[youtube=http://youtu.be/oEjUYu86fps]

In only a couple of lessons into my new term it has dawned on me how popular Royal Blood has become (especially with the bass kids!). I was teaching the main riff to this song and thought I’d have a go at recording the rest of ‘Come on Over’ the moment I got in from teaching!

Although not on camera, this was also a chance for me to try out my new audio interface (Allen & Heath QU16) so that I could get bass, and two guitar sounds (panned left and right) onto this video.

If you’ve seen the other videos, you’ll be familiar with the next paragraphs, although there are some amendments to the signal chain due to the two channels of fake guitar.

‘The huge sound that Mike Kerr creates is one of a mystery to most and no doubt many people are looking to unlock the secret to his tone. The majority have figured that with a combination of Bi-Amping different loop signals from the bass and a couple of Electro Harmonix POG2 pedals, that you’d be heading in the right direction to what is achieved to play Royal Blood songs effectively.

For me, I’ve always had an Electro Harmonix POG2 on my bass pedalboard to help achieve Sub-Bass and Octave up effects, but in particuarly with the latter, it’s always sounded a little weedy (even with overdrives/distortion pedals) and its only been since I’ve heard of Royal Blood that I’ve noticed the use of fuzz and the POG2 on a seperate line (to a different amp) that I’ve seen the benefit of such a setup (even for use in my regular functions band!)

For this version, I modifded my board ever so slightly.The signal splits at the Boss tuner, with the mute cutting out the bass whilst the fake guitar sound passes through the bypass jack into the LS-2, which in turn feeds both the POG2 pedals. One channel goes through a Boss PS-6 and into an Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi (which is in the loop of the Boss NS-2) which is the left side of the mix. The other POG2 feeds into the MXR Distortion + and that is the right side of the mix. These are the loops for the guitar sound where the output is going straight into Logic Pro with an Orange clean amp emulator put on both channels with a little bit of reverb as well. My bass sound goes into the Boss ODB3 (which I realise there isn’t a distorted bass sound in the Royal Blood tone but it works for me) and then into the Sansamp Bass Driver DI out into interface. Nothing too crazy (as I don’t have all the exact pedals) but this works as a general idea on how to achieve the sound. The bass has a huge impact as well. I’m using a Fender Jazz Deluxe and the tracking for the pedals worked better when in passive mode using a blend of Bridge and neck pickups (70/30). It’s also worth noting string gauge plays a part in the sound (particularly for the bends) of which I use a fairly heavy set (45-105s)

Bass guitar/fake guitar signal go straight into Logic Pro 10 (which is where the drums have been sequenced and also a clean orange amp model on the guitar signal) and filming was done with a Zoom 3QHD camcorder (on bass cam) and an iPhone 5 for the pedalboard cam.

Enjoy!’