The typical indie sound

[Tharenii]

hello people...

I am a metal guitarist...
hehe... do check out my band www.myspace.com/menevorium
anyway... back to the topic..
However i dont conform myself to ONE GENRE... i kinda explore other genre's..

So now i am kind of stranded...

i want to know how do you get that typical INDIE guitar sounds... it gets kinda annoying when i cant get it...

I dont know how to put it to words... if i want to name bands as reference, it would be west grand boulevard, caracal, mayday parade, My american heart.

I apologise if my examples are wrong... but i just want to know what effects do i use.. what knobs to turn... what sort of distortion do i use? etc etc...

I just need a kick start and i'd move on from there...

Thank you very much
I really appreciate it honestly....

And yeap... i apologise if my description is rather vague....

 

[gibbytones]

I'm no indie guitarist but here's my thought.

since your a metal guitarist.. the 1st thing would be to roll off your gain knob.
might wanna look something in the lines of a strong OD.
besides that... you might wanna look at a bit of chorusing perhaps?

and try to have ur settings rather normal like.. bass at 112oclock, mids at 9/10 oclock, treble at 1 oclock. scoop the mids a little.

but then again.. its really personal preference these kinda things. the way you hit the chords and notes also come into play.

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

I would be under the impression that as a guitar player in a band, you'd be seeking to create a sound that is unique to your band, rather than seeking to emulate or even sound exactly like any other band...?

Do correct me if I'm wrong about your intentions, but in all honesty I feel you should be seeking to create a sound that is removed from a stereo-typical thinking related to existing bands.

 

[kahuna]

indie bands their guitar sounds r rather compressed...phasers r also sometimes heard in indie songs

 

[tvontheradio]

Iv seen many indie bands with tubescreamers, might explain something there.

 

[kahuna]

the pedal or the mid hump?

 

[nickyseow]

what the hell is the indie sound?

hahahaha

no srsly there's NO such thing as the typical indie sound! but I kinda do know what you're driving at. Im thinking p90s into stacked drives into a a hotrod-ish amp? i dunno.. indie means independent, not a genre of sound you know..

mogwai is indie-ish, but their stuff isnt like what you listed..

 

[AEnimic]

buy a strat.
Single coil pups with a good OD might just do the trick.
lower down the gain will work too.

 

[Tharenii]

Crawldaddy

nono... the sound is just for my personal use...i am just experimenting.. not to use for my band... =)

 

[Tharenii]

nickyseow

sorry bro.... i really dont know how to explain... its just that guitar sound.... its THE SOUND!!
lol i really dont know how to put it to words...

haha.. i am aware indie means independent... its just that many of these independent bands have this distinct sound which i dont know how to describe... i am very sorry bro for my vague descriptions..

I apologise to the other guys out there reading this, as its kinda vague... but any form of suggestion would be greatly appreciated...

I am using korg toneworks ax1500g... maybe that detail might help

Again, Thank you very much guys

 

[Nicholasim]

really. All you need to do is tweak here and there. Since you have an ax1500 u should be able to get a variety.

this is just like another "how to get the slash tone" thread.

 

[gibbytones]

what most people dont seem to understand or have the paitence to is to sit down and dedicate a good couple of days or even weeks to tweak their multi effect units. I believe that multi effects can sound very very good if its tweaked well.

maybe what you can do it.. listen to your favorite indie band or what not. look out for the guitar sound. try to incoperate certain signatures like see if its trebleish, how bassy is it? things like that.

might get your kickstart your looking for.

 

[markedymark]

i actually do agree that having a mfx is a plus point here. the ability to experiment more while NOT acquring new gear to do it is a very logical option.

as gibbytones said, sit down with the fellow, tweak tweak tweak like tomorrow never comes. all the best yes?

 

[edder]

use an overdrive pedal or two, add in a delay and some modulation stuff like a tremolo.

just remember when you write "indie"(sic) songs per the bands you've listed... remember... the start stop emo jump guitar riff. yes... that the magic. thats the sound. start stop emo jump. do it at least 3-4 times in each song. instant "indie" i is tellings you.

 

[AEnimic]

bro edder bro,you're very pro la.
show me the way for the emo jump!

 

[snuffleupagus]

I thought its emo tuck jump?

 

[serialninja]

hi this is dharma from west grand boulevard. Erik (WGB's other guitarist) and i both boost our mids because the guitar is a mid-range instrument so we boost it so that we can be heard clearly in the mix.

Erik likes trebly sounds, i like warmer sounds so he boosts his treble and i usually boost bass and treble a bit. my amp eq settings are usually something like bass: 12-1, mids: 3, treble: 12-1; dependent on which guitar i use and what the amps are like.

we use low-mid gain overdrives to reduce muddiness and improve clarity, and cascade the overdrives if we need higher gain so that we can preserve clarity. Erik is using a Barber DirectDrive (i think that's what it's called) and i'm using a Kimjaw Sonique with a custom splitter/overdrive running one TS808 circuit and one TS9DX circuit. Again, these pedals have mid-range eq boosts so that when driven there is still a lot of presence and clarity in the mix.

actually, boosting mids is really common in metal too, again to preserve presence and clarity under high gain. most of the metal bands i listen to boost mids. ok but the ones i listen to are like As I Lay Dying, Between The Buried And Me, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Hammerfall, etc. contemporary metalcore/grindcore-jazz/powermetal, that sort of thing. not really old school metal.

cheers,
d

 

[edder]

I thought its emo tuck jump?

I stand corrected sir!

 

[Elias]

Different people have different definition of the sounds produced even by the same genre (yeah, I sound confusing *lol*). Personally, my take on the 'indie' type of sound is more 'jingle jangle'...as in more focused on either clean or slightly overdriven single-coil (read: trebly) type of sound. And if that's what you want, prolly you need to ease off the gain knob on your pedals or look in the direction of getting overdrive pedals (TS9/Rat [just don't turn the gain knob all the way!])...then again, if you want some stereotyped opinions, get the following type of guitars:

1) Telecasters
2) Jaguars
3) Jazzmasters
4) ES-335s
5) Gretsches
6) Strats

And play on Fender and Vox amps...
Heh
:mrgreen:

 

[edder]

But... but... VOX is for the blueeessssss....