Brain Damage / Pink Floyd "Cover"

  • Thread starter Thread starter 4tracker
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At 25 when the lower string stops being played, it feels like a muddy cloud is being lifted. The guitar tone is rather harsh overall. It's fighting the vocal somewhat and it sounds like it's in a different room. The vocal is more reverby.

I think your guitar might be out of tune too.
 
Guitar tuning - or intonation issue - how old are the strings, when you get to the solo part it seems to get worse. I agree with Schwarz on the harshness of the guitar.
 
Echo above. Guitar sounds too harsh for this. Some serious tuning issues and playing issues. Are you playing with any kind of click track?
 
Bruthish said:
are you playing with any kind of click track?
Click to expand...

No no, free-stylin'.

I checked the guitar tuning and everything is spot on (at least according to the tuners). I wonder what tuning issue people hear. Maybe you guys are hearing the tremolo bar engaging? Do you hear tuning problems during the plucking part -- like the beginning? When the tremolo engages it clearly goes out of tune, but that's what I was trying to do (ala Polvo, math rock, etc) and just blow the thing up.

Any recommendation on how to EQ/or other tricks to get rid of the harshness? It's an amp sim so...
 
I think there's way too much high end and upper midrange on the guitar's amp sim settings (or at least I would think). There's also an excessive amount of distortion on the tone, IMHO, but that's highly subjective (as is the EQ, for that matter). What's not as subjective is the intonation in the vocal, which does have quite a few issues. It's mainly the half step intervals ("on the grass..." etc.), both in the first phrase (F# going to F) and second one (A going to G#). The interval is just not quite there.

I think what most people are talking about with regards to the guitar --- aside from the vibrato bar bit, which is obviuos --- is maybe that the 3rd (F#) on the I chord (D major) sounds a bit sharp. The tone isn't really helping in this regard. The tuner may be reading correctly on the open strings, but check the tuning on the fretted notes (like that F# on string 1) and see what it reads. Chances are it will be fairly sharp.
 
4tracker said:
No no, free-stylin'.

I checked the guitar tuning and everything is spot on (at least according to the tuners). I wonder what tuning issue people hear. Maybe you guys are hearing the tremolo bar engaging? Do you hear tuning problems during the plucking part -- like the beginning? When the tremolo engages it clearly goes out of tune, but that's what I was trying to do (ala Polvo, math rock, etc) and just blow the thing up.

Any recommendation on how to EQ/or other tricks to get rid of the harshness? It's an amp sim so...
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks buddy.

I used a little pitch correction, and since the song uses a G7 I allowed Fs in the key of D. I wonder if this moved the vocal notes (though I am not a good singer at all, so it's very likely I am flat). I'll have to look into that. What key is this song in anyway? I view it as D since it has the nice A7-D resolution, but that doesn't explain the G7 and E...they are borrowed chords from C and A? Not sure how that worked out so well nor do I understand the theory behind borrowing those chords, but it sounds cool.

I like the amount of distortion, but I do hear it's harsh. How would you recommend fixing that? Just sweeping eq and notching out the bad frequencies? I did that to a degree already, so I think it's just a thing with amp sims. To me they all sound harsh, and this one (Rosen + LePou) is the only usable combination I've found. I also used the bridge pickup on the strat, so I bet that added a ton of high end. I probably should have played the intro part on the neck pickup, then switched on the bridge pickup for the middle. I had a few cocktails in me, though, and was just trying to have some fun and blow the thing up (this gets philosophical and all, but I feel drum machine/zero noise floor, etc drives me crazy sometimes, and it makes me just want to destroy songs...like an audio punching bag...it felt really good to mess this one up I must admit). hahah
 
Just because the guitar's open strings show in tune doesn't mean the fretted notes are -defintie intonation issues. It wasnt' just the D chord's F#, either, but the lead part had a lot of off notes in it.
 
4tracker said:
Cool, thanks buddy.

I used a little pitch correction, and since the song uses a G7 I allowed Fs in the key of D. I wonder if this moved the vocal notes (though I am not a good singer at all, so it's very likely I am flat). I'll have to look into that. What key is this song in anyway? I view it as D since it has the nice A7-D resolution, but that doesn't explain the G7 and E...they are borrowed chords from C and A? Not sure how that worked out so well nor do I understand the theory behind borrowing those chords, but it sounds cool.

I like the amount of distortion, but I do hear it's harsh. How would you recommend fixing that? Just sweeping eq and notching out the bad frequencies? I did that to a degree already, so I think it's just a thing with amp sims. To me they all sound harsh, and this one (Rosen + LePou) is the only usable combination I've found. I also used the bridge pickup on the strat, so I bet that added a ton of high end. I probably should have played the intro part on the neck pickup, then switched on the bridge pickup for the middle. I had a few cocktails in me, though, and was just trying to have some fun and blow the thing up (this gets philosophical and all, but I feel drum machine/zero noise floor, etc drives me crazy sometimes, and it makes me just want to destroy songs...like an audio punching bag...it felt really good to mess this one up I must admit). hahah
Click to expand...

Cool ... I can definitely dig the aversion to perfectly quantized music, etc.

The song is in the key of D as you said. The G7 and E chords are called secondary dominants --- the G7 being a non-resolving type. The E chord does resolve properly, though, as it leads to A7, which is the actual dominant (V) chord in D.
 
I would use a cleaner tone, distortion can be good, but I think you have too much.
 
famous beagle said:
I think there's way too much high end and upper midrange on the guitar's amp sim settings (or at least I would think). There's also an excessive amount of distortion on the tone, IMHO, but that's highly subjective (as is the EQ, for that matter). What's not as subjective is the intonation in the vocal, which does have quite a few issues. It's mainly the half step intervals ("on the grass..." etc.), both in the first phrase (F# going to F) and second one (A going to G#). The interval is just not quite there.

I think what most people are talking about with regards to the guitar --- aside from the vibrato bar bit, which is obviuos --- is maybe that the 3rd (F#) on the I chord (D major) sounds a bit sharp. The tone isn't really helping in this regard. The tuner may be reading correctly on the open strings, but check the tuning on the fretted notes (like that F# on string 1) and see what it reads. Chances are it will be fairly sharp.
Click to expand...

Beagle, I did just that this morning up and down the neck. It's very well "intonated". I wouldn't say perfect (isn't it mathematically impossible for a guitar to have perfect intonation anyway?). But every note was within 6 cents or so. That's close enough for me (I grew up playing a thrift store guitars with strings like an inch off the fretboard and awful intonation).
 
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