Guitarsounds on Recordings

[timmerman]

Having read some threads over the last couple of weeks about "distortion" and the various pedals people use and discussions about a certain kind of sound an artist may use I went back to listening to the "Nevermind" and "In Utero" album of Nivana. Had not listened to them for a while and listening back I was just taken by the fact that I do listen more to the sounds on the album than the acutal songs.

Okay let me just stay to the SOUND and not really go too much into the SONGS, but you do really have to look at both of them.


On "In Utero" I really like the sound on "Pennyroyal Tea---the electric one, just listen to the lower strings of how the guitar sounds. Traces of this sound can be found in parts of "Frances Farmer Will Have ......."

Overal I think Kurt had a great sound which worked for him, but would this sound also work for someone like Joe Satriani?

Well Satriani plays a lot more melodic ideas which need to stand out in his songs, so therefore he needs a very different sound. Really I know you cannot compare these too sounds, as they are so different and also are used for very different kinds of playing: Kurt uses more of a sound which is good for rhyhm parts, whereas Joe's sound will work more for leadlines.

Hendrix used to say about performing and sound: It is a compromise between your rhythm and lead sound, just get a good sound for one of them, and work with the tonecontrols to get the rest done.

In the studio, however, you have far more control to play with your sound, also you may only play a little riff once in a while in a song, so you could get for this riff a different guitar and amp compared to the main guitar of the song.

Again when you think of Nirvana you tend to get just one kind of sound throughout the whole album, yes there are some variations in this, but not that much. Take the example of Jimmy Page, and you get a very different story: Lots of different sounds in all kinds of corners of the song. Of course in Page's example this works very well for the compostion and the song in general, would not have suited Kurt, as he was just going for a more rawer, simple sound.

About Joe Satriani: I find it interesting that all thoughtout his albums his sound does not change that much. I think he has a vision of how he wants his compostions to sound and chooses his guitarsounds accordingly. So whatever gear he will use, he will end up with similar results. Interersting, because it really shows that he knows how to get his sound, and I am not even talking about notechoise, no, purely the sound of the guitar.

Another example could be Jeff Beck: He is VERY good at making his sounds, and over the years they seem to get more and more controled, but they still have a feel of "urgency" and "rawness" Of course over the years he has also gotten so much better as a player and a musician, but it was already there in the early days. That is why the Yardbirds could not keep his interest for very long: He wanted to play more with sounds rather that notes, rifffs and chords which were required for their songs.

Song, compostion and the kind of guitar sound you will use go very much hand in hand, there are soo many great examples of folks who get their sound to complement their compositons, and the challenge is also to change your sound all the time as well, just to keep things interesting.

So this is a very open forum from where we could go into all kinds of players and music, so have your say about what sounds you dig and how these people get their sounds.

Cheers,

Eddie

 

[spoonie g]

I dig Page's approach. He was a guitarist and producer. He created sounds that fit the song and stimulated the listener. I find someone like Satriani's way of doing it a bit stiff and uninspired. Going by that, maybe Cobain's was as well.

 

[Stefan Elmblad]

Page was the studio God when it comes to that type of music. Even though he himself did have very crappy guitar sounds on many songs. When drums, bass and vocals came into it, it all fit.

 

[gvarko]

What???

Even though he himself did have very crappy guitar sounds on many songs.

I wish like hell I could sound that crappy..

 

[ibanezrocks]

All he means is that if you would listen to just the guitar without anything else it would sound thinner than most of what you would probably sound like if you were just playing by yourself, but thats true with any recorded guitar sound atleast in my opinion it does. That doesnt mean thats a bad sound though, I never heard a Zeppelin song and thought that the guitar didnt sound great. It just means that what sounds good playing guitar in your room and what fits in a mix are very different.

 

[Mike Walsh]

Stefan is right, listen to Communication BreakDown and tell me that his so called distorted guitar tone is full and has some hair on it

But its not his fault, its the technology of the times, but it does sound weak and like crap.

Honestly, if you are using a pedal for distortion you are in some trouble. I think Nirvana's distortion is pretty lame considering the amount of money, time and access to the right people he had to help him out. But it fits his style of recording which is, 1 or 2 takes and a raw sound. The dude did not really care and thats what you are hearing, which fits though. Could you imagine if his tone was like Van Halens or even Petrucci's? It probably would not work as well with all the flat singing notes and ringing harmonics from poor palm muting.

 

[Henri Devill]

With Page his work with guitar arranegments is excellent!All those "small" sounds work so well because of how he "stacks" his parts!Although he may not be the "greatest" player to me he's the "greatest" guitar arang. of his era..He's the first in my mind to take it to that level..which lead to folks like Brian May ect. IMO

 

[timmerman]

Wah use Satriani and.........the Stones

Mmmm,

Have got some more questions to ask about what kind of amps people use on what kind of album, but I will leave that for another thread...........

Just some general remarks about Satriani and his use of the wah pedal: He uses it so often as a tonecontrol rather than a tool to get the typical rhythmic pummping wah sound. There are moments when you listen to a certain song that you are not even aware of the fact of him using a wah. I think he uses it well to articulate his phrases, and at certain point to phrase really jumps up because of the treble boost of the wah. I know he is not the only one who does this, but he is very good at it.

I think the thing with Jimmy Page and Led Zep is [and a lot of Rolling Stones albums too] that there are all these little guitar parts, oh sure, these parts do not do much on their own, but make a lot of sense in the rest of the recording. Seems that with the Stones Mick Jagger also does a lot of guitar. Perhaps they just slapped a capo on the neck, gave him the guitar and left him in the corner for a while until he had found a part which made some kind of sense

Well with the Stones it is hard to tell at times who does what: We know what Richards rhythm playing sounds like, and the solos of Mick Taylor also sound quite characteristic, but then Keith solos as well, and when we get to the Wood/Richards period it is even harder to tell who does what as the two have a style which is so similar.

Anyway, with the Stones albums you also get this idea that there is so much more than what you hear at first value.

Cheers,

Eddie