Painted yourself into a corner?

WiresDreamDisasters

Regardless of whatever happens with my boards over the coming decade... sorta need to be able to control a tape delay feedback to create oscillations.

Need to be able to slam on a fuzz and get some nuts oscillation tones.

Need to be able to kick on a pattern delay and have it chop my guitar up and also control the rate of the pattern with an expression pedal.

Need to be able to have a volume pedal and a wah. Need to be able to have two delays at once.

Need to have access to a bog standard hall reverb, a huge cavey reverb, and a 100% wet sploshy all over yer facey reverb.

Need to have a whammy blended into my main signal (so I get the dry and the whammy version at about 30%) as well as a 50/50 octave down.

Need to be able to hit the front of my amp with a treble boost from an EQ.

Need a slow phase 90 sound and a fast phase 90 sound.



How have you guys painted yourselves into a corner tonally over the years?? What do your songs just positively not work without?

octatonic

Serious question- can you play any of the TMNT songs on acoustic guitar?

digitalscream

I need a delay, a high-gain rhythm tone and something capable of giving a gain and volume boost with a single stomp.

Everything else is just convenience but wholly unnecessary.

Grocer_Jack

I actively avoid being dependent on effects that only get used occasionally. The song has to work well enough live without them for me and the fx are mainly for the studio, and even then used sparingly. 
I realise it depends on style of music and if you’re creating caverns of post-rock noize then you’ll feel a bit naked plugging straight in. I still think it’s good to keep it as simple as possible though. 

Jalapeno

3 distortions - voxy edge of break up, marshally full-on 70s rock, 70s fuzz - all fronted by a boost, treble boost, compressor.

Thereafter a range of modulations to suit tune/sound - chorus, delay, tremelo, phase, pseudo-sitar

Finally some too-hard-for-pedals presets delivered by something - planning on an HX Stomp for these duties

sgosden

We wrote songs that "needed" certain delays / modulations. 
The realised that after it has been recorded, and you're playing it live? There's maybe one of two people in the room who can tell if it's a phase or a flange. 
No one gives a fuck about the artefacts on your trails. 
And reverb is either subtle or big. 

On a record, all the little bits add up to really make the songs what it is. 

Writing you need sounds that inspire you. 

Live you need basics. Unless you've got a professional sound and roadie team. 

TTBZ

Not so much with pedals as I’ve always worried about this very issue and didn’t want to be relying on something that might go down mid gig etc. But with guitars I’ve got to a point where I can’t be comfortable playing anything that isn’t Gibson style. Mostly down to that scale length and raised bridge. It’s silly really so recently I’ve thought maybe I should just lock my Gibson away somewhere and force myself to play my old strat copy for a bit to break the habit.

WiresDreamDisasters

sgosden said:

We wrote songs that "needed" certain delays / modulations. 
The realised that after it has been recorded, and you're playing it live? There's maybe one of two people in the room who can tell if it's a phase or a flange. 
No one gives a fuck about the artefacts on your trails. 
And reverb is either subtle or big. 

On a record, all the little bits add up to really make the songs what it is. 

Writing you need sounds that inspire you. 

Live you need basics. Unless you've got a professional sound and roadie team. 

You'll notice I didn't specify any particular pedals. Just types of sound. I don't need a Timeline or a DD-500. Two DD7's would cover it. But then I need to think about changing settings from song to song, so some of the bigger pedals just make it ergonomically easier. Likewise with my Big Sky - I could just use two RV-5's, but again... comes down to ergonomics in a live setting.

You can tell the difference between a single digital delay, or a reverse delay and a digital delay in series. Would the audience care? No. Because for the longest time I went back to just a single DD-7. But I could tell, and it changed my playing and how the songs sounded. So then I went back to two delays.

I've always strived somewhat to make our lives shows sound as close to the albums as possible. I think that's important.

What I've never really understood is why it's perfectly acceptable (and encouraged) for a covers band to really aim to nail the tones on albums/songs of the artists they're covering, yet an originals band is very often (on the internets anyway) encouraged to dumb it all down. Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me really.

Also I'd add, I don't need to be able to do all that stuff in a single set, and often don't. This is more about the fact that collectively after nearly 12 years of doing the band thing, the different sounds I've come up with that are song specific.. there are a few of them!

monquixote

In covers bands the advice is usually not to bother chasing tones as it's a waste of time and often detracts from the show.

Tribute bands are a different matter.

octatonic

digitalscream said:

I need a delay, a high-gain rhythm tone and something capable of giving a gain and volume boost with a single stomp.

Everything else is just convenience but wholly unnecessary.

Pretty much the same, although I can deal with no delay.
I like having an octave pedal for single note riffs.

Roland

Is “painting yourself into a corner” the negative counterpart to “found your own tone”?

LastMantra

I don't like "presets" in fact, just looking, half my pedals don't even have numbers or markers round the knobs. With my old multi I only use manual mode. If I was making an album I'd want the recordings to be one offs that are never going to be exactly the same again. 

I am weird though 

steven70

Delay, wah and lately, an 'always on' drive pedal are the essentials for live...

AntonHunter

Yeah, I've been wondering this recently too. Fortunately most of the things I do are improvised, and having to do specific roles at certain times doesn't happen too often. That being said, the band I've been in for 11+ years means I always have to have...

A looper (getting bored of using these)
Volume
Wah
Two delays
Some kind of pitch thing (usually whammy)
Some kind of glitch thing (currently Particle)

The problem with being into pedals is whenever I take a new one along to rehearsal, the bandleader invariably writes it in to a tune. Drives are pretty flexible though, I like varying those.

(Can I ask @WiresDreamDisasters what your band is? I'd like to hear all those tones, sounds right up my street and I'm relatively new round here)

Sassafras

I don't want the live gig to sound like the record, I want it to sound better.
Otherwise I'd just stay at home listening to the record.

LastMantra

Pretty rare for a band to sound better live than recorded. 

WiresDreamDisasters

LastMantra said:

Pretty rare for a band to sound better live than recorded. 

Come to a gig.

LastMantra

WiresDreamDisasters said:

LastMantra said:

Pretty rare for a band to sound better live than recorded. 

Come to a gig.

Would love to 
Playing Glasgow any time? 

Ime going to a gig is more about the atmosphere and energy. If you listen to a recording of it later it never sounds as good. 

WiresDreamDisasters

AntonHunter said:

(Can I ask @WiresDreamDisasters what your band is? I'd like to hear all those tones, sounds right up my street and I'm relatively new round here)

www.bridgedisaster.co.uk

Some sounds you wont hear on that stuff, it's all new stuff we've been writing for the last 3 years.

LastMantra said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

LastMantra said:

Pretty rare for a band to sound better live than recorded. 

Come to a gig.

Would love to 
Playing Glasgow any time? 

Ime going to a gig is more about the atmosphere and energy. If you listen to a recording of it later it never sounds as good. 

Played Glasgow a bunch of times, and Edinburgh too. Will probably get up that way again at some point.

I agree that gigs are about atmosphere and energy. But sometimes to get that you need the right sounds.

LastMantra

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I agree that gigs are about atmosphere and energy. But sometimes to get that you need the right sounds.

Sure, not saying you (or anyone else) don't sound good, but in the studio that's purely the focus. Live there's all sorts of stuff going on. 


If I see you in Glasgow I'll give you a shout. Just be careful, I might pinch your pedals. 

meltedbuzzbox

the only corner issue I have is with Bass. 
For me a Moog synth is now the sound of bass. Anything else sounds weedy. 

Guitar wise, meh, fuck it, I will roll with anything.