Jarek Musil

In case you are curious how the MXR Dyna Comp pedal sounds like, check out my new video :)

When I was writing the song for N-1 Fuzz by SMR Toys video review,

I was experimenting with the fuzz controls and I have found really interesting setting for fuzzy-pushed-clean tone.

Sounds really special to me.

Does it fit any song or riff?

Definitely not!

But if you just start writing a new stuff with this tone, you can find the unique beauty in it.

Sustain all the way down, Tone all the way down.

Some fuzzes even get muted with this setting.

But N-1 Fuzz not!

I was instantly getting weird ideas, weird notes inspiration.

And ended up with this riff.

It sounds quite synthy in some way...

And then that lush ambient soundscape idea came in.

I have activated a delay FX and 2 reverb units in series!

My Audified ToneSpot Electric and Linda Ironverb plug-ins were just right for this task.

When I am writing a song, I try to use some contrasts.

So once I had that slow riff with long ambience, I started thinking about a busy drum beat to make a contrast.

And I really liked it!

That's how I write :)

Use whatever keeps you inspired, enjoy the writing, enjoy music and..

May the muse be with You!

Big thanx goes to Rostislav Janda for the opportunity to test out his beautiful fuzz pedal and forcing me to push my limits a little :)

Big thanx goes to Libor Haloda for lending me his awesome Fender Telecaster guitar.

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When playing single-note fuzzy riff, I usually try to add the octave down FX.

In my case it's usually Digitech Whammy.

Well, it's not a good thing in every situation.

But when it fits, it's great!

Of course, you can ask your bass player to play along with you instead of Whammy.

But, who needs a bass player anymore?

Whammy plays so tight even it has several miliseconds latency!

Whammy has so much better tone overal even it's digital.

Whammy knows what I want to play even before I play.

Whammy has perfect timing, like me...

Whammy can play more than 4 notes.

Whammy doesn't need 8x10 cabinet.

Whammy can't get drunk.

:D

Distorted bass is my passion.

But when I distort the bass that much, it usually becomes thin.

Yeah, aggressive, bright, raw, harmonic, but thin.

And that's what I don't want, because especially on mobile phone's speakers the bass becomes really thin, harsh or even lost in the mix (because there are no low frequencies translated on than tinny mobile phone speaker, right?).

And between the hard-panned chunky hi-gain or even fuzzy guitars you definitely don't want that thin-sounding bass.

So you need to focus the distorted tone a little more by using quite aggressive LPF and pretty big mid-range boost.

I usually LPF distorted bass at 2k4 Hz and I like to boost the mids at 1k Hz.

My Audified ToneSpot Bass Pro is ideal for this kind of duties ;)

Writing the orchestra for a symphonic metal can be tricky.

Sometimes, I think that there is nothing needed to add since there are drums, bass and several guitar layers.

Well, and vocals and choirs, of course...

But to get that monstrous wall of sound, you need even more!

And you have to be careful to not overwhelm some specific frequency ranges too much.

Of course, you should think about in which octave you should write another track to not clash with other tracks too much so you can choose the instruments that naturally sound good in higher octaves.

Bells, ultra-high noted strings, flutes, chimes etc.

But what about the piano?

Piano can be also tricky.

For piano, I sometimes copy the piano part and transpose it one octave higher and mix it with the original lower note piano track.

This can make wonders in terms of clarity and still being fat.

What about strings?

Sometimes, guitars and strings sound just great in the same octave range and you simply don't want to transpose the strings one octave higher.

For example, you can use staccato strings over the dense chugging guitars in the same octave range.

Because staccato just emphasizes the beats, its dynamic, adds movement and is not clashing with other tracks all the time so it's better than just keeping long legato strings over the guitars.

If it sounds good, it IS good :)

Even it's in the same octave range or in an almost the same octave range.

Try the Fuzz!

It had taken me a while since I have discovered the beauty and wide usability of fuzz pedals.

Now I love them.

And I know that fuzz pedals are a way more than just extreme noise-makers.

Some fuzz pedals have really great clean-up capabilities.

When you turn the guitar volume pot down you can get really full, fat and warm mid-gain lead tone, even you play a passive single-coil pickup.

No extreme noise tone, but a beautiful singing mid-gain lead tone.

You can even get a very nice, dynamic crunchy or pushed-clean tones out of a fuzz pedal.

And this is one of the secret weapons of the guitar legends we all know, for example Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix or Joe Bonamassa.

But different fuzz pedals respond differently:

Here is the in-depth comparison between SMR Toys N--1 and Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Big Muff which I find really similar while there is still the difference:

I have enjoyed experimenting with several different guitar volumes during the songwriting process, really inspiring:

Watch the full song playthrough using the N-1 Fuzz throughout the whole song:

Check out the N1-Fuzz pedal here and don't forget to make your own design with the design configurator!