Watch a middle aged man who looks like a geography teacher play some guitar

WiresDreamDisasters

Bridgehouse said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Bridgehouse said:

*grumble grumble*

*grudgingly admits*

Yeah. You’re actually a good player. And you’ve got a sweet rig and you can get tonezz out of it. And you’re creative. 

Harrumph

There we go!! That wasn't hard, was it? I'll let you out of the cage when I drop-by next week.

Yep. Once again you showed up and it wasn’t very hard 

It was Floppsy Fridays and you loved it!!

monquixote

What do you do about reverb for those sort of sounds, do you just keep it completely off?

WiresDreamDisasters

monquixote said:

What do you do about reverb for those sort of sounds, do you just keep it completely off?

Usually I do use some verb. But for some reason, most of this I didn't. Only the swells at the end. Come to think of it.... I didn't miss it either. hmmmmm.

monquixote

It annoys me that I've been playing for so many years and I know bugger all about getting a decent metal sound.

WiresDreamDisasters

monquixote said:

It annoys me that I've been playing for so many years and I know bugger all about getting a decent metal sound.

Well... a few things for me....

- As much volume as you can get away with. Too little can harm your chances, too much never will. IMO.
- Don't scoop the mids. It has become a tired meme at this point, but the mids is where all your aggression lives.
- Boosting 1-3kHz before going into the front of the amp (I'm not doing that in the video above though) can help bring out the pick attack.
- Really fucking honestly and meaningfully TWAT THE STRINGS. Not to hold myself up as any sort of emblem or anything, but if you look at my picking hand throughout, you'll see that I've got a pretty decent grasp of dynamics going on. And when I need to, I'm not afraid of hitting the strings. Even to the point where I get some pitch bending action on the notes - fuck it... the power is more important than the pitch to me.
- When I stopped using Jazz III pickups and went back to a Dunlop Tortex, my picking improved, and my tone improved. 
- Too much gain makes things sound shit - noisy, undefined, and mushy.
- You know those tremolo palm mutes I play? Well that's how I dial in my amp. I dial it in for that sound, and everything lives around that. So that's how I get the right levels of gain for my playing, and that's why I'm always whinging about how gear responds to palm muting.
- You don't need a noise-gate. Noise gates are for losers. Although I sometimes use them. So I'm a loser.

mattdavis

Sounds wicked. Or as my son would say - lit bruh! Going to see if I can recreate it with my jcm800 and a  Dd3. 

monquixote

I think the problem for me is it sounds like classic rock and then as I turn the gain up it just sounds like overgained classic rock. 
I suspect the problem is the way I play. I've spent so long playing in more of a Nile Rogers, John Frusciante way that I don't address the strings properly (for metal). 
I should probably record something and someone who knows what they are doing can explain why I'm a dummy. 

digitalscream

monquixote said:

I think the problem for me is it sounds like classic rock and then as I turn the gain up it just sounds like overgained classic rock. 
I suspect the problem is the way I play. I've spent so long playing in more of a Nile Rogers, John Frusciante way that I don't address the strings properly (for metal). 
I should probably record something and someone who knows what they are doing can explain why I'm a dummy. 

It sounds like what you're describing is exactly this:



Yes, Bea's pickups have more output, but check out Mick playing the PRS at 11:50, compared with Bea on the same guitar at 12:55. It's like it's a completely different guitar, and it's all about the muting.

I do disagree with Drew about twatting the strings; I still get (what I think are) good metal tones out of my rig when I want it, but I use a much lighter touch than he does. That's mostly because my hands are fucked, and so I have to use lighter strings which are un-twattable unless you happen to like microtonal music. It doesn't mean any loss of dynamic range (contrary to what Dan says), it just means you have to be really precise about it and be comfortable with the idea that you're going to get it wrong occasionally.

A huge part of getting that heavy sound is picking-hand muting technique, and realising that moving the point of muting contact with the strings even 1mm either way makes a massive difference to the effect. Also, regulating the pressure of the mute is very important.

It takes a long time to get the hang of it, and attempting it is where a lot of metal folk suddenly realise that it's all about subtle, almost-imperceptible changes in technique having shockingly large effects on the end result.

WiresDreamDisasters

I don't think anyone would disagree with the observed disparity in our twatty quotients, @digitalscream ;

Yeah, you don't always have to twat it. I just find it works for me and the sounds I want/like.

THR1LLHAU5

Sounds ace. Particularly liked the volume swells at the end. I use that combo of heavy gain tone, delay+verb rolling up on the vol a lot, and serves as a really nice contrast for when the heavy bits kick in. Top stuff sir. 

WiresDreamDisasters

And now I'm Johnny-ing about with a Boss DD8.

TTBZ

monquixote said:

It annoys me that I've been playing for so many years and I know bugger all about getting a decent metal sound.

For me it's pretty much all about how you pick and mute the strings, it's why "nice" players like the TPS and Andertons guys apart from Rabea struggle with it - they just don't have that aggression in their playing and try to compensate with too much gain and scooped mids (and cheesy cliche AF riffs). Whereas I'm kind of the opposite, I can't really play nice pretty sounding things.

The key ingredients for me are an aggressive sounding amp like an 800, 5150 or similar and a decent front end TS style boost which tightens, adds attack and a bit of saturation. This usually doesn't require too much mushy gain to sound heavy and retains all the clarity and tightness.

Rocker

In the context of a song, that playing might fit the bill perfectly.  In isolation though, it sounds like noise.

TTBZ

Rocker said:

In the context of a song, that playing might fit the bill perfectly.  In isolation though, it sounds like noise.

Found the actual geography teacher.

WiresDreamDisasters

Rocker said:

In the context of a song, that playing might fit the bill perfectly.  In isolation though, it sounds like noise.

Yo! Teach! What's the capital of Lundun!?!

poopot

Rocker said:

In the context of a song, that playing might fit the bill perfectly.  In isolation though, it sounds like noise.

Brilliant!…

show us all how it should be done then!.

danishbacon

Nice ObG

WiresDreamDisasters

danishbacon said:

Nice ObG

I love it so much. 

Stuckfast

does it djent?

Chuffola

Rocker said:

In the context of a song, that playing might fit the bill perfectly.  In isolation though, it sounds like noise.

I sometimes award a "LOL" where I haven't actually laughed out loud - just found something amusing. But this actually did make me laugh - and out loud at that.  Not sure that was Rocker's intention.