The 90s Sound

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jndietz

The Way It Moves
We're working on our CD and have recorded a few of the tracks. Looking to get kind of a 90s feel out of the disc. Maybe along the lines of Stone Temple Pilots or Smashing Pumpkins. Any tips for the distorted guitars and the drums?

I was thinking a few of the Pumpkins tracks had a little bit more reverb on them than normal, and the guitars were usually a huge range of amps and guitars. HSS Fenders and Marshalls? Gibsons and Marshalls? What do you guys think?

And maybe any tips for the vocals, too. Even production ideas, as well. I will try to post some stuff as soon as I can.
 
jndietz said:
Looking to get kind of...feel out of the disc...maybe along the lines of...Smashing Pumpkins.
...
And maybe any tips for the vocals, too.
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Have the "singer" hold his nose closed with a clothespin when he sings, and have the audience hold their fingers in their ears while listening, and you might sound a little like Billy Corrgan :rolleyes: :D

G.
 
For guitars just do like a lot of those alternative bands did and DON'T tune the guitar.I remember reading in one of the guitar mags the band Presidents of United States of America's guitarist only bothered to put the top three strings on his guitar.He said they were the only ones he ever used so there was reason to string up the other ones.
 
Wouldn't that mess up with the setup and intonation of the guitar though?
 
mcmetal said:
For guitars just do like a lot of those alternative bands did and DON'T tune the guitar.I remember reading in one of the guitar mags the band Presidents of United States of America's guitarist only bothered to put the top three strings on his guitar.He said they were the only ones he ever used so there was reason to string up the other ones.
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When I was learning bass, my first one was a 12th hand Kay, one of those unheard of brands {:D}, that I bought for £36 in this flea pit con merchant's store in Hendon Central. I'd been playing it about two or so months when the G string broke and I just never got round to replacing it for reasons I can't remember, it was so long ago. So for close on two years until I actually went out and bought a Fender musicmaster, I played three string bass. It's funny because it certainly influences the way one plays. Even with a five string now, I think I'm very focused around the middle three strings with the B for depth and the G for colour and trills. But this was the early 80s, not the 90s, unless I was a decade ahead of the game ! :laughings: :p
 
I was a teenager during that time. I was a pumpkins fan . I know the russian big muff pi was used exclusively on "Siamese Dream". Billy Corgan also layered the piss out of guitar tracks to get that sound.
 
Layer a bunch of crappy sounding guitars ten thousand times; I love TSP but their production now vs. the '90s is much better.
 
In the late 80's early 90's alot of alternative "Grunge" bands had a "break all the rules" approach. They'd use the crappiest guitars, the oldest broke down amps and pedals that sat in someone's basement exposed to the elements for 20 years. I'm not joking either!

Bands recorded in 8 track home studios and bounced tracks like crazy, some had cutting lathes and released their own LP's.

Alice in Chains recorded their first demo in an 8 track tree house studio, they had to pull all the equipment up by a rope!

Stone Temple Pilots recorded "Songs from the Vatican gift shop" in a Mansion in Tennesee(I think) Recorded the drums outside in the grass on a couple of tunes, but mostly recorded all the songs live in the "studio" with as little overdubbing as possible.

That would be how you get that sound.
 
mcmetal said:
I remember reading in one of the guitar mags the band Presidents of United States of America's guitarist only bothered to put the top three strings on his guitar.He said they were the only ones he ever used so there was reason to string up the other ones.
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lol. wow. totally not even remotely accurate. :laughings:

they modified their instruments and tunings to achieve a different and unique sound. and it worked.

From wiki, regarding the basitar and guitbass:

Guitars modified in this way use heavy-gauge strings for a heavier sound and are normally tuned in Drop D, though the Presidents play half a step lower in C#. For a basitar, the strings are placed in the D and A positions. Chris uses a .60 gauge string tuned to C# and a .36 tuned to G#. On a guitbass, the strings are placed in the A, D, and G positions. .54 gauge tuned to C#, .42 to G#, and a .32 gauge tuned to C#.
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and if any of you other dummies suggest that a band would enter a studio on a major label's dime w/o tuning their instruments, please punch yourself in the face for me.
 
jndietz said:
We're working on our CD and have recorded a few of the tracks. Looking to get kind of a 90s feel out of the disc. Maybe along the lines of Stone Temple Pilots or Smashing Pumpkins. Any tips for the distorted guitars and the drums?

I was thinking a few of the Pumpkins tracks had a little bit more reverb on them than normal, and the guitars were usually a huge range of amps and guitars. HSS Fenders and Marshalls? Gibsons and Marshalls? What do you guys think?

And maybe any tips for the vocals, too. Even production ideas, as well. I will try to post some stuff as soon as I can.
Click to expand...

should be pretty easy, i would think. have you checked out the '90's Sound plugin from behringer?
 
ez_willis said:
lol. wow. totally not even remotely accurate. :laughings:

they modified their instruments and tunings to achieve a different and unique sound. and it worked.

From wiki, regarding the basitar and guitbass:
Click to expand...

Maybe they should've explained all that in the guitar mag.Maybe they did but not that i recall.I just remember reading an article and that was over ten years and many beers ago.

Even so i still think that their music blows chunks.My opinion

Personally i don't think the big labels give a crap about tuning etc.They're interested in making money.If people are willing to buy it,they'll sell it.
 
mcmetal said:
Personally i don't think the big labels give a crap about tuning etc.They're interested in making money.If people are willing to buy it,they'll sell it.
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people aren't willing to buy a bunch of garbage that ain't tuned.
 
ez_willis said:
people aren't willing to buy a bunch of garbage that ain't tuned.
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Got to agree with that. Well, most people ain't.

ez_willis said:
people aren't willing to buy a bunch of garbage that ain't tuned.
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That's what I say when people say punk liberated people from having to learn to play an instrument properly and play it in tune.
 
grimtraveller said:
That's what I say when people say punk liberated people from having to learn to play an instrument properly and play it in tune.
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right. i think paul simonon and joe strummer would disagree with that sentiment as well.
 
ez_willis said:
people aren't willing to buy a bunch of garbage that ain't tuned.
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Well that just sucks.I was thinking about completely reinventing the guitar and getting famous with that new sound called 'retard rock'
 
Good Grief!

I'm an old enough fart to have seen the Beatles debut on Ed Sullivan's TV show in 1964.

But even I can appreciate Billy Corgan's Smashing Pumpkin guitar sounds. If any of us on these forums could get 10% of the way to capturing his amazing tones, we'd wet ourselves.

He did tons of layering, really sweated tone like crazy, and repeated performances nuance for nuance to get an amazing and huge tone. Listen to his guitar sounds on Hole's Celebrity Skin and tell me that's out of tune, played poorly and with punk apathy.
 
ez_willis said:
right. i think paul simonon and joe strummer would disagree with that sentiment as well.
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Lol. Paul Simonon had the notes of the fretboard drawn onto stickers and stuck to his bass so Mick and Joe could holler out the changes and he could follow along. Theory be damned!
 
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