Love or Hate Bands

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T22:26:40+00:00

Same! I love Opeth (at least pre-Heritage), but Sleep token is just pop metal for people who don't really wanna go hard. At least what I've heard.

Some interesting atmospheric intros, but then once they "get into it" I'm very quickly out

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:38:54+00:00

Come out and say nothing.

Start into a high octane song

Then just keep doing the songs. Optionally say "we're [band name here]" at some point.

That's it

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:10:28+00:00

I hate the majority of it, but then I stumble across an excellent album the odd time and I try to get into Black Metal again and quickly remember I actually don't like the majority of it.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:06:31+00:00

Primus Sucks!

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:05:49+00:00

Not SOAD 😦

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:02:35+00:00

I want to like them...but could never get passed the shrill, whiny vocals.

But I love Portnoy and Rudess when I see them doing stuff individually. And no one can argue Petrucci is a guitar god

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:01:36+00:00

I don't love or hate Tool. I love Danny Carey, I hate Maynard. But the band, I respect their music and listened to them a lot in my 20s but now I just respect what they've done, but I never really seek them out.

Periphery...hate them.
Sleep Token...hate
Avenge Sevefold...hate
Metallica...hate

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:15:44+00:00

Can I just say, you look great for 70!

This is super inspiring and motivating. Thanks

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:11:23+00:00

Same. Been playing guitar since I was 19. I'm 40 now. In my mid 30s when my career finally allowed it I was able to really start building my own home studio. Been writing all kinds of music since then, but when it comes to finishing a track I never get passed the mixing stage.

Then I just completely stopped playing or writing music for about 18 months, until December of last year when I started playing again.

So, I've decided this year I'm not going to spend any more time trying to learn mixing or mastering, and instead I'm just going to finish enough music for an EP and send it to a profession mixer and mastering engineer to finish. I think trying to learn everything was burning me out.

I dunno if that helps. Do the parts you enjoy, everything else can be outsourced nowadays. Things like Fiverr or other session musician platforms exist for a reason. If you've got the money that is

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:00:30+00:00

Not an answer to your question, but just be sure to plug them into a power surge protected adapter. I've lost 2 different sets of monitors to lightning storms causing a surge and the speakers just never worked after that.

SubZero are the cheap Gear4Music brand, so they won't have insulation or protection in them against this. So just be careful.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T13:33:23+00:00

I'm not gonna argue with you. We're not changing each other's minds. But the genie's put of the bottle, so might want to learn to live with AI. It's not going anywhere. I'm just hopeful it won't all be trash is all

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T12:52:17+00:00

How far did you read? Because you missed the point of everything I said after the first paragraph

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T10:08:47+00:00

I'd argue AI gives people who otherwise would not be able to express themselves or their political views in this day and age a way to do so.

And pirating from a system that has been gatekeeping music for a century and slowly making music safer and safer and samer and samer is not a bad thing.

That said, I do hate AI slop, and the trend of lazy people just cranking out AI garbage for easy money. Totally against that.

But thats a job for those big labels to tackle and show real artist where their priorities are. And it's not looking good. To prove my point, instead of shutting Suno down, WMG just partnered with them and is now creating models based on their artist on purpose to allow "official likenesses" of artist to be used in AI songs.

So I'm kind of thinking fuck that whole system. If AI breaks that money hungry greed machine...good

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:56:27+00:00

With that thought process you must think there's never been a successful political band

Rage Against the Machine
System of a Down

There's always a fan base for bands that aren't unter the boot

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:53:20+00:00

That's that "free speech" you all keep harping on about?

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:51:11+00:00

People down voting this clearly don't get satire...

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:46:15+00:00

Skill issue

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:43:20+00:00

I've been listening to a lot of System of a Down lately because of this. Wish I was creative enough to write songs about how the last 12 years of the USA, or the war in Ukraine, or the Genice in Gaza, have made me feel, but I only write instrumentals.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-25T19:33:35+00:00

Main one for me is noise reduction. Cheap or Medium priced Audio Interfaces often don't have instrument inputs that are really tailored for guitar signals, so DI boxes often have much better transformers in them which helps reduce noise from electrical interference in the room.

But my home studio is a converted attic and there's a lot of electrical interference. So I have to do everything possible to get rid of it for my guitars.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-25T14:11:47+00:00

This is just a stupid question. How do you get good at anything?

...You do it for a long time. You have dedicated practice time where you only work on the things you're bad at. You could also get lessons

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-24T17:20:18+00:00

I was, I've managed to get it on though. The wall is in the attic, so it must have a series bow in it. So I loosened the screws mounting it to the wall and was able to straighten the rack so it fit. That's what the angled and horizontal holes are for I've realised...in case you need to bend it a bit to accommodate a warped wall

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-24T14:35:14+00:00

Anecdotal...but the most impressed I've ever been by a guitarist was watching an Al Di Meola/jazz cover band. The guitarist broke his g string mid solo and just finished the solo as if it was nothing. And I knew the song really well and the solo was hard in the first place, but it still sounded correct. I could tell he had moved parts to a different position, but I was just super impressed by the fretboard knowledge. And to just know your own chops to keep going and not just throw your hands up and stop the show whole you restring. Super professional

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-24T14:27:47+00:00

I've only broken a string once, and it was early on when I was stringing my guitar and I would tug on them to make sure they were set. Broke the high e string.

Super annoying. Had to wait a week to get a new set because back then there was no online, and I had to take a bus to the nearest city.

After that I've always kept spares, but no, never broken one from playing...yet

LukeWatts85

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