tkdunning

[tkdunning]

(85)

Remastered the song today. Mixing/mastering is really a lesson in patience - time passage gives better results.

[tkdunning]

(84)

Not exactly the target sound I was going for. Dialing in the tone using the mic route was not a good time, especially since I demo'd the song using DI. The options felt gated by the limited amp/pedal choice.

Using DI matches closer to my style but I'd rather try and use mics since it's more difficult from a workflow sense. Plus, it feels more legit bc if you can dial in tone at the amp/pedal stage then you possess the ability to play that sound live.

Recording (esp. with OD) really highlights messiness in playing lmao. I also need to be more careful controlling noise while using mics.

I think the feel of the song felt better when I was doing one-pass recordings. Sometimes the splicing/quantization feels gross.

Maybe I should have auto-tuned the lead guitar bend in that first chorus section.

My monitor setup is super bass heavy but I'm not sure if I can there's much I can do to correct that in this room. I have ear fatigue. Can't tell if the song balance is correct even between monitor and headphone. Should've used a spectrum analyzer.

I learned a lot.

[tkdunning]

(83)

Finished basic first-pass tracking

Heavily debated if mic'ing amp was the correct method here. I feel like the results I can get are pretty much gated by the amp and pedals I have (which are barebones). Will have to A/B against the DI demo track.

Lead track needs re-recording for timing issues

Adjusted a few riffs

Added extra phrase to the bridge section. I like the bass riff here but it's hard to hear over the rhythm guitars. Re-doing the rhythm guitar track might work here since trying to adjust the bass tone didn't really do much.

Lead track levels are weird. The delay is weird but then it also sounds lacking without it, but that might be because the lead track needs to get the timing fixed and the delay disguises the mistakes.

Some changes to the bridge section in the lead & rhythm.

[tkdunning]

(82)

Changed a few things in every track

I think the "C" bridge section needs another 4 bars or something to ease the transition back into the "A" section. Maybe the rhythm guitar should be doing power chords here also?

Still need to lay out the bass track

Timing issues all over but I'm not going to worry about those until do the actual tracking sessions

Need to dial in the tone especially on the lead guitar

Trying to think of other things to add or spice up but I also think it's fine to leave things simple for this one. I kind of just want a solidly made guitar-centered song without too much more. Can think of doing "high art" or whatever on later songs when I get more experience doing this style.

[tkdunning]

(81)

Drafted this out today:

Opening rhythm riff is mid. Needs a bass track. Need quad-rhythm guitars. Not sure if throwing in "the lick" as a meme helps the song but it's hard to let go. Some rewriting needed before re-recording.

Also... I either need to find a drummer or I gotta start playing drums myself because splicing a drum part is not it.

[tkdunning]

(80)

Many hours spent noodling on yesterday's song

[tkdunning]

(79)

...And we're back. Just general playing today to de-rust. I need to get a stereo mic bar to simplify my mic setup and then I can start writing some throwaway songs. I also need to start thinking about putting together a portfolio so I can put myself out there for side gigs and other opportunities.

Also, made a throwaway song today to remind myself how to do it:

[tkdunning]

(78)

Fell off for a bit there. Mainly did warm-ups and loose song runs to get my hands to remember everything.

[tkdunning]

(77)

Progressed pride and joy to the last verse. I'm less worried about the final solo than the verse.

[tkdunning]

(76)

Sporadic practice over the last few days so I'll just lump them all together into one entry. Just a few observations:

Learning and monotonous work is way more enjoyable with certain kinds of drugs, but playing well and cleaning up technique are better when sober. The amount of influence is also notable - small amounts lead to fairly productive and long sessions, while high amounts make it feel like playing at all is a step backwards since things will be practiced wrong. Generally I prefer staying clean since it keeps my life and mentality in order, but once in a while a fix can help to refresh the creative process.

In other news, I think it's a good idea for me to consider learning another song now that Pride and Joy is nearing completion. I tend to get lost if I'm not actively learning a song.

[tkdunning]

(75)

Progressed Pride and Joy to the end of the first solo. The remaining verse and solo have a few annoying sections in them, but there are a lot of loosely reused licks in this song so at this point it's not too hard to learn.

Now that my pickups are closer to the string, my OD pedal gets put to work much better. Since this pedal cleans up very well with the guitar volume knob, and it boosts when the level knob is past 12 o'clock, I can now have a pretty good clean > edge of breakup > distortion range all controllable from the guitar volume knob. The more I use this pedal the more I love it.

[tkdunning]

(74)

Forgot to post yesterday:

Re-adjusted my guitar setup. Made the neck relief straighter to a more accurate .010 measurement. It's kind of annoying to do this without a feeler guage since trying to match it via ruler/visual feels super inaccurate (it's too small).

Went off of "standard specs" for bridge height here and actually ended up with a nice result this time. Raised my pickups to a suggested height (5/64ths for highs, 6/64ths for lows) and uhhh.... let's just say my guitar sounds different now.

Obviously finished with intonation to fix everything. Things seem more stable with the lower neck relief.

Overall I'm getting less string buzz now. Before, with more neck curvature, I would get string buzz on the higher frets but not on the lows with the bridge height set as low as possible on both sides (but still measuring near standard specs). I think this makes sense - neck relief plays less of a role once the neck reaches the body. With the straighter neck, the bridge is the main thing actually affecting string buzz.

Also noodled/improv'd and loosely practiced Pride and Joy for a long stretch of time.

[tkdunning]

(73)

Long as hell practice session today.

Pride and Joy progressed through the first solo until the last (fairly easy) phrase. Hands are getting better at handling this song. Will be interesting to see what happens when I move up to 11 gauge strings - I'm using 10s right now but detuning them for this song makes them "lighter", so maybe the 11s will feel like 10s in standard tuning.

Saucy feels like full tempo is attainable. I haven't been practicing anything with a metronome in the past few days since I've been mostly focusing on trying to memorize Pride and Joy. The metronome would probably make it easier to memorize tbh.

G.O.A.T. is rusty, but not in the sense that my fingers can't do the motions anymore. I just forget where I am in the song sometimes.

Tried out a couple different picks today just to see. I went back to the one I was using already because it's just better. I did find .96mm to be a really nice thickness compromise for smoother strumming without sacrificing too much control given from heavy picks.

I've been using an ultex sharp 1.14. Really good pick. It has the precision of sharp picks without the downside of sometimes getting caught on strings. The only downside I found when I first started using them was that they would slip when my thumb got sweaty lol, but that hasn't been the case in a very long time. Dunno what happened. Maybe it corrected my picking form to be less slanted or something.

Stood up to practice once my ass got tired today and like... why ever practice sitting down? Playing form just goes to shit, at least for me. My left shoulder gets tired af from the weight of the guitar though. Wonder what it's like to play on a light one...

--

Watched this while eating breakfast; I'm glad I have recording and production knowledge in my back pocket:

[tkdunning]

(72)

Pride and Joy progression a bit into the first solo. Starting to clean up the playing everywhere. The song is much more technically tricky than one might think. A simultaneously nice and annoying thing about this song is that nothing ever gets played the exactly same between the parts.

In general, cranking the overdrive seems to be a good way of practicing muting since it accentuates every little thing.

Sometimes I play better when I'm pissed off. I learn worse though.

[tkdunning]

(71)

Forgot to post yesterday but I practiced Pride and Joy non-stop for hours while blazed out of my fucking mind because I had a terrible day.

Upon thinking about the pedal signal flow more, I think the end build should be something like:

Tuner > Compressor > Boost > OD > OD/Dist > (Delay) > Reverb > EQ > (Compressor) > (Strymon Deco)

The delay is optional, pretty useful for certain kinds of sounds but delay isn't an 'always on' effect like reverb is (unless you're using it as a slapback or a reverb-like sound, and even then that's niche). The first compressor feels useful since that is how my generic recording effect chain would go anyways: Compressor > (Effects) > EQ > Compressor. The second Compressor and the EQ are interchangeable depending on the situation. The second compressor really only makes sense in a studio recording setting; I feel like in a live setting the acoustics and general randomness of noise floor/sound dynamics makes this kind of pointless. I forgot about the Strymon Deco - it's supposed to be a really powerful studio tool. Some of it's functionality might be cool in a live setting too but overall not essential to the base sound imo.

That makes 7 for the base flow, and 10 for the expanded studio sound. There are of course other additions that could potentially be used such as a chorus or wah pedals but I feel like getting a strong base to build around is more important. Effects can always be added as needed.

[tkdunning]

(70)

Trudging along through Pride and Joy. Made it to the end of verse 3, right before the first solo starts. I think that more than anything else, this song is nuts for practicing muting. Also good for dead notes and upstroke picking.

Saucy feels way faster now. 'B' section is pretty clean and fast. Need to work on the fast lick in 'A' and 'C' sections plus some overall song cleanup as well.

I've stopped timing my practice sessions especially now that I am doing multiple sessions throughout the day. I mainly just aim for one in the early morning mostly for warm-up or focused work, a mid-day song grind, and as many other smaller sessions after that as I see fit.

The pedals make me want to play more especially since amped practice is nicer now. My idea for a powerful "vanilla" board is:

Sonic Research Turbo Tuner > (Keeley CATana Clean Boost) > Keeley Super Cat Mod > KingTone Duellist > Strymon Flint || Powered by Cioks SOL

I'm planning to trade in some old gear I know I will never use again for the Strymon Flint. The custom CATana is out of stock right now. I want the Duellist really bad but it would be stupid to try and get it right now. The Cioks SOL seems like a good fit - perfect amount of outputs for the number of pedals. The only other additions I can immediately think of potentially wanting would be an EQ pedal and a compressor, chorus and delay would be nice too.

[tkdunning]

(69)

Practiced basic guitar setup today and then changed strings. A few things I learned:

Bowing the neck relief makes the strings flat, making the neck straighter makes it sharp. Kind of obvious, but a good check in case you forget which way to turn the truss rod.

Low action is trash. Fret buzzing is trash. I'll never follow the "standard measurements" for guitar action height on my personal guitars ever again. Like... why sacrifice tone? Also these measurements depend somewhat on string gauge imo.

Wear gloves if you're going to clean and put strings on afterwards otherwise the guitar is going to get dirty during the string change process.

Winding strings does not need any knots or special over-under techniques. Crimping the string upwards with the loops stacking underneath having enough tension (after a few rotations) is enough to hold it all in place. It's faster and cleaner this way for both adding and removing strings.

Checking intonation is easier and faster by referencing the 12th harmonic against the fretted 12th since you can use your ears to do the big moves.

WD-40 goes crazy on tight screws. The high E adjustment screw was gritty and near impossible to move when first adjusting intonation. Applied some WD-40 after the string was off and the problem went away.

It's nicer to put nut/bridge contact point lube after the strings are on as opposed while they're off. It gets everywhere during the string change process. Better to loosen the strings and just move them out of the slot.

Did a lot of random practice as well. Tried using the headphone amp as a bootleg reverb pedal. It works but it's not a good sounding solution. I want to trade in some gear for a strymon flint pedal in the future. Basically the only other pedals I want are the kingtone duellist and 'maybe' the keeley katana. I'm not all that interested in highly modulated reverbs and effect chains, just a good solid base sound since I prefer a cleaner, traditional tone.