Perfect Pinch Harmonics, Bends, Pick Slides....

[AntonioPetrole]

Anybody know how some bands like Killswitch Engage get those PERFECT pinch harmonics and bends in there recordings? Is it a matter of guitar technique or editing or plugins? I was always thinking about automating pitch shifts or buying melodyne for those perfect bends, but maybe its just cause i cant quadtrack 4 perfect bends. And pick slides too, i can never make them sound all the same. Thanks to any help

 

[Nebulous]

Good technique would be the preferred way IMO. I'm sure there are other ways to make it sound good, but honestly if bends especially are a problem, keep practicing, keep recording yourself and get better.

 

[darthjujuu]

in the case of killswitch, he definitely does those squeals that good...including live, haha. see some KSE live footage, adam and the other dude (sorry, other dude) both have wizard like pinches.

 

[colonel kurtz]

a matter of guitar technique

..

 

[Harry Hughes]

With bends and vibrato, it ENTIRELY in the technique.
Fuck using automated pitch shifts and melodyne for that purpose. There is a fine line between technology making things easier and technology hiding a severe lack of talent and ability. Once you cross the line of the latter, that's where it starts to just become bullshit IMO.
For any lead guitarist, if one does not have mastery of either, I tend to not consider them to be very good. Listen to Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael and Chris Amott, Joe Satriani, Mikael Akerfeldt, Jeff Loomis and David Gilmour as just some examples of guys with PERFECT intonation. I could list more, but those are just some of the guys I paid attention to when it came to bends and vibrato.
Satriani in particular is the master of 5 semi tone bends on the G string and 4 semi tone bends on the B and E strings, and those are the kind of bends that are super fucking hard to do and require both a precise ear and fretting hand to pull of.
Even just 20 minutes a day on vibrato and bending and within 2 weeks you will see a drastic improvement, but it has to be proper, focused practice.
Things like taller frets help too.

Pinch harmonics are about 75 per cent technique, and the rest comes to down to gear really.
Someone with good technique can pull of pinch harmonics on a nylon string acoustic if they had to.
Active pickups and certain kinds of medium to high output passive pickups are particularly conducive to better sounding pinch harmonics.

 

[Jevil]

Is it a matter of guitar technique or editing or plugins?

I hope it doesn't exist plugins for that purpose.

In some years anyone will be able to fart in front of a mic and listen to a perfect guitar solo just with a Fart-To-Solo plugin.

 

[StefTD]

it's all about the technique there (and I suck at it).
When I recorded a few songs of my old band we wanted good harmonics and bends
so at a few parts our guitarists had to play the part like 10 times (and they're good)
but in the end, we had some really nice squeals.

 

[greyskull]

practice.

 

[digitaldeath]

Although I did hear some rumours that there were punch-ins for some pinch harmonics on "Alive Or Just Breathing." Just rumours though...!

 

[greyskull]

Although I did hear some rumours that there were punch-ins for some pinch harmonics on "Alive Or Just Breathing." Just rumours though...!

quite possibly.

 

[dcb]

am i the only one thinking kse overuse pinch harmonics?
im not really into this band (mainly because of vocals) but doesnt every song contain at least one p.h.? ;-)

anyway : 90 of the bands i recorded have a hard time playing them...
first : their vibrato and feel suck
second : they cant hit the harmonic precisely enough so its everytime the same...

i would start learning to play with feel and improve vibrato. most important for any guitarplayer (imho)

 

[dan weapon]

Like has been mentioned, it's all in the technique for harmonics and bends etc. It's all down to intonation and tasteful wide vibrato.

As for pickslides, when doing it on record I use a credit card type card... it sounds way better than a pick!

 

[dan weapon]

Although I did hear some rumours that there were punch-ins for some pinch harmonics on "Alive Or Just Breathing." Just rumours though...!

That's not any worse than doing a punch in for any other bit imho.

KSE nail the squeals live so it's all good.

 

[ruckus328]

Dude, those "perfect harmonics" - although yes, they are played for real, I really believe they're spliced/punched in there, my opinion anyways. They're all too perfect. As I Lay Dying - Confined has a great example. My band always refer to the bit at 0:46 as the "ultimate perfection punched in squealie".

 

[Ola Englund]

Dude, those "perfect harmonics" - although yes, they are played for real, I really believe they're spliced/punched in there, my opinion anyways. They're all too perfect. As I Lay Dying - Confined has a great example. My band always refer to the bit at 0:46 as the "ultimate perfection punched in squealie".

haha listened to that particular part and it's sooo obvious...

 

[ruckus328]

haha listened to that particular part and it's sooo obvious...

Haha Yup.....sounds sick though.

That's the only way we've been able to get them to sound so perfect. Don't think there's anything wrong with that though. Same as punching anything else in.

 

[colonel kurtz]

the thing is, even if you have to punch in to really nail a harmonic, it still comes down to the player executing it with the proper technique in his playing

last band i tracked had recorded some good takes of a song, but the pinches sucked...so i made another track, hit record, and had him just do like 10 great pinches in a row. i took the best 2 and crossfaded them into the rhythm tracks, but it still came down to him being able to nail the shit himself.

 

[ruckus328]

the thing is, even if you have to punch in to really nail a harmonic, it still comes down to the player executing it with the proper technique in his playing

last band i tracked had recorded some good takes of a song, but the pinches sucked...so i made another track, hit record, and had him just do like 10 great pinches in a row. i took the best 2 and crossfaded them into the rhythm tracks, but it still came down to him being able to nail the shit himself.

Ohh yea, I'm not arguing that for a minute, if the guy can't nail them then there's no hope. That's what I do too, but I'm alot more brutal - I make him do about 50 of them lol. Found that when you're quad tracking the squeals seem to be a little prone to cancelling each other out, for us anyways. They might sound good on their own but layer the wrong four squeals together and it can sound pretty odd and weak. So it's just trial and error for me till I get four that sound sick together.

But yea, like you said, it comes down to him nailing them - no software is going to do that for you. And if you can't do it then the only thing that's going to help is practice.

 

[-Loco-]

surely there must be some techniques for making these pinches more upfront in the mix? when i was recording before i tried a few low ones through my amp sim and pulled me off neat, but in tracking/mixing they kind of lost their momentum and had some hiss behind them too i noticed.

 

[colonel kurtz]

surely there must be some techniques for making these pinches more upfront in the mix? when i was recording before i tried a few low ones through my amp sim and pulled me off neat, but in tracking/mixing they kind of lost their momentum and had some hiss behind them too i noticed.

high output pickups

new strings

play them perfectly