Guitars and tuning...please listen carefully

B

bendbones

Member
Hi,

I'm writing a track...my problem is - I've done the guitars and redone them...I'm not sure if I'm hearing things since I've heard the track so many times now, but I think possibly the guitars might be out of tune in a few places....Please would you do your best to listen and let me know what you all think, it'd be much obliged

(mix is currently vocal-less) NB. Drummer thinks that guitars are in tune - perhaps I am just hearing things - ear fatigue and all that, but perhaps not :-)



EDIT: I should mention, the strings are brand new on guitar and bass, the tuning is fine...the intonation seems alright...etc...

Cheers,
Ben.
 
Sounds like you might be pulling a string or two out of tune every now and then.......were you sitting while you recorded this? If so, you could also be leaning into the guitar and bending the neck silghtly. Ease up on the grip and stand while playing.....just my 2 cents.....btw, to the rest of the world(listeners..not players) they would never notice it at all.....I had a hard time hearing anything .
 
Hey thanks, your're absolutely right, I have been sat down while doing all the recording, but I was trying to be extra careful to not bend the strings and apply any undue pressure etc, whilst sat down...I guess the thing is though...is it tracked nicely enough, to not be re-tracked? Do you really think it sounds in tune enough...I know if I personally think its out of tune, i should redo it etc, but I've redone the parts so many times now...and I don't want it to loose too much freshness etc,...

The pissed up drummer ( :-) ) has just asked me - are you sure its not a brightness or eq issue....

Ben
 
bendbones said:
Hey thanks, your're absolutely right, I have been sat down while doing all the recording, but I was trying to be extra careful to not bend the strings and apply any undue pressure etc, whilst sat down...I guess the thing is though...is it tracked nicely enough, to not be re-tracked? Do you really think it sounds in tune enough...I know if I personally think its out of tune, i should redo it etc, but I've redone the parts so many times now...and I don't want it to loose too much freshness etc,...

The pissed up drummer ( :-) ) has just asked me - are you sure its not a brightness or eq issue....

Ben
Click to expand...
by the time you get vocals and everything else in there....you won't notice it.....I would not give it a second thought.
 
I think its tracked good and the out of tune-ness isnt anything to be retracked. It's not bad. I can only hear it a little.
 
So it is definitely out of tune in places? I'd kind of rather it be spot on...perhaps I'll just wait until the vocals have gone down and then decide :-)

Thanks for all your feedback (of course, if anybody else has some...)

Ben.
 
I am extremely hard on this sort of thing

I nearly cause myself strokes every time I record something, and I'm telling you to leave it alone. I don't notice anything out of place. It sounds fine. The only thing that bothers me is that weird vocal in the middle of the song, and the piano sound. The Piano sounds like it's not sitting well in the mix at all. It also has a cheap sound to it. Maybe some reverb and eq. Good luck.
 
Hahah, I know what you mean, re having a stroke...I guess I'l leave it alone, will try and sort out the synth sound though...I'l prob end up removing it all together to be honest...

Cheers,
Ben
 
About 3/4 of the way through it sounds like your low string (Whichever it is) is a tiny bit sharp. It's really not noticeable unless you look for it though, I wouldn't worry about it.

The beginning of the song sounds like Clutch, I like it :)
 
It sounds a tiny bit wobbly to me on the distorted guitar part, but not bad enough to retrack. The effects will accentuate anything by doubling/chorusing any issue. The keyboard needs to be tucked in a little bit, but I'd keep it in the tune. Good playing by the way :D
 
I don't hear a thing out of tune. I think it's good to have stringed elements like a guitar sway a little out of tune slightly every now and then by moving the guitar etc. It adds character kind of like a double tracked vocal that's almost perfect, but still has a little different characteristic to it.

I'm not talking about being so out of tune that it sounds like shit. LOL As far as I'm concerned, this is perfectly in tune for rock n roll. It's not noticeble at all to my ears listening to it as a whole.

If this was a classical piece with 2 guitars and some strings it would be a different story. LOL

Nice song. I was making up words as I listened to it.:eek:
 
Thanks for all your comments...I guess a track can never be 100% spot on, but it gets like a compulsive thing sometimes - "it has to be perfect" in my head all the time etc...Still I'll def heed all of your advice, and leave it alone :-)

Guitarer - thanks for the Clutch comment, they totally rock as a band and thats def a complement...Was aiming for an alterbridge/creed type sound

Some Canadian dude is hopefully going to put some vocals to it (I'm really not a strong vocalist)

Cheers all,
Ben.
 
I listened a couple of times but liked the song so much I didn't even listen for tuning lol. Please post again when you have some vocals.

Violent5
 
Violent 5 - thanks; I'm really looking forward to getting the vocal tracks from dude in Canada, will certainly post the finished mix up here, when its done

Cheers,
Ben.
 
I don't really have any problems with guitar parts in the song-the little piano triads just don't sit right to me. It seems to have a 'Casio' tone and sounds pretty much centered in the mix, maybe try panning the piano differently and see what that does-I thought maybe the piano in an octave lower might help but it may compete with the guitar too much....
 
Yeah I've not been sure about the piano either...I'd normally use a Roland GR30 guitar synth (into a godin lgxt guitar), but this stopped working at some point over the last year or so...So I've been looking for a decent software instrument for my linux setup, but there don't seem to be any (although there is a synth line also present in the mix, for which I used ZynAddSubFX)
So basically, I took my gf's macbook, booted up garageband and used the piano sound built into that, DI'd the macbook into my linux machine etc, cumbersome approach

Really hope some decent software instrument plugins get written for linux before long

Cheers,
Ben.
 
Also...something I noticed about my band's rhythm guitarist is that he uses light strings for dropped tunings. What a nightmare that was. I asked him to change over to power slinkys (a few gauges heavier) and how when he presses down those power chords it doesn't sound like he's playing it 1/4th of a step higher than whatever he's playing.
 
Thanks for the comment re strings... I've only ever used d'adario exl120s (damn that sounded like some kind of endorsement)...Gauge 9 basically...I've never done any stuff in a dropped tuning, thats gotta be even more of a nightmare, for sure...Think I might have also used super slinkys at some point in the past

Cheers,
Ben.
 
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