Guitar Playing and gear thread

[cork_soaker]

Originally Posted by Elphenor

It's literally my guitar plugged into the computer

step 1: take it apart.

step 2: examine closely. is there a sound card? if yes, replace the sound card.
if no desirable results are produced, continue to install additional sound
cards. this method ensures eventual success. what does a sound card
look like, you may be asking? who knows.

if a sound card cannot be identified or located among your computer's
interior components, purchase and install several. place a high thread
count linen around the base of the computer to absorb any residual
lubricant. note: any tools, clothing, or furniture used during these
processes must be taken outdoors and set aflame.

consider any other cards that may be at fault. the video card is a
common enough culprit. likely there are others. pursue and eradicate
them at all costs to personal well-being. this is your music we are talking
about here, for fuck's sake. get it together. christ.

[cork_soaker]

my rig circa 2004. sorry about the white socks.

[cork_soaker]

note the sound card

[Cool As Ice Cream]

that's a nice soundcard.

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by cork_soaker

step 1: take it apart.

step 2: examine closely. is there a sound card? if yes, replace the sound card.
if no desirable results are produced, continue to install additional sound
cards. this method ensures eventual success. what does a sound card
look like, you may be asking? who knows.

if a sound card cannot be identified or located among your computer's
interior components, purchase and install several. place a high thread
count linen around the base of the computer to absorb any residual
lubricant. note: any tools, clothing, or furniture used during these
processes must be taken outdoors and set aflame.

consider any other cards that may be at fault. the video card is a
common enough culprit. likely there are others. pursue and eradicate
them at all costs to personal well-being. this is your music we are talking
about here, for fuck's sake. get it together. christ.

i can personally confirm this works! i bought 12 soundcard and a couple of firewire cards and now i can definitely say my studio is better than ever and can compete with the best studios in the world which were burned to the ground at one point. finally nailed my first tapping solo for my futuristic neo-punk industrial folk acoustic shoegaze doo-wop 50's dixie harmony nu metal indie techno record. i couldn't have done it without you. you are the future, past and present. i taped your photo next to my bed and painted the socks black with a felt tip marker, just like i know you would have wanted. love,

[cork_soaker]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

i bought 12 soundcard

i'm (re)touched.

this brings a tear of socks to my eye

[he/she/it]

Here's a short recording I made today using the Build Your Own Clone pedal kit of an MXR Distortion II clone, called by BYOC, El Distorto Segundo.

I said before that I think this pedal is to MCIS what the Big Muff is to SD, and I think that's accurate. I also think that there's a significant amount of this pedal used on SD. For example, I think Quiet's rhythm guitar is played with the MXR DII.

The MXR DII and its clone do a very large plethora of different sounds, between blendings of its two overdrive circuits, tone, and level controls. The El Distorto Segundo clone of the DII has even more sonic potential, with an added 2-way switch that changes the clipping type, effectively changing the distortion shape between more organic, rippling, and broad, to more focused, flat-headed, and consistent. The original MXR DII only has the former setting. Both modes of the EDS are great at producing very nice sounds.





I came up with this music today just to test out my mic placement, and to make a recording of this pedal to show you peeps that this pedal really is that characteristic early SP sound. I also aimed for something that would sound like it belonged on Smashing Pumpkins' Pastichio Medley.

I'm not playing through a Lace Sensor pickup for the rhythm guitar, though. I'm playing through, I think, the BC-2 DiMarzio pickup that was put in the bridge on the BC signature stratocaster.

[teh b0lly!!1]

that tone is actually an interesting hybrid between SD and MCIS tones.
like it's got the midrange RRR from the MCIS tone and the low end blowing amp OOMPH from SD.
the riffs are also pumpkin-esque. which made this hard to listen to, tbh.

[he/she/it]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

that tone is actually an interesting hybrid between SD and MCIS tones.
like it's got the midrange RRR from the MCIS tone and the low end blowing amp OOMPH from SD.
the riffs are also pumpkin-esque. which made this hard to listen to, tbh.

Interesting way of thinking of it. There are two overdrive circuits in the MXR DII, one more trebly and sizzling, and the other really bassy, muffled, and rippling. And dialling-in the two circuits to different degrees causes their characteristics to blend in ways that produce a wide range of the tones heard from early Smashing Pumpkins. I wonder whether some of what people have thought is the Big Muff, is actually the MXR Distortion II.


But why did the track being Pumpkins-esque make it hard to listen to?

[teh b0lly!!1]

it was just my way of jokingly saying i can't really listen to that classic brand of SP rock anymore. i still enjoy listening to SP sometimes but i barely do it anymore. and when i do it's not the guitar tracks. but anyway, good job, it's a nice tone. also you got a good doubling/overdubbing game.

[he/she/it]

Thanks.

>> it was just my way of jokingly saying i can't really listen to that classic brand of SP rock anymore. i still enjoy listening to SP sometimes but i barely do it anymore. and when i do it's not the guitar tracks.

Ah. I've been listening to them again for the past while, after having not listened to them for many years, partly because I felt like I knew the songs inside and out. But the music's more recently gained some feelings of newness for me again, maybe partly from the remasters, and also because I've now got a lot of production awareness, which lets me listen to the albums differently than before, while paying attention to all the subtle production details in a section of a song.

[he/she/it]

I have a few pieces of rack gear coming in the mail:

KORG DTR-1 tuner - $81.60, shipped
I'm going to replace the Behringer BTR-2000 tuner in my rack with the Korg. It looks to me like the DTR-1 tracks faster than the BTR-2000, and it has a cable-tester, which owners of this tuner say is really useful. Also, I like its look and colours more than I do the look of the various black plastic face-and-buttons tuners, such as the one I already have.

TC Electronic 1128 EQ - $105, shipped
I've been thinking about getting a rack EQ for a while, and this seems to be one that people refer to as having top sound quality. Although its an older piece of gear, it uses top quality parts, stores presets, and has MIDI functionality. I also found it for a very low price.

Aphex Aural Exciter Type C Model 103 - $36, shipped
I want to try putting this in my guitar chain, and see if adding synthetic harmonics does anything to make the sound more awesome. People often use these for track mastering, and I pretty much always use a sonic exciter plugin while mastering my own tracks, but I'd like to try it in the guitar signal, to see how it works, there.

Some Aural Exciters were sold through the Smashing Pumpkins ebay account, years ago, though I don't know what they were used for, whether they were used on any albums, and for what.



I'm looking forward to playing around with this stuff, and if the EQ and exciter don't work out, for whatever reason, I should be able to flip them locally, and make some small profit.

[teh b0lly!!1]

do you guys have any notably ridiculous experiences with second hand guitar ads?

i'm member of some facebook groups with guys selling music gear, and one day this guy posted a 90's les paul, and went on about how it matches the date slash presumably got one of his les pauls, so there's a high chance that the very guitar he was selling was from the same batch of woods used for slash's guitar. of course he priced it like 3,000 dollars or something.

[he/she/it]

Well, I gather you aren't actually looking to buy that guitar, but if you were, you can look up the serial number of the guitar, and find out when it was made (I think). But I wouldn't buy a guitar without playing it first, since there's so much variance in the acoustics of different pieces of wood. Could be from the same tree, and still sound different.

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/gibson.aspx

http://archive.gibson.com/en-us/Life...ial%20Numbers/



Also, what Poots said.

[teh b0lly!!1]

no i definitely wasn't even toying with the idea of buying it.

i would have kind of liked to have a les paul, i mean it would be nice, but the prices for them these days, even second hand 2013's or whatever, or just plain fucking retarded. maybe one day i'll get a 90's custom, hold onto it for a decade or two and then sell it for x3 what i paid for it. if i live that long.

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by he/she/it

Some Aural Exciters were sold through the Smashing Pumpkins ebay account, years ago, though I don't know what they were used for, whether they were used on any albums, and for what.

lol

[he/she/it]

Originally Posted by soniclovenoize

lol

http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=346
http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=345
http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=229

Says they were used by BC, and kept "in a smoke-free studio environment."

Maybe the SD sound was really just a few of these stacked on top of each other, and their output harmonic content sounded so glorious that it could be put straight to tape, and sound like a full SP album.

[he/she/it]

Originally Posted by Poots

Very interesting. I need to try that one out night with my aural exciter. Might be a secret key to the Siamese Dream tonez

I think that a big part of that SD sound is actually the MXR Distortion II blended in with the Big Muff:

Quiet sounds to me like it's mostly MXR DII from beginning to end, maybe with some subtle Big Muff takes of the rhythm tracks blended in very quietly.

Cherub Rock and Today also sound to me like they have MXR DII heavily blended into the rhythm guitar.

Maybe I'm wrong, I guess I could just try recording something with these two pedals, since I have them, but I suspect that the general SD sound is the MXR DII and Big Muff blended together.

Also, (I think) Butch Vig said that they added some high-end to the recorded guitar tracks in EQ (or, maybe with something like an aural exciter?).

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by he/she/it

http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=346
http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=345
http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=229

Says they were used by BC, and kept "in a smoke-free studio environment."

Maybe the SD sound was really just a few of these stacked on top of each other, and their output harmonic content sounded so glorious that it could be put straight to tape, and sound like a full SP album.

I laughed because I bought one of Corgan's Aural Exciters back in April and posted about it in this very thread, and you asked me about it directly.

[he/she/it]

Oh right, I hadn't thought of that while making this purchase! I just saw a low bid price and took it.

How has it worked out for you?

[soniclovenoize]

haha Haven't even used it!

I just got a new computer and upgraded to the newest SONAR Pro so I've been getting to know all these new (to me) plugins. That's kinda first on my hitlist, to create some effects parameters comparable to what I had before, before I mess with some superfluous outboard gear, you know what I mean?

btw, supposedly it was used on the Pre-Gish demos, not Siamese Dream. It could have been used on SD, but if it had I would assume the seller would have said that rather than the Gish Demos. That would make it's perceived value a bit higher.

[slunken]

I love guitar. So chill.

[he/she/it]

Which Aural Exciter model did you buy, soniclovenoize? The two rack units that sold on eBay were Type-B and Type-C. The one I've bought (which is in the mail) is Type-C. There's also some other models, some with additional controls to augment bass frequencies, and some which only work on the mid-treble. Then there's the 250 Type III, which is like the premium model, made later than the Type B and C, I think.

I had an offer of a good deal on the 250 Type III through my local craigslist, but I think I read that the 250 cleans up some of the distortion that is present in the earlier units, and I generally like having device colouration added to my guitar sound, so I chose to get one of the earlier units that should be a bit noisier, but which might be a good thing.

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by Poots

I tried the aural exciter with a marshall stack and op amp big muff. It definitely adds the overabundance of high harmonics that the SD guitar sound has. I'm not sure if it was done with regular EQ in the studio or the Aphex unit though. It also scoops the midrange through a lot of it's filter sweep (and the muff is already pretty scooped) but while I was playing with it, it surely gave everything that 90's sound. You can't really play Honky Tonk Women with that box on.

my bet would be that no exciters were used on SD guitars. 95% sure.
it sounds unlikely that they'd introduce such a tone altering unit to the chain, without having the possibility to tinker with it in the mix stage. that's a very "wrong" thing to do in audio engineering. besides, butch vig and alan moulder (who mixed the record) have publicly stated iirc that the guitars were recorded with full frequency range, and only then eq'd to be placed in the mix.

edit: it IS entirely possible, though, that they ran a recorded guitar track through an exciter at the mix stage at some point - but even if they did, it would only be one part here and there, so it doesn't really represent the tone of the record in a nutshell.

[soniclovenoize]

Originally Posted by he/she/it

Which Aural Exciter model did you buy, soniclovenoize? The two rack units that sold on eBay were Type-B and Type-C. The one I've bought (which is in the mail) is Type-C. There's also some other models, some with additional controls to augment bass frequencies, and some which only work on the mid-treble. Then there's the 250 Type III, which is like the premium model, made later than the Type B and C, I think.

I had an offer of a good deal on the 250 Type III through my local craigslist, but I think I read that the 250 cleans up some of the distortion that is present in the earlier units, and I generally like having device colouration added to my guitar sound, so I chose to get one of the earlier units that should be a bit noisier, but which might be a good thing.

It's a Type-C

[Disco King]

Why does inspiration always hit at the most inconvenient times? I decided today that I would take this guitar lick I wrote probably years ago now, and develop it into a full song because though being, like, two bars long, I've always felt some promise in it. All day, I've had mental constipation, pretty much just spending the day whining about things on Netphoria. Then at night, all of the sudden I write the basic structure of the song. I pretty much have all the progressions, I just need to write more lead parts and fix some things up.

Except now it's past midnight and I work at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Also, I told myself at the beginning of the summer that I'd use my time off school to finish some songs. I only wrote one other full song all summer, and now that the semester is starting again next week, suddenly I have no ideas that I will probably have no time to actualize.

WHY DO THE GODS TAUNT ME

[Elphenor]

Guys I luv guitar

[brutechinasky]

just got my new MIJ left handed jazzmaster CAR
looks dope af

[slunken]

What's a left handed car? Is that like when the steering wheel is on the other side?

[brutechinasky]

Yep it's those things they drive in England