I've come to the conclusion I just prefer unrefined, violent-sounding stuff on the whole. I don't gravitate toward smooth, slick and pleasant. I like crunchy, crusty, dirty sounds. Doesn't matter what I'm playing. Big fat analog synths through a filthbox, single-coil guitars through loudass amps and a million pedals, Jazz Bass bridge pickup through filthy distortion, even- and actually the drumsticks thread made me think this, just using heavyass sticks. Dirty mixers and horrid compressors, slamming tape, distortion on everything... I was seriously considering (and still am) dropping some coin on a 32x8 Tascam M2600 to blast my mixes through to achieve Additional Satan; fat dark and greasy. All Sounds must contain Appropriate Satan in order to achieve Maximum Satan.

I think it's kinda funny as I tend to create subtle, layered, intricate things, and like really clear, detailed recordings. But I immediately gravitate toward using nasty, unrefined sounds (often with pricey gear, go figure?).

Do you tend toward an overarching sonic signature? How do you tend to roll gear + sonics-wise

Gearwise, whatever I can afford.

Sonics... I like it somewhere between what everyone expects to hear and something more old school. Stuck in the nineties, I guess.

For one, i wish i was able to make the sounds the way i hear them in my brain.

I kind of want to return to the aesthetic of a tape four track tascam with all of the faders all of the way up. I enjoy the nerdpart of recording, but i feel like it has stepped in front of my musicpart lately.

I feel like these days i spend a lot of time thinking about how i want to do things, and not enough time just doing them. Which is fine for listening to other people's sounds, and for recording them, but it seems to have maybe really messed up the process by which i make my own sounds.


Which is all kind of a tangent only somewhat related to the sounds i do like.

My own actual sounds, i think i might be more into the idea of things recorded cleanly that are broken badly. Or things recorded badly that are crispy clean. I like mismatches. And i like to harm the end result. Rather than bring order to chaos i think i prefer to let chaos muck about. Maybe i will introduce it to order some, but if they don't want to get along, i am not about to force the issue.

I don't make music so much as seem to tend to fight it. What it sounds like to me is terrible noise. It seems to me to be so close to not being ruined. That is my aesthetic, not necessarily always on purpose i guess, but it does tend to wind up being about the *almost* useful item. Potential energy rather than kinetic? Things that almost do something.

I think my skull needs a nap.

Oh, as far as what i use. I really cannot afford to choose. And i actually don't mind having that choice removed either. Fuck it, i already probably have more than i need, if i am totally honest, and look to what others have done with much less.

I do kind of lean towards things that i have made or modified though. I have to say that honestly this is not necessarily because what i have done is even say, better than any other option, so much as it is a sort of stubborn thing that my brain has, that kind of goes "for better or for worse, i fucking built all of this from the dirt up." That i generally find that it often winds up being "for worse", i don't know if i really care. It is more about being stubborn (and maybe self destructive) than it is about being 'right'. That runs through just about everything for me i guess.

I would say I gravitate towards a warm sound. Dark is excellent for me. I would say my favorite would be my LP into a hint of delay into my JMP just fuckton loud. Simple and earbleeding, but full of flavour. Synths need to be analog (or analog sounding) but I do not need your violence in keys, Eric. I loves me some violence but somehow it doesn't translate in Keys to me.

Having said that, one of my cover band is now doing and "oldies" medly thing, with some Orbison, Beatles, etc.. just like Verse/Chorus/V/C into the next one for about 5-6 tunes and I played my new (Ooops didn't post this one yet) Tele (old schools tele sc pups) and I'm loving the simple tone I'm getting, Bogner clean channel, Timmy on with just early breakup, and some reverb. It's totally NOT tor's sound, but it is super fun.

I suppose my keyviolence is largely genre-related. If I bust out a piano or want string or choir sounds I will probably not filth them up. (Now, a Rhodes, Wurlitzer or Hammond sound... that's another story, but that's really part of the vibe of doing that all proper.)

The Prophet on the Garda stuff always goes through distortion, and the analog-y sounding Kurzweil patches get pretty dirtified as well. Again, though, it's probably a nasty industrial rock thing. Were I doing something a bit nicer, I suppose I wouldn't crustify things as much.

also - new tele is this one (American Special Tele)

That is lovely and classic. What feature or features, pray tell, does the "special" denote? Just the three-saddle, or somethingelsetoo?

I think that is kinda of hard to nail.. In the context of more aggressive music I like the mix to kind of sound like a big, gigantic wall of unison raping. Enough separation in the mix to allow you to differentiate the sound of a guitar and a bass, but enough dirt and common frequencies to the point where if you don't pay attention too much it just becomes a wave of oppressive rapesound.

However, in the context of rock-based guitar'ing, my opinion is pretty different. I like tubby, fat bass tones (though that still have some edge to them) mixed with treble-y, stabby guitar sounds. Listening to Fugazi's End Hits about a million or so times made me realize this to an extent I hadn't before. That is one of my favorite productions, realass sounding drums, a pretty fat bass tone that still has a good amount of teeth and well-defined guitar sounds with some nice skronkyness to them.

And that is a sick Tele, tor.

Well, it's something that came out last year, they are lower cost American teles. Cost between Highway 1 and American Standard. gloss finish, 3 saddle bridge, 22 Jumbo frets, and Texas Specials. I got it on a trade. along with a fance Lava Clear Connect 20 foot cable and a Red Monkey Leather strap... that fucking cable is ridiculous 'spensive at around $65...

I like my Lava cables quite a bit. They seem really sturdy, with the studliest Neutrik ends you could imagine. I would recommend them over Monster any day; I've had a bunch of 500-series Monster break at the shield. (Their mic cables seem alright.)

Now, guitar is the odd application where the cable does actually make a difference. Impedance and capacitance and whatnot. Balanced runs it really don't mean shit, as it were; just go for sturdy construction. Guitar is sort of an... odd application, like I said, in that regard. Now that does not necessarily mean expensive cables = better. A supershitty cord could attenuate the top end in a cool sounding way. It's just the rare thing where the cable actually will affect the sound. A mic cable, that doesn't matter. I could put up my Shure condenser that's like dead flat throughout the audible range and swap out 1000-series Monster, Mogami and Blue cables with cheap $5 Musician's Friend blowout cables and you'd never hear a damn bit of difference. Now, the pricier cables are a hella lot sturdier.

Guitar cables, I do care, but only to the extent that my cable reliably transmit Operant Satan in perpetuity. I like some fairly snooty gear, everything that lives on my board save for the tuner and expression pedal (that doesn't pass signal, just CV to an analog guitar synth + ring mod) is true bypass. (Not all buffers are created equal.) But I think that even is more a byproduct of my using wonky effects, and a lot of them, vs. wanting some sort of sonic purity- I just want there to be something left when I kick them off(!), and most geardork pedals are true bypass anyhow. God knows I'm not concerned about the original source that much- I mostly have contempt for the original source and wish to punish it.

That being said, as much as I think my Digitech Synth Wah is awesome(ly horrible and therefore awesome), it is a Tone Vampire just by being in the chain. It hasn't seen live use in a while, 'cause I haven't needed it for anything in the set. I don't particularly care, but you can hear it when it's in the rig. Incidentally, my tuner has also gone microphonic. You can hear it if you tap on the housing. It's bizarre.

If your tuner is microphonic, then yes, dear, you are using a shitfuckton of effects. I must approve of this.

On noise related thought, I did my second GnR gig tonight, always fucking ridonkulous loud. You know, how rawk is 'sposed to be played. Really good money for 2 50 minutes sets.

Despite my listening preferences going towards more of the nasty raw and less modern sounding stuff, when I'm playing I tend to go for more of a neutral and modern toane at the minute. For this reason I'm back to preferring my LPs to the SG. Better sustain as well.

Cables I'm not too fussed about, so long as they have decent neutrik jacks on each end they all seem the same to me.

Pedal-wise I do fine with a wah (which I could get rid of), tuner, overdrive and an EQ in the loop for leads. I still want a delay to give leads more b00st and fullness.

hm.

well.. i like blankety thick midbass with a good bit of saturation (altec speakers, alnico2 magnets of all sorts, mics with transformers, triode tube amps)... but CLEAR things that have monumental midrange heaviness, and an inky black top end. treble should sound like it's coming from noplace but the actual object-- not from a field of white noise. bass should be substantial and RESONANT.. not gigantic and dry. and despite those preferences-- i love big dynamic swings. it's an impossible margin, which has led me down lots of roads of excess.. in particular, in listening and having to build my own listening devices.

i am no fan of the jbl house sound, i am not at all fond of sennheiser, i don't want tipped up.. i want tipped DOWN. don't ask me about modern hifi. please don't ask me about v30's. i am a bk5a in a world of 441s.

I like super cleans, then boosting them to the point of ALMOST breaking up, and then stupid-gain-velcro fuzz. Sadly, I really don't have much use of the tones in between.

Even with my cleanest toanes, I like a raw gritty element to all of my sounds. Thus, I like my cleans with the tubes cooking. I also like sounds that let me use my playing dynamic (except my velcro-fuzz, which pretty much makes everything sound super angry), and I have a tendency to push my mids on just about everything.

I also like my fuzz with a lot of bottom end, though it does become a bitch and a half to record.

I don't like properly clean sounds. It sounds really shit in a band imo, it seems to fit in better with a bit of grit. Single channel amp using the guitar volume to adjust gain for the most righteous win.

Super cleans need a solid reverb behind them, IMO.

They can sound very weak next to a driven toan though. Thus why I like them pushed super hard to the point of almost breaking up, that way I can put the grit on by just playing harder

Tone knobs are for the weak and ill.

Gear: Gear for me is about avoiding redundancy. Bright Strat and a dark LP into the Kitty which makes both sound awesome. Anything I buy in the future would have to be completely different.

Sonic: I like middle of the road cleans... warm and space-filling while still having just a little brightness to it. Dirty cleans are and is what I usually go with, unless I need clean cleans for whatever reason. If I could have it my way I would just barely saturate my clean channel for a nice crunch and dirty cleans depending on pick attack; role back for clean cleans. I would use my gain channel for more dirty cleans, mid gain sound and leads also depending on guitar volume and pick attack. Big Muff for fuzzy awesomeness and extra versatility.