That sounds tight blue_fAng!
Is it correct to get this percussive fret clank when playing unplugged with hard hitting? Or do i have to set the string action higher? I don't know if the fret noise is wanted but i could imagine that it is part of the attack i'm looking for. Also when i really pick hard the strings go out of tune now and i already use 12-54 gauge on a 25.5" scale..and i thought about switching to lighter strings before because i don't really like thick ones
Now i should do the opposite perhaps.
I experimented with your advices. I used a more rigid pick now and struggled with a better muting. This seems to be the most difficult part for me. When i'm muting the string with the palm closer to the neck i can eliminate the ringing. But i'm used to play much closer to the bridge. It's hard to jump between that while playing.
Keeping a loose arm and tight wrist isn't that easy for me..with constant hard hitting now my hand/arm gets cramped very fast.
I don't hold my pick in parallel to the strings. With an angle i get more scratch and because of the anatomy of my thumb it's also more pleasant to hold it that way
This is with muting closer to the neck and a more rigid pick:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7625817/GreyIntroRiff3.mp3
Thanks!
There's nothing wrong with that buzzing noise, as long as you don't hear a weird noise with the distorted sound and you actually hear the notes played then it's alright. That's a pretty common thing that happens on low action. Now with the muting technique, there are ways to mute the sound tightly like a gate, I'm very good at it but I don't know how to explain it. I use both of my hands to stop the ringing, I touch all the strings lightly with my left hand and kinda the same with the right hand but a little harder.
There's a lot of guitar players that have been practicing for years and play nice that can't mute the strings properly. I remember many players that came here to record that complain about the noise and then ask me to turn down the gain when it was just a matter of technique, I picked their guitar and show them the way I do it and when they learnt it the problem went. If there's no way of muting without producing too much noise then the gain must be too high. Notice that in my clip there is fast muting and the input gain is high (DI clipping at -10 dbfs, then tse 808 with volume, tone and input maxed so it's output is almost clipping before the ampsim with 5 of gain).
I think your guitar tone needs a little more gain so it sounds more powerful combined with faster muting to get closer to the trivium tone. Your last clip sounds good, it's just that it needs faster muting and slightly more gain.
Picking hard is always important for strong parts. I refer to strong parts to most of what you hear in a rock or metal songs and weak parts when it is supposed to sounds more dynamic or slow, like a chill section or song then you should play weaker. So, playing harder sounds better for high gain tones . If your notes are going out of tune while playing harder, that's because you played weaker when tuning your instrument and you have to tune the way you are going to pick. The stronger you pick the sharper the note is going to be and you have to be careful with the thick strings, the thicker they get the more difficult to tune gets. I tune like this:
Pick the string constantly while tuning, until you reach the desired note in the tuner. The 3 lightest strings shoud be in the perfect note your tuner shows you. Now the wound strings are more tricky because these tend to go like crazy on the tuner. Because the way I play ( I strum the the two thickest strings very hard, the next one a little just softer and then the remaining strings even a little softer) I tune the way I'm going to play, so I hit the thickest strings hard and I don't make them reach the perfect desired note, but juuust a little flatter than that. The third thickest is almost in the perfect note and the other two thicker strings even more flat, just too slightly. Make sure you never go sharper that the desired note.
There you go, in short: you should tune with the same strenght you are going to play, and don't tune to sustain. Note that the clip I recorded is not in tune at all, I didn't have a tuner at that moment.
