"The General" is officially delayed... but "The General" AND "Monsters" is (unofficially) out of the bag

[Free Bird]

35 minutes ago, LandOla said:

Instrumentals don't have lyrics

It's no instrumental. My sources told me Ax is gonna spell 'The General' during the 6 minute song saying every 30 seconds one letter...

T 

H

E

G

E

N

E

R

A

L

until Slash kicks in with a 3 second solo that fades out into a synth duell between Dizzy and Melissa.

[The Real McCoy]

Have we ever determined if the song will be available to download/stream yet?

[Free Bird]

1 minute ago, The Real McCoy said:

Have we ever determined if the song will be available to download/stream yet?

Only available for Generals 

[Martin Riggs]

5 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

It all goes hand in hand, IMO. But definitely an easier discussion if we focus more narrowly on solos. I'll listen back to some of those songs.

The One You Loved - right off the bat, the very beginning of the solo is a rehashed lick from The Last Fight's solo.

(starts at 2:39)

Done much better on The Last Fight, and was also used on Far and Away as well (starts at 2:38):

But even by Far and Away that was starting to become one of the cliches he would lean on when he didn't have anything more original. I remember this solo standing out at the time for being pretty by-the-numbers for him. Luckily the outro solo redeems F&A big time.

As The One You Loved continues, the solo suffers from a similar issue to Far and Away; he's not alternating the rhythm much. The notes come at a pretty consistent and predictable pace, with little to no syncopation. He's just kind of wandering up and down the scale with no sense of direction or building up and releasing. You also don't feel any groove in the performance of it. It's very stiff.

Now contrast that with an excellent solo from Snakepit; Back To The Moment (starts at 2:58):

Take note of the fluidity, how his rhythm sits right in the pocket, the diversity between long bends and faster runs, the way it starts slower and gradually builds to a crescendo. And of course, the tone is to die for.

The One You Loved Is Gone is superior to all of those songs. The version he plays live is outstanding as well. 

[Free Bird]

17 minutes ago, Martin Riggs said:

The One You Loved Is Gone is superior to all of those songs. The version he plays live is outstanding as well. 

Live it's another animal. Agree.

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Free Bird

[F*ck Fear]

6 hours ago, Powerage5 said:

It's extremely easy to get a good vinyl rip, given that the vinyl is in excellent condition, and it's a quality pressing (This is absolutely key - if it's a crap pressing, it's gonna be a crap rip). A minor amount of touching up the rip can make it sound excellent. 

To give an idea - this is a rip of a vinyl-only track from one of my favorite bands, that doesn't sound like it's been touched up after ripping to me. If you think this sounds like ass, I don't know what to say  

 

That sounds good. In all honesty I was basing my comment on a few different things that were said here, regarding bad rips from vinyl. If it sounds like this, it'll be fine. Thanks!

[jimisbatman]

1 hour ago, F*ck Fear said:

That sounds good. In all honesty I was basing my comment on a few different things that were said here, regarding bad rips from vinyl. If it sounds like this, it'll be fine. Thanks!

What's positive about vinyl is, I my experience, less compressed and loud, so a good rip would be awesome. 

[Towelie]

3 hours ago, jacdaniel said:

Paraphrasing here but I remember at some point Axl mentioning that he's not really into Rock that much anymore and was more into film scores and stuff like that. 

A rockstar who's not really into rock. Explains a lot.

[Powerage5]

4 hours ago, F*ck Fear said:

That sounds good. In all honesty I was basing my comment on a few different things that were said here, regarding bad rips from vinyl. If it sounds like this, it'll be fine. Thanks!

No worries! It seems like a lot of people here think a vinyl rip is the equivalent of the cellphone leak or the people recording Perhaps in the bars while playing it on the jukeboxes - that’s not the case at all. A vinyl rip is literally using a turntable as the audio input on a computer, and recording from the input. So exactly what is coming through your speakers is what ends up on the digital file. So if it’s an old record that’s chewed to shit and full of pops and skips, that’ll reflect on the file. If it’s a brand new record that’s a good quality pressing and has no flaws, the file should be extremely good (Like the example I gave above). 

[Voodoochild]

5 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Live it's another animal. Agree.

 

This solo is good, but is it me or Slash is not using any reverb? 

I also like how he plays cohesive within the song. This is how he should approach This I Love in my opinion.

7 minutes ago, Powerage5 said:

No worries! It seems like a lot of people here think a vinyl rip is the equivalent of the cellphone leak or the people recording Perhaps in the bars while playing it on the jukeboxes - that’s not the case at all. A vinyl rip is literally using a turntable as the audio input on a computer, and recording from the input. So exactly what is coming through your speakers is what ends up on the digital file. So if it’s an old record that’s chewed to shit and full of pops and skips, that’ll reflect on the file. If it’s a brand new record that’s a good quality pressing and has no flaws, the file should be extremely good (Like the example I gave above). 

That example was good indeed, but I feel there are still some things worth noticing about a vinyl rip. It's not a digital copy, so it's prone to get the artificial warmth of the needle/disc interaction. Depending on how well the press process was, it affects the lower frequencies too. In other words: it's a bit different EQ than of what a digital copy would be. 

[Lethalis]

3 hours ago, Towelie said:

A rockstar who's not really into rock. Explains a lot.

Well, that's actually kind of interesting though.

I find most rock bands that like to "rock all the time" boring af.

So it's great when there is some dynamic within the band, which leads to more variation. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin had this dynamic, with Duff and Slash adding even more flavour to it.

But their solo stuff is mostly more of the same. Axl writing sad piano songs about Erin, Izzy rocking out, Duff punking out, Slash actually being the one with the most variation, mostly through collaborations, but still.

It would be interesting if they actually would write new music together, instead of touching up Axl's songs. To get that dynamic back. And yes, they need Izzy... at least for the songwriting, and keep Fortus for touring.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Lethalis

[Lethalis]

6 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Live it's another animal. Agree.

 

It's a great song and I like it... it's a shame that when I start playing Living The Dream (as a whole album) I can't stand it for long. Just too busy, too much Myles. And I actually like Myles, but sometimes his voice is just too much. But when he controls himself a bit more, tones it down, like he does here, he actually sounds amazing (Alter Bridge - Burn It Down is another great example of this).

And of course I like Slash's solo here too

Edited September 28, 2023 by Lethalis

[Free Bird]

38 minutes ago, Voodoochild said:

This solo is good, but is it me or Slash is not using any reverb? 

You are the one with knowledge, I have no idea 

I just know if I like what I'm listening to. 

[Powerage5]

1 hour ago, Voodoochild said:

This solo is good, but is it me or Slash is not using any reverb? 

I also like how he plays cohesive within the song. This is how he should approach This I Love in my opinion.

That example was good indeed, but I feel there are still some things worth noticing about a vinyl rip. It's not a digital copy, so it's prone to get the artificial warmth of the needle/disc interaction. Depending on how well the press process was, it affects the lower frequencies too. In other words: it's a bit different EQ than of what a digital copy would be. 

All good points. The explanation I gave was definitely simplified and more to discredit the “a vinyl rip is no better than a cellphone leak” narrative. The EQ issue I usually account for by ripping an additional track (Assuming we’re talking about something where I can compare to a proper digital copy whether it’s streaming or from a CD) and play around with the EQ on the additional track to try and get it as close as possible to the digital source, then I know what filters to apply to the track I actually wanted to rip. 

[Martin Riggs]

7 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Live it's another animal. Agree.

 

I think this performance is a much higher quality:

 

[Blackstar]

8 hours ago, jacdaniel said:

Paraphrasing here but I remember at some point Axl mentioning that he's not really into Rock that much anymore and was more into film scores and stuff like that. 

I have a feeling this song might be a bit down that alley. 

He didn't say it about rock music, but in relation to being in GN'R. And he said it at the time he was fronting AC/DC.

Someone can be into different things at the same time.

[Voodoochild]

2 hours ago, Free Bird said:

You are the one with knowledge, I have no idea 

I just know if I like what I'm listening to. 

But I'm not sure either 

I just felt his guitar was too dry there. Maybe it's the soundboard/broadcast capture's fault. 

2 hours ago, Powerage5 said:

All good points. The explanation I gave was definitely simplified and more to discredit the “a vinyl rip is no better than a cellphone leak” narrative. The EQ issue I usually account for by ripping an additional track (Assuming we’re talking about something where I can compare to a proper digital copy whether it’s streaming or from a CD) and play around with the EQ on the additional track to try and get it as close as possible to the digital source, then I know what filters to apply to the track I actually wanted to rip. 

Got it. I do understand that if The General really don't get a digital release, we could end up with a very high quality version nonetheless. I hate that we are still not 100% sure about when and how we're gonna get the track. 

[Free Bird]

2 hours ago, Martin Riggs said:

I think this performance is a much higher quality:

 

Indeed awesome. Fun to watch.

[Slugworth]

14 hours ago, Skamos66 said:

Funniest shit ever

Not even mildly amusing.

Just a grab bag of nonsense formed into a "dream".

Some of you guys should keep these "dreams" to yourselves. If not, the least you can do is make them appear somewhat realistic so we can pretend to believe it and then pretend to laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awhile back I saw a poster (forgot your name) mention how he hated logging in, seeing new posts in one of the main threads he's watching, clicking on it, and it's just irrelevant nonsense.

 

 

 

 

 

[gunsnchalupas]

11 hours ago, jimisbatman said:

What's positive about vinyl is, I my experience, less compressed and loud, so a good rip would be awesome. 

 

If Hard School didn't have a separate master for vinyl, it is unlikely that Perhaps or The General will. I don't have Hard School on vinyl, so I don't know if the master is different. 

A lot of modern vinyl releases are compressed. They are actually worse than the compressed digital releases, because it's the same compressed master with the volume lowered and maybe some minor alterations. In addition, there is the distortion or artifacts if the record is poorly pressed or not near-mint. 

Vinyl has certain restrictions with how loud certain frequencies can be, so they just take the compressed digital master and lower the volume all around. Which is ironic given the purpose of brickwalling is to make a recording louder. Most releases don't get separate vinyl masters, and most re-issues that aren't from some boutique label are just the digital master pressed onto vinyl with minimal necessary changes. An example of a record that got a full remix/master for vinyl was Stadium Arcadium, but that's a bit outside the norm. 

Vinyl, again ironically, isn't really about the music. Most people who buy vinyl don't listen to it. It's more of a collectible. So there isn't much value added by making sure it sounds good. In most cases for modern represses or releases that are just your run of the mill releases, there will probably be a digital or CD version that sounds better. 

[evilfacelessturtle]

18 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Yeah but it's easy to take one of his best solos to argue that his work then was better than today. Back To The Moment is awesome of course, as are many songs on Snakepit and GNR and that's definitely the work of Slash I still prefer, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy his new stuff. I also agree that you can make out similarities in his solos here and there, but I think that's normal when you listen to Slash. He hasn't changed his style of playing much in over 30 years but keeps releasing music constantly. Therefore I'm not expecting him to be as great as he was back then, as I'm not expecting GNR to create another AFD or a third UYI. That time is long gone but that doesn't mean everything he's doing now is garbage. To me at least.

At least we agree that the outro on Far And Away is ace 

I wouldn't say "garbage", but I would say "mostly uninspired". The reason Slash is/was good was because he could take that same style and keep it fresh and interesting by doing different things with it. He hasn't been doing different things with it on the last few albums, is my point. I'd say I like most of Apocalyptic Love and about half of WOF.

18 hours ago, Free Bird said:

When you listen to Serve You Right, listen to the outro from about 3:40.

He stays in the same register pretty much all throughout and doesn't go anywhere. He stays almost exclusively in the first position of A pentatonic. The fast run at the end is nice, IDK why they faded it out when it sounded like it was finally about to go somewhere. A pretty stark contrast from a great outro solo like F&A or Battleground.

[evilfacelessturtle]

16 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Live it's another animal. Agree.

 

His solo tone is better, clean tone much worse than the studio recording. Outro solo is better but still obviously improvised. What stands out to me is how almost all of his bends are flat. That's the kind of stuff that boggles my mind. I know he can bend a note properly, he did it for decades even while piss drunk. Does he just not care anymore or is his hearing too f*cked from loud music?

[Silence]

On 9/27/2023 at 6:45 PM, Free Bird said:

Yes surely, in a melodic sense and it was a stupid decision to leave it off the record. 

I never understood that decision. 

[Sweersa]

On 9/27/2023 at 7:45 PM, Free Bird said:

Yes surely, in a melodic sense and it was a stupid decision to leave it off the record. 

If they included Psycho Killer (cover) and Messages, (and removed 1 or 2 of the weaker songs that made the record) it would have been significantly better.

[Sweersa]

I wouldn't be surprised if the lyrics to The General are about Axl's first visit to Dollar General, where he quickly discovered and was unpleasantly surprised it's not actually "dollar store" where everything is a dollar. In the middle of the song, he sings about Dollar Tree, which he discovers is a store where everything is actually a dollar or less. The last part of the song's lyrics were updated to reflect Axl's frustration with Dollar Tree's recent raising prices of some items to $1.25.