The New Tone Thread

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Greg_L said:
Do you usually perform in bikinis? That's hot. :D

It's been BLAZING hot down here in the Republic of Texas.
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I was thinking of getting a burkini for surfing in the Caribbean this December, I catch the sun terribly. They actually do a Lycra hijab which could work!
 
Greg_L said:
Do you usually perform in bikinis? That's hot. :D

It's been BLAZING hot down here in the Republic of Texas.
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yeah ..... it's hot here too.
This gig I'm headed to in a few minutes (leave the house at 10am) .... it's right on the beach and though they do put up a little tent for me ... it's hot as hell.
last time I did it I'd reach back to grab my sax for a solo and the damned horn was hot to the touch .... as hot as an amp that's been cranked.

I am NOT looking forward to it ....... but at the end they hand me money so I gots to do what i gots to do.
 
I like that quite a bit ...... gonna be vocals? or is it just an experiment?
 
Yeah. This song was actually written around a line I was singing to myself in the car on the way home from work. I got home quickly found the chords and the song was pretty much done. Still only has two lines though.
 
JDOD said:
Yeah. This song was actually written around a line I was singing to myself in the car on the way home from work. I got home quickly found the chords and the song was pretty much done. Still only has two lines though.
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Most of my songs happen like that. I wrote this Christmas song a few years ago called "Ghost of Christmas Presents". It came to me as I was hanging Christmas lights on the house. The line from the Beach Boys "Little Saint Nick"....."Christmas comes this time each year" kept playing through my head as I was hanging lights and getting annoyed, so I added the next line "so I slit your throat from ear to ear". I just kept repeating it to myself, went inside, and built an entire Christmas robbery song just off that. I think it's one of my better songs. Others may disagree, but I don't give a single fuck. I think it's funny.
 
Greg_L said:
Most of my songs happen like that. I wrote this Christmas song a few years ago called "Ghost of Christmas Presents". It came to me as I was hanging Christmas lights on the house. The line from the Beach Boys "Little Saint Nick"....."Christmas comes this time each year" kept playing through my head as I was hanging lights and getting annoyed, so I added the next line "so I slit your throat from ear to ear". I just kept repeating it to myself, went inside, and built an entire Christmas robbery song just off that. I think it's one of my better songs. Others may disagree, but I don't give a single fuck. I think it's funny.
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Ah, I've never come up with a song like that before - that's an excellent lyrical parody though, Greg.

What do you think of the tones/mix though, mate?
 
JDOD said:
Ah, I've never come up with a song like that before - that's an excellent lyrical parody though, Greg.

What do you think of the tones/mix though, mate?
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Haven't listened yet, but I'll catch up later for sure.
 
JDOD said:
This one came together fairly quickly today - the kind of guitar solo at end sounds a bit like Greg Sage.

View attachment 97538
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I think that sounds pretty good. Much better in the ska part. There's a volume jump when the ska part picks up steam, then it drops back down when the crunchy rhythms come back in. Take care of that. The drums get buried a little under the guitar layers when you have a lot going on. Speaking of drums, if I were the drummer on this, to really give the chugging rhythm parts more drive, I'd play hard 8th notes on closed hats to match the palm mutes. The quarter notes on half open hats sound lazy and sloppy to me. My punk rock drumming instincts really picked up on those lazy quarter notes and I don't like it. That's just me.
 
Greg_L said:
I think that sounds pretty good. Much better in the ska part. There's a volume jump when the ska part picks up steam, then it drops back down when the crunchy rhythms come back in. Take care of that. The drums get buried a little under the guitar layers when you have a lot going on. Speaking of drums, if I were the drummer on this, to really give the chugging rhythm parts more drive, I'd play hard 8th notes on closed hats to match the palm mutes. The quarter notes on half open hats sound lazy and sloppy to me. My punk rock drumming instincts really picked up on those lazy quarter notes and I don't like it. That's just me.
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Cheers, mate. I'll look into that. That's just the sort of shit I need to learn - I'm applying grunge/metal drums to punk and its the wrong thing to do!

I'll check those volume levels and see what I can do - I think a compressor might help there as I tend to just play harder as the song picks up a bit of steam.
 
Right. Grunge/metal drummers aren't really "right" for punk music. That style of drumming is too loose. It leaves too much empty space between beats. There's no tension or urgency in that style of drumming. "Punk drumming" is not always about playing fast, and it's not about filling every nook and cranny with fills. It is all about locking the bass, drums, and guitars together beat-for-beat on a song like yours. A basic way to do it is to lock the hats with the guitar downstrokes. Naturally there are BPM limits where a human being can no longer swing a stick on time repeatedly, but your song is nowhere near that limit. Programming your hats/ride to match the downpicking of the guitars is not out of the realm of possibility for a real punk drummer.
 
Greg_L said:
Right. Grunge/metal drummers aren't really "right" for punk music. That style of drumming is too loose. It leaves too much empty space between beats. There's no tension or urgency in that style of drumming. "Punk drumming" is not always about playing fast, and it's not about filling every nook and cranny with fills. It is all about locking the bass, drums, and guitars together beat-for-beat on a song like yours. A basic way to do it is to lock the hats with the guitar downstrokes. Naturally there are BPM limits where a human being can no longer swing a stick on time repeatedly, but your song is nowhere near that limit. Programming your hats/ride to match the downpicking of the guitars is not out of the realm of possibility for a real punk drummer.
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Cool, I'll look into that one night this week - I have my AKGs with me so I should be able to get some mixing done.
Re-tracking the clean sections and recording a better solo will have to wait till next weekend though - I might totally rip off the solo from D-7 actually.
Another thing I can get on with this week is working out how to use the Focusrite compressor bundle before the DAW.

Aside from the lazy quater notes, how do you think my programming is coming on? Bubba suggested that there was a little too much slap in the kick which I agree with. I just sit in my chair, tapping my feet and slapping my thighs while I work out what to do.
 
JDOD said:
Cool, I'll look into that one night this week - I have my AKGs with me so I should be able to get some mixing done.
Re-tracking the clean sections and recording a better solo will have to wait till next weekend though - I might totally rip off the solo from D-7 actually.
Another thing I can get on with this week is working out how to use the Focusrite compressor bundle before the DAW.

Aside from the lazy quater notes, how do you think my programming is coming on? Bubba suggested that there was a little too much slap in the kick which I agree with. I just sit in my chair, tapping my feet and slapping my thighs while I work out what to do.
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Yeah I'm not crazy about that kind of kick sound, but it's just personal preference. It sounds plastic and hollow to me. Too metal. I don't mind some slap, but it has to have body behind it.

Listening to your track again...most of the programming seems pretty good, besides what we've already talked about. Your selection of beats and shit seems okay. It's pretty basic but basic is always better to me. The sounds are pretty canned, but it is what it is. Going back to the hats thing, the section coming out of the ska part, where the centered palm muted guitar comes in and the drums pick up a steady beat again, that's a good spot for the cut-time quarter note hats. What you've done there is good. I hear some subtle hi-hat accents in there maybe? Like it's bashing quarter notes with some 8ths added in for flair? I could do without that jazzy shit but it's up to you.
 
can't remember now 'cos I don't have my DAW in front of me but there's loads of really low velocity hits in between the main quarter notes to make it feel more real.

Its bound to be fairly basic 'cos I'm just not that good at drumming so I find it hard to imagine good parts! I can only programme what I can imagine playing!
 
JDOD said:
can't remember now 'cos I don't have my DAW in front of me but there's loads of really low velocity hits in between the main quarter notes to make it feel more real.
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That's valid in most cases, but not very realistic for this style of music. I mean you can do whatever you want, but if you want "punk style" drums, then ghost notes and accents are not very realistic. Lots of seasoned pro drummers do that stuff. Not a lot of punk drummers do that stuff.

Only programming what you think you can play is the best approach, so you're on the right track there.
 
Greg_L said:
Only programming what you think you can play is the best approach, so you're on the right track there.
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+1 dude, great advice for ya JDOD...

Clip sounds pretty good, I agree about the kick sound myself...that's why I always route my drums to separate tracks in Reaper, so I can eq the individual pieces if need be...Automation is your friend during the volume differences Greg mentioned too...I'm impressed with your drum programming, you're improving dude...;)
 
JDOD said:
Ah, can you automate volume?
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You can automate about anything in Reaper dude.....


No tones, but did a little cosmetic work to my EVH head....

Before:



After:




You can't really tell in these pics, but I painted the whole cage blue, then the striped part red (you can obviously see the red...)...I keep it on my desk with the speaker cable ran under the baseboards to the cab(s), but thought I'd take a pic of it on top of both cabs...It looks funny on top of the cabs where it's so small, but I'm still very happy with this thing....
 
Haha looks funny, that little amp on top of those cabs. Looks more "EVH" though. They shoulda done that at the factory.

And of course, no hillbilly pic is complete without a Mountain Dew. :D
 
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