The New Tone Thread

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Thanks Tadpui.
I'm still working on mic placement. I moved overheads around to pick up less cymbals because on drum only test recordings they were too prominent. I realize now that they need to be prominent like that so they will have presence in a rock mix. I also have been hitting them lightly.
 
Greg_L said:
Okay here's yet another vocal-less demo track from my bands' influences album thing. I did this one yesterday afternoon. I'm not the singer in the band but I'll probably sing this one along with Chinese Rocks for the album. This selection was picked by the bass player, but it applies to me too.

Sex Pistols - No Feelings
This one's cool to me because it's mostly one centered guitar track with some wide layering popping up here and there for some bigness in certain parts. I did it mostly off memory so Bubba can chime in and tell me all the shit that's wrong with it. :D

The guitars...
Hallmark 60 Custom
Marshall JMP 2204
Presence - 6
Bass - 7
Mid - 4
Treb - 7
Preamp vol - 5
Master vol - 8
Leads with Tube Screamer boost
Marshall 1960A 4x12 - Celestion G12-65
SM57 on axis, on grill, halfway to edge
No EQ, a little reverb added in DAW

No Feeeeeeeeeeelings

Lemme know whatcha think.
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lol .... you're a rhythm playing force of nature!

ummmm ..... I wouldn't call it harsh myself ..... need a bit more 2k to get harsh to my ears.
I would call it aggressive ...... it's "in your fucking face" aggressive ....... more aggressive than I would likely ever do ..... you gotta have supreme confidence in what you're doing to get that aggressive
Man, I don't wanna sound like a fan boi and I know I say this a lot but it just kills me how precise and consistent you are with that rhythm thing .... just perfect!
Drumbs too for that matter .... but that super accurate palm muted rhythm blows me away every time.
 
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Yeah, Greg. Your rhythm playing is the top-bollocks.

Looking forward to getting back into playing and recording this week and next weekend. Really enjoyed just playing my guitar over the weekend after a week off, ended up giving a guitar lesson too.

I've brought a mic with me this week so if I come up with something I might record a few tones from the old Peavey this week.
 
Lt. Bob said:
lol .... you're a rhythm playing force of nature!

ummmm ..... I wouldn't call it harsh myself ..... need a bit more 2k to get harsh to my ears.
I would call it aggressive ...... it's "in your fucking face" aggressive ....... more aggressive than I would likely ever do ..... you gotta have supreme confidence in what you're doing to get that aggressive
Man, I don't wanna sound like a fan boi and I know I say this a lot but it just kills me how precise and consistent you are with that rhythm thing .... just perfect!
Drumbs too for that matter .... but that super accurate palm muted rhythm blows me away every time.
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JDOD said:
Yeah, Greg. Your rhythm playing is the top-bollocks.
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Thanks Boob and JDOD. Yeah that's what I'd call it - aggressive. It's out there all by itself. Maybe it's unsettling to have a centered mono guitar track pummel the listener in the face like that. It's certainly out of the norm these days. It's not even something I typically do in my own songs, but that's how the original was done, so I did it too. I personally really like that guitar sound for music like that. That's probably more like my live guitar sound than anything else I post in here. As for the playing, I don't know, I have a fast hand I guess. My strumming hand is also my hi-hat hand and I'm fairly fast doing both. Or, more likely, I just have the stamina for it. I can play fast-ish guitar and drums all night. I think it's just stamina and muscle memory. If my left fingers could keep up maybe I could shred all over the place. :D
 
I really like the aggression of the centred guitar. I like it placed there as well. I loved the original and your's is a very faithful replica so I dig it too.
I used to be able to play aggressive, solid, chugging bass for ever but a combo of "frozen" shoulder (encapsulitis) in my left shoulder combined with a variant of carpel tunnel (?) in my left hand along with a tendon condition I've had since 12 yrs of age in my right hand (I can't do the scout salute - one finger bends at the 1st knuckle, another at the second and the pointer points at 90degrees from the main knuckle) mean that at 59 I'm able to go like a monster for 10 minutes and then need to do stretches etc before continuing for another 10.
 
I didn't really consider that it was a single mono track - I just thought "ooo, that sounds good"
 
So here's the worst thing that you're going to hear today. I wondered what would happen if I turned all of the EQ knobs all the way up on the JCM800 on the hi-sensitivity input. Master is at 5, preamp is at 8. Plugged my (completely un-tuned) Les Paul, and went all improv with some sort of terrible metal riff off the top of my head. I don't usually play this kind of thing, it just happened. And since I had no idea what key or mode I was in, things just kind of...um...happened. I tried SO HARD to nail that low G pinch harmonic several times but I'm too out of practice to get it right.

The Eye Of Satan's Butthole

Honestly, I don't hate the tone. But it sounds roomy to me...weird with only a close mic. And after punishing my ears with that volume, I can't tell if it came out fizzy or not.
 
Tadpui said:
So here's the worst thing that you're going to hear today. I wondered what would happen if I turned all of the EQ knobs all the way up on the JCM800 on the hi-sensitivity input. Master is at 5, preamp is at 8. Plugged my (completely un-tuned) Les Paul, and went all improv with some sort of terrible metal riff off the top of my head. I don't usually play this kind of thing, it just happened. And since I had no idea what key or mode I was in, things just kind of...um...happened. I tried SO HARD to nail that low G pinch harmonic several times but I'm too out of practice to get it right.

The Eye Of Satan's Butthole

Honestly, I don't hate the tone. But it sounds roomy to me...weird with only a close mic. And after punishing my ears with that volume, I can't tell if it came out fizzy or not.
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I like it dude, & FWIW, I don't hear any fizz here, although my hearing ain't what it used to be....Sounds like an old 80's hair metal riff dude....Good stuff man!!!

On the pinch-harmonic, you just have to play with it, & find the spot where it "jumps out", but remember that it's a harmonic, & the pitch changes as you move your hand up/down the string...

I bet that would sound killer pushed with a clean boost, it's already pretty damn good IMO, but using a boost would kill...
 
Tadpui said:
So here's the worst thing that you're going to hear today. I wondered what would happen if I turned all of the EQ knobs all the way up on the JCM800 on the hi-sensitivity input. Master is at 5, preamp is at 8. Plugged my (completely un-tuned) Les Paul, and went all improv with some sort of terrible metal riff off the top of my head. I don't usually play this kind of thing, it just happened. And since I had no idea what key or mode I was in, things just kind of...um...happened. I tried SO HARD to nail that low G pinch harmonic several times but I'm too out of practice to get it right.

The Eye Of Satan's Butthole

Honestly, I don't hate the tone. But it sounds roomy to me...weird with only a close mic. And after punishing my ears with that volume, I can't tell if it came out fizzy or not.
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sounds good .... no fizz
 
Alright, here's something I've been working on today, you've heard this before, but I changed the guitars, the clean guitars just sounded really weak to me when the other guitars come in/out, so I re-tracked 'em with the LP, using quite a bit more gain than before. I like it a lot better, but I'm curious to know what you guys think about this overall, but especially the guitar tones...The wah pedal I got from Bill is on here too...

I can't remember the exact settings, but most of 'em were on the blue channel, 15w mode, using the G12-65 Heritage through the i5, at as high a volume as I could get by with, probably around 1 1/2 or so... I really like that mic, to me, it's like the '57, but with a little better high end response similar to the 609 I have....Great mic IMO...


WR 7-18-2016

Lemme know what you guys think about this....
 
minerman said:
I like it dude, & FWIW, I don't hear any fizz here, although my hearing ain't what it used to be....Sounds like an old 80's hair metal riff dude....Good stuff man!!!

On the pinch-harmonic, you just have to play with it, & find the spot where it "jumps out", but remember that it's a harmonic, & the pitch changes as you move your hand up/down the string...

I bet that would sound killer pushed with a clean boost, it's already pretty damn good IMO, but using a boost would kill...
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Thanks minerdude. I listened back on my 5.1 system and the hi-frequency fizzy thing wasn't there nearly as much. I do still hear a lot of hi-freq energy, probably just the case of a big amp in a small room. My studio monitors are notorious for their brutal hi-freq response, so maybe they were exaggerating it?

I used to be pretty good at the pinch harmonic thing, but it just doesn't really apply to anything that I've played for so long that I've lost the touch.

Trying to think of what I could use as a boost. My TS9 would color it too much. Maybe the OCD? Might be able to yield some extra oomph without adding too much of its own personality to the signal. It sounded so saturated in the room at that volume, but listening back, it's definitely cleaner than it felt when I was playing. And so my learning curve of room versus recorded tone continues!
 
minerman said:
Alright, here's something I've been working on today, you've heard this before, but I changed the guitars, the clean guitars just sounded really weak to me when the other guitars come in/out, so I re-tracked 'em with the LP, using quite a bit more gain than before. I like it a lot better, but I'm curious to know what you guys think about this overall, but especially the guitar tones...The wah pedal I got from Bill is on here too...

I can't remember the exact settings, but most of 'em were on the blue channel, 15w mode, using the G12-65 Heritage through the i5, at as high a volume as I could get by with, probably around 1 1/2 or so... I really like that mic, to me, it's like the '57, but with a little better high end response similar to the 609 I have....Great mic IMO...


WR 7-18-2016

Lemme know what you guys think about this....
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Man, I still think that this is a terrific low-volume tone, just like the last one. The big pre-chorus guitars are compressed like a low-volume amp would be, but those are the only ones that strike me as low-volume. Heck, I think that you could either turn up the guitars and bass or turn down the drums. I like the verse crunch guitars, although I also liked the cleaner ones from your last version. Great descending southern rock riff there.

It's killing me...what song is this? That intro sounds familiar. Is this one of yours, or is this a cover? It's familiar but yet not familiar.
 
Try the TS dude, it can't hurt, & if you don't like it, don't use it..:D..I only have one od pedal, a Boss SD-1, you can buy one new for about $50, & used even cheaper. While I've never tried a real TS to compare it to, I like it as a clean boost. It does take some bottom away by tightening it up, but a little twist of the bass knob will bring that back...

Tadpui said:
Man, I still think that this is a terrific low-volume tone, just like the last one. The big pre-chorus guitars are compressed like a low-volume amp would be, but those are the only ones that strike me as low-volume. Heck, I think that you could either turn up the guitars and bass or turn down the drums. I like the verse crunch guitars, although I also liked the cleaner ones from your last version. Great descending southern rock riff there.

It's killing me...what song is this? That intro sounds familiar. Is this one of yours, or is this a cover? It's familiar but yet not familiar.
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Thanks Tad!!!

It's a cover tune dude, "White Room" by Cream...The mentioned compressed guitars had quite a bit of gain on 'em, I could probably drop the gain & it'd help, but I want this to sound modern, so I used more gain & probably got carried away....I'm a gain-head from the 80's dude...:)

Right before I rendered this, I turned the dirty/chorus guitars down a smidge as I thought they were overbearing. IMO the bass needs some automation to get it's levels better during the different parts...As usual, I was trying to not make the bass overbearing, & most likely went too far...Let's see what everybody else thinks before I do anything, but I'll definitely keep your recommendations in mind dude, the more ears the better....
 
Ah yes, White Room! Man, give a southern boy an British riff and all of a sudden it becomes a southern rock song :D
 
Tadpui said:
Ah yes, White Room! Man, give a southern boy an British riff and all of a sudden it becomes a southern rock song :D
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Yeah dude, can't help it, it's in my blood......I've got quite a few more covers in the works, hopefully I can pull 'em off, & they won't sound too terrible....:D
 
Tad, that must have been proper ear splitting in a small room, sounds alright though but it is a bit too wild! Suppose you were pretty much adlibbing though weren't you. Knowing what you're playing always tightens things up! Although I'm sure an SD1 would help too.

Miner, I think that sounds great - initially thought the drums sounded too loud but liked them by the end of the track. You just need wang a guitar solo and some lead licks on it now then find someone with a mullet to wail over it.
 
Tadpui said:
Ah yes, White Room! Man, give a southern boy an British riff and all of a sudden it becomes a southern rock song :D
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Tad, took me a couple of minutes to work it out first time I heard this version too - I knew it was familiar and I knew I knew it, I just couldn't quite place it.
 
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