How do you make feedback for music?

Question

I own a line6 gearbox (the cheapest one) and have a les paul custom. I don't have any of the bundles, and I use Cakewalk Sonar Producer 7.

Is there any way to make string feedback or microphonic feedback with what I have? are there any tips?

Answer 1

Hmm... Use an amp or crank your speakers, and hold the guitar so the pickups can actually pick up the noise of the guitar. Or use a mic instead of your guitar.

I don't know about Sonar, but a lot of recording software has ways to artificially generate feedback.

Use a lot of distortion/overdrive/fuzz/etc. Really, if you just crank your amp and don't have extremely expensive pickups or an acoustically dampened room, you'll end up with feedback, for better or worse. But you didn't mention an amp, which leads me to believe that you are using a line in to record.

Just remember that feedback is when the output is part of the input. The sound of your guitar strings vibrating (even when you don't think they are) goes through the distortion and is amplified, then that signal, as well as the sound of the strings vibrating, is once again picked up by your pickups almost at the same time, and the process repeats and builds. That's how you get feedback.  

Answer 2

You are the luckiest guy in the world because I am the feed back guru.

The easiest manual way (and still the best) to make feedback (with guitar) is to put the pickups of your guitar very close to the speaker while playing very loud.

Feedback is created when the sound being amplified is picked up again by the instrument and then amplified again by the amp/speaker which is picked up again by the instrument and then amplified again by the amp/speaker over and over into infinity.

I'm surprized if your line 6 does not have a feedback feature on it. If it doesn't then you really must have the bottom of the line. I have used feedback features on my Digitech and a few others and the dynamic is never quite the same as analog feedback. still, it comes down to taste. There are times when a song I am producing needs the feedback function of a Digitech. Othertimes, more often than not, I need that analog feedback.

I have feedback in almost all of my productions. I usually have multiple tracks of feedback, using multiple notes on the guitar, so that during mix down I can actually play melodies with my feedback thanks to Pro-Tools automation.

Another cool thing is to flip a track and play the feedback backwards. It sounds roughly the same backwards but with subtle differences. Also, if you throw a delay on feedback, either backwards or forwards, you can create a pumping sound that resembles old beat machines, and if you are good at mixing you can control the pumping and make rhythms, or just use it as a tremolo effect.

Microphone feedback is very different, and rarely musically usable, unless you are going for very harsh and piercing sounds like Rage or Marilyn Manson. It is created the same way as guirat feedback, holding the microhone close to the speaker.