The New Tone Thread

Cheers guys, this one is probably 2nd or 3rd on the "too finish" list at the moment. I'm having a productive few weeks with lyrics at the moment too so I should get a bit done when I next have time to do vox.

Greg, the chords at the start are the same sequence as Motorbreath of Kill'em All which is probably how we both found it to be a familiar sequence that sounds like 80s metal.
 
Greg_L said:
Man I think you hacked my computer because I wrote a riff about 5 years ago that sounds awfully close to that.



That's as far as I got with it. I never did anything with it because it sounds way too 80s metal to me.
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Greg, that sounds pretty good and there's definitely a good song in there. You could easily remove that wah guitar and replace it with something more punky and come up with a more punky bassline and it would sound similar to your usual stuff. If I had that drum track I'd just work with it and re-build the song using the same basic key/chord sequnce and structure.
 
JDOD said:
Greg, that sounds pretty good and there's definitely a good song in there. You could easily remove that wah guitar and replace it with something more punky and come up with a more punky bassline and it would sound similar to your usual stuff. If I had that drum track I'd just work with it and re-build the song using the same basic key/chord sequnce and structure.
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I need to just speed it up. The wah guitar and riff doesn't bother me. But it's been sitting for half a decade and I've written a hundred better songs since then, so it's no big deal. It can sit another 5 years.
 
JDOD said:
Here's the riff and tone I was working on last weekend - finsihed writing the music and re-tracked the whole thing this today after re-stringing my washburn and sticking it on the left. The Washburn is a much thicker tone than the pointy Ibanez.

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Guitar tone sounds good to me on this one. That Blackstar definitely has its own voice. I keep going between liking it and disliking it (which I do with my own amps almost every time I play them), but I think that you've put in the work to find a sound that works for you. The lead tone might stand a little bump in the mid or hi-mid with an EQ, just to give it a little more presence.

The snare drum has a few little embellishments in the 1st verse that sound unnatural. I'd dial down the velocity on those hits that don't fall on the 2 or 4 beat, so that they sound more like ghost notes rather than spastic drummer Tourette :D
 
Tadpui said:
Guitar tone sounds good to me on this one. That Blackstar definitely has its own voice. I keep going between liking it and disliking it (which I do with my own amps almost every time I play them), but I think that you've put in the work to find a sound that works for you. The lead tone might stand a little bump in the mid or hi-mid with an EQ, just to give it a little more presence.

The snare drum has a few little embellishments in the 1st verse that sound unnatural. I'd dial down the velocity on those hits that don't fall on the 2 or 4 beat, so that they sound more like ghost notes rather than spastic drummer Tourette :D
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Yeah, I know which bits you mean :D I hated them at first but couldn't be arsed to change them, then I got used to them. I'll do a bit of work tweaking drums when I've had a few days off this one.
 
JDOD said:
Here's the riff and tone I was working on last weekend - finsihed writing the music and re-tracked the whole thing this today after re-stringing my washburn and sticking it on the left. The Washburn is a much thicker tone than the pointy Ibanez.

View attachment 98180
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hey man, those guitars sound really good IMO. Really good blend of all the instruments too!
I am way behind on the thread. I'm still devoting most of my free time away from work to playing the drums and playing with my grand daughter.
 
jimistone said:
hey man, those guitars sound really good IMO. Really good blend of all the instruments too!
I am way behind on the thread. I'm still devoting most of my free time away from work to playing the drums and playing with my grand daughter.
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Cheers, jimi. Guys, apologies for using the Tone Thread as a kind of preliminary mixing clinic, I was quite pleased with how that old Washburn was sounding though. When I've had the time to fuck this track up with dodgy vocals and crap lyrics I'll post it over there instead!
 
JDOD said:
Cheers, jimi. Guys, apologies for using the Tone Thread as a kind of preliminary mixing clinic, I was quite pleased with how that old Washburn was sounding though. When I've had the time to fuck this track up with dodgy vocals and crap lyrics I'll post it over there instead!
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Lol. No worries dude. This thread is better than that dumpster fire anyway. :D
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. No worries dude. This thread is better than that dumpster fire anyway. :D
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haha! Thought you might say that. The clinic is handy though for getting ideas on how things could be improved on something you already consider pretty good. I've posted two "complete" songs in there (aside from fucking about the blues or Ukuleles) and while not every comment was helpful, some suggestions worked when I tried them.
 
JDOD said:
haha! Thought you might say that. The clinic is handy though for getting ideas on how things could be improved on something you already consider pretty good. I've posted two "complete" songs in there (aside from fucking about the blues or Ukuleles) and while not every comment was helpful, some suggestions worked when I tried them.
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Well that is the idea of it. The problem IMO is these days the most vocal clinic participants are the very last ones that should be giving any mix advice.
 
Yeah the Clinic is in need of a clinic. I drop in to suss out the work of folk I know but there're also folk I avoid because they talk through all sorts of head gear.
 
It WAS a near perfect learning space. learn from those I'd learned knew their stuff, from folk who had ears and would listen before commenting as well as those who were, essentially, agenda free. I also learnt, quickly, those who had little or no idea as well as those who were panderers.
 
I never contributed very much, in terms of helping someone improve their mix, in the clinic. I'm not getting good enough results, in my opiniin, to qualify me to be giving advice. But, I value getting advise and having my tunes heard by others. So, I try to give a listen and a comment to everybody that did the same for me. So a lot of my critiques may be just saying something like "I love this tune" or "man this is a well-written song".
It isn't really helpful but it lets them know I listened to their song.
 
jimistone said:
So a lot of my critiques may be just saying something like "I love this tune" or "man this is a well-written song".
It isn't really helpful but it lets them know I listened to their song.
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That's not obviously helpful, But its encouraging which is helpful in itself.

I just don't really understand what people are going on about half the time. All I want to do is generally mix together two rhythm guitar tracks, a lead track, a bass line, some drums and some vocals.

People are talking about all sorts of compression busses and various other shit that I don't know anything about - but even on mixes that are basically guitar driven rock. At first I thought I needed to know all this stuff, but it seems to me that people trying to use it 'cos its available, they can and it has some reputation on the internet for getting pro results.

Maybe as I understand more I'll start to see value in it. But at the moment I am managing to get some mixes that I'm pretty happy with just by working on my initial tone, getting it to work with my bass, then panning it and adding varying amounts of reverb to spread things out.
 
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JDOD said:
That's not obviously helpful, which is encouraging in itself.

I just don't really understand what people are going on about half the time. All I want to do is generally mix together two rhythm guitar tracks, a lead track, a bass line, some drums and some vocals.

People are talking about all sorts of compression busses and various other shit that I don't know anything about - but even on mixes that are basically guitar driven rock. At first I thought I needed to know all this stuff, but it seems to me that people trying to use it 'cos its available, they can and it has some reputation on the internet for getting pro results.

Maybe as I understand more I'll start to see value in it. But at the moment I am managing to get some mixes that I'm pretty happy with just by working on my initial tone, getting it to work with my bass, then panning it and adding varying amounts of reverb to spread things out.
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You will do way better for yourself by going your own way and learning by doing than you will by listening to people that just like to hear themselves talk.
 
Greg_L said:
You will do way better for yourself by going your own way and learning by doing than you will by listening to people that just like to hear themselves talk.
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Its good to get advice, 'cos you try things you might not have thought of. Seems to work best by posting something that you're already relatively happy with though and just trying out suggestions as you find them. The most important part of the process seems to be to put some time into getting it as good as you can on your own first.
 
JDOD said:
Its good to get advice, 'cos you try things you might not have thought of. Seems to work best by posting something that you're already relatively happy with though and just trying out suggestions as you find them. The most important part of the process seems to be to put some time into getting it as good as you can on your own first.
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If you get something out of it, then keep on keeping on. I'm not trying to dissuade you or anyone from posting in the clinic. As always you just need to pick and choose who is worth listening to and who isn't. Some people apply every little suggestion from every single mouth breather and they get to mix 15 and it still doesn't sound worth a fuck. Try to avoid being that guy.
 
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