How do they do this?

DKRecords

DKRecords

New member
Hey Everyone,

I had a question about the song "Hero" by Skillet. At the beginning of the song, there is an effect on the guitars I believe, but I'm not sure what it is. It's at about the 7 second mark in this youtube video: https://youtu.be/uGcsIdGOuZY?t=7s. The effect makes the guitar sound like it is cutting in and out right before the main rhythm guitar part comes in. Does anyone know what this effect is, or how they are doing this?

Thanks!
Dan
 
Some guitars have a cut button that momentarily shorts the signal to ground. The player can push the button to get that momentary mute effect. Of course they might have done it some other way. It's easy enough to mute short bits in the mix but it may not sound the same as doing it with a live guitar/amp.
 
Doesn't sound like the physically interrupted the signal (a cheaper way to do that is to use the pickup selector and have one pickup turned all the way down.)

The way this one sounds, they probably strummed a chord and the cut out slices of it and sequenced those together.

reaper.png
Here's what it sounds like.
View attachment guitar FX.mp3

I also included a slight (.010 beat) fade out to prevent clipping.
 
You could do a variation on the above where you cut out sections of the appropriate length at the appropriate times leaving the remaining audio in place. That would be most like using a mute switch.

But I agree, the YT example sounds like an edit, perhaps just a repeat of the same short bit of guitar.
 
Assuming that Skillet would like to have the same effect for live performance, I think this sort of effect can be created with a guitar pedal like a Boss SL-20 Slicer or a PSE Hyper Slicer.

Just a guess, but if I had to come up with that sort of sound live, the Boss SL-20 is what would come to mind since it is very "tweakable".
 
Sonic Misfit said:
Assuming that Skillet would like to have the same effect for live performance, I think this sort of effect can be created with a guitar pedal like a Boss SL-20 Slicer or a PSE Hyper Slicer.

Just a guess, but if I had to come up with that sort of sound live, the Boss SL-20 is what would come to mind since it is very "tweakable".
Click to expand...

I'd just use a mute switch on the guitar. I find the inhumanly precise timing musically unattractive.
 
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