Help me improve my metal solos

[Maxbrothman]

Playing aside which will improve with each time I do this focusing on each note, I would like to know if I have settings and recording in shape





EMGs. Bridge EMG81 pickup. Volume is about 8 to 9 and Tone is midway.

Marshall SC20h

P 6.5
B 8
M 6
H 6
T 6
M 7
G 8.5

I have a Boss NS-2 in front.



I am not using the GE-7 or the Chorus for this one. The Boss SD-1 stays on and is basically a boost setting.

The plate reverb on the far left is just a hint to help with my bad playing. The volume is the bottom right dial and it's below 9 o'clock. The time is the upper middle dial. It is also on 9 o'clock.

The DD3 is basically the 10 o'clock at vole level as well as the feedback.The D time dial is at the lower side of the 12.5ms to 50ms setting.

I am using an IR in my cab sim from Two Notes. It's an Iron maiden one. I can use the Two Notes' own cabs. Usually, I mic a Marshall 60A (Brit 60A) with the Dyn 57 (SM57) slightly off access (22%). One mic only. I can use a second but just want to deal with one first. I have attached the file as a zip. It extracts to a .top file for use with a Two Notes Torpedo.

I'd like to just get the best metal solo tone I can get and then work on my playing. If you have any .top files or Two Notes stuff like Wall of Sound I can try those files also and match the settings in the Torpedo.

It is just a single track. I am in the green recording in my Focusrite, not yellow or red. Basically somewhere between -16 and -12 db.

on Cubase the signal looks like this



I know it is a lot to take in. I am just wondering if it's too much gain, not enough gain, etc. What I would like is to figure out how the pros get their solo to sound so good, especially with the distortion going on.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

Practice your bends. I hear a lot that sound pretty seasick or wilted, however you want to say it. And get a metronome, (OK, metronome app..it is the 21st century after all...) and practice with it. Practice scales, forwards and backwards. Practice such things as three notes up, two notes down, three notes up, two notes down, all the way through extended scales. And always in time, with a metronome or equivalent.

What you need is just general practice. It takes time. There's no shortcut.

This is not about your tone or amount of gain you use. In fact, I say to practice clean, so you focus on the technique. Good tone on top of bad technique sounds bad. Good technique with a mediocre tone is an improvement.

 

[tubes]

Some of the details you are asking about are much more important when adding an instrument to a mix than when playing alone.
For e.g, thinking about delay and/or reverb settings: if you are playing alone just make a sound that is agreeable to you.
When you mix it with other instruments those settings are going to change a lot.
When you played chords, towards the end of your clip...
Your settings sounded good there, as if they are optimised for chords rather than solos.

 

[Maxbrothman]

Practice your bends. I hear a lot that sound pretty seasick or wilted, however you want to say it. And get a metronome, (OK, metronome app..it is the 21st century after all...) and practice with it. Practice scales, forwards and backwards. Practice such things as three notes up, two notes down, three notes up, two notes down, all the way through extended scales. And always in time, with a metronome or equivalent.

What you need is just general practice. It takes time. There's no shortcut.

This is not about your tone or amount of gain you use. In fact, I say to practice clean, so you focus on the technique. Good tone on top of bad technique sounds bad. Good technique with a mediocre tone is an improvement.

Okay, so basically, you think I have the settings fine, and the recording looks about how it should be. That is where I am today with everything I have learned, asking questions about getting where I want to be.

If that's all good, that will not worry me so much, and I can focus on playing and practicing. I have a year's worth of weekly stuff I can review from lessons I took with everything you mentioned. Mostly the same advice. The problem was the teacher had great playing ability, but his tone was surprisingly not that great. He could dance around the fretboard but sounded like he was playing through a small 8" practice combo. I asked questions about tone, but he couldn't help me much and just told me to ask others in the forums. From what I could see, he happily played extremely well on a sub $200 practice amp in his own studio. Probably because he was too busy practicing and teaching.

I was talking to a guy who played guitar for 60 years, and he said to keep going over A Major pentatonic, A Minor pentatonic, and learning Dominant 7th. He mentioned the Nashville number system and thought between all those he could hear nearly everything done in music.

 

[Maxbrothman]

Some of the details you are asking about are much more important when adding an instrument to a mix than when playing alone.
For e.g, thinking about delay and/or reverb settings: if you are playing alone just make a sound that is agreeable to you.
When you mix it with other instruments those settings are going to change a lot.
When you played chords, towards the end of your clip...
Your settings sounded good there, as if they are optimised for chords rather than solos.

Yes, my settings were mostly done for chords, so I was definitely wondering what changes would be made for solos. I don't mind EQing the amp again for soloing. Whatever it takes. The EQ pedal is free to use if that helps but maybe that's not it.

 

[RCM 800]

When I was a kid I played the outro solos to Free Bird from LS's One more from the Road Live LP over and over picking up licks and improvising. Taught me about double stops and bending in key and pull offs and was a great base for improvising over because it goes on for so long. You really need to stop worrying about tone and work on technique Max. Work on bending in key, hitting the notes your picking cleanly. The rig/tone you choose is all subjective but skill is skill and only comes from practice for most people.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

Forget about your tone. Unplug your guitar and turn your amp off. Practice is about playing, not finding a great tone out of your amplifier.
Tone is the easy part. You don't have to practice to get THAT under control.

Once you've got your metronomic timing at any tempo (to a point), once you've got precise bends to pitch, once you've got your scales and arpeggios down, now you're really getting started.

 

[Maxbrothman]

Forget about your tone. Unplug your guitar and turn your amp off. Practice is about playing, not finding a great tone out of your amplifier.
Tone is the easy part. You don't have to practice to get THAT under control.

Once you've got your metronomic timing at any tempo (to a point), once you've got precise bends to pitch, once you've got your scales and arpeggios down, now you're really getting started.

I get the point about practice and your recommendation there is A+

However, I don't think it is hard for me to just play without gear and then maybe turn it on after practice to hear it for a while. Like not mutually exclusive things to do and let's call it giving me more inspiration to keep learning.

Last year and at the end of this spring I was doing a lot of lessons and wasn't on the boards. So at the end of that, I really wanted to go back to hearing electric guitar again.

I think I can do both worlds. Don't worry sometimes I have enough of listening to the gear and just go back to guitar unplugged. My semi-hollow Gretsch is nice for that.

 

[jchrisf]

Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE) - Kindle edition by Stetina, Troy. Arts & Photography Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE) - Kindle edition by Stetina, Troy. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE).

www.amazon.com

 

[Matthews Guitars]

Go to youtube and type in "metal backing tracks for guitar" and see what you find. Use them. Great way to listen, learn, and practice.

 

[Maxbrothman]

Go to youtube and type in "metal backing tracks for guitar" and see what you find. Use them. Great way to listen, learn, and practice.

Yes. At the moment, I am using a lot of Songster.

 

[Maxbrothman]

Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE) - Kindle edition by Stetina, Troy. Arts & Photography Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE) - Kindle edition by Stetina, Troy. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Metal Lead Guitar Vol. 1 (GUITARE).

www.amazon.com

I have his scales book!

 

[jchrisf]

I have his scales book!

That metal series is a lot of fun.. and you learn a lot without realizing it because you are having so much fun

 

[junk notes]

Go to youtube and type in "metal backing tracks for guitar" and see what you find. Use them. Great way to listen, learn, and practice.

Sounds good. add a yt video loop extension to your web browser to repeat key parts.. so you can nail it!

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I've heard it put 2 ways, & both are true...

1. if it doesn't sound good acoustically, it won't sound good through an amp...

2. if it doesn't sound good slow, it won't sound good fast...

take that more as a philosophical point.

That said, just because you can play it & sound good, unplugged & slow, doesn't mean that, when you plug in, it will translate over immediately. You will need to adapt for the different projection method.

I think I've told you before, string control is paramount. That seems to be one of your major challenges. Muting strings when not played. Adjusting pick attack. Vibrato, bends - intonation.

Practice running scales, using alternate picking. Every note should be picked in the opposite direction as the note picked before it, even if switching strings makes it seem unnatural. Make that a discipline.

From there though, running scales up/down is not very expressive & you need to work on single note control, & other patterns, mixing bends, w/ notes & vibrato.

Then mix them.

 

[-BOOGIEMAN-]

Lots of woodshedding will get you where you want to be…focus on tone when your chops are up to speed. Tone means nothing without chops…

 

[Exotic]

your sound is good ,sounds like u need some scales ,and arpeggios ,also hammering and pulling off . listen to yngwie malmsteen ,marty friedman and eddie van halen for inspiration . lock yourself in your room for hours and for the next 15 years try to copy note for note some of your favorite solos ,once u have that make up your own music and mostly come up with your own style and techniques .have fun .

 

[paul-e-mann]

Playing aside which will improve with each time I do this focusing on each note, I would like to know if I have settings and recording in shape



View attachment 111978

EMGs. Bridge EMG81 pickup. Volume is about 8 to 9 and Tone is midway.

Marshall SC20h

P 6.5
B 8
M 6
H 6
T 6
M 7
G 8.5

I have a Boss NS-2 in front.

View attachment 111979

I am not using the GE-7 or the Chorus for this one. The Boss SD-1 stays on and is basically a boost setting.

The plate reverb on the far left is just a hint to help with my bad playing. The volume is the bottom right dial and it's below 9 o'clock. The time is the upper middle dial. It is also on 9 o'clock.

The DD3 is basically the 10 o'clock at vole level as well as the feedback.The D time dial is at the lower side of the 12.5ms to 50ms setting.

I am using an IR in my cab sim from Two Notes. It's an Iron maiden one. I can use the Two Notes' own cabs. Usually, I mic a Marshall 60A (Brit 60A) with the Dyn 57 (SM57) slightly off access (22%). One mic only. I can use a second but just want to deal with one first. I have attached the file as a zip. It extracts to a .top file for use with a Two Notes Torpedo.

I'd like to just get the best metal solo tone I can get and then work on my playing. If you have any .top files or Two Notes stuff like Wall of Sound I can try those files also and match the settings in the Torpedo.

It is just a single track. I am in the green recording in my Focusrite, not yellow or red. Basically somewhere between -16 and -12 db.

on Cubase the signal looks like this

View attachment 111981

I know it is a lot to take in. I am just wondering if it's too much gain, not enough gain, etc. What I would like is to figure out how the pros get their solo to sound so good, especially with the distortion going on.

Practice, practice, practice, thats all you should be thinking about! Your tone is fine, pick out a metal solo you like and play along with it til you get it perfect! Then move onto another one!

 

[Derek S]

It just comes together after enough time for most, you simply have to put the work in, there's no big secret...eventually we all reach that zone where you feel like you have command over the tools/techniques you chose to develop. You'll be spitting out licks as needed without much thought after you've been playing long enough, trust us! Sometimes you have to get angry. Sometimes you have to close your eyes, etc. Soloing is the most expressive part of playing so you just have to own it. Also, if you think you're doing something that feels different from others or odd, try to stick with it and even focus on it (it helps your personal style points in the long run, vital!).