Guitar Tone Competition Final Showdown!

[James-Doolan]

It was a tough call between A and G but G had this plastic quality that i didnt dig when compared with A so I went with A in the end

 

[FIXXXER]

A

 

[Metaltastic]

Haven't listened, but I did download the DI's, and judging by that and previous DI's I've downloaded from Marcus.. you seem to hit your palm mutes really soft. Most other DI's I've seen (although I haven't seen that many), the palm mutes are spiking out way above everything else, but yours are about the same volume. Makes it really hard to get the gain right, and usually leads to this undergained sound that can't really be fixed.

Any reason why you do that? Is it an intentional thing or just a habit?

Mostly cuz they were all recorded with the pickup too low; believe me, I consider myself a pretty tight and solid player, but having it that low really castrated the tone. Also, it's not like there are many opportunities to really dig into palm mutes in this riff, since they're almost immediately followed by open notes. For reference, you can check these DI's I recorded a few days ago with the pickup at a good height (I had to jury-rig a solution to get it that way, it's not like I intentionally had it too low before, just didn't have a way of raising it until now, see this thread)

 

[PowerMetalJesus]

G was a bit too muffly, B was bad. C wins for me

 

[Erik Monsonis]

E

 

[Metaltastic]

And just to give one more disclaimer to try to salvage my rep as a guitarist, as I mentioned those two palm mutes right after the arpeggiated power chord on the 1st fret are really hard to dig into cuz I have to mute everything so abruptly and cleanly! Many people who tried playing this riff for the competition can vouch that it's deceptively hard to do cleanly, and if nothing else I think I succeeded there! Observe



Normally I'm not so neurotic about proving a point, but you guys' opinion of me as a musician is definitely important!

 

[Jevil]

And just to give one more disclaimer to try to salvage my rep as a guitarist, as I mentioned the palm mutes in this usually come directly after muting all the strings or right before playing open ones again, so it's really hard to dig in when you have to be so controlled in the muting without making too much noise! Many people who tried playing this riff for the competition can vouch that it's deceptively hard to do cleanly, and if nothing else I think I succeeded there!

+1

The riff is played majestiously.

For the next contest I would recommend a longer sample including different techniques, like said before palm mutes, solo tones, palm muted soloing, chuga chugas, arpeggios from hell, licks of satan, sweep pickings from the apocalipsis...

 

[MetalMiller]

E bites the most!

 

[ahjteam]

I actually liked all of these, but I dropped out the rest until I had one like this:

Round 1: A C D E G
Round 2: A C G
Round 3: A C
Round 4: A

A was just perfect in my opinion FOR THAT PARTICULAR MIX. It is not the holy grail of sound, but it certainly fit the context very well.

 

[ahjteam]

But question for the next round: Can we do it with live drums and live bass if possible?

 

[Metaltastic]

Thanks a lot Jevil, and agreed about a different type of riff for next time! (especially the licks of satan and sweep picking from the "apocalipsis" ) However, while I do feel live bass is necessary for the next, I definitely don't think live drums are

 

[ahjteam]

Thanks a lot Jevil, and agreed about a different type of riff for next time! (especially the licks of satan and sweep picking from the "apocalipsis" ) However, while I do feel live bass is necessary for the next, I definitely don't think live drums are

yeah, you might be right about that, but how about so that the drums are actually processed so you can actually make the mix sound good?

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, yeah, no argument there, though I thought this batch sounded pretty good! (thanks BrettT! )

 

[MarkG]

The next competition will be pretty different riffwise, I should probably write down everything that went wrong/right and all the suggestions made. I've said it before and I'll say it again though, Marcus played that BWP very well.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

 

[Line666]

 

[Metaltastic]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Erik - I've never considered a 'fro before, but my goodness, after seeing that pic...

 

[MarkG]

I was going to do something similar, but then I figured nah that would be mean...so I just sent it to his msn.

I nearly spat my drink all over my laptop when I saw yours.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Erik - I've never considered a 'fro before, but my goodness, after seeing that pic...

You should totally do a fro, would rock with your sideburns

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I am mean

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahaha, nah, all in good fun, I was begging for it anyway