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sound, ear, subjective tone, gibson tone, blah blah blah


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ok just kinda rambling but hear me out

 

i listen to records, i like the way they sound

solid body les pauls, tube amps, records, they all sound better in the same way

 

solid state amps, CDs, when you turn the volume up, the sound gets louder

records, and tube amps, when you turn the volume up, the sound gets bigger

 

i played a traditional, compared to a standard, compared to a R8, compared to the les paul 80 heritege

 

 

of the 4, the trad looked the nicest, the heritege plays and sounded the best

and the only one that didnt sound good (IMO)

 

the chambered standard

 

 

just kinda rambling, nothing to do, thoose dog days of summer are getting here

](*,)

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Well, Jesse..."Tone" has always been subjective, and a very "personal" thing, anyway.

"Live," never sounds like "recorded," even WITH all the technical advancements, since

"The Good Old Days," both in recording and live gear. It's much better, in both areas,

but, when it comes down to it...it's all still in your ears, heart, mind, experience...etc.

 

Just PLAY, man...

 

CB

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On that note. I have a Peavey tube amp. It just breaths. Any solid state amp I've had, as good as some of them were, were fake sounding to my ear.

 

I use a GT 8 in front of the Peavey now. It's digital. But the amp is tube. In my limited experience running it into a tube amp sounds very "real". I've tried it in front of SS amps and it doesn't sound good at all. IMO.

 

Nothing against modelling amps. But I haven't found on I liked. The only one that I did hear that I liked was the Line 6/Bogner hybrid. But It sounded good to me I suppose because of the tubes.

 

There's just something better about old school stuff

 

Great topic

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That hasnt any thing to do with the guitar being chambered or not... or even with the amp being tube or solid state. The thing that has changed is today's producers use compression undiscriminately (spelling?).

 

Things like (over)compression, auto-tune and stuff like that are what make most post 80s stuff sh¡t. It has nothing to do with guituars and amps, believe me... do you know panteras' greatest (first) album was recorded with a solid state practice amp? it was all they could get at the time... and for me is the best sounding album of them.

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I dunno, my amps both (tube preamp, solidstate power amp), and my guitar is an Epiphone, and at least to my ear, it sounds a hell of a lot better than when I played through a Yamaha Hundred 212, which was all solid state, sometimes I would run both thriugh a stereo delay, to add the Yamaha's brightness to the Marshall's sometimes ridiculous bottom, when I did that it became "warm" sounding...at least to my ear. But, that's a subjective thing.

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.. do you know panteras' greatest (first) album was recorded with a solid state practice amp? it was all they could get at the time... and for me is the best sounding album of them.

I'm pretty sure that Dimebag used solid state Randall amps throughout his entire time with Pantera until he got a deal with Krank Amps.

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I'm pretty sure that Dimebag used solid state Randall amps throughout his entire time with Pantera until he got a deal with Krank Amps.

 

 

Yes but, that album was recorded with a cheap-*** 20W solid state practice amp... And IMO is the best sound he had in his entire life.

 

 

You guys should consider something else (in adition to what I already said): music nowadays is being recorded, mixed, and mastered to sound "prety decent" on Ipods... not on hi fi systems. So the do all the work considering how an Ipod can sound. So they overcompress it, and cut the bass and low-mid freqs we all liked from thos ercordings recorded back in the day...

 

 

Two words: Dynamic Range

 

As somebody noted music now sounds louder when you turn up the volume, but "old" music sounds bigger when you turn up the volume. Huge difference. Now they compress everything and autotune everything to achieve "standard" sound... If you dont do that in your studio, some people whine about their album not sounding like britney's or linkin park's album: loud (but, with no dynamic range), whereas music from up to the late 80s was done like music should be done.

 

 

It sickens me... really. Go to Google and search for "turn me up".

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Man, that is the absolute truth. Overzealous squashing all in the name of getting it to sound "good" on a crappy audio system and making it the "loudest" is the worst trend in music that has ever existed. You can hear those compressors pumping away.

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ahh, the good old days.

hopefully some producers still understand the old art and it won't disappear completely. but in the quest for the almighty buck how can we hope for that.

i just hope I'll still be able to get tubes for my soldano when I'm old and grey.

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I don't know about "the good old days," along with great sounding recordings, every era has had really crappy ones as well. The Beatle's Revolver and The Rolling Stone's Aftermath both came out in 1966 but Revolver is a much higher quality sounding recording. Technology isn't the enemy either, it's all a matter of how you use or abuse it.

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When one thinks about all the music produced in the '60's, with minimal

antiquated (by today's standards) equipment, and how we all love that

sound, still...and often try to emulate it, it's amazing to me, that once we

obtain that tone (if we ever do), they ("recording" people), do their best to

totally destroy it, by "cleaning it up," for the "market!" That's what kills

the soul of "Rock & Roll," to me. I loved it, when you'd hear something

human, like a small "flub" here and there, and/or that 'rawness," that WAS

"Rock & Roll!" Now, you might as well use Loops, and prerecorded synth

tones! If the record industry "Suits" had their way, there'd be NO "artists"

to deal with, at all. Well, the Internet has (or will) put and effective end,

to "record companies!" So, I guess what goes around, comes around, after all!

End of Editorial Rant! ;>)

 

CB

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When one thinks about all the music produced in the '60's' date=' with minimal

antiquated (by today's standards) equipment, and how we all love that

sound, still...and often try to emulate it, it's amazing to me, that once we

obtain that tone (if we ever do), they ("recording" people), do their best to

totally destroy it, by "cleaning it up," for the "market!" That's what kills

the soul of "Rock & Roll," to me. I loved it, when you'd hear something

human, like a small "flub" here and there, and/or that 'rawness," that WAS

"Rock & Roll!" Now, you might as well use Loops, and prerecorded synth

tones! If the record industry "Suits" had their way, there'd be NO "artists"

to deal with, at all. Well, the Internet has (or will) put and effective end,

to "record companies!" So, I guess what goes around, comes around, after all!

End of Editorial Rant! ;>)

 

CB[/quote']

IMO, if we got rid of all the digital stuff and looping and what not (yes, I am guilty of doing this at times), artists including myself would have to focus more on taking things seriously, which would make us better, and therefore creating more of a pool of "better" musicians. Then, there would be more room for more "suits" to exist and sign more talented bands and artists giving us a much better state of music. In my dream land anyways............

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IMO' date=' if we got rid of all the digital stuff and looping and what not (yes, I am guilty of doing this at times), artists including myself would have to focus more on taking things seriously, which would make us better, and therefore creating more of a pool of "better" musicians. Then, there would be more room for more "suits" to exist and sign more talented bands and artists giving us a much better state of music. In my dream land anyways............[/quote']

 

+1

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I have a little recording project on the back burner, someday I'll make it happen. Here's what I have so far.

 

Thinking I'll get the Boss BR-1600 since I can do eight tracks at a time.

 

I've picked out about twenty rock songs (mostly obscure) that I've always liked but felt they could have been mixed better.

First order of business is to nail down the drums.

Use the existing song as a template for the beat, and for tonal comparison for mixing my drums.

I REFUSE to to use any programmed sh!t or electronic drums.

Eight inputs means I can mic an entire drum kit, and have two left over for stereo ambient "big room" sound.

I know one excellent drummer, probably have to pay him, but he's WAY better than any others I know.

 

Once I have BIG drums recorded and mixed the way God intended, I'll start laying bass and guitar reference tracks.

Maybe some vocal stuff for time-keeping to avoid getting lost in the middle of the song.

 

Once all my reference points are in place, get out my 30 year old Peavey T-40 bass and split the output.

Run it thru my old Crate bass amp AND directly into the recorder, so I can choose and mix what I want.

 

Put some vocals on it (we'll see if I really can sing) and then the fun starts.

Guitars!

Put good rhythm tracks down, go back and put the riffs in, and then see if I really can play lead.

I'm lucky here, I'm pretty good friends with three outstanding guitar players who like alot of the same stuff as me.

They all have families, jobs, gigs and live on the opposite side of Phoenix, so coordinating logistics may be a b!tch.

 

When I'm done, I'm gonna see just how BAD it sounds without computers, effects, and hi-tech gadgets.

I wanna record the same way much of my favorite Rock from the seventies was done.

Lotsa different guitars and amps, a few effects here and there, and just keep going until I nail the sound.

 

Oh, except for one detail. I'm gonna do it at home, minus all the booze, coke and smoke.

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Yes but' date=' that album was recorded with a cheap-*** 20W solid state practice amp... And IMO is the best sound he had in his entire life.

 

 

You guys should consider something else (in adition to what I already said): music nowadays is being recorded, mixed, and mastered to sound "prety decent" on Ipods... not on hi fi systems. So the do all the work considering how an Ipod can sound. So they overcompress it, and cut the bass and low-mid freqs we all liked from thos ercordings recorded back in the day...

 

 

Two words: Dynamic Range

 

As somebody noted music now sounds louder when you turn up the volume, but "old" music sounds bigger when you turn up the volume. Huge difference. Now they compress everything and autotune everything to achieve "standard" sound... If you dont do that in your studio, some people whine about their album not sounding like britney's or linkin park's album: loud (but, with no dynamic range), whereas music from up to the late 80s was done like music should be done.

 

 

It sickens me... really. Go to Google and search for "turn me up".[/quote']

 

 

 

I could not agree more!

 

Modern recordings are mastered so hot and compressed that it takes the life right out of the music. The days of true high fidelity recordings are over - it's mixed for I Pods or other MP3 style formats.

 

And we, as guitar players, try to duplicate the sound? LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

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I have a little recording project on the back burner' date=' someday I'll make it happen. Here's what I have so far.

 

Thinking I'll get the Boss BR-1600 since I can do eight tracks at a time.

 

I've picked out about twenty rock songs (mostly obscure) that I've always liked but felt they could have been mixed better.

First order of business is to nail down the drums.

Use the existing song as a template for the beat, and for tonal comparison for mixing my drums.

I REFUSE to to use any programmed sh!t or electronic drums.

Eight inputs means I can mic an entire drum kit, and have two left over for stereo ambient "big room" sound.

I know one excellent drummer, probably have to pay him, but he's WAY better than any others I know.

 

Once I have BIG drums recorded and mixed the way God intended, I'll start laying bass and guitar reference tracks.

Maybe some vocal stuff for time-keeping to avoid getting lost in the middle of the song.

 

Once all my reference points are in place, get out my 30 year old Peavey T-40 bass and split the output.

Run it thru my old Crate bass amp AND directly into the recorder, so I can choose and mix what I want.

 

Put some vocals on it (we'll see if I really can sing) and then the fun starts.

Guitars!

Put good rhythm tracks down, go back and put the riffs in, and then see if I really can play lead.

I'm lucky here, I'm pretty good friends with three outstanding guitar players who like alot of the same stuff as me.

They all have families, jobs, gigs and live on the opposite side of Phoenix, so coordinating logistics may be a b!tch.

 

When I'm done, I'm gonna see just how BAD it sounds without computers, effects, and hi-tech gadgets.

I wanna record the same way much of my favorite Rock from the seventies was done.

Lotsa different guitars and amps, a few effects here and there, and just keep going until I nail the sound.

 

Oh, except for one detail. I'm gonna do it at home, minus all the booze, coke and smoke.[/quote']

 

Sorry Neo, without the booze, coke, and smoke it wont sound right. Oh, you mean while recording. Never mind...

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You guys should consider something else (in adition to what I already said): music nowadays is being recorded' date=' mixed, and mastered to sound "prety decent" on Ipods... not on hi fi systems. So the do all the work considering how an Ipod can sound. So they overcompress it, and cut the bass and low-mid freqs we all liked from thos ercordings recorded back in the day...

 

 

Two words: Dynamic Range

 

As somebody noted music now sounds louder when you turn up the volume, but "old" music sounds bigger when you turn up the volume. Huge difference. Now they compress everything and autotune everything to achieve "standard" sound... If you dont do that in your studio, some people whine about their album not sounding like britney's or linkin park's album: loud (but, with no dynamic range), whereas music from up to the late 80s was done like music should be done.[/quote']

 

I listened to GNR's Use Your Illusion I & II the other day, and it reminded me that when I listen to CD's from the 1980s or early 1990s, I have to turn the volume up a little more versus current recordings that sometimes seem as if they were turned up too loud in the final mix.

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