Do you use modulation for non compositional/cover playing?

Fretwired

I used a touch of chorus to thicken the sound. It's like salt .. a little flavours the food .. too much makes it inedible. Less is more.

sgosden

Fretwired said:

I used a touch of chorus to thicken the sound. It's like salt .. a little flavours the food .. too much makes it inedible. Less is more.

nice analogy. So 80's songs are the equivalent of the Chinese takeaway down the road who load the food up with MSG and salt?

BintyTwanger77

sgosden said:

Fretwired said:

I used a touch of chorus to thicken the sound. It's like salt .. a little flavours the food .. too much makes it inedible. Less is more.

nice analogy. So 80's songs are the equivalent of the Chinese takeaway down the road who load the food up with MSG and salt?

I like to use chorus for The Cure, Cocteaus, some Stone Roses or The Sundays jangly stuff, but not much beyond that

vale

i'm going to be the heretic (witch!) but i am not crazy about the unprocessed sound of guitars, so i only really play with effects. unprocessed playing just sound a bit flat to me.

i use the guitar like the interface or keyboard of a synth, while the effects (pedalboard) is where the actual sound is made. i could use a keyboard to the same end, but i lust like the guitar as an interface better.

to me effects suggest things. flanger is my favourite, but chorus & trems & all the others have their place & layer up in really interesting ways.
flangers make one note move around into all the other notes. tremolos give one note rhythms, dirt gives one note textures. so you can play one note songs, in a way.

effects are just another way of creating chromatic, rhythmic, textured playing. before effects there was only one way to do that (by hand, trills & bends & chords). machines make two.

that has comment has come out as me 'vale-splaining' effects maybe. but they are like clothes to me. you can walk around naked, which is cool. but clothes offer lots of potential for changing your silhouette. i like to dress up.

flying_pie

sgosden said:

Fretwired said:

I used a touch of chorus to thicken the sound. It's like salt .. a little flavours the food .. too much makes it inedible. Less is more.

nice analogy. So 80's songs are the equivalent of the Chinese takeaway down the road who load the food up with MSG and salt?

I would agree with the MSG analogy. I hate the 80s tone I use for the appropriate songs but the plebs who don't know any better lap it up

flying_pie

vale said:

i'm going to be the heretic (witch!)


they are like clothes to me. you can walk around naked, which is cool. but clothes offer lots of potential for changing your silhouette. i like to dress up.

It's all about context. Sometimes you can drag up with your most flamboyant outfits. Sometimes you just need to put a uniform on and do the job. Sometimes you need a lot of layers to keep warm at the expense of fashion. Sometimes naked is best. 

lasermonkey

Depends on the situation. I mostly (i.e. almost always)  play what I call "spacey guitar music" (think Cocteaus, Chameleons,  etc) and in this context, not using modulation sounds, well, wrong. Ok, Hammock seem to get away with it, but I love the tones and textures I get using combinations of modulation, delay and reverb.

That said, when I have my SG copy tuned down to C#, it's only ever about the dirt.