Focus on the Rhythm - Musical Creativity 29
Which is louder, the hard-struck ringing chord or the palm-mute?
I answer both to that question. Let's look in some more detail.
The open, ringing sound starts with a short attack, with the low frequencies marginally occurring before the treble (due to the stroke across the strings). After the initial attack, there follows a very quick decay, a short period of sustain and a longer release. The length of the sustain depends on a number of variables, including the guitar materials, the diameter, materials and freshness guitar strings, amplifier gain, microphone technique and above all, the player. A lot of the time, there may be no sustain at all, just a prolonged release.
The palm-muted chugg is a very short attack mainy in the mid and low frequencies. The treble is more often missing because of the palm-mute which absorbs the ringing of the strings, plus it's mainly effective only on the lower strings. The attack is followed by a quick release. There's a quick decay, hardly any sustain if any at all and no release. It's almost an on-off sound and appears as a spike in the recording.
The comparison
Assuming that the guitarist uses the same sounds, the single ringing chord is louder than the single palm-mute. Both in the peak reached at the attack and the sustain and release.
Let's take a typical situation where the ringing chord plays on 1 and rings through to 8, to start again on the next bar's 1 and so on.
Ringing: 1....... 1....... 1....... 1.......
The chugg would start on 1, repeat on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and continue on each 8th note.
Mute: 12345678 12345678 12345678 12345678
The palm-muted chugg works out apparently louder than the ringing chord because the following attacks of 2-8 are louder than the sustain and decay of the ringing chord. In addition, the palm-mute focusses on the lower frequencies reinforcing the 8th rhythm. Assuming that other instruments (e.g. bass and drums) are also playing to the same rhythm, then the guitar starts to take on more percussive effect.
The diagram below is a simplified view of what I was describing above.
How can we use it?
I've always found it odd that a chords played with a palm mute sound louder than chords played ringing. They're a lower volume in isolation, but add volume by repetition.
Change an instrument from following the sequence of chords as they progress across bars/meters to following the rhythm. This works well if palm mute is a regular beat such as eighths. But also works well when there are staccato, off-beat rhythms.
It's a technique I use on a couple of the tracks in my band's live set to liven up an ending. Used correctly and it's a good way to introduce energy to a song. I also use it occasionally at the end of rock track if I want it to end with more energy than it started.
This was brought to back mind when I heard Blind by Breed 77
Not just guitars
It doesn't have to be guitars, other instruments can do the same, synth patches can be used in the same way, so can changing the arrangement of orchestral instruments as you resort to double-basses and cellos of a string section to provide the staccato notes. In these cases, the amplitude envelope will not be the same as for a guitar, so the sustain may well as be infinite (e.g. in the case of continually-bowed strings or synth pads).
Compression
When I've patched a compressor into the guitar track, I watch out for the continued signal reduction if the compressor's hold value merges into the next note, e.g. above 200ms and it's likely to be continually reducing the signal.
If I've patched a compressor/limiter into the stereo output bus, then again I'm watching out for the continued signal reduction. Yet I'm also listening for pumping if I've got more drastic compressor settings since the guitar may start trigger that effect.
Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.