Solo of the Month (SotM) #90 - Challenge

stratman3142 · January 2023

fastonebaz said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

maharg101 · January 2023

Sent one in.

stratman3142 · January 2023

maharg101 said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

I think this is the strangest SotM we've had

maharg101 · January 2023

stratman3142 said:

maharg101 said:

Sent one in.

It's in the playlist.

I think this is the strongest SotM we've had

FTFY

Not sure if you meant my entry in particular, but either way, I concur !

stratman3142 · January 2023

maharg101 said:

Not sure if you meant my entry in particular, but either way, I concur !

No. They're all weird. But interesting.
Then again the backing track is weird, so I'm not sure whether it's possible to be not weird.

stratman3142 · January 2023

And one from @flying_pie in the playlist to continue with the madness.

That's 4 already.

flying_pie · January 2023

Sent one in as well. Great, albeit utterly barking mad backing track @fastonebaz ;

I decided to keep it strange so I didn't use the D or G string at all. I'm sure nobody famous for psychedelic surf/indie guitar playing has ever done that...

I think it's Em blues, chromatic, A dorian and A harmonic minor along with some chordal and dissonant double stops. And a bitrate of 320.

maharg101 · January 2023

This was a very interesting challenge, up-tempo with a tremendous groove, and musically quite outside my comfort zone initially.

Kit wise I went with a tele with a rails-type bridge pickup (DiMarzio Chopper) >Treble booster* > Nobels ODR-1 (last section only) > Secret pre-amp > ValvePower 18 watt > Ox

* Treble booster - a really nice clone of Keeley's Java Boost by ian_sheridanuk

It certainly wasn't a single take job - I had to really experiment outside of my usual blues-rock noodling to find that something that felt right to me. What @fastonebaz said about it still sounding "like me" really resonates. I find I tend to follow the same well-worn paths through muscle-memory, and the grey matter. So it's a little scary but brilliant to step outside that. But ultimately really rewarding.

So I ended up finding something that worked, and in the first section I hit on a nice sweet harmony part with one part being more staccato, and one left ringing out. I decided to leave the first climb with the backing only for a bit of space, with a little volume bump for that gorgeous bass riff to really pump. The middle section got weird quickly and more discordant but I decided to stick with it and overdub more weird shit over it and go ape with the panning automation, before reverting largely to type with the final section. Every track was EQ'd with ReaEQ. Here's how Reaper looked at the end:

Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52613027844_21c4cc0b72_o_d.png

Lots of learning points for me in this one including

- leave some spaces here and there

- don't overdo the wailing bends

- automation of volume and panning in Reaper is dead simple - just pick a track, press 'v' or 'p', shift click to add points

Overall this was massive fun and as always I look forward to listening to what everyone else has made of it.

p.s. off to buy a Reaper license. The evaluation is now complete !!

flying_pie · January 2023

I've just realised that I restrung and setup my guitar... then played through some ideas over an hour or so before eventually recording without rechecking the tuning! It sounds okaysih to my dodgy ears but apologies if any of this is out of tune to the rest of you!

maharg101 · January 2023

@flying_pie god no, it sounds brilliant ! Nice job

stratman3142 · January 2023

Mine wasn't a single take either. I started with my AZ2204 on the bridge humbucker, then decided I wanted a neck humbucker sound for the Am section. So I swapped to my AZ2402 on the neck humbucker for the Am section, then flipped it to the bridge humbucker for the E7 section onwards.

The ampsim was Neural DSP SLO 100, using a slightly tweaked version of the dry default setting.

To create a 'sort of' doubling effect, I used Fabfilter Timeless 3 on the 'clean' preset but set to 70ms on the left and 90ms on the right. Plus ValhallaRoom, on basically the default setting, which gives a slight chorus effect as well as reverb.

And the backing track was appropriately titled "Where's The F_cking Beat" because I got lost somewhere and kept missing the start of the chromatic ascent. So I added a click track to count in where it started, then dropped in the part for that section.

maharg101 · January 2023

Sounds epic @stratman3142 - I love the way the middle section develops. This track certainly fits a good amount into 90 seconds.

flying_pie · January 2023

Thanks @maharg101 My 10 year old daughter helped restring and must have done an okay job winding the tuners!

Obviously mine wasn't a single take, but the resonator bits and layered Pulp Fiction part were improvised first takes. Gear wise it's a 2009 Fender Tele with an Oil City 49er bridge pickup into a Boss GT001 with a generic OD w compression setting. Stereo delay and reverb added in Reaper

jasonbone75 · January 2023

Just finishing something up! Should be done today all being well.

stratman3142 · January 2023

jasonbone75 said:

Just finishing something up! Should be done today all being well.

It's in the playlist.

Entry closes in a couple of days at midnight 24th January 2023.

digitalkettle · January 2023

Sent one in!

stratman3142 · January 2023

digitalkettle said:

Sent one in!

It's in the playlist.

stratman3142 · January 2023

Entry closes tonight at midnight.

stratman3142 · January 2023

Entry closed

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Solo of the Month (SotM) #90 - Challenge

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