Hammer on loudness

[rr32btg]

Because the sound of the strings you're playing and the sounds of the ones you don't want to ring are not differentiated. And I didn't say Steve used a damper in the video, just that that's something that can help. Try experimenting with different high-gain tones. Some will force your technique to be near-flawless, or it will sound like crap. Just not lifting your finger off the 10th fret of the B string the instant you play a note on the 7th fret of the E string will cause a dissonant chord to sound, with a real high-gain tone. Others, not so much.

I use these sorts of things as ways to improve my technique. High-gain tones act like a magnifying glass to sloppy technique, which helps you zero in on what needs work. Sometimes it takes someone else to watch how we're playing (a teacher, e.g.), to help identify what areas need work. Personally, I don't want to rely on effects to cover up flaws (like back when I was a kid, and would turn on the delay during solos), but instead, use them to enhance my tone, give it depth, tighten things up, etc.

I agree that technique is the first thing that really matters, the second thing is which tone is used, but as you said before there are physics effects that persistently transfer vibrations to unmuted strings.

If I hit directly one string without touching others all they will start to slightly vibrate whatever my technique is perfect or not. It caused by the fact that the guitar conduct sound waves very well and vibration from one string goes to another. I understand that it's physics and nothing will change that no matter how good my technique. Yes, good technique can reduce unwanted sounds but they will be always there.

But also I know that if I turn my amp gain at max and place a couple of maxed out boosters/drives before the amp I will have a really noisy sound whatever my technique good or bad.

With string muting my sound is clean from unwanted noise and overtones and I'll feel it's good. I trying to play clean as I can or even cleaner, I'm not touching strings that shouldn't sound, trying to not use too much of gain, but if I will not mute unused strings my sound will be full of unwanted sounds. If I play only on the B string the A, the D, the G, and the low E will vibrate too if I will not mute them.

And when I watch that Steve's video where he plays with plenty of gain and at the same time without damper, muting strings, and without producing unwanted noise, I see some kind of magic in it all.

I don't believe in magic, but I believe in technique and proper sound setup. So if my technique is not perfect but at least normal in many terms, maybe there is something that I miss in the sound setup.

 

[squealie]

Did you read the article? From the article…

It seems to me that infinity:1 would be an extreme end.

The article is an intro, and at the end has multiple links to more detailed articles.

Fuck the article. Did you read what I said, which is almost verbatim what you said?

 

[TSJMajesty]

If I play only on the B string the A, the D, the G, and the low E will vibrate too if I will not mute them.

Lemme ask this: In what situation where you're doing this type of thing, would you not also use muting? I just watched my technique when playing the tapping part of Eruption. My fingers on my left hand takes care of the high E, the tip of my first finger on my left hand also mutes the G string, and my right palm mutes the other strings. For other stuff, where it's not as straightforward (all on the same string), ya just gotta figure out how to use other parts of your hands to do the muting, turn down the gain, use a damper, or a combination of 2 or all 3.
I don't quite understand how compression can help, since it brings out the softest sounds, which is what the unwanted string sounds would be. I could be wrong, but it seems to me compression might make it worse.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Fuck the article. Did you read what I said, which is almost verbatim what you said?

Your point is what?

 

[squealie]

Your point is what?

My point, is exactly what I said in my first comment.

Compression is a dynamic range change. Limiting is a dynamic range change. Why are we fighting about this? It's like arguing that digital reverb isn't delay.

 

[giantslayer]

Any idea how he doing it without humming or buzzing on open strings without muting them???

The type of guitar bridge is also a factor. Tune-o-matic bridges vibrate all the other strings so you have to dampen them, regardless of how clean your technique is.

 

[LigLury]

From the description of the Vai video:

"For the most part, perhaps 80-90% of the song, I did not seem to need anything to dampen the strings, but there were a few riffs where I did. I placed a small but dense piece of cloth under the strings at the nut and this helped with some of the unwanted vibration. When editing the final take, the majority of the audio is in sync with the video, but there are some lines that came from alternate takes."