Solstice - Please Review

DVSUPS · February 2007

Hi all:

I should be studying right now but I thought I would upload this really quick to get some feedback on it. This is my first experiment with the GNX4 and I did it last weekend in about two hours. Just a little improv jam. Also I am a full time mechanical engineer during the day and a part time engineering student at night finishing up my BS in Mechanical Engineering but I would love to collaborate with a female vocalist/lyricist. Don't be shy it would be professional only - not looking for dates just prefer the female voice for my music rather than the male voice - nothing personal guys!

Oh yeah here is the poll question:

Does my guitar playing suck ? :P

http://www.digitech.com/soundcomm/patches/GNX4/Solstice022007.mp3

partch · February 2007

Hey Dave your playing isn't all that bad. Becides that's how your going to get better making music & sharing

Good Jam IMOP, I liked it overall 8) Did you use some Whamy effect on the guitar? There were spots were it sounded like you had something like that going on? Personally I never used it would like to learn more about that effect

DVSUPS · February 2007

No whammy effect - I used my recently acquired vaughn signature stratocaster and the whammy is the tremolo bar. I got that strat believe it or not, even though I am not a texmex guy. Its pickups are nice and hot and it gives me a good clean sound, as well as, a good dirty sound. I am a big fan of Alan Holdsworth which is where I get the weird tremolo usage and unusual phrasing from (chunks of arpeggios and really long triplet and 16th note scales). The effects are a morphed amp, some chorusing and a little bit of delay for the lead. The rhythm guitar uses the straight up GNX4 effect (5ths) that gives me the deepness on the bass note where I use finger playing for the running bass note versus rhythm. The bass guitar is the guitar 2 bass effect with some post processing in cool edit to give it that jazz effect of string treble while still keeping the lows. The other guitar I use quite frequently is a mid eighties Ibanez that I have had for a long time. It is a roadstar series called the sabre. I like that as much as the stratocaster because it has a variety of tones including a bridge humbucker that is splittable and for a very thin, light guitar it sounds just as rich as the strat.

johnuk · February 2007

I loved the mellow jazzy background but I thought the lead effect was a bit too much for it.
I know I'm guilty of getting carried away with the effects myself but it would be great if you could re-do the lead in a cleaner jazzy tone. 8)
just my opinion

SlashNBurn99 · February 2007

Sounded pretty cool, the only thing is that some of your lead playin sounds like you're just running up and down scale patterns.

iliace · February 2007

\SlashNBurn99\ wrote:

the only thing is that some of your lead playin sounds like you're just running up and down scale patterns.

I agree - wandering and aimless, except for where you restate the theme. I would reconsider the depth of the effect you're using too. But it doesn't suck. The progression is cool; if I were to make that into an actual song, I'd change it up a little more.

DVSUPS · February 2007

\SlashNBurn99\ wrote:

Sounded pretty cool, the only thing is that some of your lead playin sounds like you're just running up and down scale patterns.

Its kind of quick and yes I use several scales but most of it is arpeggios. I pick the melody notes and then run scales and arpeggios up to them to fill and give depth. I am into quick playing like some of the greats I look up to. I even got some videos from some of the guitar players I like. Its stuff I learned studying off of videos by Al Dimeola, Alan Holdsworth, Vinnie Moore, Yngwie Malmstein, and Frank Gamble. Is all that stuff junk, is there a better way? I can play a lot of the basic blues stuff I hear on here all the time but I was trying to push the envelope. Maybe I pushed it to far!

johnuk · February 2007

Don't think anyone's knocking your skill my friend, just some constructive criticism as to how you put the song together and individual opinion.

I find this forum invaluable for basically telling the truth rather than perhaps a friend who will tell you what you want to know.

We're always learning no matter how good we are

(especially me :oops: )

DVSUPS · February 2007

Yeah I completely understand that and I can take the criticism, That is why I put it up here, My son gave me the idea and I went with it. So far it has been great. As soon as I get through some of this Performance Enhancement of Dynamic System homework I want to try recording some leads clean or changing some stuff up a bit like people suggested - maybe a bridge or two and a chorus (I just slammed something together for the first - maybe now I will work at it!). I am burning to get away from this calculator and pick up my guitar!

johnuk · February 2007

\DVSUPS\ wrote:

Yeah I completely understand that and I can take the criticism, That is why I put it up here, My son gave me the idea and I went with it. So far it has been great. As soon as I get through some of this Performance Enhancement of Dynamic System homework I want to try recording some leads clean or changing some stuff up a bit like people suggested - maybe a bridge or two and a chorus (I just slammed something together for the first - maybe now I will work at it!). I am burning to get away from this calculator and pick up my guitar!

Ha ha ...spoken like a true musician (or GNX addict)

please re-post when you're finished - looking forward to hearing it. 8)

Tal Rules · February 2007

I dig the backing track and the playing was pretty good overall...

Solstice - Please Review

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