Ivan's Instructor Week Collaboration!, FINAL MIX & COMMENTS
Ivan Milenkovic
May 16 2009, 08:35 PM
Instructor
Posts: 25.396
Joined: 20-November 07
From: Belgrade, Serbia
Hey guys, welcome to the Final Mix & Comments Thread for the Blues Week Collaboration. As you remember, participants had the assignment to create a solo that resembles the style of their favorite bluesman. We had also some original takes, and this is great as well! smile.gif

The details that participants provided along side with the backings are absolutely awesome, and I really like how you guys are approaching when analyzing great guitar players. Tone wise, all takes were a real pleasure to hear! smile.gif

Collab summary:

Type of Collab: Audio
Topic: Choose one favorite blues or blues influenced guitar player and play like him
Participants: 7
Final Mix Length: 4m46s

sted 0.00

Great take, and great introduction lick. You really nailed Gary on this one, and I think you have chosen proper licks to accommodate his style. The good thing that you did is mixing slow and fast licks. Like Gary, you used fast pentatonic licks, combined with smooth melodic passages. Your tone and sustain are very good, and bending is spot on. One thing that needs more work are vibratos, and try to do them from the wrist to achieve a nice, even and smooth vibrated tone. Muting in this piece is great as well, and all the notes come out nice and clear.
Rhythmically, your take was very good and balanced. Be aware that when you play the solo you have to exactly know how many notes you will use and where are your limits. This will prevent you from going out of tempo, and playing sloppy. Good sense for rhythm is one of the main aspects of a good playing, and since you have a good sense for rhythm, try using it the best way you can - by staying within the limits of your playing ability, and choosing the licks you are sure you can play in tempo with give note durations.
Regarding sound, your take was good, but improvements can be made. If you wanted Moore type of a sound, you have it, but it seems to me that there is little too much compression going on there. This is usually created by too much distortion in the preset. I know you may wonder how to achieve a good tone with lesson distortion, and I know this is tough to achieve, but try to use less overdriven presets, and possibly later compress them a bit. Much better this way than to loose dynamics within guitar software modeler/processor.
All in all, great take, lots of feeling in this one, and great sense for melody. Some minor rhythmic problems, but nothing that cannot be fixed with simple focusing on the duration of the notes. Great job man.

berko 0.43

Great first lick, very Gilmour-like! I love the bends, and the sound. Although the sound is a bit darker, and lacks that twang, I think you made a good preset to adapt your instrument to the take, so really good job there.
First things first, regarding your technique, bending and vibrato are good, and vibrato could use a bit more work/use. I would like to hear it more often, and on more notes. Where ever you stay a bit longer, and whenever you do a long bend, vibrate the note a little, it will surely add another dimension to your solo. The last note in the solo was nicely vibrated, so this kind of thing is what I'm talking about.
One thing that I like with your take is that you have dynamics in your fingers, and this is excellent. You know when to play softer, and when you play louder, and I appreciate the guitar player who can play this way. Gilmoure was definitely a guy who mastered the dynamics, and you are very well on the way to master it too, as far as I can see. If you keep applying the kind of dynamics you had in this take in your future exercises, jams, and playing, you will certainly become great at it.
You sound was very good, nice clean, little darker and fatter then needed, but I think you made great preset that makes up for this, and it really sounds cool and Gilmour like. My compliments on the tone, cause you made possible for the dynamics of your playing to come out which is very important.
Overall impression - very very good. Everything is nicely balanced, rhythm, melody, sound, dynamics. really nice job.

Bluenote 1.25

Starting right away with some awesome hammered on ghost notes, and continuing to develop the solo in the similar manner, inserting lots of great legato licks.
Well, listening your take certainly shows that you know what blues is all about. Great call and response licks, great thematic approach, and very nicely executed. Your control over the tone is smooth and balanced. One thing that could be a bit better is mixing dorian and major/minor scales in a more subtle way, as opposed to lick by lick structure that I sometimes get impression hearing.
Rhythmically - the solo is awesome. Everything is heavily syncopated, with a great sense where to play the licks/notes in order to accent the main beat. Really nice style of playing.
Regarding sound, it is great as well, but I think the delay is too intense, your guitar tracks seems in the background of the track, instead of being in the front. If you wanted to add some space to your guitar sound, I think choosing a less intense delay would get a good effect and bring up the guitar a bit more in the front as well, again, not volume, but space wise.
All in all, awesome solo, great playing, phrasing is very good as well, has a cool structure (with ocassional less subtle lick transfers), and in general sounds very specific and cool. I like this kind of a sound, and I think it would definitely be something that is excellent, only if the delay was a bit less loud, so your tone could really be in the front. Regardless of that, great solo, feel, tone and blues! smile.gif


Tolek 2.10

Nice muted turnaround lick to start with, and then a somewhat agressive style of playing with notes that pop out crystal clear. Very cool licks, and very cool theme development, specially in the first par of the solo. In the second part of the solo, the licks could use some more connecting and structure, specially the ending lick, but overall impression is very positive. I think you know what phrasing and phrasing effects are all about, you have a proper technique for the blues, and the feel is there. Just need that little bit of playing time with the blues to really feel it all the way, and really keep the whole solo together as one story. Another thing that could be a bit better (again in the second part) are vibratos, that could be a bit more stronger and defined.
Rhythmically wise, soloing is very very good, great accenting on the main parts of the backing, and very cool use of pauses as well.
Regarding the sound, everything turned out very nicely, and balanced, tone, EQ settings, space. Everything blends in very good, and your control over your sound also enables every note to come out clear as a bell. Very defined and very precise.
Overall impression of your take is clear, precise, good sense for the notes that you play, and great overall guitar tone quality. Just some fine tuning here and there, specially with the vibrato could be useful, but other than that it is very well done.

Sensible Jones 2.57

Very cool starting lick with the raked bend, and cool vibrato. Your idea aobut two guitars sounds great, and it is very nicely executed as well. It gives the impression that two players are playing and "talking" with each other. Very cool indeed. It made me wanna more of your soloing.
Very solid bending and vibrato technique, vibrato could be used more often, but it is good when used. Bending is very good, and you have a good sense for when to bend and to use bended notes within a melody, not just using bending as effect, which is very positive thing.
Rhythmically speaking, your take was very good, and one thing that I could possibly recommend is to keep your notes tight and precise, even when they are slow. This is by no means a big suggestion, just a minor detail, hard to notice, but your take seemed a bit slower. I'm not talking about using slow passages, that part is excellent, and with couple of notes you made excellent choices, but just need to tighten up everything a bit so that it is really really spot on the backing. This is mostly related to a second part of the solo, and the finishing lick.
I really got the Clapton feeling from this take, he uses similar licks, and had similar guitar tone back in the early days. It is very similar to Peter Green as well, just needs that extra bit of reverb that Green likes to utilize.
Sound wise, take is very good, slightly overdrive, but solid and with dynamics. Very nice, reminds me of early Clapton as I said, and that kind of vintage sound is sure a nice thing to hear.
In overall, your take was great, you have a very nice idea for making two guitars instead of using just one, and creativity gets high grades on this one. Sound is cool, your playing is cool, licks are cool, you know what blues is all about.

andarr 3.35

Excellent first lick, I really got a special vibe from this one. I like the idea of first part that is slower, and later on you insert some nice pentatonic legato sequences, while in the end you insert some cool bending licks. Whole your take can be divided into these three sections, and everyone has the a cool structure where you mostly make variations of the same notes. Sounds very good, and development is very satisfactory. The last part is great, and reminds me of Frusciante the most, while first second one is more Santana like, and first one is somewhere in between. Very nice.
Your technique is nice and balanced. I think more work could be done on all aspects of the solo, and specially muting, bending and vibrato. These three things would make your tone shine even more, cause you have a really nice sustain on single notes, and just need that bit of extra precision on faster bits to let every note clear and precise.
Sound is spot on - somewhere between Santana and Frusciante, and it is very very good. A bit loud for my taste, could be a bit lower in volume, but really really good, and with a nice breakup as well.
My general impression was that you are a good player with a nice tone, and know how to use rhythm within your solo to create a very interesting improvisation that will be always intertaining for the listener. My only advice would be to tighten up the techniques a bit, specially those fast legato passages, and make your vibrato even more pronounced. It will be awesome.

JamesT 4.04

Great starting lick, and after that one, the tone becomes louder and you go into melody development. Very cool improvisation, sounds very similar to Jimmy Page, but also Gary Moore, and Santana could be found in here as well, specially in the beginning, and in the end. That legato lick is what reminds me the most of Page, and it sounds very good, great feel on that one, and inserted in just the right moment.
I could give one suggestion here, and that is to use more pronounced vibrato perhaps. Your vibrato is there, it is pretty good, but could be more pronounced. The one in the beginning is almost perfect, and this is the kind of vibrato I like to hear, wide, audible, and in sync with the tempo. Your bending control is great, the next step is more refined vibrato control.
Rhythmically, the whole take is very good, and although the notes are little out in that legato part, it is cool, cause this part functions as a "feeling" part, so it is very much allowed (and welcomed!).
Sound is great, nice and clean, but with added overdrive that sounds piercing but smooth and fool. Nice rounded sound, could be a bit more quieter, but no big deal, I like to hear it clear so it is OK.
Overall impression - great soloing, and very good feeling for this minor blues track, I like how you accentuated the strong notes, really cool, and the bending in the end is really inspiring. Well done.


Again my compliments to you guys on job well done and great sense for creativity, and see you on the next collab soon I hope! smile.gif

Cheers
Ivan

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Attached File  Blues_Week_Collab_FINAL_MIX.mp3 ( 8.76MB ) Number of downloads: 230
 


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Replies (1 - 6)
Tolek
May 16 2009, 10:11 PM
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From: Brighton
Great comment, I´ll try to concentrate more on my vibrato. Thanks a lot for your effort!

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JamesT
May 16 2009, 10:50 PM
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Joined: 12-April 08
From: USA, NV
Thanks for the excellent comments and suggestions. ...always can work on the vibrato for sure. I'll go back and put the guitar lower in the mix to see if it blends better. I think you're right. It's a bit too loud.

Awesome takes everyone! smile.gif


Edit:
Wow, I went back and dropped the guitar about 3dB down and it sounds much better. Funny, how when you go back to listen on a different day, everything changes.

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This post has been edited by JamesT: May 17 2009, 01:43 AM


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sted
May 17 2009, 11:35 AM
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Once again mate, thanks for the constructive advice, I really enjoy playing the blues and look forward to more collabs with you.

Cheers!

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Ivan Milenkovic
May 18 2009, 11:03 AM
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From: Belgrade, Serbia
Thanks guys, one more collab coming up very soon, stay tuned! smile.gif

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Bogdan Radovic
May 29 2009, 09:31 AM
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Good job guys on making this one!! I enjoyed listening to it! smile.gif

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Lian Gerbino
May 30 2009, 09:38 PM
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congrats everybody! and a "good job" for Ivan!
well done guys smile.gif

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