Author Topic: Crawlers (of Doom) (Read 12813 times)

carlaz · « **on:** March 04, 2006, 12:26:31 AM »

The missus was out at a hen night, so I stayed in and whipped up a little clip with my Crawler-loaded Gibson LP Std. Been listening to too much Sabbath today, so had to tune down to C# and do some Iommiesque riffing. Crawlers do the crunchy metaloid thing pretty well ....

The guitar went straight into my iBook via the Tascam US-122 USB audio interface, and I used GarageBand's amp sims. Considering that, I don't think it sounds too bad! There's bridge rhythm pretty much all the way through, most of it double-tracked with neck rhythm, too. The brief and dodgy lead line was the neck pup. I didn't much worry about playing everything perfect, but just put it down. :) The drums are just some free loops and samples. No bass on this one.

No idea whether I've actually ripped off one or several actual Sabbath riffs, or whether it's just "in the style of". Good fun to play, anyway :twisted:

sambo · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2006, 12:36:12 AM »

dude how... HOW do you get that sound from garageband?!!! i too have an ibook (G4) and got a griffin iMic thingy to plug my guitar into the laptop... sounds like a piece of shitee....

solo was brief yes, but not that dodgy, at least it was in key and fitted and was to some degree melodic. nice stuff for a 'thrown down' clip.

carlaz · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2006, 12:58:05 PM »

Quote from: sambo

dude how... HOW do you get that sound from garageband?!!! i too have an ibook (G4) and got a griffin iMic thingy to plug my guitar into the laptop... sounds like a piece of shitee....

Well, I did try the iMic myself in the past, and didn't have much success with it. I splashed on the Tascam, which is a semi-decent USB audio interface but nothing extreme, and it does a noticeably better job .

Other than that, tuning down to C# (dropped-C#, anyway) with 10-52s helps heavy things up :twisted: as do the Crawlers -- which hold up much better on low tunings than the old stock pups. And doubled-tracked guitars, panned slightly left and right respectively, is the cheapest ticket to bigger guitar sounds.

I also spent a little time playing with the amp settings; this actually didn't start off trying to be a Crawler clip, it was just me tweaking around looking to get a sound I liked better than the GB "Classic Rock" preset, which is a plausible basic overdriven sound, but that's about it. I tweaked up a new setting for the "British Gain" amp model (the "Classic Rock" preset uses "American Gain") which sounded good when I started Sabbathfying on it, so I chucked in some drum loops and recorded my chugging :)

Not sure whether there's an easy way to extract and share GB settings, but here's a URL to a screenshot with the amp settings I used: http://www.carlaz.com/music/images/El_Sabado.jpg

Quote from: sambo

solo was brief yes, but not that dodgy, at least it was in key and fitted and was to some degree melodic. nice stuff for a 'thrown down' clip.

Alas, the sad truth is that my solos never get much better! Since I have effectively no practice regimen and pull out the guitar only every few weeks, really, everything is a throw down! But ya work with what ya got! :)

WITH FULL DISTORTION · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2006, 04:06:58 PM »

EXCELLENT TONE
Good playing.. BUT, i guess the guitars are out of tune
aside from that, very good clip man
Hails
J.P

Ratrod · « **Reply #4 on:** March 05, 2006, 07:32:27 PM »

That's an awesome clip. I have death tuned my Crawler equipped Yamaha SG to drop C once. They're very doomy and scary in lower tunings.

I absolutey love this clip. I'm gonna death tune the SG tomorrow and play the living sh!t out of it. :twisted:

BTW, I tried the Warpig with an old Boss Heavy Metal the other day. It sounded like Lemmy's bass. What a sick pedal. :lol:

sambo · « **Reply #5 on:** March 05, 2006, 07:54:35 PM »

haha tuned to C# lol....
damn its a shame i wasnt on this forum before i got my zoom- i could have saved a lot of money just getting a tascam thing or something similar like you. never thought of the panning thats such a simple idea but probly adds loads of depth as you said.

cheers for the pic of the settings. annoying thing is, my ibook's screen is smashed at the moment lol so the only time i can use it is through this old monitor in my parents room, which really defies the point of having a laptop!

and sympathise with you on solos- i suck at leads so much, like you i never really practice that much, the only time i do is at band practice where we just work on the same old songs and i never really practice that much at home.

btw, what do you think of the ibook in general?

carlaz · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:04:15 AM »

Quote from: sambo

haha tuned to C# lol....
damn its a shame i wasnt on this forum before i got my zoom- i could have saved a lot of money just getting a tascam thing or something similar like you.

If I was doing it again, I'd get one of the new Line6 Toneport, which is basically a USB interface like the Tascam but comes with some amp-modelling software as well. More tools in the box .... On the other hand, extra software amp models might put more of a strain on the CPU than it can handle, since GB is pretty resource hungry!

Quote from: sambo

never thought of the panning thats such a simple idea but probly adds loads of depth as you said.

Definitely. Go back and listen close on yer CDs, and you'll probably hear at least two guitars at different stereo positions. Quite often they'll have different tones (perhaps the part played on different guitars or with different amps); I was slack and just flipped the pickup switch rather than trying to tweak up another amp setting or anything. :)

Quote from: sambo

and sympathise with you on solos- i suck at leads so much, like you i never really practice that much, the only time i do is at band practice where we just work on the same old songs and i never really practice that much at home.

I blame my condition on being a respectable married man with a full-time day job! ;) I remember when I played guitar in my first band, like 12 years ago, I just played guitar continuously, all the time -- and while I think I'm actually technically a little better now, I have totally lost that "fretboard familiarity" which comes from just playing all the damn time. Oh well!

Quote from: sambo

btw, what do you think of the ibook in general?

Well, I'm a long-time Mac user -- gave up on PCs when Windows replaced DOS and looked bad doing it -- and will take my iBook at home over my Windows XP machine at work any day! That said, I find the iBook screen a little small (my previous machine was a G3 Powerbook with the same resolution more more actual area), and I haven't yet splashed out on an external monitor to hook up for home use. And the G4 is a touch underpowered for the likes of GarageBand, which as noted is a resource-eating beast! ;) On the other hand, it's extremely user-friendly for cooking up fast demos and stuiff, and I much prefer actually using GB to my "lite" version Cubase (which is more powerful, but uglier!). Machine-wise, I'm hoping to hold out for a new Intel-based Mac later this year or early 2007 -- maybe a desktop iMac rather than a laptop if my life is sufficiently settled!

carlaz · « **Reply #7 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:12:20 AM »

Quote from: WITH FULL DISTORTION

EXCELLENT TONE
Good playing.. BUT, i guess the guitars are out of tune aside from that, very good clip man

Guess I need to keep checking with GarageBand's instrument tuner after slacking all the strings! ;)

Quote from: Ratrod

That's an awesome clip. I have death tuned my Crawler equipped Yamaha SG to drop C once. They're very doomy and scary in lower tunings.
I absolutey love this clip. I'm gonna death tune the SG tomorrow and play the living sh!t out of it. :twisted:

Yeah, I actually started tuning down for this one because I was remembering one of your comments on how well the Crawlers did on low tunings! And having tried it now, I gotta agree. :twisted:

Quote from: Ratrod

BTW, I tried the Warpig with an old Boss Heavy Metal the other day. It sounded like Lemmy's bass. What a sick pedal. :lol:

Yeah, I used to have one of those! It even made the tiny little 35w Peavey solid-state critter that was my first ever guitar amp sound OKish. Alas, I think I left it with an ex-girlfriend who played keys and bass! She's probably still got it .... but it would be too much work trying to get it off her again. She ended up with one of my old wah pedals, too, come to think of it .... So it goes! :roll:

Underground_Player · « **Reply #8 on:** March 25, 2006, 11:52:06 PM »

That's the first time I've headbanged alone in front of a computer monitor.

Either I'm sad or that was a great clip :lol:

carlaz · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2006, 02:32:33 PM »

:D I oughta put some bass on there to get things properly heavy -- but for a BKP clip, I wanted just guitar (with some drums to keep things chugging). And it's not too light-weight with just guitars alone! :twisted:

I ought to get off my lazy butt and write some archetypically Sabbathoid lyrics so I can work the riff up into an actual song ....

sambo · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2006, 04:01:58 PM »

^^^^ yer GB is definately power-hungry!!!!!

im pleased with my ibook.... screen is a little small like you say... it doesnt help that our desktop PC has a 19" monitor!!! :lol: :twisted:

when im older im definately gonna get a desktop MAC.... i always try and tell my mates about how cool MAC's are but none of 'em ever listen....

my sis got a windows laptop and within a week she had a shed load of viruses from downloading just a few things, but ive downloaded endless amounts of files from limewire and the like and havent been affected by any viruses/pop-ups e.t.c e.t.c at all....

willo · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2006, 04:14:42 PM »

OT, but you can avoid viruses relatively easy on windows - I've managed to avoid them pretty well...basically, get a Firewall, such as Sygate Personal Firewall (completely free), the free version of Adaware, the windows SP2, a decent anti virus program and if you want, use Mozilla or Firefox for browsing instead of IE.

sambo · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2006, 04:18:17 PM »

^ yer true.... its not THAT much of an issue i spose.... i think i just prefer macs because the desktop and layout is a lot sleeker and cooler... lol the WORST things to judge a comp/operating system... lol.

whats OT by the way? havent seen that abbreviation before lol :oops:

carlaz · « **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2006, 04:19:27 PM »

Quote from: sambo

^^^^ yer GB is definately power-hungry!!!!!

That's for sure!

Quote from: sambo

im pleased with my ibook.... screen is a little small like you say... it doesnt help that our desktop PC has a 19" monitor!!! :lol: :twisted: when im older im definately gonna get a desktop MAC....

Yeah, I hear that, too. My work PC has a whacking great old CRT monitor, and looking at the iBook when I get home seems positively claustrophobic! On the other hand, my work CRT wouldn't physically fit in the available space on the desk at home .... ;)

Quote from: sambo

my sis got a windows laptop and within a week she had a shed load of viruses from downloading just a few things, but ive downloaded endless amounts of files from limewire and the like and havent been affected by any viruses/pop-ups e.t.c e.t.c at all....

IMO, OS X is more secure and stable than Windows -- but there's no Nobel Prize for that! ;) I switched to Macs in the early 90s, and can't say I've ever regretted it. Still, if/when Macs become more popular (and as the Intel-based Macs start rolling out), the day will come when there are actual viruses and such attacking Macs. But not yet! :)

I do like the user-friendliness of GarageBand, despite it's awesome demands for power. It's really easy fto just fire up and start rocking, which is key when you're caught between disorganization and lack of time (which I always am :)!). And as the clip shows, with yer BKPs smoking and GB crunching, you can make some passably decent noise without killing yourself or breaking the bank. :)

sambo · « **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2006, 04:26:02 PM »

yer i really want my ibook back now... grrrrrrr.....

i love having something which is kinda of an "undiscovered" gem... although MAC's arent exactly undiscovered lol....

also, dont you just love 'expose' !!!! haahahaha

by the way to people who dont know what that is, im not a pervert, its meant to have an accent on the last 'e' pronounced- "exposay"