multiple tunings, single album
- Thread starter egan.
- Start date
The only reason I wouldn't record in loads of different tunings is because of the trouble it could cause when you play songs live, like having to tune for each song would just be a pain in the ass haha
But as long as they sound good, and it all goes with the song just do what you want with them, as long as you can cope with retuning live a lot lol
But as long as they sound good, and it all goes with the song just do what you want with them, as long as you can cope with retuning live a lot lol
crillemannen
Member
Haha... well i can hear it, but i cant say i always can hear what the band tunes in when i record if its drop d or drop c.. well well :Spin:
+1, sometimes I can't hear it first like what tuning a band is playing in, like with Alice In Chains, all the Dirt songs were played in drop D and thats what i thought the new album was in, until i saw the tabs and saw it was in drop D and a half step...
crillemannen
Member
Exactly man !!! So i guess our point is that it doesn't really matter, a smart band picks the tuning that fits the singers voice (if they have a clean singer that is), other than that it doesn't matter
Jackal_Strain
Sigurd Løberg
I think it matters alot. You may not consciously think about it, but 10 songs in a row in the same key will get repetetive real fast. Vary the tunings or the key of the songs a bit and suddenly it's a lot more interesting to the unconscious part of the brain, and the even though the conscious part of your brain may not register the change, you will perceive the songs as more varied and unique.
This is psycho acoustics at its most basic, guys.
Present a constant signal to the brain and the perception of volume/exitement will diminish pretty quickly, but introduce some sort of modulation or other variable to the signal and suddenly it demands a much greater attention and effort from the brain, thus making it more interesting.
I'm not saying that this will make up for shoddy songwriting or poor performance, but use it properly and it might elevate a good album into greatness.
This is psycho acoustics at its most basic, guys.
Present a constant signal to the brain and the perception of volume/exitement will diminish pretty quickly, but introduce some sort of modulation or other variable to the signal and suddenly it demands a much greater attention and effort from the brain, thus making it more interesting.
I'm not saying that this will make up for shoddy songwriting or poor performance, but use it properly and it might elevate a good album into greatness.
Jackal, probably you speack about another thing, one thing is the tunning, and one thing is the key of the song.
For example, I'm tunning in B standard, but this not means that every song have the same key.....you could have different keys at the same tunning....
professorlamp
I are Joe
Jackal_Strain
Sigurd Løberg
Yes, but lets be honest. Most metalbands mainly play on the open e string
yep, but this is another problem....
On the Devildriver CD Andy mixed (The Last Kind Words), it sounds like one of the songs (at least) is a lot lower tuned than the rest. Obviously it sounds "different", but it's still consistent.
Are you asking about consistency as far as song flow, or tonal consistency - as if using a different guitar, different pickups, etc. on the differently tuned guitars made the mix and/or album guitar tone different? I think it would be hard to judge what aspect contributes more to the difference because the tuning itself can produce differing things in the same guitar at a different tuning.
or, you could have the typical answer..."just use EMG's, then it will all sound the same"
Are you asking about consistency as far as song flow, or tonal consistency - as if using a different guitar, different pickups, etc. on the differently tuned guitars made the mix and/or album guitar tone different? I think it would be hard to judge what aspect contributes more to the difference because the tuning itself can produce differing things in the same guitar at a different tuning.
or, you could have the typical answer..."just use EMG's, then it will all sound the same"
Sinister Mephisto
1337
- Sep 20, 2005
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I like it when bands use a bunch of different tunings. I feel like Demanufacture and some other older FF had a lot of variation in tuning. Now that I think about it, anything with Dino.
SimonTaddio_Qc
Headbanger
This.
And speaking of technical aspects, if you're using tunings that are worlds apart from one another, I suggest you make sure the guitar has a good intonation on every tuning if you don't want your chords to come out out of tune. Maybe it would need a tiny adjustment.
I just thought I'd throw my 2 cents too.
I am asking about both. Does one song sound far heavier than another? Is there a big discrepancy in tone?
I'd really rather talk about existing big name records (like the devildriver) then discuss the hypothetical of how one might do it. If we must talk about that then let's assume the same guitar with appropriate string gauge and setup adjustments through the same rig. Let's also assume that we can hear the difference (which is part of the reason to do it) and let's also not talk about this from a lowest common denominator perspective ("most people....blah, blah").
Skinny Viking
¯\(°_o)/¯ How do Lydian?
well, back to what I said earlier, I think BLS does that a lot
I know Metallica has done it ... for example on "Puppets" .... "Thing that should not be" was drop tuned from the rest. You can notice it right away, its a slower, heavy tune so the lower tuning emphasized that
I've heard other bands do this ... Helloween for example has a couple tunes on each of their last few cds that are either drop tuned or alternately tuned and I for one always liked that. Helps the tracks stand out, helps the surrounding tracks stand out and if it especially fits the vibe of the song, it can be very effective
I know Metallica has done it ... for example on "Puppets" .... "Thing that should not be" was drop tuned from the rest. You can notice it right away, its a slower, heavy tune so the lower tuning emphasized that
I've heard other bands do this ... Helloween for example has a couple tunes on each of their last few cds that are either drop tuned or alternately tuned and I for one always liked that. Helps the tracks stand out, helps the surrounding tracks stand out and if it especially fits the vibe of the song, it can be very effective
I've done it plenty. Sometimes just going from standard to drop tuning, sometimes from C to B or whatever. On the tracking side I try and lump songs with the same tuning together so we can re-intonate and let the guitars settle after switching. Also, always use the same guitar if possible, but that's pretty common practice these days.
On the mixing / reamping side I would just bounce around to different tracks a little more during the early stages of the mix. When mixing the Demonica album last year I made the mistake of starting with a slower tune in B. I got it pretty massive but a lot of the other thrashy songs lost their edge and sounded too loose. I ended up having to back pedal a lot and almost start over. That's the only issue I've had with it. Another thing I've noticed is sometimes early in the mixing process the difference between tunings can be pretty noticeable but the difference fades by the time I'm pretty much done with it. Something about getting everything dialed in smooths it over.
The biggest reason I can think of not to do it would be having to have 2 guitars plus backups live, but from the production standpoint I don't think you'll have any issues.
On the mixing / reamping side I would just bounce around to different tracks a little more during the early stages of the mix. When mixing the Demonica album last year I made the mistake of starting with a slower tune in B. I got it pretty massive but a lot of the other thrashy songs lost their edge and sounded too loose. I ended up having to back pedal a lot and almost start over. That's the only issue I've had with it. Another thing I've noticed is sometimes early in the mixing process the difference between tunings can be pretty noticeable but the difference fades by the time I'm pretty much done with it. Something about getting everything dialed in smooths it over.
The biggest reason I can think of not to do it would be having to have 2 guitars plus backups live, but from the production standpoint I don't think you'll have any issues.
the only thing I'd say about the same guitar/same rig ideal is that the resonant frequencies of the cab and/or guitar may elicit a far different response and tone than what you may expect from the tuning changing. As far as the heaviness aspect, I'd think that would come from the resulting music created using the tuning, not necessarily the tuning itself. IMO if you took a riff written in dropped D and just just changed it to dropped C or B, the difference would just be the lower tuning. The feel of the riff or song could change based on how the differing resonances changed the tone, though.
I know this still isn't what you want to talk about, so I'll stop....Is this for your band and concerns you have, another band you are recording, or general curiousness?
I agree with the first paragraph for sure. That's actually why I'm interested in finished albums-- theory is only theory but the realities are far more important. I'll check "all of the above" regarding my curiosity. I'm actually surprised that more guys haven't run into this producing records. It seems like more bands might drop tune on one or two songs.
+1. As I am not John Petrucci or any other dudes with 36 guitars per show, I prefer one tune by album. Different tunings are also a problem when you want to cover bands. I use to have a band which covered My Dying Bride's songs and it was reallly confortable to have one single guitar on stage tuned in C#. I am actually working on Daylight Dies' covers and I heard at least two different tunings, that means work in perspective....
Well I can tell you for a fact that DD plays everything live in Eb standard despite the fact that the first record was recorded in E.
