, risk sounding box-ey under certain conditions. I suspect this quality will depend partly on where you're taking the regeneration tap from on the STD-1, how much regen you're using, and what sort of delay range one is using. For example, any BBD-based pedal/effect that has no taps, and takes its feedback/regen from the final output of the BBD will tend to produce a sound similar to a standing wave, because the recycled signal has the identical delay time to the BBD output, such that it produces a resonance. If the delay time is long enough, as in an analog delay, one only hears this as repeats/echoes, and not a resonant emphasis. But reduce the time delay on that very same pedal/effect and it quickly gets VERY "box-ey" with even small amounts of regeneration. So if maybe you take your feedback tap from the last stage (6), but use earlier stages for the chorus-like sound you want, that may reduce any box-ey quality. Again, I don't have one of these beauties in either hardware or software form. I'm going only on what I know about BBD-based devices and the schematic (which I do have). I hope this answers your needs. I own a number of flangers; among them is a pair of Boss BF-1 units. These have a manual delay control, similar to the "Fixed" control on the STD-1. I lifted one end of the resistor that mixes dry with wet on each of them, such that they each provide a time-delayed signal that can be modulated by the LFO or held stable. I built a splitter-mixer unit that sends the signal toeach of the BF-1s, and combines their respective outputs. Because I can introduce a manual delay, this allows the modulated signal to move "ahead" of the other one in time, yielding through-zero flanging. Because I can vary the manual delay, I can set how much further ahead in time the swept one moves, before passing "through zero" again on its way back. Even more interesting, if I allow them both to be modulated, because they each have their own independent LFO, the thru-zero point becomes unpredictable and random.

​@@markhammer643 wow that's some quality info here...Those Boss BF-1 mods are sick! It would be amazing to have you as my guitar tech on our live gigs! Also using the lo input, don't know if this the correct thing to do... Yes, thats it! lowering the regen or having it off is much better to my ears! I'm going to experiment more with this, because the fixed knob is really interesting when turning it back and forth, while also having a different sound, depending on what position you leave it! Another thing i tried is from the mixer i had the pan centered, as i mentioned, and going all the way to the hard right i get no sound... Only hard left or centered...Is this supposed to work like this or my wiring is wrong? Thanks for all the info and help!

My magicstomp fried last night 😢 favourite pedal such a good one

Non brewed condiment

The Sixteen Men of Tain is a great track (and album) and maybe especially accessible, as is something like Tokyo Dream. As for albums it depends what you're into- None Too Soon is a jazz standards album, Atavachron and Sand are crazy sci-fi fusion. In my opinion the best first albums to listen to the whole way through that concisely sum his music up are Metal Fatigue and Hard Hat Area

Every one

I don't think so - it's quite a specific multi-tap delay type algorithm that you'd need to properly copy it

Do you want it?

@@johnnathancordy Check your Inbox.

I think the lead tones in this video also sound like Allen Hinds ("the other AH") .There are a few nice videos here on RU-vid. Check him out. Maybe it has something to do with the single coil pickups used here. Allen Hinds and Eric Johnson Johnson both use mostly strats too.