My brother in Christ, you are SEVERELY underrating yourself in terms of your songwriting. Basically every djenty monstrosity you MIDIed out for us humble audience has been an absolute BANGER, and this riff is no exception! My skull was crushed through and through - this was awesome! The tutorial was also absolutely on point, as always. Basically all of my Shreddage knowledge is stems from this channel and this channel exclusively. You lay out everything in an easily digestible manner, with clear examples and with no time being waisted. The only addition I would suggest is you going over how exactly you compose the riffs you make. Again, I find your material to be professional to say the least, and would love to hear your philosophy regarding writing music more generally. Finally, it saddens me to hear that you didn't regard your content as 'interesting enough'. I find this channel to be a goldmine in so many aspects - great tutorials, great music and even great jokes are present in nearly every video I can find on your catalogue, sometimes all at the same time. Keep up the great work man :D PS: Do you maybe have some social media I could use to potentially contact you about working together on projects etc? Since I am also using Shreddage to write progressive metal and metalcore, I feel like we could work together relatively easily. I feel like that might help you out a bit, if making videos is too time-consuming of a task. I simply really wouldn't like to see this place shut down honestly. Plus, it would sure as hell be fun to write a banger or two with someone as talented as you :D PPS: One more thing: when I personally write and record with Shreddage, I make 2 separate tracks, hard pan them left and right, and make sure one is playing guitar 1 only and the other guitar 4 only. Granted, this uses double the RAM memory, I feel like this results in higher sound quality overall and it also allows me to harmonize guitars with ease. Moreover, any phasing issue can then be eliminated with some simple track delays. Btw, do you use recommended negative track delays when recording? I personally feel like they do end up making the music sound a tad tighter, but it could also just be placebo honestly. The absolute final question I have is what is your preferred amp sim for Shreddage? I find both Neural DSP and Overloud to be working extremely well, with the former being just absolutely incredible for metal and latter being somewhat more versatile.
Thank you so much! I appreciate that more than you could imagine. It's people like yourself who drive artists to create more. I'm glad I've been a big help with shreddage! I don't listen to much music, but I do watch a lot of tutorials. I try to take what I like from videos and improve on what I don't like as much. Trying to be informative but respectful of people's time. When it comes to how I write, there isn't much more than you see here. Oddly enough, I rarely listen to music, and I have little to no background knowledge of music. I know notes in the key I'm writing in, I know harmonic minor/major keys, time signatures, and that's about it. I either just play real guitar or program a string of notes in key until something sounds cool to me. I tend to look at music as a whole composition vs focusing on 1 thing. So, when I'm writing something, I'm thinking about how the other stuff will fit and how it will flow together. Maybe with some introspection and peer to peer discussion, I might be able to figure out how exactly my brain works in that regard. At the moment, it really just feels like I just mess around with notes in a key until I find a pattern that I like. Then I just repeat the process. Again, thank you so much for the kind words. That's exactly what I'm striving for! I don't have any socials or contacts for this account other than this channel. I used to take on collabs, work on commissions and things like that. I also worked with a few people who'd post with me. I stepped away from all that because it's just too time consuming with a full time job and 2 bands. I also had an issue where folks were ripping my videos, making "original" music and then trying to copyright takedown my videos. That last bit is why it's so hard for me to upload anything that isn't from a track I've already released. I rebooted this like a little hobby to experiment with voice-overs and video editing. All related to music of course. When I do occasionally work with others, it's normally close friends that I've worked with before. That keeps things pretty simple because we're already use to working together by now. I have about 12hrs a week give or take to work on music and these kinds of videos take about 8-12 hours to write, record and edit. I'm still learning so I can imagine I'm a little slower than someone with a lot of experience haha. At some point, I would love to branch out more. Right now, I just don't have the availability to add anyone or anything else to the mix if that makes sense. When I have some availability opening up for working with others, I think I'll setup a discord server for the page. Just so we can open the door to collab, share and give feedback. I do want to eventually be more involved with other musicians. I am planning to get a small backlog of videos ready so I can release more consistently :) I can see how running 2 instances and then fiddling with the timing might yield better results. I try to use the smallest amount of plugins I can just because I don't have strong hardware. The way I work allows for harmonies as well but it most likely isn't as easy. I just record the output of a riff, change the midi to my harmony notes, and then record that output. If you can run 2 instances of shreddage for double tracks and you're fine editing the timing, absolutely go for it! Without knowing too much about software, I can't really say what the best method actually is. I think years ago I tried a track delay, but it didn't seem to resolve any issues I had at the time. I've never heard of negative track delays to be honest. When it comes to real guitar, I edit like a lot of other folks. Just lining up the transients with the grid. With midi guitar, I don't normally touch the DI unless I really don't like part of a take. Mixing and editing guitars drives me absolutely insane lol. The less time I can spend listening to them, the better. Neural DSP has stolen my heart. I feel like nearly all of their amps are difficult to make sound bad. I've used the otto audio 11 11 amp, the toneforge products and the neural dsp stuff. NDSP is really just the most versatile and easy to use. My tones with NDSP are almost default settings because they just sound good.
@ShadyRapture thank you so much! I had completely gutted my standard template I've used for years, just so I can get a fresh start with the experience I've gained over time. Still in the process of updating everything to my liking. I'd be happy to show what I use, but I'm not the guy who can explain the why very well. Just years of noticing a specific sound that I don't like or do like, looking up how to address it, following a tutorial and adjusting.
I'm happy to see more content about MIDI I also do MIDI programming for backing tracks, it's really nice to be able to get ideas out of your head and turn them into reality. congratulations on your content and channel.
You are doing really good shit. This stuff is really useful. I do not make guitar music but guitar midi programming and understanding how guitar works. It's really nice. I learn a lot from your videos. You are great guy keep it up !!
@rainoun_music thank you! I've really gotten the hang of mirroring how I play guitar and I've been trying to branch out to learning how to mirror more intricate guitar playing.
This is an amazing tutorial, thanks so much for sharing your workflow! I'm even more interested in how your transform the Shreddage output into that monstrous powerful sound that you have in the final mix :)
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked the video. I've been mixing for almost 10 years now but only recently started taking it seriously. Even this was a new work in progress for me but I've been learning for some upcoming releases haha. Very far from being able to explain mixing to people. Honestly, I don't even know what half of the settings on my plugins do beyond the fundamentals
@@HollowHeart-Studio Hah, this is something I hear a lot of people say - I assume as an amateur that the professionals know what all those buttons and pulleys do, but when I ask them they always say “no, I’ve no idea either, I just use the presets” :) What kind of plugins do you use for the mixing phase?
@DavidXNewton lmao. Actually, yeah when I've talked to some pros about why they do something they will say things like "I know it's redundant but it sounds good to me" or "it just give it this vibe, ya know?" I have a long list but all of my eq and compression is stock reaper plugins. I think the main things that stand out are getgood drums just sounding great out of the box and only needing a little EQ. I hit those with jst clip. Guitar uses some Neural DSP amps, stock eq, stero widner and soothe. Soothe is really a big deal for me. Bass is just using the built in amp sim that submission audio midi bass has. It sounds like the tone I'd make anyways and is just less plugins so I'll take it haha. Side chain compression with the kick. I use a really old version of ozone for mastering that I got probably 8-10 years ago. For the master limiting, I use Flatline and that plugin is God tier. I do a few specific things that give me my sounds of course but I don't have a massive suite of plugins or the most expensive ones
From my experience i could add that, if you can, try automating your picking modes for different notes. It is especially important if you want to achieve that iconic “djenty” palm mute sound with a very punchy mute transient and low end. Anyways, fantastic video so far. Very informative and interesting! Even learned something new about that slight bend that you sometimes do when playing guitar.
That's a great tip! I'm already getting so granular with it, doing that for mutes especially isn't a bad idea at all. In reality, I downpick nearly everything but the midi guitar doesn't emulate that the best.
@@HollowHeart-Studio i normally do it for slow to medium speed palm muting and for sections where there is a continuous riff without any fast passages or accents. I really do think that it is so worth to get in-depth with it as it can honestly elevate your midi performance by a huge amount, at least from my experience.
@joly3771 I absolutely agree. If you're getting to the point that I do in this video, you might as well get specific with the picking patterns. I didn't even consider that but I will going forward for sure.
I think we're on the same page. What I mean is I can have my pointer finger on fret 1 and my pinky on the 6th fret at max. Then if I slide up of course it would be 2-7, 3-8 and so on.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Thanks! This helps out a lot. One more thing, do you find yourself using the Power Chord articulation or do you just draw 5ths yourself? In my case, it's just my OCD brain telling me to just draw them in since I draw every other chord for consistency, but I can't deny that the PW articulation sounds better sometimes and can be much more convenient while writing (ie. it doesn't add clutter since the keyswitch is out of the way compared to adding the 5th & octave).
@antonm_ I do use the powerchord key switch when I want to play power chords. I just don't play power chords on 8 strings because I find they sound a bit muddy. I feel like if it sounded better to not use the articulation, isw wouldn't have bothered..BUT I could be wrong haha. I personally do it for exactly what you mentioned. It's cleaner looking and quick.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Thanks for sharing man! I'm currently working on some 6-string Drop-D stuff (using Jupiter, I might see how Hydra works with it), hence the use of PWs 😅. More power to you and I am looking forward to the next videos in this series. Regarding future videos suggestions, might I suggest bends in general. Probably more about Djent bends rather than boomer bends 😅. I really did appreciate your tips on slight bends on pull-offs. More insights please! 😊
Thank you! The hand on articulation is one you use to tell shreddage what fret to put the virtual hand on. It's controlled with velocity so..say I set it to put the hand on fret 3 and I have my hand size set to 4, shreddage will play the notes you programmed within 4 frets of where the hand is rather than jumping all over the fretboard. I don't use it unless I'm being lazy with leads or programming chords. Hand off is just to turn that articulation off. If you're asking what midi note it is, I couldn't say. I use a custom midi chart I made for myself. If you look in knotact and reference the manual for shreddage, it will say what goes where by default.
@@user-fw9gp8wg7f essentially, yes. Force string does override it but if you don't want to be so granular, you can move the hand position around and let shreddage do its thing within that fret range.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Damn, straight up told him he got destroyed by throwaway riffs ... That's strike 3 LMAO! ... ( but seriously, you better not give up Jason... If I can't quit neither can you, us 'metalhead + computer nerd hybrids' are in this together as a dying breed
@SadTown99 LMAO unintentionally killing with kindness. For real though, we are always our own worst critics ❤️. Even people we consider to be masters of their craft still feel insignificant to others. Do what you do to the best of your ability, release it, and continue to grow. Don't be like me lol..I have a folder full of tracks I don't consider good enough, but when I was 18-20 I would have only dreamed of writing those tracks. In 5 years, I'll probably think the things I've wrote recently aren't that good. Hell, even the stuff I started a year or two ago and am wrapping up now don't feel like they're up to par for me. We can keep it to ourselves and feel like we're insignificant, or we can do our best in the moment. Always do it for yourself :)
My brother in Christ, you are SEVERELY underrating yourself in terms of your songwriting. Basically every djenty monstrosity you MIDIed out for us humble audience has been an absolute BANGER, and this riff is no exception! My skull was crushed through and through - this was awesome!
The tutorial was also absolutely on point, as always. Basically all of my Shreddage knowledge is stems from this channel and this channel exclusively. You lay out everything in an easily digestible manner, with clear examples and with no time being waisted. The only addition I would suggest is you going over how exactly you compose the riffs you make. Again, I find your material to be professional to say the least, and would love to hear your philosophy regarding writing music more generally.
Finally, it saddens me to hear that you didn't regard your content as 'interesting enough'. I find this channel to be a goldmine in so many aspects - great tutorials, great music and even great jokes are present in nearly every video I can find on your catalogue, sometimes all at the same time. Keep up the great work man :D
PS: Do you maybe have some social media I could use to potentially contact you about working together on projects etc? Since I am also using Shreddage to write progressive metal and metalcore, I feel like we could work together relatively easily. I feel like that might help you out a bit, if making videos is too time-consuming of a task. I simply really wouldn't like to see this place shut down honestly. Plus, it would sure as hell be fun to write a banger or two with someone as talented as you :D
PPS: One more thing: when I personally write and record with Shreddage, I make 2 separate tracks, hard pan them left and right, and make sure one is playing guitar 1 only and the other guitar 4 only. Granted, this uses double the RAM memory, I feel like this results in higher sound quality overall and it also allows me to harmonize guitars with ease. Moreover, any phasing issue can then be eliminated with some simple track delays. Btw, do you use recommended negative track delays when recording? I personally feel like they do end up making the music sound a tad tighter, but it could also just be placebo honestly. The absolute final question I have is what is your preferred amp sim for Shreddage? I find both Neural DSP and Overloud to be working extremely well, with the former being just absolutely incredible for metal and latter being somewhat more versatile.
Thank you so much! I appreciate that more than you could imagine. It's people like yourself who drive artists to create more.
I'm glad I've been a big help with shreddage! I don't listen to much music, but I do watch a lot of tutorials. I try to take what I like from videos and improve on what I don't like as much. Trying to be informative but respectful of people's time. When it comes to how I write, there isn't much more than you see here. Oddly enough, I rarely listen to music, and I have little to no background knowledge of music. I know notes in the key I'm writing in, I know harmonic minor/major keys, time signatures, and that's about it. I either just play real guitar or program a string of notes in key until something sounds cool to me. I tend to look at music as a whole composition vs focusing on 1 thing. So, when I'm writing something, I'm thinking about how the other stuff will fit and how it will flow together.
Maybe with some introspection and peer to peer discussion, I might be able to figure out how exactly my brain works in that regard. At the moment, it really just feels like I just mess around with notes in a key until I find a pattern that I like. Then I just repeat the process.
Again, thank you so much for the kind words. That's exactly what I'm striving for!
I don't have any socials or contacts for this account other than this channel. I used to take on collabs, work on commissions and things like that. I also worked with a few people who'd post with me. I stepped away from all that because it's just too time consuming with a full time job and 2 bands. I also had an issue where folks were ripping my videos, making "original" music and then trying to copyright takedown my videos. That last bit is why it's so hard for me to upload anything that isn't from a track I've already released.
I rebooted this like a little hobby to experiment with voice-overs and video editing. All related to music of course.
When I do occasionally work with others, it's normally close friends that I've worked with before. That keeps things pretty simple because we're already use to working together by now.
I have about 12hrs a week give or take to work on music and these kinds of videos take about 8-12 hours to write, record and edit. I'm still learning so I can imagine I'm a little slower than someone with a lot of experience haha.
At some point, I would love to branch out more. Right now, I just don't have the availability to add anyone or anything else to the mix if that makes sense. When I have some availability opening up for working with others, I think I'll setup a discord server for the page. Just so we can open the door to collab, share and give feedback. I do want to eventually be more involved with other musicians.
I am planning to get a small backlog of videos ready so I can release more consistently :)
I can see how running 2 instances and then fiddling with the timing might yield better results. I try to use the smallest amount of plugins I can just because I don't have strong hardware. The way I work allows for harmonies as well but it most likely isn't as easy. I just record the output of a riff, change the midi to my harmony notes, and then record that output. If you can run 2 instances of shreddage for double tracks and you're fine editing the timing, absolutely go for it! Without knowing too much about software, I can't really say what the best method actually is.
I think years ago I tried a track delay, but it didn't seem to resolve any issues I had at the time. I've never heard of negative track delays to be honest. When it comes to real guitar, I edit like a lot of other folks. Just lining up the transients with the grid. With midi guitar, I don't normally touch the DI unless I really don't like part of a take.
Mixing and editing guitars drives me absolutely insane lol. The less time I can spend listening to them, the better.
Neural DSP has stolen my heart. I feel like nearly all of their amps are difficult to make sound bad. I've used the otto audio 11 11 amp, the toneforge products and the neural dsp stuff. NDSP is really just the most versatile and easy to use. My tones with NDSP are almost default settings because they just sound good.
Yeah his stuff is insane he is way underrating it. I’d like to see how he mixes more too, his effects and amps and how his drums are mixed. Good stuff
@ShadyRapture thank you so much! I had completely gutted my standard template I've used for years, just so I can get a fresh start with the experience I've gained over time. Still in the process of updating everything to my liking. I'd be happy to show what I use, but I'm not the guy who can explain the why very well. Just years of noticing a specific sound that I don't like or do like, looking up how to address it, following a tutorial and adjusting.
I'm happy to see more content about MIDI
I also do MIDI programming for backing tracks, it's really nice to be able to get ideas out of your head and turn them into reality.
congratulations on your content and channel.
You are doing really good shit. This stuff is really useful. I do not make guitar music but guitar midi programming and understanding how guitar works. It's really nice. I learn a lot from your videos. You are great guy keep it up !!
@rainoun_music thank you! I've really gotten the hang of mirroring how I play guitar and I've been trying to branch out to learning how to mirror more intricate guitar playing.
This is an amazing tutorial, thanks so much for sharing your workflow! I'm even more interested in how your transform the Shreddage output into that monstrous powerful sound that you have in the final mix :)
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked the video. I've been mixing for almost 10 years now but only recently started taking it seriously. Even this was a new work in progress for me but I've been learning for some upcoming releases haha. Very far from being able to explain mixing to people. Honestly, I don't even know what half of the settings on my plugins do beyond the fundamentals
@@HollowHeart-Studio Hah, this is something I hear a lot of people say - I assume as an amateur that the professionals know what all those buttons and pulleys do, but when I ask them they always say “no, I’ve no idea either, I just use the presets” :) What kind of plugins do you use for the mixing phase?
@DavidXNewton lmao. Actually, yeah when I've talked to some pros about why they do something they will say things like "I know it's redundant but it sounds good to me" or "it just give it this vibe, ya know?"
I have a long list but all of my eq and compression is stock reaper plugins. I think the main things that stand out are getgood drums just sounding great out of the box and only needing a little EQ. I hit those with jst clip. Guitar uses some Neural DSP amps, stock eq, stero widner and soothe. Soothe is really a big deal for me. Bass is just using the built in amp sim that submission audio midi bass has. It sounds like the tone I'd make anyways and is just less plugins so I'll take it haha. Side chain compression with the kick. I use a really old version of ozone for mastering that I got probably 8-10 years ago. For the master limiting, I use Flatline and that plugin is God tier. I do a few specific things that give me my sounds of course but I don't have a massive suite of plugins or the most expensive ones
Damn homey. This instructional is amazing.
From my experience i could add that, if you can, try automating your picking modes for different notes. It is especially important if you want to achieve that iconic “djenty” palm mute sound with a very punchy mute transient and low end. Anyways, fantastic video so far. Very informative and interesting! Even learned something new about that slight bend that you sometimes do when playing guitar.
That's a great tip! I'm already getting so granular with it, doing that for mutes especially isn't a bad idea at all. In reality, I downpick nearly everything but the midi guitar doesn't emulate that the best.
@@HollowHeart-Studio i normally do it for slow to medium speed palm muting and for sections where there is a continuous riff without any fast passages or accents. I really do think that it is so worth to get in-depth with it as it can honestly elevate your midi performance by a huge amount, at least from my experience.
@joly3771 I absolutely agree. If you're getting to the point that I do in this video, you might as well get specific with the picking patterns. I didn't even consider that but I will going forward for sure.
Impressive stuff man! 🔥🤘
Thank you so much!
Fantastic man. Subscribed.
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the video. I'm so happy that you decided to make this again. Well done!
I'm glad to hear that! Thank you for coming back and checking it out.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Hey! Thanks dude. You're definitely helping people out.
Haha! Edging with Shrek, finally! 😅
Great video btw!
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for the video. It made my day and inspired me to work.🖤
When you say "six fret range", I take it that you mean from fret 1 to 6 (the low and wide frets)?
I think we're on the same page. What I mean is I can have my pointer finger on fret 1 and my pinky on the 6th fret at max. Then if I slide up of course it would be 2-7, 3-8 and so on.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Thanks! This helps out a lot. One more thing, do you find yourself using the Power Chord articulation or do you just draw 5ths yourself? In my case, it's just my OCD brain telling me to just draw them in since I draw every other chord for consistency, but I can't deny that the PW articulation sounds better sometimes and can be much more convenient while writing (ie. it doesn't add clutter since the keyswitch is out of the way compared to adding the 5th & octave).
@antonm_ I do use the powerchord key switch when I want to play power chords. I just don't play power chords on 8 strings because I find they sound a bit muddy. I feel like if it sounded better to not use the articulation, isw wouldn't have bothered..BUT I could be wrong haha. I personally do it for exactly what you mentioned. It's cleaner looking and quick.
@@HollowHeart-Studio Thanks for sharing man! I'm currently working on some 6-string Drop-D stuff (using Jupiter, I might see how Hydra works with it), hence the use of PWs 😅. More power to you and I am looking forward to the next videos in this series.
Regarding future videos suggestions, might I suggest bends in general. Probably more about Djent bends rather than boomer bends 😅. I really did appreciate your tips on slight bends on pull-offs. More insights please! 😊
@@antonm_ no problem!
That sounds good to me. Bends are on the list for advanced tips!
Great job. Btw, what’s the hands on hands off articulation?
Thank you! The hand on articulation is one you use to tell shreddage what fret to put the virtual hand on. It's controlled with velocity so..say I set it to put the hand on fret 3 and I have my hand size set to 4, shreddage will play the notes you programmed within 4 frets of where the hand is rather than jumping all over the fretboard.
I don't use it unless I'm being lazy with leads or programming chords. Hand off is just to turn that articulation off.
If you're asking what midi note it is, I couldn't say. I use a custom midi chart I made for myself. If you look in knotact and reference the manual for shreddage, it will say what goes where by default.
@@HollowHeart-Studio oh so it’s like a “forced fret position” as opposed to a “forced string”?
@@user-fw9gp8wg7f essentially, yes. Force string does override it but if you don't want to be so granular, you can move the hand position around and let shreddage do its thing within that fret range.
I quit. This is the 2nd time you've nonchalantly destroyed me with your skills. lol
Nooooo hahahaha don't quit. The videos I make just have throwaway riffs tbh. You can absolutely do better than this!
@@HollowHeart-Studio Damn, straight up told him he got destroyed by throwaway riffs ... That's strike 3 LMAO! ... ( but seriously, you better not give up Jason... If I can't quit neither can you, us 'metalhead + computer nerd hybrids' are in this together as a dying breed
@SadTown99 LMAO unintentionally killing with kindness.
For real though, we are always our own worst critics ❤️. Even people we consider to be masters of their craft still feel insignificant to others. Do what you do to the best of your ability, release it, and continue to grow. Don't be like me lol..I have a folder full of tracks I don't consider good enough, but when I was 18-20 I would have only dreamed of writing those tracks. In 5 years, I'll probably think the things I've wrote recently aren't that good. Hell, even the stuff I started a year or two ago and am wrapping up now don't feel like they're up to par for me. We can keep it to ourselves and feel like we're insignificant, or we can do our best in the moment. Always do it for yourself :)