SOLO of the Month #21 - Voting

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Howdy fretboarders!

Welcome to the voting thread for Solo of the Month #21

Voting closes on the 30th November 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

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/sotm-21-2016-11


Old Is Gold
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Comments

  • markvmarkv Frets: 459
    edited November 2016
    Another bumper crop this month, great to see so many people taking part.

    5 points @ElectroDan - great Ernie Isley vibe! 

    3 points @modellista - funky and really liked the double stops

    1 point @ChrisRG ;- smooth playing as usual, could have done with a bit less echo/reverb to my mind though
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  • Thanks @markv ;
    I was going for that sort of vibe (pun intended)! I discovered that it worked better to add Vibrato with the Bar rather than use my own.
    Anyway I had to take a good few listens deciding this month. I'm still not 100% sure I have it right but my points are going out as follows (goes back for one last listen):
    5 Points - @Stevepage - Solo built nicely and had some great bends.
    3 Points - @rash - Sweet tone and Vibrato.
    1 Point - @ChrisRG - Good rock tone and interesting ideas.
    Great competition this month and as ever, thanks to @Antique_Guitars for hosting it all.
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  • paul_c2paul_c2 Frets: 410
    A good bunch of variety and quality entries this month! Its great to see 11 entries, and I put some time aside to listen to them carefully and played them a number of times. Anyway....

    5 points - @ChrisRG - good tone and starting melody, stays slow and expressive in middle, builds nicely at ending
    3 points - @Markv - interesting melody, feature-packed, reasonable handling of ending
    1 point - @Teetonetal - nice tone, suits the mood of the backing track. Expressive. Livens up 2nd half/towards ending.

    Also I'll mention @Electrodan who just missed out on my scoring but I needed to listen over and over and eventually settled on the above points. Thank you to @Antique_Guitars for hosting as usual.
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  • rashrash Frets: 38
    Loads of good entry's this month. The three I liked most were:

    5 points @ElectroDan ;
    3 points @Teetonetal ;
    1 point @Stevepage ;
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  • Well done to everyone for the big contribution this month, all good efforts. Yet again there is only a whisker between the order of my choices, I've changed my mind about 6 times and all 3 of you have been first choice at some point, but here goes.

    5 Points @modellista  Loved the style and the tone, definitely fitted the backing track best.

    3 Points @ChrisRG Lovely phrasing and a strong feel to this.

    1 Point @ElectroDan It's almost criminal that this should be a "one pointer", brilliant flowing technique, so well executed and an awesome tone choice. Just purely down to personal taste.

    @Teetonetal, @Stevepage and @rash all tickled my fancy at some point too.
    Only a Fool Would Say That.
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  • 5 Points -  @ChrisRG 

      3 Points -   
    @Markv 
     
      1 Point -   
     @Teetonetal 

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • Really, really hard to choose the top 3 this month.  Great effort by everyone.

    5 points - @modellista.   Great tone, playing and note choice.  Fitted great with the track

    3 points - @ElectroDan.  Superb playing but the tone didn't quite do it for me I'm afraid.

    1 point - @Stevepage.  Smooth understated playing with a flourish at the end.  Great stuff. 

    @markv, agree with your feedback, note to self is less is more and to step away from the final mix for a while then listen back before sending!


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  • markvmarkv Frets: 459
    ChrisRG said:

    @markv, agree with your feedback, note to self is less is more and to step away from the final mix for a while then listen back before sending!


    @ChrisRG yes, I always try and give myself a break and then listen again. Also a trick I read in a book was to listen to it from the next room. Sounds odd but actually it has highlighted a couple of unbalanced mixes for me! (imho of course, they might still sound awful to other people ...)
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  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited November 2016
    Some great solos and difficult to choose. I keep changing my mind but today I'm going to go for:

    5 points @ElectroDan. I'm not 100% sure about the tone but it's a great solo.
    3 points @Teetonetal. In some ways the combination of the tone and the playing is the best fit .
    1  point @Stevepage  Very flowing and almost Carlton like. There's a bit of noise at the beginning and end, being very picky now.


    btw. I create backing tracks like this one to practice solos. Below is a link to my attempt at playing (or murdering) the original solo over the backing track.
    It's not a competition.
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  • @Rash 5 points 
    @ChrisRG 3 points
    @stevepage 1 point
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  • Hey guys,

    A nicely varied selection this month and a very wide field.  Really difficult to whittle it down to three, but here goes.

    5 points @ChrisRG - an excellent composition, nothing is repeated and it keeps moving nicely and crescendos well.  Some nice technique and I'm a sucker for a pinched harmonic!

    3 points @DulcetJones - this little gem seems to have been overlooked, but it's a beautiful delicate soundscape that proves there's more to soloing than whacking up the gain and cracking out the pentatonic.

    1 point @Stevepage - very tasteful, in no hurry to get started, which I like.  Builds up to a nice climax.  Shame about the bookended amp noise.

    Honourable mention to @Electrodan, I really liked the fuzz tone, unfortunately I think the levels are a bit overcooked and there's a bit of digital distortion there which niggles a bit.

    Many thanks to @stratman3142 for the backing track and @Antique_Guitars for running the competition.

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  • markv said:
    ChrisRG said:

    @markv, agree with your feedback, note to self is less is more and to step away from the final mix for a while then listen back before sending!


    @ChrisRG yes, I always try and give myself a break and then listen again. Also a trick I read in a book was to listen to it from the next room. Sounds odd but actually it has highlighted a couple of unbalanced mixes for me! (imho of course, they might still sound awful to other people ...)
    This is a good suggestion, or perhaps use the old producer's trick of playing back through the cheapest, tinniest speaker you can find.  Can reveal some surprising problems that better equipment smooths over.
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  • StevepageStevepage Frets: 3037
    edited November 2016
    Hey guys,

    A nicely varied selection this month and a very wide field.  Really difficult to whittle it down to three, but here goes.

    5 points @ChrisRG - an excellent composition, nothing is repeated and it keeps moving nicely and crescendos well.  Some nice technique and I'm a sucker for a pinched harmonic!

    3 points @DulcetJones - this little gem seems to have been overlooked, but it's a beautiful delicate soundscape that proves there's more to soloing than whacking up the gain and cracking out the pentatonic.

    1 point @Stevepage - very tasteful, in no hurry to get started, which I like.  Builds up to a nice climax.  Shame about the bookended amp noise.

    Honourable mention to @Electrodan, I really liked the fuzz tone, unfortunately I think the levels are a bit overcooked and there's a bit of digital distortion there which niggles a bit.

    Many thanks to @stratman3142 for the backing track and @Antique_Guitars for running the competition.

    Thanks! 

    To just to let people know, I didn't use a real amp.

    Line 6 Studio GX

    I'll give every one a listen tonight
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  • I heard the hum on @Stevepage solo. I disregarded it in my voting as i didn't think it detracted from the listening and this is only for a bit of fun.
    I use a Zoom G3 direct for recordings. As it will power via the Laptops USB, I can run it and the Laptop without using a mains supply. It keeps the buzz away enough for my needs (any gnarley noise on mine was intentional =) ).
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  • I thought we were voting solos anyway - not quality of recording? ;)
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  • I thought we were voting solos anyway - not quality of recording? ;)
    You're right, although I think it's also right to take tone into account tone, because that's a big part of the meaning of the music, so there is a sound quality element to the judgement we're making.  Having said that, a brilliant, meaningful solo with a slightly dodgy recording would hopefully always win out over a beautifully-recorded solo with nothing to say.
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  • I thought we were voting solos anyway - not quality of recording? ;)
    You're right, although I think it's also right to take tone into account tone, because that's a big part of the meaning of the music, so there is a sound quality element to the judgement we're making.  Having said that, a brilliant, meaningful solo with a slightly dodgy recording would hopefully always win out over a beautifully-recorded solo with nothing to say.
    Tone can easily get lost in the ability of a person to record it though.

    I find it interesting as I'm nearly always pulled towards the ones that are well recorded and have low handling noise. They always sound more polished and my brain always goes "better solo"... i have to listen a whole bunch of times to get past a bad recording and even then I'm still swayed.


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  • markvmarkv Frets: 459
    For me, part of the challenge is to try and get a well-recorded entry, as well as doing an interesting solo. It's about presentation, isn't it? I have found some entries in the past to be hard to listen to because they were really quite badly recorded.
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  • Voting closed 
    Old Is Gold
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  • rashrash Frets: 38
    Loads of good entry's to choose from. The three I liked most were

    5 points @ElectroDan ;
    3 points @Teetonetal ;
    1Point @Stevepage ;

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