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| Bode |
 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 11:41 pm Post subject: Guitar Playing Reviews |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 2033
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I have been asked to review the guitar performance on 'Lestat's Dead Girl'. It is very difficult to review somebody's guitar playing...in the sense that I dont know what were the original aims of the guitarist in the first place. It would be easier for me to give pointers based on knowing which direction that specific guitarist is heading.
I play a certain style, and that is the style that I choose...amongst the hundreds of guitar styles that is available. So it is not right for me to judge a certain guitarist based on the rules rooted in my style because that might not be the style that he wants anyway. As an example, it would wrong for me to tell somebody to get Eddie Van Halen's vibrato and guitar sound (though it is one of my favourites), if he actually wishes to pursue to be a jazz guitarist ala George Benson!
So, if anybody wants their guitar performances to be reviewed, regardless of style, whether or not it's a million notes per second or new age atmospheric stuff...please don't hesitate to submit your songs in this thread. Due to my hectic schedule, I might not be able to respond immediately, but I will. I prefer to sit ,listen and analyse carefully rather than give a half assed review. |
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| Bode |
| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject: Lestat's Dead Girl |
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"Lestat's Dead Girl"
http://www.i-bands.net/audiovault/play.php?band_id=220&song_id=561&mode=song_hifi
So, for starters, I will comment on what hit me about your playing first...then, based on your response regarding the direction that you are heading, I will provide a more detailed guide towards achieving your goal(s).
I like the eastern vibe which is propagated in the song, thanks to the use of the harmonic minor scale (is that right omar? Please correct this senile old man here). It does have a hint of that Satriani-ish vibe to it. Of course, a bit more work on the vibrato can further enhance some notes(the sweet vibrato ala Clapton...not the wide vibrato ala Ed Van Halen style...though who says you cant anyway?). The whole song has a dreamy vibe to it which I like very much.
Guitar sounds work well in the song, I would recommened the addition of delays well timed to the rhythm, which could probably further enhance the feel of the track.
Hit me back with your response flirtingwithsleep. I prefer this to be a two way discussion, which I hope can be more helpful, and you dont have to agree with everything I say...you can defend and argue and give your opinion as well. Everybody is entitled to their opinion right? 
Last edited by Bode on Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:34 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Bode |
| Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 12:01 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 2033
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| Oh yes...I have nearly finished writing my article on speed, which I will put up later. Are there any other topics that is of interest to anybody? I'm open to suggestions. omarjamaludin will be in charge mainly on the theory side, while I concentrate more on the applications of theory to practice. |
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| deadzid |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:52 pm Post subject: How about this one? |
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Location: Shah Alam
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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Site Admin
Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Tmn Melawati
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this weekend insyallah aku post some lessons on harmonic minor and melodic minor ..
then chord construction...
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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Site Admin
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Location: Tmn Melawati
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anyway deadzid..cun song la...kinda slow tempo and kinda short.boleh tahan jugak goreng tu...apsal tak buat full song je...boleh expand ke dream theater style tu..
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| Bode |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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| omarjamaludin wrote: | this weekend insyallah aku post some lessons on harmonic minor and melodic minor ..
then chord construction... |
Malmsteen siol!!!!  |
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| Bode |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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Europhia-Deadzid
This song has a beautiful and engaging chord progression. A solo is only as good as the chord progression underneath it, and deadzid has already got it sussed out here! The solo is very melodic, structured, well phrased and exhibits a logical musical journey throughout the song...in the sense that the guitar 'sings' rather than a pointless showcase of technique. Mature songwriting and soloing here.
Technically, bends and vibrato are well executed. The overall playing could be a bit tighter. I have to specifically mention about the arpeggios at 1:15...these are licks which do sound difficult, and end up even more difficult when you want to try to play it yourself! I hope deadzid can tell us whether he used sweep picking or strict alternate picking at this part. I personally would use alternate picking as it is easier for me to execute the lick with more precision at this tempo(Steve Morse...prefers to alternate pick arpeggios rather than sweep picking). I would only sweep at a faster tempo. deadzid, please tell us what was your technique here? Anyway, this is a proof that it is not always those licks which are faster which are more difficult...sometimes the mid-tempo ones can be a bigger pain to play!
I didnt like the guitar sound on this recording, and there is just too much reverb. I wish the guitar sounds are like deadzid's guitar sounds evident in Virus Sound's and Crimson Fall's recordings, which are cool.
I really hope that this track can be embellished into a longer finished track in the future. It has that European vibe to it, which is reminiscent to music by European guitar heroes ala Uli John Roth, Michael Schenker and James Byrd.
Anyway...great job deadzid! More music from you please...
Last edited by Bode on Tue Sep 28, 2004 5:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| Ridzi |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2198
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Time to put my ass on the line and to be judged by the almighty??
Just wondering what The Doctor might say about my playing. Doc go ahead...slice and dice Impending for me will ya??
/ridzi |
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| deadzid |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Bode wrote: | | ... I have to specifically mention about the arpeggios at 1:15...these are licks which do sound difficult, and end up even more difficult when you want to try to play it yourself! I hope deadzid can tell us whether he used sweep picking or strict alternate picking at this part. |
Alright! Thanx for that positive response... About that picking technique, as far as i could remember, there's no sweep picking involved, definitely alternate ones. As you said, the tempo is slow (and by the way, the time signature was 3/4), plus the solos are simple and not fast enough to do sweep picking...!
By the way, i can't seem to remember any part with arpeggios in that song... which part are you refering to, bro?
| Bode wrote: | | ... I didnt like the guitar sound on this recording, and there is just too much reverb. |
About the sound, well there's no one to comment the song at that time, so i couldn't get any feedback about the guitar sound and all. And yeah, i realize that the overall sound is quite shitty, no doubt about it!
Well anyway, this shit is much different than the heavy stuff i usually wrote... i composed, record and mixed it in about a day! i just wanna do a simple short heavy instrumental, but it turned out differently! i was quite stunned myself! hahaha...
Thanx again, i'll be sure to write more shits like this in the future!
By the way Ridzi, your Impending is one hell of a song man! it definitly ROCKS ASS!!! ... oi malam tadi ko sms aku pakai e-mail ke? hahaha terkejuuttt aku...!
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| Ridzi |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 06 Feb 2004
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Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Tak le...pakai phone aku le... amende lagi?? so that means ko ade mobile phone number aku ....
BTW aku dah add lagu2 yang lain2 tu so sekarang ade Impending, Come, Flesh dan Can't Turn....
/ridzi |
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| deadzid |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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Mod Squad
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| Ridzi wrote: | Tak le...pakai phone aku le... amende lagi?? so that means ko ade mobile phone number aku ....
/ridzi |
Ni ko buat lawak ke betul2 nih? Kalau betul line talipon, tuh kira line UK kan? Panjang nye nombor, ade 12 digit (siap kira lagi tuh)... tak mahal ke kalau sms... kalau call lagi la mahal kan? hehehaha...
Semua lagu2 ko ade dah download & dengar except Can't Turn.. nanti laa maybe next week, aku nak balik ni.. see you all next monday!
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| Ridzi |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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tak la on my phone i get 500 free text messages a month!!!
hehehe...lagi satu aku subscribe to International Traveller Service. which makes my calls cheaper to call Malaysian number than to call a UK mobile...
/ridzi |
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| Bode |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2004
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| Ridzi wrote: | tak la on my phone i get 500 free text messages a month!!!
hehehe...lagi satu aku subscribe to International Traveller Service. which makes my calls cheaper to call Malaysian number than to call a UK mobile...
/ridzi |
Call me dahling!
Nanti aku review punyer...jgn bimbang...aku nak pi beli Vanilla coke sat...lepaih tu aku review ok?
Review ni kalau tak der Vanilla Coke...semua lagu cam tak sedaaaap jer... |
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| Bode |
| Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:55 am Post subject: |
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| Ridzi wrote: | Time to put my ass on the line and to be judged by the almighty??
Just wondering what The Doctor might say about my playing. Doc go ahead...slice and dice Impending for me will ya??
/ridzi |
Impending-Ridzi aka Agent Smith
The review of this song might be a little biased in the sense that this song is one of my favourites. While there are many who may not agree with my review here…I would like to re-iterate that a review is just an opinion…that’s all to it really. I have an eccentric taste (I think that is kinda obvious by now) and this song is eccentric enough to cater for my weird taste.
This song breaks away from the safe formula…it is like a journey of no return. Even went there is a recurring motive in the song, it is presented with variations in the theme (different drum groove/chords/arrangement) to keep you from feeling like “Ah…here’s the chorus again”. Intelligent interplay of keyboard parts and the rhythm guitar gives a rich harmonic and melodic weight to the song, so as that the song does not need another melodic part on top(vocals or lead instrument i.e. guitar) to stand strong on it’s own. Though I do feel that some melodic parts , be it on guitar or keyboards can be added sparingly to certain parts in the song, but, merely as ‘icing on the cake’. It has a movie soundtrack feel to it, which is another reason why I like it(I’m a sucker for movie scores). There is a gamut of colours and variations in the song(time signatures/motifs/moods) that actually needs the listener to listen to it a multitude of times in order to catch and enjoy all these intricacies which has been lovingly created and performed by the artist.
Performance wise, the drum programming is top notch and amongst the best I’ve heard anywhere. This guy knows drums, in the sense that though those are extremely difficult stunts on the drums, these are all reflective of the playing styles of real drum monsters like Mike Portnoy, Greg Bisonnette and the likes. I know that Ridzi definitely has spent a LOT of time on the drum programming alone in order to achieve this, and that was time well spent. Guitar performance is faultless, with monster guitar tones throughout. All the instruments blends tightly with each other in harmony . Production is slick. Despite the fact that those are drum samples there, Ridzi managed to make the whole recording sounds ‘organic’, without sounding too sterile (which plagues most recording done in the digital realm nowadays). Personally, I would have preferred a tiny boost in the frequencies of the regions above 16kHz and below 60Hz in order to introduce a bit more glistening quality to the treble and low end ‘thud’ to the drum sounds and the whole mix. But as I said, this is purely subjective(and I got to remind myself that this is all judged from a mere mp3 file which has sacrificed a lot of data from the original wave file). Nevertheless, I feel that this track is all ready to be duplicated on CD and distributed in view of world domination…
Great job! |
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