Dr. Gonzo Posted December 14, 2021 Author Posted December 14, 2021 @Mel81x @Happy Blue this might be the dumbest thing I've ever read in my life - enjoy: https://menga.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-break-in-a-guitar-pickup
Happy Blue Posted December 14, 2021 Posted December 14, 2021 4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: @Mel81x @Happy Blue this might be the dumbest thing I've ever read in my life - enjoy: https://menga.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-break-in-a-guitar-pickup Cant say i've noticed my guitars change sound
Dr. Gonzo Posted December 14, 2021 Author Posted December 14, 2021 4 minutes ago, Happy Blue said: Cant say i've noticed my guitars change sound Yeah my pickups have sounded the same way they always have There's people who've been playing the same guitars with the same pickups since the 60s. I want to know what the guy who wrote the article was smoking because it seems like some very strong stuff.
Happy Blue Posted December 14, 2021 Posted December 14, 2021 9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: Yeah my pickups have sounded the same way they always have There's people who've been playing the same guitars with the same pickups since the 60s. I want to know what the guy who wrote the article was smoking because it seems like some very strong stuff. It's a magnet and coil, this guy is nuts
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted December 14, 2021 Subscriber Posted December 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said: @Mel81x @Happy Blue this might be the dumbest thing I've ever read in my life - enjoy: https://menga.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-break-in-a-guitar-pickup "All your friends who overspent on their guitars will end up with awful-sounding pieces of junk in less than 2 years and probably still owe money on it because they financed the stupid thing. You, on the other hand, will have a guitar that was paid in full years ago, still plays great and still sounds great. That's money well spent."
Dr. Gonzo Posted December 14, 2021 Author Posted December 14, 2021 42 minutes ago, Mel81x said: "All your friends who overspent on their guitars will end up with awful-sounding pieces of junk in less than 2 years and probably still owe money on it because they financed the stupid thing. You, on the other hand, will have a guitar that was paid in full years ago, still plays great and still sounds great. That's money well spent." I like how he basically says "hey metalheads, under no circumstances should you be buying yourself a nice guitar" I've found I don't like most online guitar communities because there's so many people shoveling bullshit like that... but I've found a great piece of the internet www.reddit.com/r/guitarcirclejerk - it's basically just memes and shitposts about all the shite I hate about the online guitar world
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted January 3, 2022 Subscriber Posted January 3, 2022 I spent a lot of time considering what to actually get to start learning Piano so I can start integrating it with my workflow and even if someone from the band wants to write something. I figured a MIDI keyboard was more useful than an actual piano as I think it offers the best of both worlds and so I went and bought a simple MIDI keyboard (full size 88 keys) to see where this goes. https://m-audio.com/hammer88 Having said all this, I also plan on taking lessons and while this isn't a "real" piano I wasn't really looking for that or I'd have gone the digital piano route instead. Any of you guys own or play a piano?
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 10, 2022 Author Posted January 10, 2022 On 02/01/2022 at 20:44, Mel81x said: I spent a lot of time considering what to actually get to start learning Piano so I can start integrating it with my workflow and even if someone from the band wants to write something. I figured a MIDI keyboard was more useful than an actual piano as I think it offers the best of both worlds and so I went and bought a simple MIDI keyboard (full size 88 keys) to see where this goes. https://m-audio.com/hammer88 Having said all this, I also plan on taking lessons and while this isn't a "real" piano I wasn't really looking for that or I'd have gone the digital piano route instead. Any of you guys own or play a piano? I used to - it was the first instrument I played actually. Mine wasn't a real piano, just a digital Casio (but it had nicely weighted keys you could plug pedals in to replicate the pedals on a real piano... but I never bought those and just used the keyboard). Nowadays the closest thing I've come to playing piano is: 1.) at my mother-in-laws house, which surprised the shit out of my wife and my mother-in-law... and also myself because I couldn't believe how much I remembered, 2.) fucking around with my Akai MKP Mini (which as you know... isn't really the same as a real piano at all... the keys aren't even weighted). My dad knew how to play piano just a little bit - so when he got it he taught me basically everything he knew and once I'd learned everything he could teach me, he convinced a neighbor to give me lessons for pretty cheap. I'm not like brilliant at playing or anything, especially now. But I can read music because of it (granted, very slowly like someone who is barely musically literate... which I think is a good way of explaining my knowledge of music/music theory). I think going with MIDI is a good idea, tbh... gives you the ability to use from literally shitloads of different types of piano samples/models with samplers/VSTs.
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 10, 2022 Author Posted January 10, 2022 @Mel81x & @Happy Blue I haven't worked on my song for a few months because after recording a rough demo (both on bass and on guitar) and hearing it back... I hated my playing - but I believe I did promise that you two would get to hear a recording of my shitty work in progress... and while I'm not too pleased with it when I listen to it (it starts off with me making a mistake FFS). It's really rough. Expect to hear some mistakes, especially on the bass. Also ignore the noise from my guitar at the beginning I forgot to edit out because I'm an idiot. It's probably not my best take - I think it was one of the first ones I recorded. It's not mixed at all, so I wouldn't be surprised if the bass gets lost in the mix. I also cut the clip a bit too early on accident Anyways, get a load of this shite: Keep in mind this recording is months old and subsequently most of my recording with regard to playing guitar and bass has mostly just been me recording myself practicing, which helps me monitor my progress in trying to improve my rubbish technique. My friend and I have subsequently reworked a lot of the song (and bumped the BPM up a bit), but I haven't really recorded a new version of it. Imo the best thing about it is the chorus riff, at around 0:42-43. It sounds better/thrashier at a higher BPM though. Worst thing about the song in this recording (other than my shite technique) is the shite little pre-chorus riff. It's rubbish and I've come up with about 7 alternative riffs to use in it's place. For the guitar amp sim, I've using my JEM & ML Sound Labs flagship plugin (which was my favourite plugin, until I tried the Neural DSP Archetype: Gojira plugin - which is an absolutely incredible amp sim of the Fender EVH 5150 that has EL34 valves in the power section & bought that during Black Friday), for the bass it's that cheapo Stingray I bought recently & a free SansAmp plugin, and for the drums I programmed them by making edits to some of the MIDI drum rolls that come with EZDrummer2 (the least time consuming way to take stock drum tracks and make them "mine"). The next time you hear the song, it should be a lot more polished. Spending more time working on my wonky technique and less time noodling around has kind of made me a lot more confident in my playing and I think you'll hear it. And chances are you'll be hearing an actual bassist playing the bass on the next recording instead of me just fumbling along following my pilot track on guitar. I'll also be a lot more comfortable with the fucking DAW
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted January 10, 2022 Subscriber Posted January 10, 2022 21 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: The next time you hear the song, it should be a lot more polished. Spending more time working on my wonky technique and less time noodling around has kind of made me a lot more confident in my playing and I think you'll hear it. And chances are you'll be hearing an actual bassist playing the bass on the next recording instead of me just fumbling along following my pilot track on guitar. I'll also be a lot more comfortable with the fucking DAW For what its worth its actually quite good when you take out the tempo drops in the playing but that's just expected imo when you start out because of the fact that its the first time its not supposed to sound anything like what you'll finally end up with haha. I was half expecting a solo in there too when it starts to get a bit more heavier. Things that I would do to help a bit with cleaning up the sound-stage Pan the guitar and bass on one side and bleed it back into the center by about 30% and raise/level for the guitar so that it isn't overpowered by the bass shifting sides. You'll start to hear your playing more clearly Take the drums and move it to the opposite side and fool around till the drum beats start to almost sound in sync with the bass. What this does is lay the foundational beat set so that you can start to hear the guitars shine through. Then start to tweak and tweak and tweak till you get that very clear metal sound which you've got but as you said its washed and thats okay because all the channels on the DAW are not going anywhere haha This is what the pan + vol settings are for a clean sound sample (look at the I/O column) What you end up with is something that sounds like its in the center of the sound-scape but really its pushed around to let your ears fool your brain into thinking you're listening to it that way. Here's a sample with those settings - http://sndup.net/zt5n But I do like it a lot and it sounds very Metallica mashed with Megadeth. That rhythm almost sounds like No Remorse and that bass line is the classic keep the tempo style as well. It's a lot better than my first attempt that's for sure haha.
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 10, 2022 Author Posted January 10, 2022 12 minutes ago, Mel81x said: I was half expecting a solo in there too when it starts to get a bit more heavier. It's coming - I just haven't written one beyond the first 5 notes , when I jam the song out with my friend I use those same 5 notes and then improvise the rest. I think it's going to take me several takes sitting down playing with the song to figure out a good solo that fits it. Cheers for the tips, I suspect the next time you hear the song I'll have re-recorded everything but the drums (although this might be tweaked a little bit, but only really really minor tweaks) but I'll follow your sound-staging advice for sure! I'm thinking of double/quad tracking guitars on songs in the future, because in my little tests messing around with it (and also jamming in my home studio but with two tracks armed)... it just sounds fucking fantastic, panning one track to the left & one to the right. If I do that, would I want to double track the bass as well? Would I use similar panning tips be what I use if I do double tracking? Probably won't mess around with quad tracking til I'm better at this tbh
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 10, 2022 Author Posted January 10, 2022 Thank you @Mel81x , @Tommy, and the mysterious Sarah Patrick (with her anime avatar) for giving me my first likes on SoundCloud
Moderator Tommy Posted January 10, 2022 Moderator Posted January 10, 2022 30 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: Thank you @Mel81x , @Tommy, and the mysterious Sarah Patrick (with her anime avatar) for giving me my first likes on SoundCloud Haha, you're welcome. I enjoyed listening to it. Obviously I'm no expert when it comes to making music, but your track sounded really cool and well done! I wish I was that musically talented. Had to log on for the first time in almost a decade, and saw that a mysterious woman followed me in 2014 as well. No idea why.
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 10, 2022 Author Posted January 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, Tommy said: Haha, you're welcome. I enjoyed listening to it. Obviously I'm no expert when it comes to making music, but your track sounded really cool and well done! I wish I was that musically talented. Had to log on for the first time in almost a decade, and saw that a mysterious woman followed me in 2014 as well. No idea why. Thanks mate - that means a lot especially because I don't think you listen to metal (or at least don't listen to metal all that much). And because, I don't think it's all that great. There's literally no production done at all whatsoever, just the recorded tracks - and it's a pretty sloppy recording job tbh (but tbf was done pretty early on with me messing around with this aspect of my guitar playing hobby). But seeing you say it sounded cool and was well done definitely makes me feel pretty good about myself. Also, it looks like 6 years ago on Soundcloud a now deleted account sent me a message saying they were looking for a REAL MAN
Moderator Tommy Posted January 10, 2022 Moderator Posted January 10, 2022 11 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: Thanks mate - that means a lot especially because I don't think you listen to metal (or at least don't listen to metal all that much). And because, I don't think it's all that great. There's literally no production done at all whatsoever, just the recorded tracks - and it's a pretty sloppy recording job tbh (but tbf was done pretty early on with me messing around with this aspect of my guitar playing hobby). But seeing you say it sounded cool and was well done definitely makes me feel pretty good about myself. Also, it looks like 6 years ago on Soundcloud a now deleted account sent me a message saying they were looking for a REAL MAN I honestly listen to all kinds of music as long as I enjoy it. I have listened to your track probably four times now, and every time I was just bobbing my head and vibing. So from a layman's perspective, it's pretty cool. I could imagine it in some movie trailer when there's a big brawl or something. So yea, stick with it! I had no messages. Only that woman following me with a profile picture that only showed the lower half of her body. Very skinny legs. I hope she introduced leg day into her routine eventually.
nudge Posted January 10, 2022 Posted January 10, 2022 Yeah, I'm also no expert on music, but I like the sound of it, @Dr. Gonzo! Reminds me of Metallica, in some way. Just please don't ever use scream vocals
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 11, 2022 Author Posted January 11, 2022 8 minutes ago, nudge said: Yeah, I'm also no expert on music, but I like the sound of it, @Dr. Gonzo! Reminds me of Metallica, in some way. Just please don't ever use scream vocals I promise to not ever use scream vocals. I think with this song, the vocals would probably be something along the lines of some 80s/90s thrash band. Possibly Exodus though, and I dunno if that would count as "scream vocals" I cannot promise I won't ever write death metal songs where the vocalist might sound like a mix between a blender trying to break down 100 marbles & the sound a pig makes... but I can promise no screaming (unless that's what Exodus's vocalists over time have done, in which case, it might have those too).
Happy Blue Posted January 11, 2022 Posted January 11, 2022 @Dr. GonzoDecent effort my boy, sounds good getting Deftone vibes ..you got any plans for vocals?
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 11, 2022 Author Posted January 11, 2022 54 minutes ago, Happy Blue said: @Dr. GonzoDecent effort my boy, sounds good getting Deftone vibes ..you got any plans for vocals? I have 0 plans for vocals right now. I want to write lyrics first (I have some, but not many). I also can’t sing at all so there’s also that
Happy Blue Posted January 11, 2022 Posted January 11, 2022 2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said: I have 0 plans for vocals right now. I want to write lyrics first (I have some, but not many). I also can’t sing at all so there’s also that Maybe try find a vocalist to sort that side of it? ..put the song on you tube and ask if anyone can do some vocals. i can do low guttery death metal but don't have a mic right now
Happy Blue Posted January 11, 2022 Posted January 11, 2022 @Dr. GonzoI think you could add more depth to the song if you add something like this from this Deftones song, little breakdowns between your power cords ..skip to 40sec and 4min
Dr. Gonzo Posted January 11, 2022 Author Posted January 11, 2022 14 minutes ago, Happy Blue said: @Dr. GonzoI think you could add more depth to the song if you add something like this from this Deftones song, little breakdowns between your power cords ..skip to 40sec and 4min I forgot how much I like that album. That’s not a bad idea.
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted January 11, 2022 Subscriber Posted January 11, 2022 6 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said: I'm thinking of double/quad tracking guitars on songs in the future, because in my little tests messing around with it (and also jamming in my home studio but with two tracks armed)... it just sounds fucking fantastic, panning one track to the left & one to the right. If I do that, would I want to double track the bass as well? Would I use similar panning tips be what I use if I do double tracking? Probably won't mess around with quad tracking til I'm better at this tbh Yes, you'll use similar panning but you do them in groups once you get past double tracking the sound. I think double tracking is important anyways as a lot of folks do a dry/wet signal combination to fill out the guitars a bit more and add more power to the track.
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted January 11, 2022 Subscriber Posted January 11, 2022 @Dr. Gonzo @Happy Blue Something for you boys to use when you're using reverb in sound-settings with other instruments. This channel is truly mindblowing for good content.
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