The HAARP Machine Megathread

[JoeyBTL]

There are a couple ways I see this kind of stuff. I think the song sounds awesome, as does the playing in the strandberg video. Even if its been overdubbed by music that has been pasted together note by note, its still great music and I'm not going to care about that when I'm listening to it in my car.

On the other side theres something that adds a lot to a band when listening to them playing crazy riffs, KNOWING they can actually play them exactly like the recordings and just being like...fuck, this is awesome. If its good music, both of these sides are great, but one is a little more appealing.

Overdubbing on a video thats supposed to show the supposed tone of a guitar is a totally different story.

 

[The Reverend]

The turn this thread has taken makes me laugh.

My roommate had me record the guitar tracks for his punk band, and wouldn't let me EQ them or anything because it wasn't "honest". In his eyes, anything less than the most simple chain is false representation of what he played and what he sounds like. I can see his point.

When it comes to recording, especially music with an emphasis on technicality, I believe that striving for perfection in terms of accuracy and tone is totally acceptable, if not desirable. If Al Mu'min is misrepresenting himself live, however, I think there's really cause for their to be criticism of him. I know this next part will sound kind of trite, considering I'm nothing more than words on a screen to most of you, but this veiled accusations are fucking childish. If you're gonna say something, say it. Hinting around and being overly-cryptic is some Dawson's Creek shit. Leave that nonsense in the early 2000's where it belongs.

 

[anomynous]

It's not Nolly.

.............then who is it?

 

[Zippoman]

This is the only thing I could think of ....

 

[leandroab]

Sped up or not. Fake or not. It doesn't matter. He thought of it. He created it. He reproduced it and we are listening to it. That's the point.

 

[Fiction]

Living in Australia i'll probably never get to see them live anyways, I'm just excited to hear Semesky's voice on something, and something super bad-ass regardless of how it was recorded. Hopefully he (Al) can deliver when touring time comes around though for you chaps

 

[brutalwizard]

When did mehtab start a band?

Seriously though, Is He pantomiming guitar live or just in the strandy Vid?

 

[FlameIbrah]

so all of these shots are faked ?


thats messed up, cool music though

at least for that first riff, his fingers and the sounds are not always landing together (and sometimes he moves up when the phrase is going down and vice versa) so its pretty obvious they just took that riff from the finalized track with edits and put that audio over a vid of him tracking one of his takes.

As far as his phantomiming-some of the parts will not come across without another guitar track. VOM use this same technique for some leads over breaks-he used to play with a loop pedal and i thought they sounded better when they did that tbh, but regardless sometimes the vision isn't complete without another voice in the music. I personally believe that its only proper to do this in the way vom & periphery do: i.e over sections where its absolutely necessary not over a whole song. plus it's infinitely cooler when you have a sick splitting part and you actually see two guitarists do it as opposed to splitting with a perfect tracking

 

[Blasphemer]

I'm fairly undecided on how to feel about this. On one hand, its kind of sheizsty that they are recording in such a way. I always thought that he kind of sounded TOO good to be true, especially in the Strandberg video. It'd be cool to really hear how he is live, not just in a shitty-quality video. Dude can obviously play, but to the extent that they're presenting?

On the other hand, the music is mega-kickass, and like everybody has said, theres no faking that. I just think WAY too much importance has been put on sounding perfect, and that music is practically a competition, now. It's almost like people are having "I'm tighter than you are" competitions with their albums...

 

[brutalwizard]

As far as his phantomiming-some

pantomiming
Verb:
Express or represent (something) by extravagant and exaggerated mime.

I understand what your saying it really works for VEIL of maya. but I mean like how he played the strandy vid's audio half-speed and sped it up, then obviously pantomimed playing it that speed for the video.

 

[Prydogga]

Wait........Nolly & Al were in a band together?

They weren't, but Nolly used to have a solo on Plaedian Keys. Which makes the 'lol' comment by him in this thread all the more surprising.

 

[gunch]

They weren't, but Nolly used to have a solo on Plaedian Keys. Which makes the 'lol' comment by him in this thread all the more surprising.

In his defense he probably was laughing at my dumb ass.

 

[bulb]

Sped up or not. Fake or not. It doesn't matter. He thought of it. He created it. He reproduced it and we are listening to it. That's the point.

Guitar Pro Songs

 

[edsped]

So did he actually play anything at all?

 

[PeteyG]

so all of these shots are faked ?

Listen to the descending arpeggiated bit at 1:14 in the video you linked, listen to it a few times very closely, with your eyes closed, don't even think about whether the video matches up to the audio.

This is, for me, one of the more obvious moments.

 

[brutalwizard]

so all of these shots are faked ?


thats messed up, cool music though

Wait, isnt that the saftey fire's guitarist and SSO member Sevenstring.org - View Profile: Parka Dez running that mixing board?

The puzzle continues

 

[Lirtle]

and this whole time I thought he had the most amazing right hand technique. whatever their shit with the new vocals sucks anyway.

 

[NaYoN]

Wait, isnt that the saftey fire's guitarist and SSO member Sevenstring.org - View Profile: Parka Dez running that mixing board?

The puzzle continues

Yep, we could ask him but not sure if he'd want to respond, given the circumstances surrounding the character we're talking about.

 

[TIBrent]

video will not always exactly match up in post with the audio. Unless you have an actual guitarist/drummer whomever the video is featuring doing the edit, you can not be sure that that millisecond delay wont be caught by an outside eye. That being said, I think these videos are edited together very well & frankly the slight offset doesn't affect me at all. None of us, or I should say, most of us will not have the luxury of a videographer who is willing to do hours of splicing & effecting for free, time = money. So maybe the audio doesn't perfectly match up, I would be more bummed if this were an actual demo video, but this is more of an advertisement video for Strandberg.
Just look at the dudes hands, if not in the demo videos, then the live one, if not the live one, watch the studio one closely & ensure that nothing is being speed-altered in post...the dude has CHOPS for days, can't fake that.
-Brent

 

[PeteyG]

video will not always exactly match up in post with the audio. Unless you have an actual guitarist/drummer whomever the video is featuring doing the edit, you can not be sure that that millisecond delay wont be caught by an outside eye. That being said, I think these videos are edited together very well & frankly the slight offset doesn't affect me at all. None of us, or I should say, most of us will not have the luxury of a videographer who is willing to do hours of splicing & effecting for free, time = money. So maybe the audio doesn't perfectly match up, I would be more bummed if this were an actual demo video, but this is more of an advertisement video for Strandberg.
Just look at the dudes hands, if not in the demo videos, then the live one, if not the live one, watch the studio one closely & ensure that nothing is being speed-altered in post...the dude has CHOPS for days, can't fake that.
-Brent

Not sure if this is related to what I said or whatever, but I was specifically talking about the sound, not the video.

As for your last comment, seeing someones fingers move quickly and nimbly doesn't necessarily denote "chops". I'm a firm believer that half of what makes a good guitarist is not just the playing itself but control of the moments where they're not playing, controlling the moments where there would otherwise be imperfections and noisy fuck-ups. The production styles that are being discussed in this thread eliminate that side of playing guitar. So yes, to a degree you CAN fake that.

Edit: I just want to say I'm not griping about anyone in particular on this, just griping on an aspect of modern metal that bothers me in general and otherwise just being pedantic.