NZMetal's Learning Log - the path to shredding! (fingers crossed lol!)

Auckland :joy: On the North Shore. I’m more Aussie than kiwi now.

And on the Cyberlink thing, I know you work at a uni… Cyberlink is crap compared to Adobe so don’t bother with it if you get Premiere for cheap.

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North Shore is now the new bay of islands mate btw

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Thanks Dave, that’s great advice! :smiley::+1:

Good point! I guess once it gets up around the 85-90% mark, it is getting fairly close, and probably to get that last 10% or so could mean putting in waaaaay more time than it’s worth (law of diminishing returns and all that)! :joy:

That is an excellent saying, I am definitely going to take that on board, thanks again Dave! :sunglasses:

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Ah! So one of those eh?! :roll_eyes: :rofl:

Fair enough mate, I would be too if I came from Auckland :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thanks JK, good advice! Yeah I thought about tapping into that for the education discount, however I have been told by our Media Production team at the uni that the free version of Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve is the best free app out there so I’m going to give that a go (have tried OpenShot & Filmora as well, which are both okay, but the former is a bit clunky and the latter has a watermark). If Resolve is no good, then, yeah I’ll definitely be using Premiere :film_projector:

You’re not wrong there, Rob! The whole upper north could be a new island in a day or two after Cyclone Gabby has finished with it :grimacing:

Hi Jeff, I don’t think I’ve ever properly said ‘hello’ or read your log yet, but have been aware of you positively chipping in on numerous threads. So a belated G’day!

I’m one of the many with only superficial knowledge of the whole metal/heavy/thrash/speed/doom etc. genres. Full of admiration on technicalities, but it doesn’t take much to fill my quota :roll_eyes:

It looks like your dedicated practice is paying off in spades and you pulled the :spades: out of your sleeve with that last one :open_mouth:
Woah… That was some workout! Fast, accurate, but most of all… a marathon!
Congratulations. You must be so chuffed with what you have achieved.
Keep on the same path and only the Devil knows where you’ll end up :metal: :smiling_imp: :metal: :rofl:
(Quick question: why the switch in guitars at the end? And naughty, naughty on the fade out :laughing:)

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Awsome progress. Slayer rules :smiley:

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My sister still lives near though, they’ve copped it hard this year.

I’m going to have to check it out, I had heard of that but figured it would be too hard for a noob. Probably better software than Cyberlink.

Yep, I’m one of them… haha. Couldn’t wait to leave Auckland, I love Queensland.

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Well, hello Brian! :wave::smiley: Or G’day! :joy: Thank you for your message, means a lot! :hugs:

I have been certainly privileged to see many of your recordings, live performances and superb hosting abilities already which definitely gives me a feeling of familiarity with you that I can easily see being asymmetrical from your perspective as I haven’t perhaps shared greatly to date whilst I find my feet here :sweat_smile: Although I have been endeavouring to change that going forward as you may have noticed my activity increase a bit recently as I’m trying to take onboard @jkahn’s sound advice to get stuck in, boots 'n all! :wink:

Yes, metal is an acquired taste it seems, although I certainly feel lucky to understand and appreciate it. There are other genres of music that I’ve yet to gain the same grasp of, say avant-garde jazz or some of today’s pop perhaps. However, we only have so much time, so nothing wrong with sticking to my knitting I guess?! :joy:

Thanks so much! :pray::slightly_smiling_face: (and for the Motorhead reference! :metal::joy: RIP Lemmy :cry:)

Sold my soul for Rock & Roll baby! :metal::joy:

At the end of Angel of Death? Well, I was actually playing it with my new Solar (the blue SB1.6 Flame Ocean Burst) and hadn’t quite got the take I wanted so went to do one final recording and snapped the string :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: So, frustrated, I left it to the next day when I just grabbed my GC1.6 to capture the recording above, but as I messed up in a few places, I thought I’d give it one more go, which is when its string snapped too! :confounded::sweat_smile: So I just decided to just go with that take, make the post and get on with restringing my guitars! :joy:

Yeah I know! :see_no_evil: :laughing: I just really wanted to post that song so I could move on but couldn’t face how awful the solo sounded… I’m a wimp! :face_with_peeking_eye::joy:

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Thanks Anders!

Yes, yes they do!! :metal::metal: :metal:

Hope she’s doing okay mate? They’ve had the worst run there this summer! On the flip side, we’ve had one of our best ever down here… Feeling a bit guilty :grimacing:

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Cheers, Jeff :smiley:

Just be careful those boots don’t get stuck in the mud! Some kind of Monster lurks below the surface of this quagmire and can suck you in if you’re not careful.
Talking of which, your metal-suggestion had me watch the Metallica documentary the other night :laughing:
I was thinking to myself afterwards Master of Puppets- There’d be a good parody song in that, called Pastor of Muppets. Always good to check before re-inventing the wheel: It’s not only a song; there’s a metal cover band by that name :rofl:
No original thoughts left in the world! :roll_eyes:
Have a good day (or evening!)

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:rofl: someone else always seems to get in first eh?! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::joy:
Have a great day too :slightly_smiling_face::+1:

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Circling back to this one Jeff. I watched a couple of tutorials and tried out DaVinci Resolve and wow, it is awesome. Pro level for free. Still loads to learn but I’m ditching crappy Cyberlink now. Check it out if you haven’t yet.

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That’s super cool JK! I haven’t actually got back to checking it out, so thanks for the heads up! I’m looking to do some recording again soon so will be diving into it then. Would love to hear any tips, tricks or pitfalls you might uncover :grinning::+1:

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@nzmetal

Nice log. Your setup sounds great. Definitely on the right “path to shredding”. :metal:
I also use that drummers backing tracks.

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Thanks Jason! :metal::grinning:

The quality of the recording sounds really great to me!

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Shred on dude! Cool log. Makes me want to try electric some day! I love Metallica :metal:

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Thanks Andy! Really appreciate you checking this out :sunglasses: :+1:

You totally should! Electrics are so much fun! And learning a couple of Metallica riffs is great way to get into it. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you decide to give it a crack :metal:

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Just quick update to mention some recent progress…

Beginners course progress - Completed up to Grade 3 Module 16
Theory Course - Completing module 4.3 (on lesson “A Fretboard in Your Mind”)

My biggest news was playing in my first Community Open Mic (XIV/14). So fun! But man, I was nervous! :joy: Glad to have that one under my belt and looking forward to OM XV/15 coming up soon.
I covered For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica, I intend to do a AVOYP of that some time to add it properly to the list.

I also did a cover of Creeping Death also by Metallica. Love that track and it was a good one to get on the list.

The above was recorded using my new Focusrite Scarlett 4i4. Super impressed with it, sounds much better than the Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD I was using IMO. Also very impressed by their online tutorials as part of the initial setup and the control software that comes with it, especially the loopback feature which is available on models from the 4i4 up, incredibly flexible with it’s routing and mixing options. I got the 4i4 as the additional line inputs in the rear allow me to play a backing track on my old laptop and feed that into the mix with my guitar and vocal mic (using the front inputs). Works great and they have excellent guides online for how to configure that routing. Highly recommend this for anyone considering what audio interface to buy.
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Here’s an update on my playlist progress with links to those I have recorded:

PLAYLIST
These are songs I sort of know, and are working on, that I hope will form my initial playlist:

Metallica

Slayer

  • Die by the Sword
  • Black Magic
  • Fight Till Death
  • Behind the Crooked Cross
  • Angel of Death
  • Postmortem

Death

That’s it for now, that for following along! :metal:

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