Solo of the Month (SotM) #34 - Chat

Rowby1

Definitely no point in the whole loudness thing. Mine’s still quite conservative level wise.

Edit: Just had a listen and mine’s perhaps a touch too hot now.....

flying_pie

Sorry @stratman3142 ;  I tend to use my car stereo for listening to mixes in private Soundcloud links and go with a volume that matches Spotify for when I switch across.  I keep forgetting to reduce the volume before sending them to you

Rowby1

Should I submit it again turned down a touch or leave it be? What do people think?

fastonebaz

@rowby1 sounds fine to me.

Submitted a remastered version for inclusion (of the same solo).  All this has highlighted to me is that I don't have a fckin clue how to master and I'm just clicking buttons until it sounds brighter. lol

stratman3142

Rowby1 said:

Should I submit it again turned down a touch or leave it be? What do people think?

Everything's fine. I was just joking earlier. The tracks can be as loud or quiet as you wish.

flying_pie

fastonebaz said:

Submitted a remastered version for inclusion (of the same solo).  All this has highlighted to me is that I don't have a fckin clue how to master and I'm just clicking buttons until it sounds brighter. lol

Join the club. I just move sliders until it sounds loud enough and hopefully doesn't distort.

It was also being tongue on cheek because last month my solo was far louder than the rest and gave a nasty surprise halfway through the playlist so I remastered it. We had a discussion about levels which I completely forgot about when it came to recording this one!

markv

I've often wondered how much difference the loudness makes to the results ...

When listening to others' entries, I try not to be influenced by the different volumes of different tracks. What does put me off is if the solo is unbalanced against the backing - i.e. so loud you can hardly hear the backing or (much rarer) too quiet.

I read a book on (real) mastering, "Mastering Audio" by Bob Katz. I thought I knew the basics of mixing music but this was so far beyond my understanding, it was unreal.

Brad

Mine is in.

Approach-wise I kept things pretty standard over the Gm, a little bit bluesy, generally keeping to chord tones and targeting the 9th a fair bit.

For the D7#9, I went for D Altered and there is a iim7b5-V7 line to create some tension moving back to Gm.

Over Eb9 - D7#9, the 1st time an Eb7 arpeggio chromatically connecting to a D7 arp. 2nd time using the Eb Lydian Dominant mode with a chromatic line to finish.      

fastonebaz

I just went for as many as i could fit in, in 60s without snapping my g string. 

(She said.) 

flying_pie

I just imagined what David Gilmour might have played (if he was less refined) with the minor pentatonic plus occasional extra notes approach. I have no idea what scales or modes the extra notes hint at.

Oh and I used a Telecaster.

Rowby1

Decided to try and do something different this month so different guitar, amp and approach. 

I think I’m in the lead in the “least number of notes in a solo” category at the moment.

Edit: I counted, 72 notes 

flying_pie

Good work @Rowby1 that's impressively few notes. And @fastonebaz has equally impressively managed top that note count in a single bar. The more varied approaches the better in my opinion 

mudslide73

Mines in - finally had some time for the first time in ages. I've done it quite quickly to avoid the "not ready to send it then forgetting" approach of most months.

Very enjoyable again. My usual "move the major scale shape around until it sounds ok then play pentatonic if you get lost" approach. I've not played many notes either   

stratman3142

fastonebaz said:

...Submitted a remastered version for inclusion (of the same solo).  All this has highlighted to me is that I don't have a fckin clue how to master and I'm just clicking buttons until it sounds brighter. lol

New version in playlist. It might be worth checking I uploaded the correct version. It's been a long day and my brain's not fully in gear.

stratman3142

Brad said:

Mine is in...

Added to playlist and thanks for the info on your approach.

stratman3142

mudslide73 said:

Mines in...

Added to playlist. That makes a total of 7 entries so far.

fastonebaz

What's the link to the playlist?   I checked out the original playlist in the OPs first post and its showing only the original 5.   Maybw my phone has a cached link or something. Cheers

fastonebaz

Ignore me it was my phone caching.  I found thr full playlist and its fine

fastonebaz

@stratman3142  ;No wait its wrong.   Its got track 9 listed twice and mine isn't listed in the playlist

fastonebaz

Cheers its there now.