Microtonal metal?

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Defi

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This may be a missing link in my perception of music. Where can I get one of these to start fucking around with
 

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I'd say start with Brendan Byrnes' Micropangaea. It's the most easy-listening one in my opinion, that album is just so good! Use his website, he gives plenty of explanation on each song!

Micropangaea
 

Defi

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Easy listening? Pff. I've always been totally drawn to the stuff in music that sounds like it doesn't belong even though it belongs and this seems to be... the epitome of that to me. Very inspiring. Just when all music is beginning to sound the same this might be a bit of something that has me thirsty again.

I mean I want a guitar though... but hell if I know what EDO (killer, new term I don't know) to get? I don't have any experience with eastern music or scales, I pretty much just want to get a guitar and make noise with it and see what happens. which is basically how i approach a conventional guitar anyway.

Shit there's an SG on ebay right now
Gibson SG 20 Tone Microtonal Guitar One of A Kind | eBay
And I was planning to get an SG for my next guitar anyway!

Alternatively I have a good tech that could modify one of my current guitars, but it would probably end up as much as that SG costs already.
 

pestilentdecay

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Easy listening? Pff. I've always been totally drawn to the stuff in music that sounds like it doesn't belong even though it belongs and this seems to be... the epitome of that to me. Very inspiring. Just when all music is beginning to sound the same this might be a bit of something that has me thirsty again.

I mean I want a guitar though... but hell if I know what EDO (killer, new term I don't know) to get? I don't have any experience with eastern music or scales, I pretty much just want to get a guitar and make noise with it and see what happens. which is basically how i approach a conventional guitar anyway.

Shit there's an SG on ebay right now
Gibson SG 20 Tone Microtonal Guitar One of A Kind | eBay
And I was planning to get an SG for my next guitar anyway!

Alternatively I have a good tech that could modify one of my current guitars, but it would probably end up as much as that SG costs already.

I know the guy who's selling that, he actually sold me his 25edo guitar. You can see a video of it in the post Omega Cluster just made (the only youtube link he posted)
 

Defi

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I know the guy who's selling that, he actually sold me his 25edo guitar. You can see a video of it in the post Omega Cluster just made (the only youtube link he posted)
I suppose there's no way to really know without trying? I could listen to some compositions in various EDOs, but would it make any sense without an experienced ear anyway?

I will have to sleep on this.
 

Necris

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If it interests you jump in, it can't hurt.*
You'll have to deal with a learning curve as your brain learns to hear what you're playing as something other than simply "12 out of tune", though.
In 20 you'll have the familiar minor third interval identical to what you find in 12. The intervals are 60 cents. You would have access to Blackwood, Diminished, Mavila, Pelogic and even a weird version of 12-edo chromatic, among other scales/modes.


For a while I was making music with a bass tuned so that some of the strings were quarter tones sharp or flat, then I removed the frets from a guitar and played fretless for a few months, never wrote any music with it but it was a ton of fun.

You'll have to deal with a learning curve as your brain learns to hear what you're playing as something other than simply "12 out of tune) though.

Right now I'm thinking about having a bass done to match my microtonal guitar. I know it won't be cheap, but I have a candidate in mind for the job (Ibanez SR885LE)

*The cost of paying someone to refret a guitar to a new temperament will hurt your wallet for sure, though but it's a necessary evil if you aren't willing to do it yourself. I had a go a couple years ago at it with almost passable results. :lol:
 

pestilentdecay

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I suppose there's no way to really know without trying? I could listen to some compositions in various EDOs, but would it make any sense without an experienced ear anyway?

I will have to sleep on this.

As Necris said, you can just jump in and try. And I kinda agree with that it's a little difficult to discriminate between the different EDOs if you don't have an experienced ear, but obviously it's still weird and fun to listen to. But I'd definitely say it's a really different experience having the instrument in your hands as opposed to just listening to microtonal compositions, and I'm sure you'd still get some fun out of the instrument when you start screwing around with it, regardless if you're heavily into microtonal theory or not.
 
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I have a fretless bass and I put vinyl fret markers in 22EDO on it... Let's just say I'm glad they weren't real frets, but it was really fun to play with it!
 

Defi

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If it interests you jump in, it can't hurt.

Ya this is more or less the conclusion I've come to. A few more shots of vodka and I'll probably pull the trigger on mr. 20edo sg.

Learning curve is exactly what excites me. So it begins.

I don't want to listen to other microtonal metal before getting accustomed to it myself a bit (but yet... I really do), I've heard enough to know I'm interested. There is so little of it it seems I would like to not know how it's being used haha.
 
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Ya this is more or less the conclusion I've come to. A few more shots of vodka and I'll probably pull the trigger on mr. 20edo sg.

Learning curve is exactly what excites me. So it begins.

I don't want to listen to other microtonal metal before getting accustomed to it myself a bit (but yet... I really do), I've heard enough to know I'm interested. There is so little of it it seems I would like to not know how it's being used haha.

The problem is that every tuning needs to get accustomed to.
 

ixlramp

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I suppose there's no way to really know without trying? I could listen to some compositions in various EDOs, but would it make any sense without an experienced ear anyway?
Nah you don't need an experienced ear, just listen to many different EDOs and see if one inspires you.
Lots of xen guitar stuff here Xenharmonic Guitarist - Index (i am admin), and if you do Facebook:
Microtonal guitarist https://www.facebook.com/groups/110164742335730/
Xenharmonic alliance (unbearable theory talk but links to music) https://www.facebook.com/groups/xenharmonic2/
You can get a very good taste of 24EDO using a standard guitar in this fairly usable quartertone open tuning http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/music-theory-lessons-techniques/161530-retune-play-quartertone-scales-microtonal-beginners-guide.html good for chords but awkward for melody.
Then there is 'just intonation'/natural intonation, an infinite system of unequally spaced pitches, very natural sound but limited modulation and a difficult fret job:

 

Defi

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I went ahead and bought the 20EDO SG! So there we go, what's done is done.

The fucking last thing I need is an excuse to own more guitars and if I get along with this idea well enough I'm afraid my life is gonna become a game of EDOmon.
 
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I went ahead and bought the 20EDO SG! So there we go, what's done is done.

The fucking last thing I need is an excuse to own more guitars and if I get along with this idea well enough I'm afraid my life is gonna become a game of EDOmon.

Keep us updated with the music you make with that G! ;)
 

Necris

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I went ahead and bought the 20EDO SG! So there we go, what's done is done.

The fucking last thing I need is an excuse to own more guitars and if I get along with this idea well enough I'm afraid my life is gonna become a game of EDOmon.

I'd recommend focusing on one (or two if you must) and learning it inside and out, learning to use a single alternate tuning as effortlessly as another player may use 12 is probably a lifetime of work as it is.
With very few exceptions the people who jump back and forth between temperaments tend to just put out utter garbage in a variety of tunings and never really improve due to the fact that they're not spending any time really getting to know the tuning like they almost certainly did with 12. What you end up with from said people is generally a few improvised pieces and maybe an actual piece that was written out before then they move on to the next tuning and the process begins again. :nuts:
 

Defi

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Ya I hear ya. What I like about it is how varied it becomes. If every artist only has one or two EDOs they are comfortable with the lack overlap would keep things so fresh. I think inspiration benefits immensely from passing through a few inimitable filters, and perhaps true inspiration necessarily does so.

I am not the first or last to have to scrap riff after riff upon the "shit, it's been done" clause
 

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I know Ron Sword is a sore topic around these parts, but this song is and always will be killer.

 

Defi

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I got my guitar a few days ago. Refretted by Ron Sword, and I must say the fretwork and fretboard is the worst I've seen on any guitar. Horribly sharp fret ends, fret slots cut way too deep, inconsistent glue, the fretboard seam is misaligned on both sides the entire length of the neck.

Despite this I don't really notice anything while playing, and I think my tech will be able to right the wrongs. But kinda disappointing. Anyway, should work well enough to test the waters.
 
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