Re: [linux-audio-user] My First Linux Song

Last Sunday 13 February 2005 22:12, Shayne O'Connor was like:
> tim hall wrote:
> >Last Sunday 13 February 2005 10:24, Shayne O'Connor was like:
> >>(i should say that, to me, this song has more than a bit of a tribute to
> >>the musical forms of Pavement ... and correct tuning in this context has
> >>no more relevance than good singing ... )
> >
> >OK, there's no such things as 'correct' granted. However, in my musical
> >opinion, this song would sound better 'in tune'.
>
> i've been listening back to the song, and there is definitely something
> ajar with the tuning ... tuning has never been my strong point - after
> twelve years of playing guitar, i've only just started tuning the guitar
> to the proper pitch. sure, whenever i'd play with keyboards or
> something, i'd tune it to that ... otherwise, i'd just tune it to the
> low e-string. ha ha, that'll make some of you cringe :) it's really
> gotta stop ... i think i'm just so used to out-of-tuneness from this
> sloppy behaviour, as well as most of the music i listen to comes from a
> bit of a DIY philosophy ... no excuse for laziness, though.

Well, we've had some interesting discussions on here lately about tuning
guitars, check the archives. I've certainly learned how to improve my tuning,
I've been one of the worst offenders for being slightly out of tune all the
time. I'm beginning to understand that the western 12 tone system is innately
out of tune with the natural harmonics, so if you tune to harmonics, you'll
always be out of tune. The best advice was to tune every other string to the
A string or a harmonic of the A string. That works a treat!

> >Dodgy guitar sounds require
> >much greater production skills to sound right (c.f. World Domination
> >Enterprises 'Asbestos Lead Asbestos' or indeed their version of 'Funky
> >Town').
>
> funny you should mention, because i've been listening to rough trade
> shops no wave compilation, and "asbestos lead asbestos" is on there ...
> also on there, and highly deserving of cross-referencing, is "the
> raincoats" version of "lola" ... it's just so sleazy and scummy in every
> way ... and the tuning, oh my god it's awful ... the most brilliant
> cover i've heard in a while :)

Heh ;-)

> >Recording the guitar through a miked up valve amp would help. 7th
> >chords on the guitar tend to produce uncomfortable and distracting
> > harmonics if they're not tuned right, you'll notice many guitarists use
> > open power chords for this reason.
>
> i'll try this out - but i think my amp (marshall valvestate) only offers
> a solid-state emulation of a valve ... i haven't had much experienc
> miking stuff up, so it should be a good learning experience too :)

I thought the valvestate was a valve pre-amp with a tranny power-amp. It's
rather good for recording with IIRC because you can get decent distortion
without having to crank it right up.

cheers

tim hall
http://glastonburymusic.org.uk
Received on Mon Feb 14 04:15:15 2005