[GPG] Add's Choice: Fade to Black - Metallica

Talent abounds in the <a href="http://gpg.ixyl.co.uk">guitar playing group</a>, where our contributors reinterpret classics and modern tracks.

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DGV
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Post by DGV »

So, I decided to give my friend's paint shop a visit with a cunning 'I was in the neighbourhood' excuse. The third coat had just dried and I was able to give it a good look. It looked awesome! :D I just don't know how I'll be able to take proper pictures to show how it look irl, but it looks great. It's almost like it has a chameleon colour, it changes from a nearly black navy blue to almost a sky clear blue. The light and angle changes it very much. It really looks great. And the grain shows very beautifully, just as I'd hoped. The only thing is, he said it needs another two coatings, though I thought it looked ready. So I'm gonna have to wait until next week. :(

I must say, I don't think I've ever been this excited about gear. :bg:
Bigpops
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Post by Bigpops »

Hi everybody.

I got the Pod. So far, i can't help buty feel unimpressed. I'm sure this will change as soon as the get Line6 edit up and running for the XTlive. At the moment, i'm using the guitarport 2.5 software to edit sounds, and it's not the greatest.

One thing i have noticed, is the lack of a pitch shifter or harmonist. :shock: I hope they sort that out soon. On the plus side, they have included the 'FX junkie' model pack with the XTLive, which cost's $49.99.
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DGV
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Post by DGV »

That IS a surprise. I was expecting greatness. Hope you can get more out of it.
Wolf11
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Post by Wolf11 »

Hopefully it will improve ..bit of a bummer to not be impresed initially :( ...

I must admit thats the one thing that always apealed to me about the GT6 was the harmony bit...suprised the XT doesnt have it being as they are competitors !

Wolf ;)
Bigpops
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Post by Bigpops »

I'm not couting it out just yet.

Some of the amp models sound better when put with other cabs.

For example. The Dual Treadplate (Mesa dual rectifier) sounds really mushy with its own 4x12cab; but stick it on a cab with 4x12 celestion vintage 30s, and it sounds fantastic.

I've also been told to try some of the big amps with small (1x8" or 1x10") cabs.

Time will tell.
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Wolf11
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Post by Wolf11 »

Yeah I must admit the actual amp sounds always sound fantastic from the XT sound doobrie......my cousin has the original XT and it really is very very convincing as to what it is meant to model ..well to my ear anyhow ...but as you say ..I think all these things need a bit of tweaking to get the best out of them ...

I assume they could add pitch shift witht he XT live due to already having the pedal thing there !

Out of interest how big is it ,in relation to the GT6 as they always look huge :)

Wolf ;)
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Post by Bigpops »

It's almost exactly the same size as the GT6 (only a few mm in it).

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I'm in all night tonight, so i'll try to get some sound samples uploaded.

See you then!
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DGV
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Post by DGV »

Ahem. What's up? :) Are we going forward? :wink:
Bigpops
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Post by Bigpops »

I'm ready.

If Pete gives me the go ahead, i'll post my choice tonight.

Just out of interest, i have the following backing tracks, with vocals and real instruments.

If anyone want's to do one of these next, let me know.
  • Freebird (Lynard Skynard)
  • Lenny (Stevie Ray Vaughan) ROCK HARD!
  • Breathe (Pink Floyd)
  • Life in the fast lane (The Eagles)
  • Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd) Needs a delay pedal
  • Satch Boogie (Joe Satriani) The intro is pretty trickey, but most of it is easily within reach. Lots of whammy action could be a downside.
  • Run to the Hills (Iron Maiden)
  • Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) Long. Would be a challenge for most of us, but Dani would breeze through it.
  • War Pigs, NIB, Sweet Leaf, Iron Man, and Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
  • Another Brick in the wall part 2 (Pink Floyd)
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Post by Ice »

Feel free to post your choice mate :) Sorry I've been trying to revise lately, not been online much :(
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Post by Bigpops »

Will do.

Now i just need to think of something.

EDIT:

Right, I've come up with 3 suitable songs. Easy/medum, medium, or medium/hard difficulty.

In order, they are.

Little Dreamer - Van Halen
Steal away the night - Ozzy
Crazy Train - Ozzy

Which do you want? I'm easy either way. I've checked them all out, and there are good tabs for all three available at mysongbook.com.
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Post by Ice »

I wouldn't mind Crazy Train, but I'm easy ;) :D
DGV
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Post by DGV »

Lots of very, very nice tracks in that list. Tbh I'd rather like to do all of those. :D Wouldn't mind getting my hands on a couple of those even if you choose outside of that list, so don't go loosing any of them accidentally. :wink: (Here's wishing I'll have enough time at some point to actually play that much...)
Wolf11
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Post by Wolf11 »

Any of them are fine with me ..I could do with some guitar stimulation :D

Wolf ;)
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Post by Bigpops »

Seeing as we have a vote for Crazy train, let's go for that.
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China Man
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Post by China Man »

Hey guys. I just saw this and decided to try it.
This was the first metallica song i learned
and i have to say i still love it.
(Had to refer to The tab for stuff i forgot though (like half the solo haha))

here it is http://chinaman.dmusic.com/

I just got my 12 gauge strings (yay).
I went from 10-12 so im still breaking them down.
The difference is bearable however
i cant bend up more than a
whole step........................for now :twisted:

The recording has bad quality and is sloppy but
Still......................Enjoy. :wink:
Chinese Metal/Shred Enthusiast

http://Chinaman.dmusic.com
Wolf11
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Post by Wolf11 »

I thought that was pretty good China man :D

Wolf ;)
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Post by mak »

that was very good, nice playing throughout. the only problem i had with it was your soundcard distorting because the input volume was too high. thats easily fixed though :)
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DGV
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Post by DGV »

Like mak said, you'd best watch that input level. I've actually managed to destroy one soundcard with too high input levels. :lol: The playing was very nice, cool little improv lafter the intro solo and nice touch playing the vocal lines as well. Also, cool improv shredding at the very end. All in all very nice work.
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Post by AxeHack »

Really good, minus the distortion of the input as everyone has pointed out.
China Man
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Post by China Man »

Yeah, for the rhythm track i had to use my distorion pedal (cause i couldnt manually switch the channels fast enough) therefore the input levels were a bit messed (as its setup weirdly compared to other pedals.)

Yeah thanks for the comments everyone.
Chinese Metal/Shred Enthusiast

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DGV
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Post by DGV »

You might want to try a studio-type recording style as opposed to your live in one take style. Just do a couple more tracks, splittig the cleans and distorted bits into different tracks so that you'll have all the time in the world to play with the levels.
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Post by China Man »

The problem with that is that i dont have anything to keep time with. Say that i record just the acoustic parts. The time in between where the distorted parts and acoustic parts are unknown to me. (like how many times the electric plays and when the acoustic comes in again, stuff like that.

Does anyone know how i can improve my quality. Cause the stuff all you guys record sound so much more proffessional clearer. I'm currently recording by plugging my amp directly into the line in and recording using it. How do i get better quality?
Chinese Metal/Shred Enthusiast

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DGV
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Post by DGV »

Well, there are a couple of things you can do to be able to keep time. For example, you can set your guitar-pro metronome on so that you can keep time with the click. Also, don't underestimate the power of tapping your foot and counting the beats. :wink: Or you can simply start recording from the beginning, and record bit by bit so that you always know where you are. IOW you begin with the acoustic bit, then when it ends, stop recording and record another track with the distortion, and after that yet another track with the next clean bits. This way you'll never get lost, but naturally the amount of tracks you need to mix together will grow quite a bit, iirc I had some 15 tracks for Fade to Black, including the backing tracks and all the harmonies. Now, I might be misunderstanding your problem entirely since the forum is somewhat messed up atm and I can only see about half of your message, but I hope this helps anyway.

As far as sound quality goes, there are many options. I bought an amp that was supposed to have a nice speaker emulated line out, and it didn't work at all for recording. The line out option's quality depends a lot on the amp, for example Ice gets very good sounds from his Marshall, whereas many others don't work at all. I think most of the others (besides Ice) use some sort of modelling device, like the Vamp2, Boss GT-6, or Pod XT. Obviously these will be more designed towards recording, which will generally make it easier. However, there are a lot of problems involved in these as well, which I can elaborate on if you are interested. To get a good, reliable sound from an amp for recording you'd basically need to mic your amp. That's pretty much the best way to go. However, the mic choice will also affect the sound pretty much, don't expect to do it with a pc mic and sound great. (I know, I tried!)
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SRV
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Post by SRV »

hey guys. Im new here, been browsing this forum for a while though. Id like to join in on this song playing you have going on here. Decided to start off with this song...

http://www.bttfpromo.net/upload/files/black2_5f980.mp3

this is just the ending solo, dont have a lot of free time available for recording, but im hoping to have it all recorded shortly

cheers
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