Guitar Tone Competition 2

[MarkG]

Yeah, i see that, but if so, why to allow people to retrack?? is impossible to play in the same performance, and a little difference could brings a huge difference to the perceived tone.

By the way, can you guarantee the retrack files will be not edited??? And can guarantee that better performances (than DI that was provided) will be not in the contest???

All submissions will be checked by Anssi and Myself. If we notice an edit in the tracks the submission will be disqualified.

Just a side note...its amazing to me that people still use things like Dropbox when you can get storage space for 2 bucks a month and in some cases free. The last competition is now in oblivion and utterly useless to anyone because it has timed out.

Dont mind me it just one of my hangups on the net. People will go through all the trouble of using these hack tools to save themselves the price of an ice cream

I should still have the files somewhere, so if you want to see them I could try and find them.

Yeah, I got it, i'm sorry to be anoying...but isn't it too subjective?? the people who retrack should record slowly and then stretching the audio files (then they will be able to get a better sync than Grag's DI files) and anyone won't notice for sure.... and i'm almost sure they will be able to edit and anyone won't notice too... am i wrong???

You're worried over nothing. So far no one has actually retracked and I highly doubt anyone will. Editing your own performance to match that of Gregs when retracking is fine. The problem arises when you attempt to be different and better than Greg, that's when an unfair advantage pops up. This is what we will be looking for to disqualify.

 

[Morgan C]

Almost forgot about this... having a go at it now.

Out of curiosity.. why was the bass mixed so that it has zero lowend? I realise its a kinda complex bass thing with chords n stuff but still :/ I don't know whether I should be dialing in more bass in the guitar to compensate or just getting a 'good' guitar tone that would fit in with a more normal mix.

 

[motomoto]

Submission sent

 

[updog]

Did you receive my submission? Sent it a while back.

Not that I'm going to win, but this competition really made me sit down and really work on that sound, and while it can't beat the pro's here, it's the best tone I've ever had and I'm definitely going to use it in my current project. I wanna thank you guys for that

 

[MarkG]

Almost forgot about this... having a go at it now.

Out of curiosity.. why was the bass mixed so that it has zero lowend? I realise its a kinda complex bass thing with chords n stuff but still :/ I don't know whether I should be dialing in more bass in the guitar to compensate or just getting a 'good' guitar tone that would fit in with a more normal mix.

I'll let Greg and Anssi answer this one, considering they did the recording and mixing.

Did you receive my submission? Sent it a while back.

Not that I'm going to win, but this competition really made me sit down and really work on that sound, and while it can't beat the pro's here, it's the best tone I've ever had and I'm definitely going to use it in my current project. I wanna thank you guys for that

Yes, I received yours the 16th

 

[kramer1309]

sent!

 

[Harry Hughes]

Almost forgot about this... having a go at it now.

Out of curiosity.. why was the bass mixed so that it has zero lowend? I realise its a kinda complex bass thing with chords n stuff but still :/ I don't know whether I should be dialing in more bass in the guitar to compensate or just getting a 'good' guitar tone that would fit in with a more normal mix.

I was definitely wondering the same thing too.
It made choosing reference albums a bit tricky I gotta admit, because some my usual reference albums have a fair bit more low end happening.
Got to the point where I started to rely less and less on a reference album for this comp, and more on my own ears, which I guess is not a bad thing.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I already sent my submission:Smokedev:

 

[ahjteam]

Almost forgot about this... having a go at it now.

Out of curiosity.. why was the bass mixed so that it has zero lowend? I realise its a kinda complex bass thing with chords n stuff but still :/ I don't know whether I should be dialing in more bass in the guitar to compensate or just getting a 'good' guitar tone that would fit in with a more normal mix.

To answer your pondering, it reads in the readme: "You have to make the guitar tones fit the supplied drums and bass."

But why the bass is low you have to ask greg, because it was the way he liked it. He had the "producer" role as it was his song, I just mixed the backing tracks according to his instructions I originally had the low end a lot louder. a short snippet from our discussion (I edited out some irrelevant stuff from between):

[03.11.2009 06:48:38] ahjteam: do you think the bass is ok or do you want me to do something to it?
[03.11.2009 06:50:04] lolzgreg: it needs more compression.
[03.11.2009 06:50:18] ahjteam: 10dB is not enough for you?
[03.11.2009 06:50:29] lolzgreg: and the bass is awfully loud compared to the drums, you're going to lower it for teh actual track right?
[03.11.2009 06:50:34] lolzgreg: apparently not
[03.11.2009 06:50:39] lolzgreg: its still a little too dynamic sounding
[03.11.2009 06:53:24] lolzgreg: whats the ratio?
[03.11.2009 06:53:30] ahjteam: 4:1
[03.11.2009 06:53:42] lolzgreg: try 6:1
[03.11.2009 06:54:31] ahjteam: I have split the high end that is distorted and the low end, the high end has different compressor on
[03.11.2009 06:54:48] lolzgreg: the end end isnt the issue, its the bass side.
[03.11.2009 06:58:02] ahjteam: I tried 8:1 instead, it sounded a bit more solid that way
[03.11.2009 07:00:55] lolzgreg: a lot better now.

Got to the point where I started to rely less and less on a reference album for this comp, and more on my own ears, which I guess is not a bad thing.

...aka "the Andy Sneap method" Skip to 4:00 on this video:

 

[Ermz]

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, so please excuse if this has come up before. The submissions, when they're posted for judging, will be entirely anonymous, right? People are so easily biased that it would be a shame to see the competition marred by letting everyone know the details straight up.

Also, agreed about the low-end. Made things very interesting in fact. Nice battle between thinning the guitar track out as one would for an actual mix, then ending up with a thin overall sound, or leaving some low-end in the guitars at the expense of muddyness. I guess this one is for the public to judge.

 

[GarethSE]

I don't see the point in the bass not having any.. uhh.. bass. But that's just me and I haven't checked the tracks yet. It's on my to-do list for tomorrow evening, so we'll see I guess.

 

[MarkG]

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, so please excuse if this has come up before. The submissions, when they're posted for judging, will be entirely anonymous, right? People are so easily biased that it would be a shame to see the competition marred by letting everyone know the details straight up.

Also, agreed about the low-end. Made things very interesting in fact. Nice battle between thinning the guitar track out as one would for an actual mix, then ending up with a thin overall sound, or leaving some low-end in the guitars at the expense of muddyness. I guess this one is for the public to judge.

The voting will be 100% anonymous just like the previous competition. I will give all the submissions non-descriptive names (such as A-Z) before the quality checks and what not. They will then be posted up spread over rounds of probably 5 submissions, where they will be labelled A-F or a similar non-descriptive system.

In short...yes 100% anonymous. It won't be until the end that the participants will be made public. Throughout the whole competition I will be the only one knowing who submitted which file. I am not participating myself so I'm impartial.

 

[id3alism]

submission sent

 

[AngelC]

submitted

 

[MarkG]

First of all a big thanks to everyone who has submitted clips so far, and I appreciate the compliments and kind words!

These are the submissions I have so far, if you sent me your clip and you aren't in this picture re-send it or contact me with a pm. Only a few days left...

These folders still list the names...but I assure you the voting itself will be anonymous.

 

[Dom Ostarig]

You're worried over nothing. So far no one has actually retracked and I highly doubt anyone will. Editing your own performance to match that of Gregs when retracking is fine. The problem arises when you attempt to be different and better than Greg, that's when an unfair advantage pops up. This is what we will be looking for to disqualify.

Thanks man....now that's more clear to me ... and i'm sorry again

 

[cococo]

Subbbbmitted!!!!

 

[ahjteam]

4 days left!

 

[Dexter_prog]

I am uploading my files and I'll send the email when it's done. I don't believe I am gonna win, but this has helped me realize that the tone I was using sounds quite good to me as this backing tracks are really polished (contrary to my newbie mixed tracks), so now I can focus on learning to mix and stop being so paranoid about my guitar tone. So thanks to all of you how made and mixed the tracks

Some newbie questions:
1) isn't the bass a bit to low (volume)?
2) What did you use to distort the bass?
3) Are those guitar DIs normalized? They sound really loud compared to mine.

 

[ahjteam]

2) What did you use to distort the bass?

The bass isn't per se distorted, it's more of a mild saturation in there. I was supposed to reamp the bass using Ibanez TS9 and Orange 1x15 amp as greg liked what I did with this one youtube clip (search youtube for "ahjteam bass"), but I had time problem with reamping at the moment of mixing (4 AM + bass amp blasting + neighbours = no good), so I just went with plugins.

I split the bass into two tracks and processed them so that I tried to make them fit together.

BASS HIGH:
SSL LMC-1
Simulanalog JCM900
Studio Devil VBA

BASS LOW:
1 band EQ (lowpass)
comp
1 band EQ (highpass)