Metal Challenge 2016

V8

GFSA Metal Challenge 2016

But if your flavour of noise tends more towards punk/hardcore more than metal...No problem, just make it loud!

Rules for beginners/intermediate/advanced :
Max four instruments playing at any one time - a Vocal track is considered 'free' (doesn't count towards the four instrument limit).
Submissions around 2mins.

This month, we'll also have a Band/Professional category - no limits at all (no track limits or time limits).

If you would like to enter, send me an email (v8v8v8 at gmail dot com) by 23:59 pm Monday 28th December 2016 with :
1. GFSA username.
2. Track name.
3. Category (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Band)
3. Track rendered in mp3.
4. Optional blurb. Anything you might feel is useful to the listener - info about song, studio, recording techniques, etc..
5. Please make sure you have GFSA somewhere in the title of the email - otherwise I might miss your submission.

Annnnddd...don't forget - collaborations are encouraged.

Good luck and happy moshing!

EDIT : 22nd Nov - Added 'Band' category

warrenpridgeon

ONE WHOLE MONTH TO DO IT!!!!

I hung my guitars on my wall right at the desk I work at all day so I HOPE it will help motivate me to play even more often!

wern101

warrenpridgeon wrote: ONE WHOLE MONTH TO DO IT!!!!

I hung my guitars on my wall right at the desk I work at all day so I HOPE it will help motivate me to play even more often!

Yeah, my guitars are in the office too.... now I won't get any work done!

This challenge is gonna stretch my abilities to the max...

V8

warrenpridgeon wrote: ONE WHOLE MONTH TO DO IT!!!!

Yip, silly season can get...well...silly!

And it's the last one for this year, so we might as well stretch it out!

Saw this pic while I was looking around for a pic for the challenge...it was a very close second place!

TokyoP0P

Definitely in!

warrenpridgeon

wern101 wrote:
warrenpridgeon wrote: ONE WHOLE MONTH TO DO IT!!!!

I hung my guitars on my wall right at the desk I work at all day so I HOPE it will help motivate me to play even more often!
Yeah, my guitars are in the office too.... now I won't get any work done!

This challenge is gonna stretch my abilities to the max...

This is gonna be challenging for me... Decent metal is very accurate with timing. I'm not a fast player so it's going to require buckets of effort.

That and my stuff tends to lean more toward classic rock than metal. But I'm amped, really keen to stretch myself!

wern101

Ok. Noob alert - what's the deal with 'Drop D' on almost every youtube metal instructional vid? Is it like a thing with Metal? (pardon my ignorance)

Been trying to get my amp/effects setup for this challenge - i just end up with noise. Those guys playing metal also have noise but they have a clean noise (lotsa drive / distortion / gain) where mine is a noisey noise (lotsa noise). Also tried patches for the Digitech RP 50, they seem ok but the amp...i dunno....Any advise?

Otherwise i'm gonna have to stick with high gain / distortion stuff and just make it 'high energy' instead of 'metal'.

ta.

warrenpridgeon

wern101 wrote: Ok. Noob alert - what's the deal with 'Drop D' on almost every youtube metal instructional vid? Is it like a thing with Metal? (pardon my ignorance)

Been trying to get my amp/effects setup for this challenge - i just end up with noise. Those guys playing metal also have noise but they have a clean noise (lotsa drive / distortion / gain) where mine is a noisey noise (lotsa noise). Also tried patches for the Digitech RP 50, they seem ok but the amp...i dunno....Any advise?

Otherwise i'm gonna have to stick with high gain / distortion stuff and just make it 'high energy' instead of 'metal'.

ta.

Some people say it's for "speed" because when you tune the thick E string down to D you can "barre" the top two strings with one finger to create a power "chord" (I say "chord" because a chord is supposed to be 3 notes and not only 2, but you get away with it when you slam 3 metric tonnes of gain on ?)

You might need a noise gate in your setup. Also... E.Q. is super important. Another tip is be careful what amp and pedal combo you use as if you end up with pedals/amps that add a lot of compression you will find your guitar getting lost in the mix.

As you add gain the noise also gets boosted so you might have to muck with your EQ a bit to get a sound you like.
Experiment with your eq. Try boosting the highs and lows and tweaking the mids up and down.

http://en.audiofanzine.com/electric-guitar/editorial/articles/heavy-guitar-sound-basics.html

YMMV and I still need to try this also. I have a "rock" to almost hard rock sound currently in my setup.

V8

Not sure how everyone is interpreting Metal - there are sooo many genre's - Doom Metal just chugs along sedately.

warrenpridgeon wrote:
wern101 wrote: Ok. Noob alert - what's the deal with 'Drop D' on almost every youtube metal instructional vid? Is it like a thing with Metal? (pardon my ignorance)
Some people say it's for "speed" because when you tune the thick E string down to D you can "barre" the top two strings with one finger to create a power "chord" (I say "chord" because a chord is supposed to be 3 notes and not only 2, but you get away with it when you slam 3 metric tonnes of gain on ?)

What he said ?! Useful thing to learn, dropping the low e to d - sounds great on acoustic guitars too! As the pitch drops, guitars just sound heavy. Common to tune a 6 string to C#, then drop tune the low C# to B. Need some fat strings to keep any playability in the strings though.

Sure there are many here who advise far better on a guitar metal tone - I never got much past a humbucker->boss metal zone (no mids)->amp w/12in speaker, cranked to 11.

Although...there are some great metal amp plug-ins (le pou and ignite amps) for your daw - so good, I wish they were in a pedal. And you don't need as much gain as you'd think, especially if you are picking hard and cleanly on something detuned - though I do tend to overdue the gain, it's the one time you really can :?

Tokyopop got some great tones last time he entered, can't recall what he used?

wern101

Thanks gents. Yeah, metal is interpreted differently I suppose. I 'happened' onto some Djent vids and memes earlier. Immediately though of you Meron. ? (still don't clearly know what Djent is though)

So I got a patch that sounds decent enough, just need to fine tune. Could also be the single coils I got and the crappy amp, but getting there. Still looking for thickness to the tone.

Settings I am using on the Digitech pedal are:
Compressor:15 (turned down to about 7)
Amp: Rectifier - Gain level 9 (adjusted to 5)
EQ: Lo:9 Mid:7 Hi:3
NOISE GATE: OFF (but have turned it on again, just sounds better)
CHORUS/MOD: OFF
DELAY: P - Ping Pong Delay Level 2
Reverb: Off.
On the amp: Gain on 1, distortion off, treble 7, mids 2, bass 8

I'll tweak a bit tonight and see if I get a proper sound.

studmissile

Sh!t!

Hasie

Watch this.

Also. Try and mute the strings not being played.

Hasie

And another thing. Drop D or droo whatever is an abomination. It messes with open chords and scale patterns.

I'm going to search for the thickest possible strings, raise the bridge to remove buzz, downtune until I am able to fret cleanly and use some thick dunlop pick to really push the signal.

Werner232

Depends on the style of metal you wanna play. I personally do 80's shred! A decent amp with the gain not open full blast, a guitar with a super strat pick up configuration tuned down a half tone, a chorus pedal, a delay pedal, a decent distortion(not a metalzone), and a compressor and noise gate help a lot.

I'm not a fan of this new metal stuff. To me it's noise. Most of it sounds like mush and the vocalist that sounds like he want to puke, 7string guitars and dropped D tuning just don't do it for me! ?

My 5cents!

Stoffeltoo

wern101 wrote: Ok. Noob alert - what's the deal with 'Drop D' on almost every youtube metal instructional vid? Is it like a thing with Metal? (pardon my ignorance)

Been trying to get my amp/effects setup for this challenge - i just end up with noise. Those guys playing metal also have noise but they have a clean noise (lotsa drive / distortion / gain) where mine is a noisey noise (lotsa noise). Also tried patches for the Digitech RP 50, they seem ok but the amp...i dunno....Any advise?

Otherwise i'm gonna have to stick with high gain / distortion stuff and just make it 'high energy' instead of 'metal'.

ta.

Ditto on the Noob metal thing and Drop anything toonings.
What I did learn though if you have modelling amp with multi effects pedal. Kill the amp sims on the pedal else the tone may sound well, heavy and not quite what was needed, let the amp do the work and the effects colour the tone.
Sounds like directions from a blind man but it did work in other genres

V8

wern101 wrote: I 'happened' onto some Djent vids and memes earlier. Immediately though of you Meron. ? (still don't clearly know what Djent is though)

So I got a patch that sounds decent enough, just need to fine tune. Could also be the single coils I got and the crappy amp, but getting there. Still looking for thickness to the tone.

Grin, no idea if I know what djent is either - It's all 1's and 0's to me ?

Not knowing what djent is I observed what I could- I'm finding is that it has quite a bit in common with a fast funk slap style. Not only is there palm muting, but the fretting hand is doing a lot of muting to de-mud the space between the notes (ok, 1's and 0's) and accentuate the rhythm - without the two hand muting, it's tough to get the rhythmical feel right. At times it seems like I'm playing more percussion than stringed instrument and practicing techniques do seem more like a drumming paradiddle than a guitar/bass exercise.

And humbuckers make a world of difference. Not that a single can't work - it can - just think 80's riffage, rather than nu-metal/djent.

Hasie wrote: I'm going to search for the thickest possible strings, raise the bridge to remove buzz, downtune until I am able to fret cleanly and use some thick dunlop pick to really push the signal.

Thats the spirit!

I down tuned the pimpocaster's bass strings to B-E-A (down a 5th) for a laugh yesterday, gimme a 7 string vibe - more tension in them than I expected - but too muddy for recording though. Need fatter strings! I could downtune tune to C# and then drop tune the low C# to B, but I don't like much playing in drop tunings -as you said- the patterns are different.

Igor

Hi, can someone please explain the challenge?

Is it just "record a metal song"?

V8

Hi guys,

Doh, I knew I forgot something when I popped up the original post - the Band category! No track limits or time limits, enter a track you got or write one up - up to you!

Here's the amended rules :

Rules for beginners/intermediate/advanced :
Max four instruments playing at any one time - a Vocal track is considered 'free' (doesn't count towards the four instrument limit).
Submissions around 2mins.

This month, we'll also have a Band/Professional category - no limits at all (no track limits or time limits).

V8

Igor wrote: Hi, can someone please explain the challenge?

Is it just "record a metal song"?

Pretty much!

Hasie

Meron Rigas wrote:
Igor wrote: Hi, can someone please explain the challenge?

Is it just "record a metal song"?
Pretty much!

If you are doing a cover of someone else's song, it should be public domain.