Dragonforce @ Middlesbrough Empire 07/12/09 dual guitar solo

I went to see Dragonforce last Monday, here's a clip of one of their amazing dual guitar solos, this is off a song called Fields of Despair. Amazing stuff!!

Long time coming...

Well its been a while since I last posted here, I'm not playing as much guitar as usual maybe a couple of times a week at the moment.

To tell you the truth I'm probably not as disheartened as usual but I still haven't been playing much.  As I said before I prefer to play lead guitar but getting a decent backing track to play over can be tricky, especially with the sort of stuff that I like playing.  I'm into a lot of the neoclassical speed metal stuff, things like Jason Becker and Marty Friedman's early stuff in Cacophony and their solo albums, but the sort of rhythm I play is a different style so things just don't mesh so well.

I did find a nice preset from the Altaire studio in Super drummer 2 that sounded good, I think it was called black beauty, but getting a good solid rhythm track still eludes me though :).  I am enjoying playing lead though, I must admit I love playing lots of sweep picking stuff, I had a go at a couple of sections of Concerto from Speed Metal Symphony but its as hard as hell!!  I have no idea how those guys could ever play like that, even remembering it is difficult!  I can manage a few bars then I forget the beginning doh!

I have been listening to Alice in Chains new album "Black gives way to blue" a lot lately, its a really great album production production is spot on too.  Also on my play list has been Megadeth's new album "Endgame", some of the tracks are good but others are boring and are very reminiscent of tracks from their last album.  I think the albums production also sounds a bit thin too, there doesn't seem to be nearly enough bass.  I suppose that's Megadeth's sound though, I listened to some of the albums from the early 90's and they seem a little lacking in bass too...

I will have to see if I can scrape a few snippets of playing and post them up here so you can hear what I'm trying to do...

Who needs rhythm and bass anyway :)

Until next time...

Me and my noise!

I have been experimenting with my virtual guitar rig for the last few month and thought I would share my thoughts and findings.

First part of my setup is Softubes Acoustic feedback, this is as close to playing a loud over driven amp as you will get with a plugin, thanks to Jeff over at geareview for drawing my attention to this plug-in, fantastic squeals and feedback!

Next is a Tube Screamer set with level 100% tone on 50% to 100% gain set really low like 5-10 alternatively I sometimes use a Boss SD-1 with similar settings. I find that is has a nasally cocked wah quality that's hard to work with and the tube screamer sounds a pinch warmer, anyway I use BTE Audio's Tube screamers secret, the one skinned by requietus

After the booster I use one of these amp sims:

Nick Crows 8505

Poulin HyBrit

Poulin SoloC

Analog Sims JCM900

If the amp sim Im using doesn't have a cab simulator like Nicks 8505 then I use Poulin LeCab, normally with Mesa and Engl cabs, I use Alus decab impulse to remove the cab sim built into the JCM900 and use Poulins LeCab as usual.

Finally I use Overlouds Breverb to add a 'touch' of reverb to rhythm tracks and a big dollop for lead tracks, Im just sticking with presets from Breverb for now (Guitar room/lonely guitarist), I have the plugin 100% wet with only 20-25% applied to the signal.

If I want a thrash metal sound I will go for the 8515 or the SoloC, If I want a more natural tube type sound and also lead playing then lately I have been using the HyBrit with some success, still cant quite get the ultimate tone, guess I never will! getting closer though....

New amp head vst plugin C-15 Controlled Insanity

Over at acmebargig there is a new plugin in the Preampus Metal Line: C-15 Controlled Insanity!

"Crank it up and let it cut loose, you will be rewarded with a high gain that delivers crisp over tones and rich soundscape"

The Preampus heads  have been excellent so sar especially the the recent Series 60 metal version, head over and give it a blast!
http://www.acmebargig.com/c15

The rut zone

After a week or two of moaning I managed to dig my way out of my rut.  I finally managed to come up with a few riffs I actually liked!! although its not much its enough to give me a bit of motivation.

Electric metal blues

Bah! I had a blast on guitar tonight but couldnt come up with anything worthwhile, same old stuff again and again!

I know I mentioned creativity last time but this is one almighty rut.  It seems like im bored of playing all the stuff that im good at, the only stuff I enjoy is Hendrix blues stuff and im not so good at that.  My natural style or learned style is metal and grunge although if I just pick up a guitar and play it come out like 90's thrash metal rather than grunge.  Even the lead stuff that I normally get a kick out of playing is tiresome.  I look forward to picking up a guitar and having a jam but after every session I feel fed up and frustrated, dont know if I can bring myself to learn a whole new style, not with my attention span...

Creativity, or lack of ...

Lately I seem to be churning the same old stuff over and over, the same sweep picking flashy licks the same palm muted gallops, the same extended power chords.  I need something new or a new angle...

ABY switcher change of plan...

To switch or not to switch...

I had a change of mind on the Aby switcher, I don't really need the ability to switch between anything so this is going to be a basic ground lift audio isolator, hopefully this will cure the noise issues I have been having using a laptop.  I think the noise is coming from a typically noisy switch mode power supply in the laptops power brick.

Parts

The parts for this project are only minimal, the most important being the transformer for isolation, you can easily spend a lot of money on an audio quality transformer but as this is just for guitar hopefully I can get away with a cheaper one, the linear frequency range is 200Hz-15kHz, although the low frequency response is a low I'm hoping this will suffice although I'm not so sure now, might have a scout about see if I can get a better low frequency response...
Other parts of note are a TL072 JFET Op amp and a Intersil
ICL7660 voltage doubler to ensure we have enough headroom using a single 9v battery.  Other than that there's just a handful of capacitors and a few resistors.
I see if I can get the parts list finalised and get the schematic and pcb layout on here shortly...
D.

Plectrums, plectrums, and more plectrums!

have a bit of an obsession with plectrums, it seems there's a plectrum for every occasion but one for all uses seems to elude me...

I use mainly Jim Dunlop plectrums, theres a wide range of different thicknesses and materials, I seem to have at least one of each!  I prefer thicker plectrums made of Tortex or Delrin with a thickness around 1 mm, I have used them down to 0.60 mm and as thick as 3mm :o

For grungy rhythms and even fast alternate picking a Tortex 0.60 is a good choice, it feels a bit flimsy for fast lead work although Paul Gilbert seems to get by just fine!  The thicker Tortex ones seem to feel like they catch or scratch the strings more and I don't like the tone as much

For general lead work and metal rhythm a Delrin 1.16mm is a good choice, the tone seems to sound better than the thicker tortex ones.

For sweep picking and fast palm muting you cant beat a Jazztone, they have a kind of ceramic feel to them and seem to improve the tone, they take a bit of getting used to as they are about 2mm thick and have a smooth chamfered edge, the only problem is that the grip isn't as good as Tortext and Delrin and I usually score them with a knife.

Recently I have started using 1.16mm Ultex they seem to have a good grip but I'm not sure if I like the edge they have they seem to suffer the same tone loss as the ticker Tortex ones...
Hmm if only they made jazz tones with more grip or Ultex with a more chamfered edge, maybe when the Ultex beds in a bit they will grow on me...

Some of my stash of plectrums

First things first...

The first projects I want to tackle are an Electro Harmonix small clone type chorus, a couple of amp in a box type fx, and an A,B,Y switching pedal that hopefully eliminates group loops.
The ABY switching unit is mainly to get rid of ground loops when recording with my laptop and the other projects are for fun and experimentation...

Chorus pedal

This will be based around the original Electro Harmonix Small Clone Chorus and the subsequent work done on TonePad.  I have always loved the sound that was made famous by Kurt Cobain on the song Come as You are.

Amp in a box pedal

There has been some really good work been done in this area over the last few years I am planning on building a Marshall 100w Super Lead, and a Diezel VH4S.  Based on the Thor project at Run Of Groove, and the DieFet project at techniguitare.  I have always liked the sound a cranked 100w super lead for more mellow moments, and then theres the Diesel VH4 for when you want some fire in your face!   I wouldn't mind a Marshall JCM800 with a Boss SD-1 all in one pedal so I will probably tackle that later on too...

A,B,Y switching pedal

I have been having loads of problems with noise when switching and connecting amps together or connecting to my laptop for recording so this project will hopefully address this.
All of that should keep me busy for a while :)
D.