Which treatment for that guitar ?

[Bontempi]

Hello

The track is "Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

On the chorus they got this hyper dense guitar sound, very harsh but at the
same time very eerie.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/canichesnoirs/EGsample.mp3 - 1,8 mo
(a simple edit where you can hear the two choruses of the track)

I am wondering how they did achieve a such sound. The compression is so high
it's hard to guess what's going on here :)

There seems to be 2 guitar layers : the main riff (the low key single note
thing), and the eerie blurred melody/chord.
The eerie thing seems to be loads of superposed guitar tracks.
(Notice the reverse-ish line at 00:20 on the right)

Which kind of distortion or treatment gives that cold metallic but yet
dreamy sound ?
Is a chorus or a flanger used ? (like with a little depth but fast LFO rate
to give that kind of trembling / unstable sound ?)

I'm not trying to imitate but finding how they did achieve that sound may
help me in the mixing of some part of a song i'm currently working on.

I'm sure some of you might hate that sound ... but please try to help me :)
thanks !

Patrick

[playon]

It's hard to tell from that low-fi sample, but I think definitely some
flanging and perhaps chorus, or both. It reminds me of some of the
heavily processed guitar sounds from the new-wave 80s ala Flock of
Seagulls, the Fixx, etc The guitar part could have been doubled and
both tracks effected slightly differently. The best thing is to find
out by experimenting yourself and come up with something cool.

Al

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:09:21 +0200, "Bontempi" > wrote:

>Hello
>
>The track is "Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins.
>
>On the chorus they got this hyper dense guitar sound, very harsh but at the
>same time very eerie.
>http://perso.wanadoo.fr/canichesnoirs/EGsample.mp3 - 1,8 mo
>(a simple edit where you can hear the two choruses of the track)
>
>I am wondering how they did achieve a such sound. The compression is so high
>it's hard to guess what's going on here :)
>
>There seems to be 2 guitar layers : the main riff (the low key single note
>thing), and the eerie blurred melody/chord.
>The eerie thing seems to be loads of superposed guitar tracks.
>(Notice the reverse-ish line at 00:20 on the right)
>
>Which kind of distortion or treatment gives that cold metallic but yet
>dreamy sound ?
>Is a chorus or a flanger used ? (like with a little depth but fast LFO rate
>to give that kind of trembling / unstable sound ?)
>
>I'm not trying to imitate but finding how they did achieve that sound may
>help me in the mixing of some part of a song i'm currently working on.
>
>I'm sure some of you might hate that sound ... but please try to help me :)
>thanks !
>
>Patrick
>
>
>

[Ricky W. Hunt]

"Bontempi" > wrote in message
...
> Hello
>
> The track is "Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins.
>
> On the chorus they got this hyper dense guitar sound, very harsh but at
> the
> same time very eerie.
> http://perso.wanadoo.fr/canichesnoirs/EGsample.mp3 - 1,8 mo
> (a simple edit where you can hear the two choruses of the track)
>
> I am wondering how they did achieve a such sound. The compression is so
> high
> it's hard to guess what's going on here :)

Billy Corgan supposedly uses (and loves) the venerable (cough!) Alesis 3630
as his guitar compressor. That takes of the harsh sound...

[Ricky W. Hunt]

"Ricky W. Hunt" > wrote in message
news:zBc1d.168118$9d6.85162@attbi_s54...
>
> Billy Corgan supposedly uses (and loves) the venerable (cough!) Alesis
> 3630 as his guitar compressor. That takes of the harsh sound...

Shoulda been "That takes care of getting the harsh sound".

[Bontempi]

> It's hard to tell from that low-fi sample,

Well it's not a lo-fi sample :)
it's a well encoded 192 kbps MP3 and it does a fair justice to what you hear
on the track.
the overcompression may sound like digital compression artifacts but it's
not !

> But I think definitely some
> flanging and perhaps chorus, or both. It reminds me of some of the
> heavily processed guitar sounds from the new-wave 80s ala Flock of
> Seagulls, the Fixx, etc The guitar part could have been doubled and
> both tracks effected slightly differently. The best thing is to find
> out by experimenting yourself and come up with something cool.

Thanks
i've been trying different things this morning still with no good result ...
I will continue my research

Patrick

[Bontempi]

Hello

> Billy Corgan supposedly uses (and loves) the venerable (cough!) Alesis
3630
> as his guitar compressor. That takes of the harsh sound...

i made a quick research trying to find where he places it in his guitar
chain with no luck. I have a DBX 266xl which is quite a similar compressor
so i've tried a few things (using a miked small Park amp -which is all i've
got- and Native instruments Guitar Rig in my audio pc).

I think i need a square-ish distortion. In a synth a square oscillator is
always the "coldest" one. I tend to get something closer the researched
sound chaining 2 distortion pedals but i also get a BIG rumbling buzz noise.
Another problem is that it sounds very agressive while the sound i'm
searching is much sweeter.

If i remember well Flood produced that record. I guess it's him who did the
job ...

Still looking for some help !

Thanks
Patrick

[Johann Burkard]

Bontempi wrote:
> I think i need a square-ish distortion.

I listened to the track and the guitar's fuzz sound reminded me a bit of
the Big Muff Pi [1], maybe with a chorus.

[1]
<http://ehx.com/ehx2/Default.asp?q=f&f=%2FCatalog%2F04%5FDistortion%2F04%5FBig%5FMuff%5 FPi>

Johann
--
Niemand braucht Koordinatoren, die so unverschämt lügen. Die canceln,
denunzieren, restriktive "Regeln" aufstellen die zudem noch illegal
sind. (Netzterrorist Michael "Chiap Zap" Enezian in
k>)

[Craig Ramseur]

"Bontempi" > wrote in
:

> Hello
>
> The track is "Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins.
>
> On the chorus they got this hyper dense guitar sound, very harsh but at
> the same time very eerie.
> http://perso.wanadoo.fr/canichesnoirs/EGsample.mp3 - 1,8 mo
> (a simple edit where you can hear the two choruses of the track)
>
> I am wondering how they did achieve a such sound. The compression is so
> high it's hard to guess what's going on here :)
>
> There seems to be 2 guitar layers : the main riff (the low key single
> note thing), and the eerie blurred melody/chord.
> The eerie thing seems to be loads of superposed guitar tracks.
> (Notice the reverse-ish line at 00:20 on the right)
>
> Which kind of distortion or treatment gives that cold metallic but yet
> dreamy sound ?
> Is a chorus or a flanger used ? (like with a little depth but fast LFO
> rate to give that kind of trembling / unstable sound ?)
>
> I'm not trying to imitate but finding how they did achieve that sound
> may help me in the mixing of some part of a song i'm currently working
> on.
>
> I'm sure some of you might hate that sound ... but please try to help me
> :) thanks !
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
>

Hard to tell with so much **** going on. I hear awhat sounds like an
altered sample of a digital synth sound, making eerie swooshes, combined
with the guitar soounds. Hard to tell which is which. Also, maybe a
filter on the guitar (sorta like a half-cocked wah or something) with the
distortion/reverb/chorus.
Is this cut from the bands Big Muff Pi stage? That might also explain some
of the warbliness of the distortion when combined with other effects.

--
Now Go Play!

Craig Ramseur

[Jonathan Roberts]

"Bontempi" wrote:

> I am wondering how they did achieve a such sound.

Offhand (and trying to listen through the vocal -- the vocals were
always what made SP a second-grade band for me) I'd say there's a mix
between a relatively dry dirty tone and a heavily echo'd cleaner tone --
with perhaps heavy hand-riding of the fader so the echoes don't
overwhelm the track and call too much attention to themselves.

Sounds more than a bit like some of the tones Slowdive got. Always
sounded like synths to me with that band but it was supposed to be only
guitars.

--
Jonathan Roberts * guitar, keyboards, vocals * North River Preservation
----------------------------------------------
To reach me reverse: moc(dot)xobop(at)ggestran

[ScotFraser]

<< Billy Corgan supposedly uses (and loves) the venerable (cough!) Alesis 3630
as his guitar compressor. >><BR><BR>

That figures, since he's got one of the suckiest guitar sounds ever recorded.

Scott Fraser