RotM #6 - Voting

Antique_Guitars

Howdy beautiful people

Welcome to the voting thread for Riff of the Month #6

Voting closes on the 31st of January at 11.50 pm.

Feel free to vote and comment in this thread.

Same deal as the main Fretboard Challenge, vote for your top 3 entries!

1st choice gets 5 points

2nd choice gets 3 points

3rd choice gets 1 point

You can find all the entries on this playlist




Have fun!

Fretwired

I listened to them all three times. I think a riff has to be memorable, repetitive, get your head nodding or your foot tapping [or both] and have a good tone, so on that basis I award my points as follows:

@PolarityMan .. 5 points
@Hobbio .. 3 points
@Antique_Guitars .. 1 point

I thought the overall standard was very high. And making a decision was tough.

There was one track I could single out, @DesVegas song 23 Swans, for a special mention. I thought it was an excellent track and very Robin Guthrie-like, but I didn't think it a riff. It should be entered in a Fretboard Challenge. And @Antique_Guitars .. very brave playing just an acoustic with no distortion or drums - I think it works.

Antique_Guitars

The voting is going to be really hard for this one as all the submissions are amazing, I think im going to have to listen to all of them about 4 or 5 times to decide

samzadgan

my votes go to....

1. @judasvigilante

2. @antique_guitars

3. @desvegas

PolarityMan

Thanks to @Fretwired I think that's my first ever 5 pointer!!!!

Fretwired

PolarityMan said:

Thanks to @Fretwired I think that's my first ever 5 pointer!!!!

@PolarityMan .. your welcome .. it stuck in my head from the first time I heard it. You should turn it into an instrumental track. There's a Satriani vibe going on there .. :-)

PolarityMan

Well just listened to the lot jotting down first impressions, I reckon Ive got it narrowed down to 7 tracks for my votes but I said in the other thread I would comment on all of them so here it is, literally jsut my first impression of each track.

Steam Abacus - Steve the loopy drummer

Lovely guitar tone but the "drumming" in the background I found really distracting, to my mind gentle cymbal swells would have been order of the day here

Downsideup11 - Tele riff

Very status-quo but the tone was very thin and harsh...a phone recording I guess? I reckon this riff would shine alot more in a higher fidelity recording

Spark240 - ROTM Jan 2015

Nice interplay between the "lead line" and the strums. Could easily imagine this as an intro or refrain to a singer-songwriter type piece

Simonbeckwith - 3pc1

Nice indierock piece, unusual repetition structure which remind me vaguely of someone like Biffy Clyro

Anonymous1 - Tiger Toight

Excellent production but I though the riff while typiying djent it was stil a little bit unmemorable

PVO Dave - Riff

Forget the guitar this one is all about the bass! The slap / pop bass in this is great. Nice to see someone not making guitar the vocal point of their track for a change.

SamZadgan - Rotm

Dooooooooommmmy has some of those classic sabbath feel elements to the riff, filthy, filthy tone.

Das Vegas - 23 Swams

I liked the kind of pulsing feel to the bass in this but this sounds more liek a sound texture to me than a riff and while it's well executed doesn;t really tick my boxes personally

Hobbio - Jan 2015

Classic rock stuff, nice crunch tone and very well recorded. Wouldn;t sound out of place on an ac/dc or zz top record

TTony - with bass

More classic rock riffing and while I think the guitar tones are a little lacklustre i really like the little fills/flourishes on the bass drums

Bingefeller - February riffing

Like the post rocky feel of this one, i feel this opne could use a second guiatr part though to really shine

Rocker - Christmas Star

It feels like this is about 15 bpm too slow for the part, reasonably well played riff but with no context it's hard to compare it to some of the more polished entries

JudasVigilante - ROTM

The drums really grab me on this one, and I cant really put my finger on why, I think it might be the feel of the production which in some ways reminds me of the drum sound on Relentless by Pentagram.

Kin - First go

This was really really quiet, and split into 2 sections, i found whatever was making the percussive noises quite confusing in the first section and i felt the second section was really a lead piece over a vamp rather than a riff. Other than the volume nothing wrong with it just didnt feel like a riff to me.

Daveww - Riffyriffrif

I really liked what I guess is the second bar of this riff with some nice unusual note choices in the ascent. I'd have really like to hear this with some context, ie/ bass drum and possibly bass as certain parts of it feel a bit abstract opn their own but I have a felling that in a whole track it would fit really well.

Last Mantra - Dopesick

Great groove on this one, not entirely sure about the flange(?) on the guitar but I think the feel of the track more than makes up for it.

Antique_Guitars - Scratchy Scratch

Being a big opeth fan Im really into this kind of melencholy finger picking. Love this one.

PolarityMan

Fretwired said:

PolarityMan said:

Thanks to @Fretwired I think that's my first ever 5 pointer!!!!

@PolarityMan .. your welcome .. it stuck in my head from the first time I heard it. You should turn it into an instrumental track. There's a Satriani vibe going on there .. :-)

Ha! I think my shredding ability will take some serious work before even the idea of producing something satriani-esque is plausible!

TTony

Thanks for all the comments @PolarityMan - think I'd better try to do likewise now!

PolarityMan

TTony said:

Thanks for all the comments @PolarityMan - think I'd better try to do likewise now!

I think one of the things that will keep people coming back is getting comments and discussion around their entries. 

steamabacus

Wow. 18 entries!

I've had a listen through once but it'll take a couple more (with the help of pen and paper) to extract a top 3.
Well done to everybody who entered.

JudasVigilante

Here are my votes for the ROTM challenge.

I have listened to then all 4 or 5 times each over this past couple weeks. Thought about it long and hard this past hour or so with another couple listens to several tracks. Such a high standard and variety too. Everything from rock, to metal, to trippy to beautiful accoustic. 

1st: samzadgan (5 points) Deadly riff, moody, brooding, evil (in a good way) with real MONSTER tone too. This was my favourite from the moment I heard it.

2nd: This was close and very tough: PolarityMan (3 points) Lovely intricate picking, rockin' riff. Very well performed. I can really appreciate this as it's the kind of riff I find hard to write/perform. 

3rd: Antique_Guitars (1 point): I love this riff. Most of the stuff I've recorded and released this past 18 years has been accoustic, so I can appreciate what it is to get an accoustic riff to stand up against electric or highly distorted riffing. It's a beautiful piece of playing.

That's it. I wish I had the time to give everyone a mention, there where another 3 or 4 Iwould liked to have voted for, but alas we're limited to 3. I liked the Bingefeller riff and the Anonymous1 riff too. Maybe next time guys/gals. I will say this though. I liked every single riff, all different, all very good, all original. What more can one ask for.

Can I just make a point that I'm simply not voting for Samzadgan because he voted for me. I'm not that pathetic. His riff is right up my street and I loved it from the minute I heard it. I do not know thia guy/gal at all, but his riff was MONSTER to me anyways! Well done to all.

horse

Record number of entries? Some great stuff in there. I'm going for:

5 points @simonbeckwith - I like those wondering ty tabor type riffs

3 points @steamabacus - I also like some of that wes Montgomery octave action

1 point @polarityman - liked how the chords progressed over the riff at the start

hoping to be back involved myself next month

simonbeckwith

Thanks for the kind words @PolarityMan and @horse

daveww

PolarityMan said:

Daveww - Riffyriffrif

I really liked what I guess is the second bar of this riff with some nice unusual note choices in the ascent. I'd have really like to hear this with some context, ie/ bass drum and possibly bass as certain parts of it feel a bit abstract opn their own but I have a felling that in a whole track it would fit really well.


Props to @Polarityman for the full set of comments.

I agree with your comments but strangely it works for me.  I think it would have been better with a bit of an intro as well but next time I'll probably go for something a bit more traditional.

I'll have good listen to all over the next few days and try, like you to give some constructive comments with my vote.

kin

5 points @desvegas

3 points @steamabacus

1 point @Spark240

I could've happily had @Polarityman and @antique guitars in there too.

Seeing as mine was pretty much inaudible and had an extra bit tacked on that shouldn't have been there , I don't really feel qualified to comment other than I thought the standard was really high overall and i'm looking forward to giving it another go next month.

DesVegas

Good evening London, Sweden here.  May i just say you all look great tonight and I'm really enjoying the show.

Our points are as follows

@Polarityman 5 points

Anonymous1 3 points

@Rocker 1 point

I'd also like to add @JudasVigilante I love you guitar sound and I'm looking forward to @Kin next effort, it's a shame I couldn't really hear what you were playing but I liked what I heard.

Well done to everyone who entered and thank you to @Antique_Guitars for hosting this event .. buy a bloody distortion pedal mate : )))))

Note: I wrote this before i read anyone's comments.

hobbio

Tough to narrow it down to 3! I've tried to restrict myself to those entries that match what I think of as a riff, rather than some of the lovely textures that are there.

5 points - @Polarityman - Love this, it's right up my alley. Great tone too.

3 points - Tiger Toight - I'm very selective when it comes to djent, the rhythm has to engaging rather than just complex for the sake of it and this absolutely is. 

1 point - @TTony - Again, this is right up my alley. I would really have liked to hear a snare in there to drive the beat a bit more, but that's just me.

@Antique_Guitars and @Spark240 Pleeeease turn these into full tracks! I really, really enjoyed them and they deserve to be heard as completed pieces. The only reason they didn't score was because I don't think of them as being "riffs", rightly or wrongly I don't know but I have to go with my gut feeling. Bloody love them though!

EDIT: I forgot to thank @Fretwired for the points, I've never entered anything like this before and even if they're the only points I get it's nice to know that at least 1 other person likes what I wrote. Also, @Polarityman - top work on the comments mate, thank you for the feedback.

bingefeller

1,  Simonbeckwith (5 points)

2.  Desvegas (3 points)

3.  Antique_Guitars (1 point)

Cheers!

lloyd

I'll vote having totally forgot about the deadline...

1. Spark240

2. Simonbeckwith

3. bingefeller

Good work chaps

TTony

I've had a listen, or 53, and conclude that we create some really brilliant stuff.

Steamabacus

Liked it immediately.  I can definitely imagine the rest of a track around this riff ... well, I would imagine it if I was good enough, so Steamabacus should really turn it into the full track so we can all enjoy it.  Great stuff.

Downsideup11

A Tele you say??    

Spark240

Liked it immediately.  Eagles-y?  (sorry!).  

PolarityMan

Liked it immediately.  Energetic.  Clean riff.  Got my foot/leg going.  And a proper ending too.

Simonbeckwith

I found myself listening to the drum work as much as the guitar - nice work on both though.

Anonymous1

Sounded like an almost pro-level production - big sound  I wanted the riff to do something more though - perhaps I don't understand the genre well enough (at all).  For a 10sec fill - great, but as a 30sec+ riff - I wanted more.

PVO_Dave

I liked it, but ... I thought it was a bit too predictable to really grab me as something new and exciting.  Sorry.

SamZadgan

Liked it immediately.  It's really difficult to assess against some of the more produced entries though, particularly when others have got drums and multi-guitars on them - I was trying to imagine what this would sound like with the "rest" of the band playing on it.

DesVegas

Have you been looking through Steamabacus' idea drawer (that's not any form of criticism)?  Just a bit short ... I wanted more to be able to properly get into the riff ... just started to think I knew what was coming next, and it was all over.

Hobbio

Liked it immediately.  Felt Lizzy-ish to me, but from when they were good.  (I was a big Lizzy fan back in the days when they were good).

TTony

Listening back to this against the others in the playlist, mine goes on too long with not enough happening.  Don't know what happened at the end either.  All recorded on an iPad (JamUp Pro), including the inaudible bass, and then exported into GB for me to add the drum track.

Bingefeller

This could be a riff from so many different genres (though possibly not folk).  Liked it, but not enough to make it top 3.

Rocker

Liked it immediately.  Play more ... make more music ... submit more riffs to the challenge ... More, more, more!

Judasvigilante

I was expecting a big intro when the cymbal started ... but it didn't really happen, and I really wanted it to!

Kin

I think it could be very interesting ... turn the record level up because I want to hear it properly, and more of it.

Daveww

Always like Daveww's riffs, but this one felt a bit half-finished to me?  Still good, but 

LastMantra

Liked it immediately, although I'd have preferred a cleaner guitar sound - I thought the effecting of the sound took attention away from the riff itself.

Antique_Guitars

Liked it immediately.  Another great piece of acoustic work from Mr A_G.  Nice and clean note picking too (I'm jealous).

So my top 3 are ...

1st place @Antique_Guitars

2nd place @PolarityMan

3rd place @Spark240

On a different day, with my ears in a different mood, those placings could easily be different though.

Brilliant though - we could be musicians ...