TCgypsy

Thanks Folks. I have two new songs in the pipeline right now with one being nearly finished. They are both in an indie rock sorta kinda genre (I hate labels). I am also revisiting some old songs and sprucing them up a bit. Cheers, TC

I've been a member for a long time, and I used to post quite a bit in here. I took a bit of a hiatis playing in another band but now I am back! Seeyas in the forums. Peace, TC

https://soundcloud.com/jingomusic/add-2 ^^ Really great song. https://soundcloud.com/atomic-shadows/roll-me-over-1 ^^ Love this tune although I think the mix could be better. Some mean guitar licks. I am also listening to some Chris Daughtry as the next song I am posting is in a similiar vein to a couple of his. I won't, however, be squashing my mix into a 1-2dB dynamic range! --TC

Interesting rap piece. Overall, you can hear everything, and the music is fairly well done. The biggest thing this needs is PUNCH. For instance, the kick jumps out a bit and pokes you in the mix but the bass sits back and drones in the background. I would add another patch with solid mid-bass content to work with the kick to provide that punch. The vocals need to sound bigger but tucked into the mix not over top of it. The best way to achieve that big in your face rap vocal sound is put a limiter on the vocal track. The vocals need a bit more meat but a limiter may be all you need; if it doesn't fatten it up enough you may have to EQ a little. For rap, it's all about the percussion and vocals; the other sounds are there as ear candy .Concentrate on those two and the rest will fall in place. Consider putting some interesting effects on the vocals in places such as gated reverbs/delays or hard tremolo type effects. Cool tune. Peace, TC

HAHA! I love it! It's awesome when he shoots it. Jed Clampett eat your heart out! ---TC

Very cool. Sounds like a tool that could be useful.

I can put together a blues tune to go with lyrics. I see a coupla lyrics posted here but I guess I am unsure how to proceed. I can play 12-bar blues in my sleep but that doesn't mean I can take any lyric and make it work. John, do we just grab any lyric posted here and give it a go? I might be able to do something with one of these but I don't see very many posted. Please advise. Thanks! TC

You pretty much nailed it! Nice job! Nice bass tone, too. Peace, TC

Before I say anything, I will admit a bias towards Reaper (I have used ProTools and Cubase, and others as well). To clarify some points I made earlier and in response to some comments I just read: 1. Reaper is every bit as DEEP as any DAW on the market. 2. If you want to do something with a keystroke, it's very easy to define one in Reaper and you don't have to be a geek. For instance, I set up pitch change to + and - keys (took me less than 5 minutes to figure this out and implement it). 3. It's 60 bucks IF you pay for the full version (please do pay if you decide to use it, and no I have nothing to do with the guys at Cockos). 4. The plugins that come with Reaper do a good job and some are outstanding. 5. NO, it doesn't come with any instrument libraries but we end buying the ones we want anyway (especially with the money saved on the DAW). 6. It is EFFICIENT (notice the capitalization). My latest song has 35 tracks + subgroups + processing + VST instruments + mastering plugin and it used ~33.5% max. CPU on a Windows 8.1 / 3GHz i5 processor / 8 GB RAM. I dare anyone to duplicate this performance in ProTools! The idea that REAPER is for geeks is amusing. I have struggled to figure out certain things on EVERY single DAW I have played with. They all have their learning curve. At the end of the day, use whichever DAW floats your boat. As others have stated, the DAW isn't going to change your sound to any significant degree. Any good DAW will work for you. This thread started out by being about Reaper so I will heap my praises upon it once more to get folks to consider it Peace, TC

LOL, sounds like some guys I grew up with. They would buy every pedal fad there was, and they still sucked! Priceless ... Peace, TC (PS: I only use a volume pedal and, rarely, an old overdrive pedal)

Probably the biggest detractor in rehearsals is excessive partying! I know, I know, "all the big rock stars did it" - at least that is the myth. If a band can't go a couple of hours without recreational chemistry gumming up the works then the prospects of the band are generally not good. While a little bit of ganja may not hurt, drinking and gravity bongs do not bode well for practice. Peace, TC

I've been in a few bands, and even toured when I was a young pup. Theory was the last thing anyone worried about. THEORY CAN BE LEARNED, TALENT CAN NOT. It's as simple as that. There are great musicians throughout history that didn't know a lick of theory just as there are those that do. Most instrumentalists know about key and chords, etc. but very few know the deep theory. And us guitar players are probably the worst sight readers in the history of any instrument, lol. If you want to learn more about this stuff, go for it, but don't let it stop you from playing in a band if that's what you want to do. Regards as always. Peace, TC

Pretty cool! That is a lot to think about while you are trying to pull it off. I see he has bare feet so he can use toes to make adjustments, lol. Some pretty solid musicianship from these guys, too. Peace, TC

I have used Cubase (although not recently), ProTools (I own PT10 and still use it from time to time), Fruity Loops (I own this one), Reason (I own this one, too), Cakewalk (long time ago), and Reaper (which I have used since May). I originally got Reaper as a demo to check it out, and as an alternative to the upgrade-aholic and CPU hog (at least on a Windows machine) ProTools. My other programs rarely get used anymore because Reaper is amazing and THE most computer efficient DAW I have ever used. It uses a fraction of the computer resources that ProTools does (I have done head to head tests with songs), it loads super fast, and it rarely crashes (unlike ProTools). There is nothing I ever did in ProTools that I can't do in Reaper, and Reaper is a lot less finicky about my old plugins than ProTools which is important to me because I can't afford re-purchasing plugins. It runs the latest VST plugins (ones I have bought within the last 6 months) perfectly as well. I used the demo for a month, and went ahead and bought it. I have never looked back, and I love it (yes, I am a 'fanboy' lol). The configurability ROCKS, and the price is incredible for such a powerful DAW. In a nutshell, it is perfect for a guy like me with a project studio who likes the flexibility and price (I can spend those dollars somewhere else now!) of Reaper. Do not confuse Reaper with some scaled-down 'affordable' DAW you settle for instead of ProTools or Cubase. It is every bit as top notch as those DAWs. It is a little intimidating at first but it doesn't take long to get a handle on it and then you just keep learning more (just like with any DAW) as you use it. I have never been more productive churning out music. Just my 0.02 Peace, TC

I have a 1983 LP Custom which is one of the best guitars I have ever played, hands down. I played every Les Paul in the store before selecting that one (there were 15 or so). They all were pretty nice but this one is something special. I'm glad you are liking your new LP, Rudi. Let us know when you record something with it! -Haha! Nevermind, I see that you added a link in one of your posts. I am going to listen now. Peace, TC

Nice! Buy me one, too! :-p Post a pic when you get it. Peace, TC

Getting rid of those damn G Force tuners is the best thing they could have done. I am not a big fan of brass nuts having installed one on an old Ibanez I played for years. It was my goto guitar before I was able to afford my Gibson Les Paul Custom (I have a Nashville model made in September 1983). I liked it at first but over time I grew tired of how bright it made open position stuff. I prefer a composite or bone nut now. I haven't played a newer LP plus, I will have to check one out. If I was going to buy a 2015 model, I would buy one of the Les Paul's with vintage tuners like the SR model. I'm surprised the music store had only one amp they would let you use. Seriously? If my local stores told me: 'this is the only amp you can use', they would lose my patronage. The guys here all know me now but even when I was new in town, they would let me play pretty much anything in the store within a few minutes of getting to know me. In any case, I would think that an Orange model would sound good with a Les Paul for heavier stuff, not so much for cleaner playing. Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Hope your jazz gig is going well. Peace, TC

YET ANOTHER TRICK: Use ALTERED PENTATONIC scales over the dominant. Mike eluded to this in his posts so I will give one specific example. So, in the key of C again let's take G7alt. G altered pentatonic: Two notes per string starting on the 6th string as we go up G (fret 3) Bb (fret 6) B (fret 2) D# (fret 6) F (fret 3) G (fret 5) and so forth (stick to two notes per string). The notes are Root, minor 3rd ( also known as sharp 9 (#9)), major 3rd, sharp 5th (#5), and the dom 7th (b7). In short hand (2 notes for string) you would play 3 6 / 2 6 / 3 5 / 3 4 / 4 6 / 3 6 for this G scale. You can obviously transpose this pattern up or down for other scales. Note that the pattern on the top and bottom strings is the same which is very helpful, AND you are playing a scale that starts on the same note as the chord you are playing over so you have less mental gymnastics than the first 2 tricks I shared. There are other tricks with pentatonics that require even less thinking such as simply shifting standard pentatonics up or down by intervals (such as a half or whole step) as you play through the dominant, then shifting back 'in-key' afterwards. There are some good youtube video lessons about this so check it out if you are interested. Peace, TC

George Benson is interesting because he breaks the rules a bit, specifically by playing a major 7th over the dominant chord many times. He makes it sound good which is all that matters in the end. Peace, TC

I am a big Charlie Parker fan, too, and probably model my more traditional stuff in a 'near-Parker' style. For bluesy stuff, it is a cross between Wes Montgomery and George Benson 'ISH". I have never been a fan of Miles Davis either. Interesting that we agree on him. I don't like the stream of notes style either that some jazz players do, although it can be educational as they go through all these substitutions and give me ideas. But that type of playing sounds cold and clinical to me. I try to play melodically, and I make use of all those 'cliches' that I love :-p. In the end, I like a tasty line that you can sink your teeth into that resolves nicely (whether I am playing inside or out until that moment. I do the same thing with rock within that language. Peace, TC

Good approach to jazz, Mike. But I would like to limit this thread to altered dominant chords and was wondering what people think about when they see one, and the approaches they take within their styles from a note point of view. Obviously timing and phrasing and all that is every bit as important but I was just hoping you folks would post any tricks or give a brief approach if you have one. I did notice your half-whole scale hits some great tones over the dominant. Unfortunately, I struggle with synthetic scales (although I find myself more or less playing these when I stop to analyze). A lot of modern players like the super-locrian scale over a dominant but again, I prefer to think in terms of modes, triads, pentatonics, and altering these off of a non-root tone of the chord when playing over dominant chords. Many times these translate to a fancy sounding synthetic scale if I stop to analyze but it's not the way I am thinking when I play. ANOTHER TRICK: If you are playing a major ii V I (or anything major with a V I), a simple trick is to switch to minor type modes during the dominant, and switch back to major when it resolves. This can yield anything from a bluesy (great for this) to very jazzy depending on which notes and how you phrase. For example, Dm G7 C you stay in C major and relative modes for the Dm and C but then switch to a minor mode/scale for the G7. Let's look at C phrygian: C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C - this scale hits the Root, 7th and a host of 'hip' color notes such as flat 5th (Db), flat 13th (Eb), flat 9th (Ab) and sharp 9th (Bb). You can use the blues scale and mix in some chromatic tones (especially the B natural before heading back to the I chord (C) ). Some experimentation with this will get you sounding jazzy very quickly and is easy for rock oriented players. Peace TC

Stanley Clark and Alphonso Johnson come to mind for jazz for players not mentioned yet. For rock, I second Entwhistle, Lee, Sting, Sheehan, and Squire. There are also John Paul Jones (Led Zep), Les Claypool (Primus), Christopher Wolstenholme (Muse), and James Jamerson of Motown fame. Peace, TC