Solo of the Month (SotM) #33

What's Hot
24

Comments

  • @stratman3142 I hate you. I was planning to blatantly shoehorn in SCOM intro and you've gone and done it! Nice work 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Listening back to the solos so far, I think I might have been somewhat influenced by the solo of @bingefeller ;;
    Oh well, I'm not averse to a bit of plagiarism  

    Did you quote Sweet Child O Mine in your solo?
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Sent. Not the cleanest I've ever played - I think the afternoon beers hadn't fully worn off. Fun nonetheless. 

    Approach was to improvise around D major and D minor pentatonic with a bit of G major and a few extra notes thrown in.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited February 2018
    Listening back to the solos so far, I think I might have been somewhat influenced by the solo of @bingefeller ;;;
    Oh well, I'm not averse to a bit of plagiarism  

    Did you quote Sweet Child O Mine in your solo?
    Briefly at 10s. Also, at the end, the idea for the lick was stolen from Peg, but different notes.
    And I got the idea for the descending lick at 23s from part of the intro solo from Reeling In The Years.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • @bingefeller what patch/effects did you use for your GT001?

    I use a GT100 as an interface but I've never really used the patches. I use it for effects and channel switching my amp when gigging. I've been experimenting with my amp as a preamp instead.  If you don't mind I'd like to have a look at what you used and experiment a bit around it
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Three entries so far, all in the playlist in the original post.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • @bingefeller what patch/effects did you use for your GT001?

    I use a GT100 as an interface but I've never really used the patches. I use it for effects and channel switching my amp when gigging. I've been experimenting with my amp as a preamp instead.  If you don't mind I'd like to have a look at what you used and experiment a bit around it
    @flying_pie I used Stuie Gold's Tweed Country with the gain up on the Tweed amp and turned off the delay and reverb and added in reverb with Logic.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Rowby1Rowby1 Frets: 1258
    Wow, you lot are keen! Three entries already! 

    Best set to and get on with it again then.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Rowby1Rowby1 Frets: 1258
    Right, mines sent in.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited February 2018
    Rowby1 said:
    Right, mines sent in.

     Added to the playlist in the original post. So that's four entries so far.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Rowby1Rowby1 Frets: 1258
    edited February 2018
    Approach wise, the first half I had the idea in my head and sang it to myself before picking up the guitar. I’ve done that once or twice before for solos and it does seem to bring something more melodic out of me than just sitting straight down with the guitar. I think it shapes the phrasing to your breathing too. Second half I just went for it a bit more.

    Scales wise, I think I used D major, D blues and G major pentatonic.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • bingefeller said:

    @flying_pie I used Stuie Gold's Tweed Country with the gain up on the Tweed amp and turned off the delay and reverb and added in reverb with Logic.
    Cheers. Will get that and have a play around. 

    @Rowby1 some of us weren't necessarily keen but had an unexpected free night where the kids actually feel asleep early! 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I have a couple of production questions -

    Have I mastered my submission a bit on the loud side or are the rest of you being too polite? I think I might know the answer to that! 

    And do you master differently for mp3s compared to formats like wav? I've noticed that the wav file sounds much more balanced than the mp3 I sent (and didn't listen to before I sent it) which seems a bit too guitar heavy. Even the wav I uploaded to my own soundcloud sounds better than the uploaded mp3. I assume that relates to different compression on soundcloud from uploading mp3 and wav.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I have a couple of production questions -

    Have I mastered my submission a bit on the loud side or are the rest of you being too polite? I think I might know the answer to that! 

    And do you master differently for mp3s compared to formats like wav? I've noticed that the wav file sounds much more balanced than the mp3 I sent (and didn't listen to before I sent it) which seems a bit too guitar heavy. Even the wav I uploaded to my own soundcloud sounds better than the uploaded mp3. I assume that relates to different compression on soundcloud from uploading mp3 and wav.

    Backing Track Details:
    I put a master limiter on the backing track, just to take out any high transients. There wasn't much compression from the master limiter. Then I rendered the backing track to a max. level of -3 dB to leave plenty of headroom for the solos to be added.

    Solo Plus Backing Track Details: I just added my solo without adding any further boost in level to the overall master levels. There was probably room to add more level at that point, or to add more master limiting to get even more level, but I didn't bother.

    There are no rules to this. I wouldn't worry about it.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Thanks @stratman3142 that's very useful. I hadn't thought of compressing or limiting the backing track. I just adjusted the overall volume to go with not too hot a guitar track (tonal choice excluded!) and used a master limiter set to -0.2 with hardly any compression taking place. Some subsequent research suggests it might be better to leave more headroom when rendering to mp3 or uploading wav for streaming. 

    I hear a significant difference between what is in Reaper/wav on my pc and what eventually ended up on soundcloud from mp3. I'm trying to understand the reasons behind this with a view to future projects and simplifying the process rather than worrying about this month's SOTM. All part of the learning curve.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Rowby1Rowby1 Frets: 1258
    Same here, I’ve imported the MP3 into my DAW and left the master fader at 0db. Added a mastering limiter to run it out with peak level at -3db. 

    @flying_pie I did notice your track was louder than mine and the other two entries. I’m always a bit cautious level wise when running things out to MP3 for exactly the reason you stated. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited February 2018
    @flying_pie just to clarify what I said in my previous post.

    My comments on the backing track refer to what I did before I uploaded it to soundcloud. So those details already applied to the track you downloaded.

    I've compared the details of the original mp3 backing backing track I created (before I uploaded it to Soundcloud), with the properties of the backing track I downloaded from Soundcloud and they appear to be exactly the same. So it would appear that Soundcloud didn't do anything to my original mp3.

    Regarding my SotM. I just added my solo to the backing track and left the backing levels as is. I didn't bother with master limiting in this case because there weren't any peaks on the master track hitting 0dB or more.

    However, normally when I create complete tracks (for example for the Composition Challenge) I use master limiting. The amount that I push the input gain on the master limiter depends on the loudness/sound I want to create. If I want a really 'in yer face' effect, I might push the Input Gain on the master limiter really hard, as I did for my Composition Challenge #19 entry (link below, which isn't to everyone's taste ), then there's a compromise between loudness and dynamic range. Then when rendering to mp3 I'll set the master track level at 0dB and the master limiter output gain (ceiling) at -0.5dB. That's because I've found that rendering to mp3 can result in some peaks just above threshold.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Rowby1 said:

    @flying_pie I did notice your track was louder than mine and the other two entries.
    Me too. I think that I noticed it around about the time I rushed to turn the volume down. That's very polite of you. 

    Thanks for the advice @Rowby1 and @stratman3142

    My crude (mis)understanding was to aim for as loud a mix as possible without the limiter compression affecting the sound. I hadn't considered the other factors, especially the mp3 conversion
    . That's really been helpful.

    BTW today's research has told me apparently the files you download from soundcloud are identical to what is uploaded but the streamed files are always a 128k mp3 conversion of whatever is uploaded.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited February 2018
    Rowby1 said:

    @flying_pie I did notice your track was louder than mine and the other two entries.
    Me too. I think that I noticed it around about the time I rushed to turn the volume down. That's very polite of you. 

    Thanks for the advice @Rowby1 and @stratman3142

    My crude (mis)understanding was to aim for as loud a mix as possible without the limiter compression affecting the sound. I hadn't considered the other factors, especially the mp3 conversion
    . That's really been helpful.

    BTW today's research has told me apparently the files you download from soundcloud are identical to what is uploaded but the streamed files are always a 128k mp3 conversion of whatever is uploaded.

    OK. That makes sense

    Incidentally, below are the backing track file properties reported by Reaper before I uploaded it to Soundcloud

    https://i.imgur.com/O9qPyXH.png


    And below are the file properties reported by Reaper after I downloaded it from Soundcloud (i.e. the same)

    https://i.imgur.com/rv8vlxQ.png

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Submission sent... be nice :)
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.