Ok I'm going to listen to these in alphabetical order because that's the way they appear in my downloads folder and I will comment as I go. I have just finished downloading them all, I am not going to vote till I have finished commenting. It's just on 5am here in Sydney.. Daylight savings ends today which is why I am up earlier than normal.. I work up about an hour ago anyway.. but I digress.
Equator:Not sure what you did to your track but the quality has been destroyed somewhere along the way. I wouldn't normally comment on this aspect because it's not generally relevant to the solo itself but this was a little off-putting to the point where I thought there was something wrong with my headphones.
Anyway.. I like the harmonics at the start and the way you set up the mood of the track within the first section. No Equator solo would be the same without those signature sweep-picking runs you do.. hehe.. they are definitely sounding better and less forced in this track. I would have liked to hear them be joined together more in one continuous run rather than stopping between each one.. but that's just personal preference I guess. The one by itself around the 0:39 mark was nice though all by itself.
Not sure what you were attempting to accomplish between 1:22 and 1:31, and also between 2:11 and 2:23. it just seems like you were trying to throw a different mode in there and it didn't quite work well. Then again, I have heard this from other people and no one has ever commented on it.. so may be I just don't understand what is being done. The ending of your track I felt is what fit the most. So well done again on another signature track.
FingerspasmSeems like you were trying to figure out what to do with the track as you went. It's not that you were making mistakes at all, it just came across to me as though you were thinking "Ok.. what should I do next.." as you rested on a standard riff.. then you'd do something, then you'd go back to another standard riff while you thought of the next thing you wanted to do. I guess other people would say the track seemed to lack structure. And that's what I am trying to say but in a way that you can see why it lacked structure.
It's not a bad track, it wasn't boring, it didn't sound "bad".. it just sounded like you didn't spend a lot of time planning it out your improvisational performance.. not that everyone wants, needs or should plan out every solo. I just feel that with these solo assignments because it is isn't a live environment, you can have multiple goes at it and take your time to work on your individual ideas and put them together in a more structured way that it sounds more "together". The virtuosos of the guitar industry still need to work out what they want to do with a particular track before improv'ing over it at a live gig.
Maestro ShazI have to admit that I was waiting for something completely mind-blowing right from the very start but that was only because of the comments other people had made prior to me listening to your track. hehe.. Great tone and just the right amount of delay there, if I had to put my finger on a specific style and tone I would say Van Halen. I felt that you may have slightly struggled with the pace of the backing track a tiny bit.. though not by much.
I was surprised to not hear any motif/theme in there until right near the end. Technically the solo is fine and you only make a couple of mistakes/hesitations here and there, none really worth mentioning by themselves. I just felt that it tended to be a lot of endless scale runs once it got past the 1:45 mark. Not to say it was not enjoyable or boring in anyway, I just felt you could have done so much more with the track.
mpaqHrmm.. in regards to track quality, and again it's not really that important, you may want to have a look at levels as it seems that you are getting a bit of peaking happening in the track.. digital distortion/culling is not a pleasant sound.. it's that crackling sound I am hearing.
I'm really glad you went back and reduced some of that bending at the start. Your track was one of the ones I listened to right at the start of March and the vast amount of unresolved bending at the start was one of the major things "wrong" with the track. Not sure why you would consider yourself as not having much skill. What I am hearing is great.. nice structure, nice use of regular motifs without overuse. A couple of different styles thrown in within the same track. All very nice.
I also like the way mixed the guitar to various sides of the stereo. It just adds a little bit of variety to the track. A suggestion there would be to make the left side guitar sound slightly different in tone to the right side guitar, so it actually sounds like there are two guitarists playing.. hehe.. May be it's just my personal preference but this track is the track that has seemed to fit the backing track the most so far. Then again.. I still have 3 tracks to listen to yet. All in all, a highly enjoyable track.
Interlude*checks his headphone* Actually now that I listen to Shaz's track again, his also has this same peaking problem, just as BCNick's track has a peaking problem. They're all like this except for Fingerspasm and Wriggler's.. May be my backing track had the levels too high the start.. if so.. I'm very sorry.. Anyway.. something to watch out for.. that crackling noise is very off-putting to me. :)
Now back to the actual commenting.. hehe..
BarChordNickNice intro. I like the clean flanged tone you selected for this one.. If it was a little more mid to low range to it, I would class it as Knopfler sounding. It is a very nice cruise-y tone nevertheless. You didn't ignore the chord changes, which is nice to hear and you seem to have some definite idea of where you were wanting the solo to go. Whether or not you got there is really only something you can answer but to me you seemed to deliver a compelling solo that left me wanting more. It wasn't that it was lacking substance, it just didn't seem to reinforce a particular motif at all. If you have a listen to mpaq's, you will see what I mean about a regular motif, not that I am comparing yours to his.. I'm just using his as an example of what I am talking about.
WrigglerUKHehe.. love the addition of the bass there. Not sure whether it helped or hindered you though to be honest. However this not about the bass.. it's about the guitar solo. I felt that you just seemed to come in out of nowhere at the start. It didn't even feel as if it came in at the start of a measure. It's like you are forcing the music to conform to what you want it to be rather than accepting it for what it is and merging with it. It's one thing to infuse the track with your own uniqueness, it's another thing entirely when it's obvious to the listener.. if you know what I mean? Fortunately you don't continue to do this throughout the whole track.. so no real harm done.
I like the motif you set up at 0:44 and then re-use at later points in the track. I appreciate the way you used different ranges rather than staying within the confines of one or two scale ranges, which is very easy to do. There are some great sounding riffs within your solo and with a little more work they could sound awesome. Hehe.. I like the thing you did with the auto-filter.. but I would have probably included the bass track in that effect, may be separately with it's own level of auto-filter so as to push the guitar way out into the front... may be with a tube-compressor to make the auto-filter sound a bit more hollow.. but that's just a personal preference again.
New MembersGreat to see new members participating in the monthly assignments. I forgot to mention this in mpaq's comments because I have seen him around a bit more than you, wwb, however this is also directed at mpaq. These assignments are not for just the long-timers, or those who post regularly on the forums, they are for anyone who wants to have a go. So thank you both for joining in on the fun!
wwbI like the intro a lot. It has a really nice Knopfler-esque sound to it as well. I wonder if he is not one of your favourite guitarists? hehe.. The intro has it's own distinct motif, then once you get into the main section of the song you start to get into the groove of the track and break it down well, I thought. Yes I can hear that you need to practise to get up to the standards of someone like Maestro_Shaz.. but this is not about how good you are technically for me.
I can hear what you are attempting to express and you are doing it very well.. that's all that really matters. However, you need to know your limits and stay within them on the final mix. That's not to say that during the month, while you are practising the solo for the assignment, that you shouldn't push your limits and extend beyond what you were previously able to do.. if you didn't, you wouldn't ever evolve into a better guitarist.
I just mean that you need to curb your enthusiasm slightly during the final mix. If you know you can do a particular riff but you don't get it during that mix, go back and do it again and again until you get it right.. However if you consistently can't get that riff down because you accidentally/luckily got it once or twice in the past.. may be leave it for next month's solo (if it fits) so you can totally blow us out of the water with it.
All in all though great stuff.
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