Stormy Monday Collaboration, Final Mix and Comments! Options

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Ok fellas, here are the comments and Final Mix, all in one place. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you further on this collab, and I will notify you via PM when the time for another collab comes. Cheers everybody

skennington:

Rhythmically take was great - you really nailed the notes in right positions, accenting all the good moments of the backing. Syncopation is present and in just the right amount, and all the note duration values are used very tastefully and fluidly. In the beginning there is that second phrase (with pulloffs) that sounded that you kinda went on G and stayed there, but could develop it one or two notes more. Minor rhythmic misplacement if we relate it to it's function tied to phrases before and after it. Also in the second part couple of phrases were connected ahead of drum patterns, which gives impression that you are rushing things, but this is a minor issue that can easily be interpreted as moment of inspiration and syncopation as well. Worth mentioning tho.
Melodically it was very good - there is a tendency in your playing for following the backing, and I like the fact that you developed phrases that will follow the chord progression. Thing that should be more focused on is connecting various phrases together to form some kind of a story that will make sense for the listener. There are many ways for phrases to be developed and to relate to each other using similar notes but changing the order a bit. The phrasing quality is something that comes with time, and I can see that there is room for improvement here. When finishing phrases it is always good to land them on strong notes as we know, but it is also good to connect all the ending notes of phrases so that they form a story on their own. If two phrases have the same landing note they will sound repetative no matter if the phrases were different or not. If the phrases were the same and have only the landing note different, this is already concerned better way to go, cause listener can grab to that last note and see the development - he/she will be interested to hear what comes after it if you know what I mean.
Phrasing effects were great - your bends and vibratos (that are usually weak spot in peoples playing) is pretty solid sounding to me. Some pinched are used as well (in the end I think), and in general all the techniques are nicely used, with taste, and on right places. Vibrating every longer note is recommended, and you did that and vibrato was even and solid.
Tone quality is good - as you mentioned yourself your tone could use some tweaking, towards cleaning up the preset from amount of gain. Although I could hear everything clearly, in the upper register there is always present certain amount of buzz that is probably created by unability for a digital modeler to actually produce the necessary harmonics. Short said - it sounds like overdrive solid state amp. I would prefer to hear your tone completely clean, possibly with some very gentle overdrive that will break the signal only on highest notes. Your playing has the necessary dynamics, now you have to find a preset that we display the dynamics in your playing to it's full extent. I recommend Fender emulation, but preferences are different of course and gear is different, so any tweaking time can be valuable spent time.

Deadevil:

Timing in your playing is excellent, and it has a very logical progression till the end of the take. Starting with slower notes, having the ability to stay on them, and making it more and more complex as the solo is progressing towards the end is something that is appreciated with any style, and blues as well. Good shuffle feel is very good as well, and you are using the backing's hihat hits to accent certain notes and in your phrasing which I find a very good thing to do. Nothing more to add here.
Phrasing development very good - Very cool and smooth take here with equal amount of dedication for phrasing as for rhythm. Starting with bending phrase, and going octave down, continuing there and using a small run to climb is a good progress within a solo, and although the first phrase was good, it is somehow left there all alone up on the treble strings, as you continue right away down on the bass. This alone phrase can sometimes leave the impression of unfinished idea or musical sentence so when using it you have to be careful that later in the part you somehow remember the listener of it, or it will be there with very little function on it's own. Afterwards, using those nice runs is a clever way of inserting effective smaller note durations in a solo. Even when runs are note to note in a scale, they are effective if placed properly rhythmically, so this is a good way to play. In the second part with changing the chord progression, you followed it nicely and used overdubbed takes to fill the solo with fresh sounds, which I think turned out good. Using common long notes is a good trick to use when you find yourself out of key and you cannot anticipate the next harmonic movement, and you used it well here.
Technically take was very solid - general impression could be put in two words basically - more vibrato. Everything else was very cool, very nice and smooth tone, and I have impression that you are playing these things with ease here. Also, when using those runs, it is wise to cut down the pauses between the notes as much as you can unless you want to play them staccato intentionally. Using legato slides, hammeron/pulloffs played a major role in adding flow to your solo.
Sound was pretty good - I really like it, smooth balanced tone, a bit buzzy, but in the lower part of the spectre and it turned out nice. Dynamics is good, and in overall I can only recommend to tweak your presets more and more to achieve better dynamics, possibly even with decreasing gain just for the sake of recording and testing. Overall tone color sounds very cool to me.


Berglmir:

Rhythm playing: Syncopation and shuffled rhythms are something that comes naturally to you, you have a good feel for them. One thing that is part of your style are those short muted notes that you insert on the beat. In general you can maintain a good balance of fast and long notes, and from rhythm point of view there is very little I can suggest, sounded very interesting to me. One thing that you may need to work on here is making your notes a bit more defined and focused. It is good to use syncopation, but you have to know where every note needs to be just before you play them. One good way to do this is to actually imagine phrase just before you play it, and while you are playing it you imagine the next phrase and so forth. While imagining the phrase you don't need to know exactly how many notes will it have, main thing to know is beginning and start note, but one thing that you should keep in mind when improvising them is overall note durations in a lick/phrase, and try to maintain that pace with your fingers accordingly. This all happens in a split of a second, so it is important to back it up with some extensive workouts so you can really cover all the notes imagined properly, not letting any note in that is not needed, or letting the needed notes out.
Melody&Phrasing: Melodies and phrases you used here are good and have a nice and steady progression towards the end, I like the connection between the licks and their function. Licks are put in right places, and I don;t get a strong impression of a lick-by-lick solo. Stacking licks is not what needs to be done anywhere, they need to function together and tell a story, and in overall I think 80% your take is functioning in that way. In the beginning there is that first unfinished phrase that ends up on the bended D note on the G string. I kinda felt that this phrase was ended a bit unnecessary there but it's a minor detail.
Phrasing effects: Very good use of many different effects, vibrato, bends, pinched. I think the thing that you should work more on is vibrato. It is fast, shallow and uncontrolled, and you should make it exactly opposite: slow, deep and controlled. This way you will achieve full control over it. It comes with time, but try with metronome and practice only vibrato for 2-3 weeks. You will be amazed how much your overall bending/vibrato technique AND your TONE will improve because of the better feel of the grip on the strings.
Sound: Good sound but I have a feeling of classic overuse here. Your take would blend with this backing very nicely with less overdrive, less delay, less reverb and less treble on the EQ. All this said, when I say less, I talk in very small increments. One component of the sound affects another so it is important to remember this when shaping the tone for recording. Start dry, and make a useful overdriven sound, but not too much. Then add space and see how it now sounds. Chances are if you put too much space your guitar will loose definition and get lost in the mix. Be extra careful with the amount of stuff you put in, as always less goes a long way.

Crazyfret:

Rhythm: Rhtythm is nicelt fitted with the backing, good use of all the note durations, and very balanced. In the second part of the solo the note durations become a bit longer which is note following the natural progression of the solo and the rhythmic balance of the solo becomes a bit unstable, as it forces the end of the backing too soon. In the end however, there is a nice faster sequence that solves the problem, but it happened a bit too late. This kind of detail is important to focus on, and usually what player does is think too much about his next move without having something to fill in the gaps. If you do experience an improvisation block which is common and can happen to anyone apply some of your good known repetitive notes/licks that will hold the attention of the listener, having in mind of the rhythmic placements and timing. If you started to progress your solo towards more notes, keep it that way, just simplify the lick a bit and get it to loop around until you come up with the next phrase.
Melody&Phrasing: I liked the licks you used in this solo, very melodic and executed in a solid way. Starting with the first lick in Gary Moore style and progressing with some bluesy licks involving lots of whole step bends. Unfortunately as I said for rhythm it goes here as well - phrasing in the middle and second part of the solo is insuficient and too many notes are played, some of the licks just slowed down a lot and repeated. This solution for this just as for rhythm - find a good lick that you know and hold it a bit while you think up something and then use it straight away. Good idea would be to analyze the backing a bit and see what chords are there so you can define your phrases based on strong notes, and build them around them as centers.
Phrasing effects: Bending technique very good, bends need to be a bit more sharper and tighter. Same goes for vibrato, and I would like to hear more of it. Spending couple of months focusing on vibrato 15-20 mins per day to achieve professional level is my rough estimation.
Sound: Good sound, a bit too much overdrive is what I would say. I think your take would sound better clean but some overdrive cannot hurt. Your tone has a nice middly vintage spice to it, and it is in-your-face one with just right amount of reverb on it. Reverb is much nicer space effect to use on this kind of track than delay, and your sound is in overall more of a vintage tone. What I would like to hear is less overdrive, and more control from the fingers giving your take more dynamics. This would really shine out in my opinion. Other than less overdrive, no complatins, sounds great.


@UncleSkillet
I definitely recommend and encourage you to do more takes if you want, this makes progressing better and more can be learned. PLease feel free to do so. Here are the comments for your first take:
Rhythm: Very good syncopation and good feel for the track. The main impression I got from this take is that although your timing is good, you have to work a bit on two things. First on is connecting the licks in a more natural rhythmical way, and second being progressing with note durations as the improvisation develops. Both things require some practice and possibly focusing and analyzing your playing a bit, but in essence, following some well established rules like starting the solo slowly, then going faster, and louder, and in the end doing more smaller note durations is something that you should definitely do to make it sound even more interesting for the listener.
Phrasing&Melody: Similar things can apply as for rhythm, cause your playing consists of many very nicely and tasty licks played with a good feeling in mind, but they are not connected fluidly. This is mainly cause you made variations in the first part but forgot to change the landing note, so in 3-4 licks you finish on the same root note, which will definitely make it sound repetitive. Landing on root octave higher, or other string note is something to do here. You can notice the solo started to sound fun as soon as you went up scale.
Phrasing effects: very good use of ghost notes and dynamics. One thing that you should work on are your bends, they can sometimes be not exactly on pitch so try to keep them as precise and tight as you can. A bit practicing on the, couple of days usually solves this problem for a while.
Sound: Great preset you made, and I suggest you record all your takes using similar method - it definitely works. Good smooth tone, good control over the tone from the fingers, and good dynamics makes your playing shine. If you like this kind of a more mellow, almost jazzy type of tone color, definitely use it, cause you nailed a good preset. Don't forget to save it for the future, and tweak it even more, perhaps you find some other combinations around it that will work even better.

sted:

Rhythm: you showed good feel for the use of longer note durations between faster passages to keep things interesting, just like in the other collab, but one thing that your rhythmic abilities lack and you should pay more attention to is dynamics of the rhythm as in the other collab. In general it is always to first follow to basic rule of solo dynamic buildup which says that it is good to start with bigger and end with more frequent smaller note durations. If you examine your solo you will hear that you started right away with familiar rhythmical sequences, and continue to use them right until the end of the solo. They do sound good, but spending more time in really developing the rhythmical sentences with more care is something that can raise your playing to a whole new level. You know when to stop, you gotta focus to learn how to build rhythm better.
Phrasing: As before, too many phrases are ended on the root, and it is the same root in the same octave. The use of Mixolydian mode here is noticeable and it definitely sounds interesting, but when using it, you have to handle it with care, cause pure mixolydian cannot work standalone in blues and create a nice bluesy effect. My suggestion here would be to mix two patters together. I've made a lesson on mixing the patterns that will come out any day now, so I suggest you check it out when it does. It's about mixing major and minor patterns in blues in order to create different feels. If you would wanted to apply it to your phrasing structure/style, you could use one mixolydian voiced riff with major 3rd and minor 7th and then introduce a nice blues minor pentatonic lick as a response. Then continue again over mixo mode, than use major penta, and so on. Various combos can be achieve and always keep it simple if you are just starting to experiment with new scales. This way you have more time to hear, focus, and get yourself familiar with all the notes you play.
Phrasing effects & technique: Very good playing throughout, using some nice faster legato sequences, and cool bends. All this needs some polishing, bends could be more tighter, and legato could be more cleaner. In essence, technique and effect elements used are good but could need more work. Also, more vibrato use would raise the quality level by a big step.
Sound: As on the other collab, it is a bit buzzy in the higher register, mainly due to overuse of distortion. I would keep the distortion down, turn on slight overdrive, and overdrive the amp before the actuall pedal. Use pedal as a booster, and use something like tubescreamer more than anything else. Also I think there is a bit too much space added, deep reverb that eats away the definition of your playing so during a play I get an impression that you play "behind" the track in a way. Try to use less drive and less space, and you will hear more defined and more dynamic sound definitely.

Jones:

Rhythm: great feeling for the blues rhythm and this track in overall. I like how you progressed with note values from start to end. In some places there are notes that could possibly be left out, but I think the rhythm was good nonetheless. One thing that I could possibly suggest is tightening up the rhythm and note execution a bit. In the first part everything is nice and solid, but in the second part and towards the end I would like to hear more defined notes. I like the staccato style in the first part and all the notes had a nice borders between each other, but in the second part it kinds muddies here and there, specially on the faster sequences. So this would be something to practice a bit with a metronome.
Phrasing: Good phrases and good licks throughout. First two phrases are ended on the root, and I would like to see the other phrase resolve on some other note than the root to keep it more interesting. After that you inserted a nice Phrygian moment in there, which sounds very good to me. Right up until the end there are several very cool licks. What I would like to hear in the second part is possibly more logic, structure and connection between all those nice licks to form a story. You did nice syncopation and went to various places with the landing notes which sounded cool, but somehow I was getting the impression that you need to work a bit more on analyzing the phrases and using them as whole. Just a though to pay more attention on.
Phrasing techniques & Technique: I really like the fact that you used vibrato throughout the solo, but my impression is that it should be even more tighter, wider and more even. You do it fast, and vibrato should be a bit slower and in sync with the backing. Good way to vibrate the string is using 3 consecutive bends during one click, which means vibrating using eight note triplets. On this kind of slow backing using fast vibrato could be achieved using sixteen note triplets, so pay more attention on that synchronization is my advice here.
Sound: Very interesting sound, has a bit of a throaty character that can be found sometimes when using wah pedal. I like the tone color, but the overall quality of the preset could be better in terms of dynamics and buzzing in the higher register. These are minor problems, and I think both can be fixed with some EQing and compression. In general amount of overdrive is just about enough.

Dexxter:

Rhythm: Very good ideas, and tasty rhythmical figures, sounds very good to my ears. There are only couple of notes that have timing issues in the beginning and at the end, but these mistakes are mostly small - just notes that are not exactly on the beat. Other than that I think you really have a nice feel for the note durations and syncopation, specially those long bends. I like the fact you used shorter note durations towards the end. Focus more on those shaky notes in the beginning and end and it should be perfect.
Phrasing & Structure: You started to develop well the first part of the solo, and the second part as well, but towards the end phrases kinda loose touch with one another. Problem with the last couple of phrases is choosing good ending notes to round them up like logical musical sentences. All the phrases should correlate with one another and form a sort of a story. With a minimalistic approach that you used here it is relatively hard to achieve that cause every note carries more heaviness and function to itself. I would advise spending more time on focusing developing question&answer phrasing pairs to really get the feel for them. Other than that I really like the licks and the bends, they really fit nicely.
Technique: Your technique is great, good clean playing, and well defined notes. Some bends are a bit shaky and not precise, but all in all good use of them, and also good use of vibratos.
Sound: Great sound that cuts well through the mix, in the mids and round. Little crunchy, exactly the amount that is needed. No mistakes here from what I can hear.



leedbreak:

Rhythm: Good start and good use of rhythmic phrases to develop the solo to the peak in the middle with some more shorter durations. Towards the end a slow turn again, and in the end a solid wrap up. I think you play very interestingly your rhythmical sentences, and they do form a structure that is very nice. The thing that I could recommend possibly is inserting more longer notes, for example longer bends and holding them, this would really add a new dimension to this take. Just a thought. The whole solo has a nice structure, intro, build up, climax, build down, outro, very nicely rounded, just need to work more on finesses like connecting them in a more natural way, which is heavily related to melodic phrases as well.
Phrasing: Good development and nice melodic all around in a solo, nice notes are used, and sounds pretty solid. The part that needs a bit more work is the second part. I have a feeling that there are some unfinished and undefined phrases in there that could could really represent the world difference.
Techniques: Several techniques used that are good, palm muting for one, that is executed successfully throughout, and then bends and vibrato. I would suggest a bit more work on bending. It has to be precisely in pitch every time.
Sound: Your sound is good but I think it lacked some dynamics and mids to really cut through the mix. I will raise the level a bit in the final mix so it comes out nicely, and this is just something I would modify here. Other than that, I believe that a smaller amount of gain would really define your tone even better than it is now.


Staffy:

Rhythm: Just great, almost perfect, some timing issues that are strictly technical nature, but the sense of syncopation and rhythmic build up in your playing is just without any problems at all. Great job. Overall great take, really great sense for the blues.
Phrasing: Very tastefully used licks and phrases, that really have a nice development, every note is in it's place, very cool. In the middle there is that a bit odd arpeggio out of the bloom is good, but I have a feeling it is there more because of the habit of doing it instead of phrasing intentions. I like it, but could be a bit smoother I think, rhythmically as well.
Techniques: I beleive your tone control is very good and you are really playing these licks and phrases with a good deal of comfort. There is room for improvement since there are notes that are a bit loose, but it is not of major importance. Also noise could be a bit of an issue on several places, so try to keep your tone as tight as you can and only let the things you play to ring out.
Sound: Although the sound has just the right amount of drive, dynamics and space, I am finding that top end sizzle is a bit harsh on some high notes. Possibly smoothing out the presence range a bit with the EQ would really make it very nice. Not too much of course, so it doesn't loose the sparkle, just that spot with the harshness.


As always, thank you everybody for participating, it means a lot to me. I'll see you on the next one!

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[Dexxter]

Thanks again for this collab and comments Ivan

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[Staffy]

Thanks for the effort you put in the comments and this collaboration Ivan ! Great !!!
Regarding my take, I cannot other than agree when I listen back to it today.
I think the harshness in the sound as well as the noice comes from overuse of the
multiband compressor..... and then it's **** hard to record a Strat & a Marshall without noise,
but I will try a noisegate next time, hmmm, only problem with this is that it takes away some fret
noise inbetween phrases that makes it live...... Any way, thanks again for a great collab, and see you at the
next one !

//Staffay

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[Berglmir]

Same here: Thanks for all the effort in giving us feedback - helped a lot and I hope you will notice a difference in my playing in your next collab!

CHEERS!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Thanks for the effort you put in the comments and this collaboration Ivan ! Great !!!
Regarding my take, I cannot other than agree when I listen back to it today.
I think the harshness in the sound as well as the noice comes from overuse of the
multiband compressor..... and then it's **** hard to record a Strat & a Marshall without noise,
but I will try a noisegate next time, hmmm, only problem with this is that it takes away some fret
noise inbetween phrases that makes it live...... Any way, thanks again for a great collab, and see you at the
next one !

//Staffay

That is definitely true my man, compression possibly increased the harness of the top end a bit, and I agree that some noise is desireable in some situations. Keep rocking man, sounds really good, and you got the feel for the blues.

Same here: Thanks for all the effort in giving us feedback - helped a lot and I hope you will notice a difference in my playing in your next collab!

CHEERS!

Many thanks my friend, hope to see you on that collab!

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[sted]

Many thanks Ivan, this was definitley an interesting collab that gave me some room for expression and I loved it! hope the next one is forthcoming soon mate!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Will be soon out man, I'll notify you via PM as soon as it is out. Cheers

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[Sensible Jones]

Jones:

Rhythm: great feeling for the blues rhythm and this track in overall. I like how you progressed with note values from start to end. In some places there are notes that could possibly be left out, but I think the rhythm was good nonetheless. One thing that I could possibly suggest is tightening up the rhythm and note execution a bit. In the first part everything is nice and solid, but in the second part and towards the end I would like to hear more defined notes. I like the staccato style in the first part and all the notes had a nice borders between each other, but in the second part it kinds muddies here and there, specially on the faster sequences. So this would be something to practice a bit with a metronome.
Phrasing: Good phrases and good licks throughout. First two phrases are ended on the root, and I would like to see the other phrase resolve on some other note than the root to keep it more interesting. After that you inserted a nice Phrygian moment in there, which sounds very good to me. Right up until the end there are several very cool licks. What I would like to hear in the second part is possibly more logic, structure and connection between all those nice licks to form a story. You did nice syncopation and went to various places with the landing notes which sounded cool, but somehow I was getting the impression that you need to work a bit more on analyzing the phrases and using them as whole. Just a though to pay more attention on.
Phrasing techniques & Technique: I really like the fact that you used vibrato throughout the solo, but my impression is that it should be even more tighter, wider and more even. You do it fast, and vibrato should be a bit slower and in sync with the backing. Good way to vibrate the string is using 3 consecutive bends during one click, which means vibrating using eight note triplets. On this kind of slow backing using fast vibrato could be achieved using sixteen note triplets, so pay more attention on that synchronization is my advice here.
Sound: Very interesting sound, has a bit of a throaty character that can be found sometimes when using wah pedal. I like the tone color, but the overall quality of the preset could be better in terms of dynamics and buzzing in the higher register. These are minor problems, and I think both can be fixed with some EQing and compression. In general amount of overdrive is just about enough.

It's a shame that I didn't have more time to spend on this before I went away!
I know the sound wasn't great but unfortunately I'm basically using my live Rig straight into Audacity!
Thanks for the comments and thoughts! It certainly gives me something to work on!! I look forward to the next one and hope I can spend a bit more time on it!!

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to participate, that is surely worth something man, and I appreciate it. Hope to see you on the next collab as well.

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