If you are a fan of 80’s pop culture then you may already be a fan of the television show “Airwolf”. I have alot of great memories watching this show and loving the music from it. That opening music always seemed so cool to me. The Metal cover of the Airwolf theme is my homage to some of my favorite 80’s pop culture.
The “making of” video covers most of the details of the Airwolf Metal cover and the recording process but there are some details that may have gone by pretty quickly. I want to share them below so you don’t have to keep pausing the video if you are looking for a higher degree of detail.
Airwolf TV Show Theme (Metal Cover) & Behind the Scenes
If you are a fan of 80’s pop culture then you may already be a fan of the television show “Airwolf”. I have alot of great memories watching this show and loving the music from it. That opening music always seemed so cool to me. The Metal cover of the Airwolf theme is my homage to some of my favorite 80’s pop culture.
The “making of” video covers most of the details of the Airwolf Metal cover and the recording process but there are some details that may have gone by pretty quickly. I want to share them below so you don’t have to keep pausing the video if you are looking for a higher degree of detail.
Regarding the Drums:
I am a huge fan of ToonTrack’s EZ Drummer software. All of the drums for this song were done with EZ Drummer 2.
If you aren’t familiar with EZ Drummer, it is a virtual instrument and uses MIDI. What makes this software so great is how realistic it sounds. This can be attributed to the recorded samples used, the vast number of drum kits and very impressive MIDI patterns. The performances used for the MIDI patterns are actual recordings of top level drummers. The attention to velocity detail from the drummers hands combined with the amazing quality of the drum sampling makes this software one of the best for realistic sounding drums.
EZ Drummer 2 comes with several kits and a ton of MIDI patterns when you buy it and they are very, very useful.
For this song, I am using the included 80’s Metal Drum Kit and the included “Swing Metal” MIDI pattern library. I started with a couple of the patterns in the Swing Metal category and from there I just edited the MIDI to get the drums they way I wanted them specific for this song.
It didn’t take very long to get all of the drums the way I wanted them. If you are comfortable with step recording using MIDI then using EZ Drummer will be very easy for you to use.
I don’t get paid to say that, it just happens to be a piece of software I use all of the time and it’s perfect for my workflow. I highly recommend it!
Regarding the Guitars:
My Metal cover of the Airwolf theme is a fairly simple arrangement. This recording was made for fun so it’s pretty stripped down.
I used only one guitar for the entire recording. It is the Music Man Luke III (HSS). I have had this guitar for a number of years. It is one of the earlier generations and sounds incredible!
All of the rhythm guitars were played using the bridge pickup. All of the lead guitar parts were played using the Neck pickup. I have kept the guitar stock so there are no modifications to it from the factory.
Guitar Amp and Cabinets:
The guitars were all recorded using the Line6 HX Stomp direct into my recording interface. I used 3 guitar rigs for the entire song with only subtle changes to each.
(You can download my HX Stomp presets for this song from the “Links” section at the bottom of this article).
Guitar Tuning:
The biggest difference between the rhythm guitar rigs and the lead guitar rig is the use of the Octave / Pitch Shift Pedal. My guitar was tuned standard (E,A,D,G,B,E) but I wanted the rhythm guitars to be lower in register. The Line6 Octave / Pitch Shift pedal sounded so good that I used that to detune my guitar.
Rhythm Guitar Rig:
All of the guitar rigs used Line6’s model of the Soldano SLO 100 guitar head. The rhythm guitars were played through the Soldano SLO 100 head and paired with either the matching Soldano 412 guitar cabinet or the Mesa Boogie Standard Rectifier cabinet.
The Soldano guitar cabinet was panned hard left in the mix and the Mesa Boogie cabinet was panned hard right. The main rhythm guitars were played individually through each guitar rig instead of copying and pasting a single take. This made a huge difference in how “BIG” the rhythm guitar sound became!
Lead Guitar Rig:
The lead guitar rig is very similar to the rhythm with just a few exceptions. I did not use the Octave / Pitch Shift pedal. I also added a delay pedal. The guitar rig is the Soldano SLO 100 guitar head with the matching Soldano 412 guitar cabinet. All lead guitar parts were played on the neck pickup of the Music Man Luke III.
Ultimate Guitar Tabs and Profiles:
Airwolf Metal Cover (Guitar Tab):
Tab Author (Guitar Curmudgeon):
Original Theme from TV Show (Guitar Tab):
Tab author (Original TV Theme):
Guitar Pro and HX Stomp Patches:
Airwolf Metal Cover Guitar Tab (Guitar Pro):
HX Stomp Airwolf Presets:
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