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Old 01-26-2009, 01:07 PM   #15
yep
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Join Date: Aug 2006
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Okay, so I just happened to plug my laptop into some real speakers and wow do I need to learn my own lessons!

The compression in the second track is terrible-- the detection filter was set too high for the A note and there are these monster notes every so often... Goes to show why you need decent monitors! The laptop speakers wouldn't reproduce lows accurately, so I couldn't tell what was happening until I plugged the laptop into real speakers three days later. But the example still works for the purpose intended, to show how compression can alter the sonic quality of the music.

In any case, this also illustrates another lesson-- don't go using these settings as presets!

I will get back to this and talk through some of the settings.

PS quick addition to the great answer from FarBeyondMetal: palm-muted chugs usually require lower gain (less distortion) than you might think. past a certain point, more distorted no longer sounds tougher, only fizzier. Also, how you hold the pick makes a difference. The guitar-teacher-hated "pencil" grip/wrist picking combination often sounds considerably chunkier than the more technically correct flat grip/elbow picking. keep in mind that almost 100% of all fast-picked metal riffs have the guitars doubled by kick drum, bass, and more tracks of guitars, so it is not necessarily realistic to expect a single track of guitar have the same effect.
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