Do Something Challenge Discussion Thread

[DrewJD82]

I want to participate Drew. Thanks for putting it together. I think it is a great idea. It seems like a lot of us have chops and are just stifled by their job and raising families need something like this to get the ball rolling.

Are recycled riffs that were recorded that week allowed?

We have a weekly and a bi-weekly challenge going simultaneously, so you've got two whole weeks to get something out if you want! The spirit of this is to submit something you wrote and/or recorded within the timeline of the challenge, or else it would just be a regular clip that can be submitted in the standard Member Clips forum.

That said, if you have a bunch of riffs hanging around from years ago or last week, you're more than welcome to use them in the challenge, they just have to be recorded and submitted within the weekly or bi-weekly threads. Obviously, we have to go by the honor system here that people won't submit stuff they recorded last year, but it's more of a challenge to ourselves to do more playing/recording than we're normally used to.

I think we all give Drew the benefit of an initial 1 point advantage. He earned it, didn't he?

He put all this work in, listened to people like me piss and moan about this, that, and the other thing,
and didn't let any of it stop him, or detract from getting this thing off the ground.

All those in favor of Drew getting 1 point for his efforts leading up this 1st week say, "Aye."

Aye!!

Nah, I'm good, man. What would REALLY make me happy is having a flood of submissions!

 

[DrewJD82]

I just lost my entire f*cking day because f*cking pickups.....it's ALWAYS F*CKING PICKUPS.

Got the Zakk Wylde EMG's, all solderless and cute and sh*t, I've been f*cking troubleshooting the f*cking goddamn things for the last 5 f*cking c*cksucking-but-does-a-bad-job hours.

Get it all wired up, neck pickup works great, bridge has about 1/4 the output it should. Seller on Reverb is saying it happens all the time and it's usually the stock switch in the guitar, I'm swapping jacks and blah blah blah, I'm not even going to get into the last 5 hours in detail because my head is going to f*cking pop and my f*cking Edwards is not functioning as it should be and it looks like I'll have to wait a f*cking week to get new guts from EMG dude. (Seriously, don't even try to troubleshoot with me, if someone asks me if I'm sure a f*cking wire is plugged in all the way one more time I'm going to throw myself off a f*cking cliff and we don't even have cliffs in Florida)

Throwing in the towel, got a friend coming over and I'm getting sh*tfaced. EVERY F*CKING TIME I TOUCH PICKUPS!!!! EVERY TIME!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I just lost my entire f*cking day because f*cking pickups.....it's ALWAYS F*CKING PICKUPS.

Got the Zakk Wylde EMG's, all solderless and cute and sh*t, I've been f*cking troubleshooting the f*cking goddamn things for the last 5 f*cking c*cksucking-but-does-a-bad-job hours.

Get it all wired up, neck pickup works great, bridge has about 1/4 the output it should. Seller on Reverb is saying it happens all the time and it's usually the stock switch in the guitar, I'm swapping jacks and blah blah blah, I'm not even going to get into the last 5 hours in detail because my head is going to f*cking pop and my f*cking Edwards is not functioning as it should be and it looks like I'll have to wait a f*cking week to get new guts from EMG dude. (Seriously, don't even try to troubleshoot with me, if someone asks me if I'm sure a f*cking wire is plugged in all the way one more time I'm going to throw myself off a f*cking cliff and we don't even have cliffs in Florida)

Throwing in the towel, got a friend coming over and I'm getting sh*tfaced. EVERY F*CKING TIME I TOUCH PICKUPS!!!! EVERY TIME!

:Cheetos

 

[Iron1]

I just lost my entire f*cking day because f*cking pickups.....it's ALWAYS F*CKING PICKUPS.

Got the Zakk Wylde EMG's, all solderless and cute and sh*t, I've been f*cking troubleshooting the f*cking goddamn things for the last 5 f*cking c*cksucking-but-does-a-bad-job hours.

Get it all wired up, neck pickup works great, bridge has about 1/4 the output it should. Seller on Reverb is saying it happens all the time and it's usually the stock switch in the guitar, I'm swapping jacks and blah blah blah, I'm not even going to get into the last 5 hours in detail because my head is going to f*cking pop and my f*cking Edwards is not functioning as it should be and it looks like I'll have to wait a f*cking week to get new guts from EMG dude. (Seriously, don't even try to troubleshoot with me, if someone asks me if I'm sure a f*cking wire is plugged in all the way one more time I'm going to throw myself off a f*cking cliff and we don't even have cliffs in Florida)

Throwing in the towel, got a friend coming over and I'm getting sh*tfaced. EVERY F*CKING TIME I TOUCH PICKUPS!!!! EVERY TIME!

I went YEARS without having any pickup wiring/swapping issue until late last summer - since then I've had 3 guitars just eat my lunch.

Way back when we toured with a band from Nashville called F.U.C.T.. The initials stood for Forever Ungratical Corinaric Technikilation... which they defined as "When technology doesn't work and gets you so frustrated you're going to have a F#$##%!! heart attack over it..." yeah, non working pickups/pots/switches make me feel F.U.C.T.'ed...

 

[la szum]

I just lost my entire f*cking day because f*cking pickups.....it's ALWAYS F*CKING PICKUPS.

Got the Zakk Wylde EMG's, all solderless and cute and sh*t, I've been f*cking troubleshooting the f*cking goddamn things for the last 5 f*cking c*cksucking-but-does-a-bad-job hours.

Get it all wired up, neck pickup works great, bridge has about 1/4 the output it should. Seller on Reverb is saying it happens all the time and it's usually the stock switch in the guitar, I'm swapping jacks and blah blah blah, I'm not even going to get into the last 5 hours in detail because my head is going to f*cking pop and my f*cking Edwards is not functioning as it should be and it looks like I'll have to wait a f*cking week to get new guts from EMG dude. (Seriously, don't even try to troubleshoot with me, if someone asks me if I'm sure a f*cking wire is plugged in all the way one more time I'm going to throw myself off a f*cking cliff and we don't even have cliffs in Florida)

Throwing in the towel, got a friend coming over and I'm getting sh*tfaced. EVERY F*CKING TIME I TOUCH PICKUPS!!!! EVERY TIME!

Damn!! Sorry man.

I have learned my lesson with excitement and new gear. Get the new gear, and play it for awhile.
Find out how it shapes me, and I shape it, let the buzz wear off, and then plot and plan the
next steps. Just too many intense emotions, a lot of over-exuberance, and who knows what else
going on when I get new gear for me to EVER think that doing something to it right away is ever
the most sensible path.

Now when I get something I hardly change anything. My modding days are done. I am in this whole
metaphysical headspace of wanting to be like water, and allowing things to shape and mold me (including
gear!) versus imposing my will on everything around me like I know what the fuck I am doing.

Besides, I wanna play, and I am cool with something not being what I think it is, because the rest of Reality
is probably not what I think it is either.

And if you need a Pickup Shaman to cast off the nefarious demons I know a guy with his own signature smudge
who I can hook you up with.

I know you love your EMGs. You'll get it sorted.
Better days man! Better days!

 

[la szum]

:Cheetos

Haha! #Where'sMyAppleJacks ?

 

[Bruce]

I really couldn't believe it. She said the Beatles did everything, and the classical composers of way-back-when took care of everything else. My stance was/is that the combinations are quite literally, endless. And that's even before you start thinking about mixing genres.

Classical prog-funk, anyone?

My daughter turned me on to Dance Gavin Dance. I couldn’t begin to define what they do. It’s just good stuff.

 

[DrewJD82]

Damn!! Sorry man.

I have learned my lesson with excitement and new gear. Get the new gear, and play it for awhile.
Find out how it shapes me, and I shape it, let the buzz wear off, and then plot and plan the
next steps. Just too many intense emotions, a lot of over-exuberance, and who knows what else
going on when I get new gear for me to EVER think that doing something to it right away is ever
the most sensible path.

Now when I get something I hardly change anything. My modding days are done. I am in this whole
metaphysical headspace of wanting to be like water, and allowing things to shape and mold me (including
gear!) versus imposing my will on everything around me like I know what the f**k I am doing.

Besides, I wanna play, and I am cool with something not being what I think it is, because the rest of Reality
is probably not what I think it is either.

And if you need a Pickup Shaman to cast off the nefarious demons I know a guy with his own signature smudge
who I can hook you up with.

I know you love your EMGs. You'll get it sorted.
Better days man! Better days!

Hahaha the the funny thing here is that I don’t really love EMG’s and leaving two of them un-modded is how I ended up with half of them, the other half is because I’m going for a specific thing with that guitar, IE the Gilmour Strat and the LPC doing the Zakk Wy;de thing. My Spector came with EMG’s and whoever owned my RG7620 before me put the 707 in the bridge, the Spector is great but I’m not digging the 707 much, I just don’t play it enough to warrant the effort of a pickup change. I already have the pickups!

I definitely enjoy different guitars for different things, which is why I’ve taken the at-least-one-of-each approach and I just have a Tele to knock off the list until I‘m old enough to want a hollowbody. But I also thoroughly enjoy tweaking guitars, pickups being the exception. If I dig a guitar and it hits 85%-90% of my hot buttons but there’s something that could be improved or something is making a little unenjoyable to play, I think it’s awesome there’s so many different ways to close the gap and make it something killer. I love doing setups, love making them play and sound how I want, that’s sometimes more fun to me than playing and on the days I don’t feel like playing, I still get to play WITH a guitar. Hell, that’s why I plan on building a bunch of partscasters instead of buying Strats, it’s a hell of a lot more fun and I get exactly what I want.

I knew ahead of time a JB wasn’t going to do the Zakk Wylde thing, just like I knew the stock Orville pickups were underpowered and generally considered junk by the owners, I agree with them. Using certain amp models they get microphonic, which would probably go away by removing the covers, but if I’m going through that much effort, I might as well just replace the sh*tty, underpowered pickups on the otherwise outstanding guitar.

I got the EMG’s working on one volume/tone, which is fine for the time being. The seller suggested it was an issue with the switch because he has customers hitting him up with the same issue quite consistently he actually suggested I get EMG’s solderless switch when I first ordered the ZW set because of that, but I figured he was just trying to sell more sh*t and didn’t buy it. It’s bought now.

Now I’m waiting for this hangover to subside so I can play again.

 

[DrewJD82]

Also how do you guys go about putting down a bass track with a guitar, and it not sounding like raw anus?

Bass is a bit tricky in general because the dynamics, the tone might be killer but you can these big transients at the start that die down quickly when you’re going direct. Compressing the sh*t out of them helps a lot. Or adding a little dirt to it can help. I almost always have two compressors on a DI bass track, one set for a fast attack with a quicker release and one set to a slower attack and a slower release.

Then there’s the whole frequency sharing thing between the guitar, bass and drums and the stuff you hear about each instrument needing it’s own place in a mix. If it’s a muddy messy, chances are you‘ve got too much low end in the guitars. They really need to sit on top of the bass. Welcome to the world of recording, my friend.

 

[la szum]

What Drew said.

I don't love comp on guitars----unless we are talking 80's clean tones, or acoustic---but like Drew
said you need Comp on bass, and you can be heavy handed with it. Also, Lo-Cuts. More Lo-Cuts. And
more Lo-Cuts. Both for guitars and bass, on my end. That build-up in the low-end of your growing mix
can happen fast and it is cumulative. A little from the kick, a little more from the guitars, and then toss in
the bass and it is suddenly sludge-city, but not a good way.

I tend to try and lop off anything sub 80Hz in the bass and the guitars. Kick I will play around a little
more, and maybe retain more of those lower frequencies.

Modern music production is such a masquerade ball because there is so much cut off frequency wise, and
then added back in later with other instruments or plug-ins VI. I don't know many records where you can
hear the bass guitar stand alone anymore. Everyone has fallen in love with the sub-harmonic synths blended
with the bass guitar to make them sound (and seem!) supernaturally massive. When we try and dial in that
massive sound it can be just a bunch of mud.

 

[metropolis_4]

The creative part of my brain when I’m in the shower getting ready for work hours and hours before I’ll have time to record:

The creative part of my brain when I’m finally holding an instrument ready to record something:

 

[Alex Kenivel]

The creative part of my brain when I’m in the shower getting ready for work hours and hours before I’ll have time to record:

The creative part of my brain when I’m finally holding an instrument ready to record something:

It's always in the shower, isn't it??

Honestly I shouldn't hammer out songs like I did yesterday. I ignored my family and gave myself a headache with all the computer focus but I had the opportunity to get something done and I couldn't stand to leave it alone. I spent some time with the girls today.

Thank you for doing this @DrewJD82 it really gives me a warm feeling of accomplishment and reaffirms me that I can still be creative if I just, you know, do it! I used every XLR cable that I own!

 

[la szum]

Once again. Great job, Doc!

 

[DrewJD82]

It's always in the shower, isn't it??

Honestly I shouldn't hammer out songs like I did yesterday. I ignored my family and gave myself a headache with all the computer focus but I had the opportunity to get something done and I couldn't stand to leave it alone. I spent some time with the girls today.

Thank you for doing this @DrewJD82 it really gives me a warm feeling of accomplishment and reaffirms me that I can still be creative if I just, you know, do it! I used every XLR cable that I own!

Thanks for participating! And I know exactly what you’re talking about with a marathon session creating some guilt; when I was married I’d always feel guilty if I was spending an entire day in the studio, even though I knew my ex didn’t really care. But ya gotta strike when the iron’s hot! And that feeling of accomplishment is generally what fuels me to start another song, knowing how much effort is going to go into it.

So far this challenge is turning out exactly how I hoped it would, there’s more submissions than I expected this early and people are putting in the effort to get some kind of recording set up going, I’m really, really stoked with this! And the submissions are so f*cking good! Thank you to everyone taking part!!!!

 

[Gearzilla]

Suffered a cliptastrophe last night. I had the Tonex screen open and went to close it. Hit close. Logic prompted me for a save or not. Hit save. Logic screen was my desktop computer screen except for the tool bar, and the Tonex screen was still there. Quit Logic. Reopened Logic. After reopening that file the logic screen was still my desktop with the tool bar, and the open Tonex screen. I can still load any other project fine, except that one.



Now it’s either back to the drawing board or rebuild that one.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

[...] Now it’s either back to the drawing board or rebuild that one. [...]

 

[DrewJD82]

Suffered a cliptastrophe last night. I had the Tonex screen open and went to close it. Hit close. Logic prompted me for a save or not. Hit save. Logic screen was my desktop computer screen except for the tool bar, and the Tonex screen was still there. Quit Logic. Reopened Logic. After reopening that file the logic screen was still my desktop with the tool bar, and the open Tonex screen. I can still load any other project fine, except that one.



Now it’s either back to the drawing board or rebuild that one.

I’ve lost a few sessions due to screwy stuff occurring, it’s why I stopped using Kontakt as it wasn’t loading properly half the time (it was the free version, TBF) and when opening sessions that had an instance of it opened, the session would just sit at the loading screen until I eventually Force Quit Logic. I think I had to do some bass ackwards thing where I opened a new session, opened Kontakt in there then while that session was opened, opened up the existing session that I was unable to previously. Pain in the balls and not worth it. I was just using it for the GGD drums because I loved the snare sounds.

 

[Jarick]

The creative part of my brain when I’m finally holding an instrument ready to record something:

For me and my brain, that is basically me trying to do anything creative.

When I was a teenager, I would write some bad punk songs with my bad punk band. When I got into better bands (as a drummer), I was really good at arranging songs and coming up with complementary parts or harmonies. But I could never get that initial spark to write the good core song.

I'm hoping that creativity and song writing is like a muscle...you get better the more you work at it. Hopefully.

 

[fretworn]

The creative part of my brain when I’m in the shower getting ready for work hours and hours before I’ll have time to record:

The creative part of my brain when I’m finally holding an instrument ready to record something:

Werd brah …

I screwed around with all the drum beats landing on the Jazz and the 105 rock. Decided to go with the rock beat.

Then … nada … then crap … then hope … lol

Thankfully, yesterday had a small breakthrough and was at least able to put together some kind of chord progression.

Structure is not fully set, but I found the chords I want to use (I think); also found a little bit of rhythm. (Now if I could just find some timing)

But then realized I’m in a song structure and have no voice, other than some stupid lead guitar. We’ll have to get to that later this week lol.

 

[Jarick]

My hope is I don’t make 52 versions of the same song lol