It's used a lot in classical guitar compositions, too -- I never experienced any [guitar] neck problems at all.

-Susan

But I DO have some concern about what impact changing the neck tension will have on my guitar. Is that what you're getting at?

You should have absolutely no problems w/drop D - neck won't even notice it, assuming any kind of half decent axe. You only get into trouble when you start doing radical, multiple-string retunings - then it may be a good idea to commit an axe to it and have it set up for that.

Or just consider this - http://www.thirdhandcapo.com/devices.html - would let you use "drop E" without any actual retuning....

Hey Jay, Susan, and Ric... thanks for your comments re: drop tuning.

Ric, the Third Hand Capo site you linked to is very interesting. I think I might give partial capoing a try. I edven have a capo that I can alter for that purpose. Should be more convenient than down-tuning and retuning. Though either way will take some getting used to. Should be fun. Thanks for the link!

EDIT: apologies for the partial thread hijack....

Here are some "Official DR values" for a semi-random sampling of stuff on my hard drive. Sorted by DR num, then by artist.

What does it actually mean?

From the site:

What does the DYNAMIC RANGE METER do?
...
For technicians, this is the average cumulative difference between peak and loudness (RMS) over a specific period of time (duration of a song or album) and is a whole number value given in decibels. Just the top 20% of the loudness are taken into consideration to ensure that songs with a long intro and an over compressed refrain doesn't appear with a too high DR value. The DR value represents the grade of compression of released music in a whole number system.

Looks like they just they subtract RMS from peak and call it DR (dynamic range), but only apply the calculations to the loudest parts of the recording. To get that set of values to a single DR value they're probably using either min, avg, or max (I don't know...)

There are some points under the agreement section that many people probably won't agree with...

1. Oversampled brickwall limiting to limit all intersample peaks to -0.3 dB. If you're limiting intersample peaks then why couldn't this be -0.2 or -0.1 or even -0.05?
2. Seems to say anything under DR14 (DR13, DR12, etc) must be altered during mastering to become the equivalent of DR14. (ex. any DR5 material will have to have the master fader lowered by approx. 9 dB prior to export, etc.) Almost every song/album you list would have to have the master file levels lowered in order to be re-released under the DR standard...

ORIGINAL: Marah

Here are some "Official DR values" for a semi-random sampling of stuff on my hard drive. Sorted by DR num, then by artist.

What does it actually mean?

It means Garbage is freaking LOUD.

I would actually question the Stevie Wonder track...is that an original or a re-release? I have noticed that a lot of stuff that gets re-released gets remastered to higher levels. I have an Audio Adrenaline "Best of" CD that exemplifies this as I have all their CD's as well. The same track from 1995 is much more dynamic than the same track on the "Best of" album. You can look at the waveform in Soundforge and see it, it is that obvious.

...would be interesting to hear from some folks like Charles Dye (who is anti-loudness war) and what their thoughts are on the DR system.

ORIGINAL: Marah

ORIGINAL: Wookiee

heehee! I don't do metal (whatever metal means) but I'm about to explore the world of drop-D tuning... on my only guitar... with a locking nut... so it's gonna take a real commitment. I hope to forget what a third is!

This may of course be a minor decison leading to a major mistake.

I am sorry someone had to say it.

Hi Wookiee.

Can you explain further what you mean? I haven't done it yet. But I DO have some concern about what impact changing the neck tension will have on my guitar. Is that what you're getting at?

Thank you!


Hi Marah, it was a hee hee, Major Third, Minor Third.

I did appologise.

ORIGINAL: Wookiee

ORIGINAL: Marah

ORIGINAL: barlowjam

This is similar to a movement that I am trying to start. It's one where heavy metal guys will be forced to learn what a third is.

(I think this movement has just as much chance of being sucessful as mine! )

Just kidding guys - I like POWER CHORDS (in moderation).

heehee! I don't do metal (whatever metal means) but I'm about to explore the world of drop-D tuning... on my only guitar... with a locking nut... so it's gonna take a real commitment. I hope to forget what a third is!

This may of course be a minor decison leading to a major mistake.



I am sorry someone had to say it.

In light of your post, I think I'll tell a joke.


A 'C' an 'Eb' and a 'G' walked into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve minors here." So the 'Eb' left and the 'C' and 'G' shared an open fifth.

ORIGINAL: barlowjam


In light of your post, I think I'll tell a joke.


A 'C' an 'Eb' and a 'G' walked into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve minors here." So the 'Eb' left and the 'C' and 'G' shared an open fifth.

LMAO!!!

so here is an update:

I've been using this for a while and slap it on master channel of every project. There are other tools to measure this but this one I like cuz its very visual. It serves as a comparison tool and now I know what range I need to be in for a good volume/dynamics ratio. Plus, it subconsciously tells me to keep things in 'green' region and that helps a lot. After hours of mixing, sometimes its hard to tell if things are squashed or not.

Its a hard line to draw when pushing for standards. personally, I think loudness aint that bad cuz it has attributed to creation of some nice transparent mastering devices. but it should still be choice of ppl. pretty soon ppl will get tired of loud stuff and you will see a movement towards more dynamic mixes... like we already are!