Project 'Make It Sing'

TokyoP0P

Inspired by Briang's writing/recording project and the monthly challenges, I've decided to start my own personal challenge. Having not been in a band for years now, I haven't really needed to exercise any creativity as far as lead guitar work goes. I've gotten lazy with that stuff.

The guitar players I always looked up to weren't necessarily the ones who were setting their fretboards on fire with speed and technicality, but rather the guys like Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani (more his earlier stuff) and even Jeff Beck who were/are great at making their guitars sing while throwing blistering runs mostly to enhance the melodies.

I like solos that tell stories of their own. Little songs within the songs. So, I've decided to exercise creativity and force myself to sit down and write stuff to go over pretty basic riffs, partly just to see how rad a solo can be over something short and repetitive. I'm going to attempt to pump these out as regularly as possible, keeping the tunes fairly brief.

Here are three from this past week. My favourite is It Squeeks ?
I've been using the Van Halen Eruption guitar tone for the lead stuff.

Please let me know what you think and also if the volume and clarity is ok. It sounds fine in my headphones but I have a feeling it could be shite from a speaker set. So far I've been recording on Audacity and with these three tunes I've compressed each track. I guess that does something...

briang-telkomsa-net

Excellent to have a project going - will get to listen to your tracks later.

Apart from learning about the technicalities of recording, maintaining interest, for myself and for those following, is also quite a challenge!? So learning a bit about marketing as well, in a round about way?

Stoffeltoo

Dunno what you done but acceptance sounds very cool with the lead panning left and right in stereo. Sound is crystal clear over the speaks. Well done and keep them coming

TokyoP0P

briang wrote: Apart from learning about the technicalities of recording, maintaining interest, for myself and for those following, is also quite a challenge!? So learning a bit about marketing as well, in a round about way?

I must admit I'm totally lazy on the mastering side of recording. All I want to do when I finish that last take is sit back and listen to it. I need to start doing some googling and I suppose I should switch to a professional DAW instead of Audacity, but its just so damn user friendly! This is mostly to give myself a reason to play/practice anyway. As for marketing (marketing myself?), I don't know... maybe when I'm ready to start/join another band but for now the extent of my marketing is this thread ?

Stoffeltoo wrote: Dunno what you done but acceptance sounds very cool with the lead panning left and right in stereo. Sound is crystal clear over the speaks. Well done and keep them coming

Thanks. I think thats the Phaser mod on the Eruption guitar tone thats causing the panning.

TokyoP0P

^ Here is tonight's piece. For the life of me I couldn't figure out an ending, so I just faded out. :-[

studmissile

Very impressive. Good stuff! .......What's the gear rundown for that tone?

briang-telkomsa-net

"It Squeaks" is my favourite -
Your use of Audacity sounds just fine to me!? - clear and clean

TokyoP0P

studmissile wrote: Very impressive. Good stuff! .......What's the gear rundown for that tone?

Thanks! The guitar I'm using is an ESP Ltd M-1000 (EMG 81 active pickups), plugged straight into a Line 6 POD Studio UX2. It came with a program called Gearbox and one of the tones on it is the Eddie Van Halen Eruption tone. Thats what I'm using.

TokyoP0P

Both my PC's graphics card and my laptop's hard drive have bombed so I'm unable to record until I sort those out. Money... :-\

Stoffeltoo

TokyoP0P wrote: Both my PC's graphics card and my laptop's hard drive have bombed so I'm unable to record until I sort those out. Money... :-\

Aag Bomber man ☹
Hope you get sorted tjop tjop and thanks for the advice!

TokyoP0P

Aww yeah back in business!

TokyoP0P

I'm not thrilled about this one, but here is today's tune.

V8

TokyoP0P wrote: I'm not thrilled about this one, but here is today's tune.

Noice! Tastefully ripping up the acoustic fretboard 8)

Also a big improvement on the recording of last month's challenge. This month's challenge is going to be...interesting!

TokyoP0P

V8 wrote:
TokyoP0P wrote: I'm not thrilled about this one, but here is today's tune.

Noice! Tastefully ripping up the acoustic fretboard 8)

Also a big improvement on the recording of last month's challenge. This month's challenge is going to be...interesting!

Thanks V. The trickiest part of the month's challenge so far has just been trying to decide on a hero!
Hows it going with yours?

Hasie

Liking this topic. You play very good TokyoPOP and enjoy listening to your songs.

I'm struggling with this month's challenge. Struggling to compose something superheroey and unable to think up new melodies. Tried recording yesterday for 3 hours, but only ended up with snippets of nonsense.

V8

TokyoP0P wrote: Thanks V. The trickiest part of the month's challenge so far has just been trying to decide on a hero!
Hows it going with yours?

Yeah man, also been humming and hawwing about a direction. I'll go with the archived tune I managed to dig up - at least that way I know there'll be a entry - even if it's just making up the numbers.

TokyoP0P

Hasie wrote: Liking this topic. You play very good TokyoPOP and enjoy listening to your songs.

I'm struggling with this month's challenge. Struggling to compose something superheroey and unable to think up new melodies. Tried recording yesterday for 3 hours, but only ended up with snippets of nonsense.

Yup, I'm having the same problem and having just seen Jurassic World, I find myself morphing everything into the Jurassic Park melody.

Stoffeltoo

Also struggling. At least my recording sound have improved with TokyoPop's advice

TokyoP0P

So the other day I decided that I really wanted a bass guitar because 1) Its just good fun, 2) guitar is a breeze after battling those damn bridge cables that bass players call strings, and 3) practicing rest-pause finger picking on the bass might translate nicely over as picado on the acoustic guitar. I took my Squire Telecaster to Cash Crusaders and asked them if they'd swap it for a 5 string Cort they have in the shop (going for R1499) or just give me that exact amount of cash so that I could buy it. They're more likely to sell a Tele than a Cort bass anyway. Nope, the guy came back with an offer of R800 instead. I shot through to Guitar Centre instead and Tony (the owner) let me do a swap and now I'm the proud wielder of this might axe.

^ And yes, its bears the power of levitation.

Stoffeltoo wrote: Also struggling. At least my recording sound have improved with TokyoPop's advice

Hey, I'm glad I could help a bit.

Hasie

Nice! Enjoy. Looking forward to some cool bass lines.