Re: distortion, overdrive,fuzz,crunch,special sauce, secret goo

["Krispen Hartung" <info@krispenhartung.com>]

Totally agreed and respect your points, Rick, which leads me to wonder why 
some folks are taking my original post so far out into the weeds of false 
association. I merely said that I preferred Nel's clean tone on an album, 
not preferring his distorted tone.  Some folks interpret this as I am 
making 
an artistic judgment about works done with high gain/distorted tone, which 
would clearly be false representation of my point. I like a lot of 
guitarists who use gain and distortion....my CD collection is packed full 
of 
them. Scofield, one of my all time favorite guitarists, uses a touch of 
gain 
to define his tone, which I really love. Then I went on a different topic 
of 
saying how high gain and distortion can actually smooth over problems with 
articulation and control, when you try to play the same thing with tone. 
And we can test this. I validated it with myself over many years, and 
corrected it. And others seem to confirm the same. Then of course, this 
wandered off into the weeds with a series of attempted counter-examples 
that 
had nothing to do with my original point, that I am neglecting art or the 
final output, or that the case falls apart if you switch instruments setup 
in a way that you are not accustomed too...all not really having anything 
to 
do with my original point.

So, the thread appears to have evolved into another set of discussion 
points, which is cool - but I won't get into a debate about what has more 
artistic merit, playing clean or playing with gain and distortion, because 
I 
think I think arguing about that is just plain absurd and is an 
illegitimate 
topic of discussion, generating only dispute, misunderstanding, and 
resentment.

Kris

----- Original Message ----- 

> I've been following this thread avidly because I am currently in love
> with distortion, fuzz and overdrives in my own work lately
> (and have spend stupid money that I didn't really have buying
> up stomp box pedals in the vein).
>
> I totally hear what both Krispen and Bill are saying, viz a vis, the 
>fact 
> that
> heavily distorted guitars over heavily overdriven amps at high volume 
>can 
> cause
> a compression of both volume and a compression of timbre that can really
> both limit nuance and dynamics and also, potentially, hide poor 
>technique.
>
> At the same time,    I'm not a guitarist (though I own several) and I 
> don't tend to think like a
> guitarist.
>
> I have neither skill or nuance in my 6 string playing, but I do think 
>like 
> a multi-instrumentalist
> and a composer and I love the timbral range that is available with all 
> kinds of different distortions, overdrives,
> feedbackers  and fuzzes.
>
> If I was only playing guitar in my peformances, then I think I would 
> probably avoid the kind of
> tones that can potentially put  Krispen and Bill off of Nels Clines' 
> sound.
>
> As a composer, though,  I find his sound absolutely fascinating, 
> sometimes, specifically because
> it IS linear and non dynamic.      I've also found that it is 
>efficacious 
> in some composing to
> juxtapose musical lines that are very uni-dynamic against things that 
>are 
> much more so.........the
> resultant contrast makes for interesting and very musical results.
>
> Trent Reznor has been really good at this:   using very monolithic 
>sounds 
> (compressed to hell
> frequently) and then using a ton of dynamics in his vocals or in the 
>rest 
> of his arrangements
> (even just controlling the volume of his heavily distorted sounds in his 
> mix)
>
> Lately,  I'm most attracted to sounds that are ridiculously 
> overdistorted........almost to the point
> of obscuring the melody being played.
>
> I recently produced a very small Noise Festival and used my Olympus 
> recorder to record my sets
> and the set of Bryan of Rape Shower fame.
> I wasn't able to check my settings and the entire thing clipped horribly 
> with digital
> distortion................arguably the ugliest distortion found.
>
> To my delight,  I went back and listened to some of Bryan's tracks 
>which, 
> in a digital sound editor
> looked like solid black.   He had started his set out in a cool way , 
>just 
> playing an old blues
> song, fairly straightforward before launching into a very loud and 
> aggressive noise set.
>
> The blues tune, distorted to square wave clipping sounded really cool to 
> my ears.
>
> Again, as my brother so wisely said,  everyone has their own aesthetic 
>and 
> it's valid.
>
> I just wanted to put it out there that there is a lover on this list of
> stupid overly distorted sound.
>
> A student of mine who I just turned on to the My Bloody Valentine body 
>of 
> work said,
> "...............I'm also rethinking distortion now; I've never heard so 
> much color in distortion before!....."
>
> Noise and the noise-esque sounds you can get with radical combinations 
>of 
> distortion
> are the equivalent of White light.   They contain hundres of sine waves.
> To me the after the effect processing of such sounds can yield really 
> subtle and even
> quite melodic work.
>
> Yeah verily!
>
>