Need Password Skidrow Of Fight Night Round 4
Donald
I fell out of bed one night as I always do and came up with the idea for a new comic book character unlike any other. A character that would fight for truth, justice, and the consensual way. That's right, I'm talking about Richard Peter Johnson, otherwise known as Dick: Defender of Rape Victims.
By day he dons his mask and hides out under the un-assuming name "Penisman." He drives around incognito in a van called the PeePeeMobile (at least until his lawsuit with Oscar-Myer is settled and he can go back to calling it the Weinermobile) and stops at local high and junior high schools to warn innocent children of the dangers of pre-marital sex.
Dick Peter Johnson roams the streets of skid row, the halls of the prisons, and the cul-de-sacs of suburbia in search of the scum of the earth. What nobody knows, however, is that this mild-manner pseudo-superhero is actually the mysterious and powerful Dick Peter Johnson, dark vigilante.
Loved by the public, hated by the police, and always stalked by television reporter Holly Hyman, Dick Peter Johnson roams the streets of skid row, the halls of the prisons, and the cul-de-sacs of suburbia in search of the scum of the earth. The rapists, child molesters, the animal bonkers.
By night Dick Peter Johnson travels in his 1989 Yugo dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt. Nobody has ever seen him this way. Nobody would believe a superhero would fight crime with his own birth image and conceal himself in a costume. It's always supposed to be the other way around. But it can't be, because being "Penisman" is the only crummy job our hero could get in this economy.
He began as a sign spinner for an abortion clinic and worked his way up to costumed spokesperson for Planned Parenthood. It was then that he decided to take the law into his own hands. It was then that he decided to wear the costume all day long. Since he had no friends anyway, there was no worry about people finding out what he really looked like, and that made for the perfect disguise. Glasses-wearing, mustache-sporting, Aqua Velva-splashing Dick Peter Johnson.
It's perfect, Dick thinks. Everyone knows me as the giant dick but no one knows that in fact I am the Dick. I am the Dick alright. Dick Peter Johnson. Un-costumed Superhero. (Oh, you got it? Sorry. Didn't mean to hit you over the head.)
And in a very controversial issue that's sure to win me one of those animated storytellers awards, whatever they're called, he stops a minister from raping his own daughter by shoving pages from the bible down his throat and choking him to death.
That's right, Dick Peter Johnson doesn't turn these scumbags over to the police. He is a Dark Evening (I don't want to get sued for using the word "Knight"). He kills these vermin. He is a tortured soul. He is, after all, a Dick.
Of course, there's a dark beginning to this story, but I haven't thought it up yet. (Maybe Dick was molested by Father Lester when he was an alter boy many years ago, but I don't see how that would work since I decided to make him an ex-Amish.) (Perhaps there was a time when, driving around in the PeePeeMobile, he stopped at the church for directions and the priest misunderstood his intentions because he had the goddamed Penis suit on. That would make the rivalry rooted in a simple misunderstanding which would add to the darkness of the theme, I dunno.)
But until that faithful day when the two do battle for the final time, Dick Peter Johnson will be among us, fighting crimes on behalf of the innocent. And when his Yugo breaks down you can be sure he'll put a tarp over the PeePeeMobile and drive it real slow with the headlights turned off so no one will know that the unassuming Penisman is in fact a Real Superhero. The one the police want to grab. The one Holly Hyman wants to bonk. The one Father Lester wants out of his "special place" once and for all. The one, the only, dark lord of the dark places of the human soul: The Dick.
A lot of the older bands will drop down a half step. These are usually the bands that have a singer with a high range. I believe that for a while Queensryche was doing this because it made it easier on Jeff Tate as he's aged. I think Boston does it. I know there are quite a few others I just can't think of them right now.
I think the question is the songs that were originally recorded in standard and are later played 1/2 step down when performing live. I know I have accessed NIB on youtube and the newer versions are definitely in a lower tuning than the old ones.
Musicians record in standard, then play live tuned down all the time, doesn't sound bad at all. Unless you had a tuner with you at the show, you probably wouldn't even notice the half-step difference, but I can tell you that the singers vocal chords can tell the difference!
I don't have any specific examples, I know of some Christian artists who dont (or cant) do their songs live in the same key as they recorded it. It is easier to prep your voice to record a high vocal when it is the only track you are recording for the day VS singing an hour+ set of high songs...
I think tuning down, at least beyond much beyond Eb, to get a heavier sound becomes an exercise in chasing your own tail. If all your songs are in Eb, then Eb is your new established plane of heaviness and you have to drop down to D to get a heavier sound again, but if you play everything in D now, you have to drop to C# to get heavier...
I think the contrast between standard tuning (or Eb as that's been an alternate standard for some time now) and a drop tuned song creates a lot more heaviness. For instance, Metallica's Black Album has some pretty heavy sounding songs on it and they're all in standard tuning but then Sad But True comes along in D tuning sounds bone crushingly heavy. If the rest of the album was tuned down, that effect would be lost or else Sad But True would have have to be tuned down to C to get the same effect...
I guess if your trying to out heavy everyone else on the radio then you might get a brief advantage if you tune down before everyone else and your songs are lower than the songs that play before and after yours. But, that leads to the other problem I have with really low tunings - tone and intonation go out the window. You can put thicker strings on to a certain point, but your fighting a losing battle the lower you go. I love it when they strum a 1 finger power chord on a guitar tuned down to C# with a drop-B on the bottom and the act of strumming pulls everything way sharp and then it eases back down to the correct pitch with all sorts of dissonance along the way and there's not enough tension on the string to get good overtones so you can barely discern the pitch - all you can make out is a wall of mud. Writing heavy riffs is more sustainable long term than continually tuning down to get more heavyness.
We tried tuning down to Eb in my last band to help out the singer but abandoned it as neither the guitar player or I could get used to the sound and feel of it. Everything sounded like it was out of tune and the strings didn't feel right - we might have gotten used to it eventually but we didn't want to take the time. I'm already using the heaviest bass stings that I can find so I'd have to go custom to get the right tensions for a lower tuning. However, listening to songs on the radio, I never notice if there in standard or Eb, only when I sit down to learn them and I realize, dammit, I'm gonna have to keep tuning down a 1/2 step and back up again to learn these songs Playing songs in standard that were recorded in Eb never sounds strange to me. Playing stuff in standard that was originally recorded in drop-D does sound off but that's usually from the chord voicings being all wrong as opposed to everything being merely tuned up.
as a vocalist who sings in a cover band that plays at least 3 shows a weekend, tuning down a half step is a throat saver! playing from 10 untill 2am with only 2 20 minute breaks for 3 straight nights can kill you by sunday..we started tuning down when we noticed just about every national act was doing it..if they cant sing there own songs consistantly in that tuning every night how could i? there are very few songs that the average person can tell the difference..and when most other singers hop onstage for a tune or two they dont even realize it and have no problem. there are a very few songs (that escape me right now) that you can definately notice and it sucks the energy out of them...a little tweaking to the tempo usually helps.
This is an interesting topic. Although I don't play in a band anymore, I do full sequences of all my songs for my OMB act. I usually listen to the CD or song I got from another source on my computer before I start working on the sequence. Songs that were originally done by female vocalists that are altos or contraltos usually require that I sing the song 4 or 5 semitones lower than the original key, or lower. Typically, it won't work for chord voicings and parts that were played in a much higher key. It just doesn't sound right.
Lower a key by one semi tone works better for KB players than it does for guitar players, especially bass players. It was previously mentioned by Patman about heavy bass strings and tunings in a previous post.
I sing every song, and its difficult to sing every song at the top of my voice range for 3 hours and still sound good enough to end the show on a high note, pun intended. So i play a few songs during each set that was done by a baritone, or the lead vocal didn't get up in the ozone layer somewhere so I can coast my voice a little throughout the night. It was particularly difficult when I was a road player and worked 5 to 6 nights a week singing every song. It was mission critical to rest my voice during breaks and do some songs that weren't too demanding during the course of the night. Otherwise by Saturday night, I sounded like I gargled with razor blades.
There is no significant difference in feel or sound between Standard A=440 and a half-step down IMHO. There may be people who think there is, they may be the same people who buy expensive cables because it's going to make them sound sooooo much better......
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