[update #2] Possibly the first track I tried to put together... wip

Show and Tell
#1

Had these chords come up repeatedly in my noodling over the last one year. Nothing serious here, didn’t’ give the bass much thought.

All the bits have come from heavy gained up tones and riffing, I’m struggling to transition to the mean and nasty bits… yet to come, I have one cool part that’s like a set piece solo sorta thing I wrote, hind site it’s many influences melded, can’t say if anything is original as such.

Originally I was going for an 80s vibe but this got folksy very quick with acoustic. I have a tricerachorus coming soon, though that might help with the 80s thing. Will reduce the repetitive the chorus thing to one cycle. Whad do you guys make of it? Keep going?

[update: #1]
Experimented with overlaying electric guitars over the acoustic, not nailed the levels but i think it works? Edited the mix a bit.

[update: #2]
Added a bridge and a riff at the end. Starts with the double time drums which I need to change, this part need the bass and to double track with the HB. The last riff has an odd time, not sure if I should keep it, there is an open e note I can add at the end to even things out but then it looses something.

Also been struggling with headroom, I think the dynamic range is bit spread-out due to the start with acoustic to meatal riff kinda thing. All amateur hour here :slight_smile:

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#2

I really like this dude - it’s great! super to jam over the top!

Could u list the gear used for this?

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#3

Thanks man.

It’s a 20$ dollar acoustic double tracked with a 600$ contact shertler mandolin mic :slight_smile:
Old strings, so used a floppy pick to get a brighter tone.
The bass is my HH electric low E string on the neck pup, an octave down in DAW.
EZ drummer 2 Nashville kit.
Really basic.

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#4

Great thanks for the info!

I have time off over xmas and wanted to get to write somes tooon - EZ Drummer sounds great (a little compressed - but whatever).

I like this tune alot - has a “cowboy” vibe to it, can’t wait to hear the other parts!

I’m looking at EZ bass - because I’m too lazy to plug my bass guitar in hahahah!

#5

Ha… wish I had a bass, been meaning to get a micro POG, love that thing to death, had to sell it when I was broke one time.

So glad you said that, and It’s interesting that came through, done lots of country picking years ago. Thanks again brother, there’s definitely more twists to come on this.

1 Like
#6

So. I think it all depends on what you plan to do with it. If you were writing it as a full band track with a vocalist, I would sparse the guitar part out a bit because it would be competing with a vocal line, and indeed I hear you playing what could be a vocal melody in those parts.

If you want to keep it purely instrumental, then you have the right idea, and probably just some subtle rearranging is all that’s needed. You would just have to keep on experimenting with it to get it where you think it’s perfect.

For what it’s worth I like it purely acoustic like that.

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#7

This is where I’m really at, not done yet.

Thanks! I was surprised by my own reaction to the acoustic version so far, the riffs kinda held up quite well.

This is where the tune really came from.

And where it started 8 months or so ago.

I think I got all the bits in place more or less, I’m not happy with the faster sequenced riff, need to Ynwiefy it a bit. I started a new job 6 months ago so really don’t get much time these days. I think it works better a the slower 72bmp I got it at right now, slow and heavy Iommi Dio is what I always had in mind when trying to come up with it.

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#8

Like this! Nice composition.

Drums sound good too - must get EZ drummer at some point - don’t think I have heard anything bad from it!

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#9

I love this, even as it is as an acoustic track. The chord arpeggiation sounds great on acoustic!

And yes, keep going, experiment with it, find what you like, don’t like etc and have fun with it!

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#10

Thank you :slight_smile:

EZ drummer is def a time saver, I’ve a lot to learn about mixing, I think I need to fatten the drums up a bit, I didn’t’ give it any eq treatment, the acoustic surprisingly sounds rather big, hard to stick in heavy distortion, it’s a jarring and thin. Still experimenting. I wish I had bought their ‘classic’ drums from hell pack, may still do it.

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement :slight_smile:

I’ll update here if I make any progress :metal:

2 Likes
#11

Bump for an update… blended some electric in, works better than a hard transition.

3 Likes
#12

Sounding great man! When I was listening, especially when the electric comes in, it feels like it’s building up to something… Are you planning on keeping it light or expanding? Either can work of course, I’m just curious. Lots of great potential here!

1 Like
#13

Thanks brother.

It’s going towards getting really heavy. I had to reduce the gain to get it to blend better. Towards the end where it’s just the acoustic, that will get replaced and have a very dark riff kick in, but I’m not sure of the gallop riff post that transition yet.

This process is teaching me excessive gain is the enemy, my gut feeling so far is less gain sounds fuller, and to compensate for the gain may need to introduce some compression into my tone chain, but I’m also finding that my amp and drive pedal seem to have adequate compression, that which I haven’t really appreciated so far.

I also need to start writing the lyrics to get the song’s story & arch started. I want to make a point about the human condition, it’s the central theme, contrast light and dark, so much to say about our failure to appreciate our history as a race and being bound to repeat our mistakes. Obedience is not a virtue, critical thinking should replace hopeium.

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#14

haha, I’ve done that fake bass trick before - works well!!

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#15

Nice one! Yeah I could feel it was building up to something big. Looking forward to hearing it progress!

Yeah too much gain can have the opposite effect, too much fizz with no weight or tone.

Quad tracking rhythm can sometimes work although I find the more complex the rhythm, the more you risk a chorus like effect. I have triple tracked for some stuff before. Two guitars hard panned and one in the centre. Depends on the song though, need to leave room for the other elements.

#16

I couldn’t use the A string as it got thing real quick, but it was cool since I had limited voicing, the bass descends while the tune goes up in places.

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#17

I do like a bit of chorus, wating on a tricerachorus, though I think I’ll have to do is stereo to post tracking, routing might get tricky, send to headphone 2 and return IN 1/2. I’m interested to see how it will affect the acoustic bits. I don’t know if I will need to get a light box expansion, on an RME babyface pro.

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#18

oh very cool, this was a lot of fun to listen to! Great job!

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#19

Thanks mate, really appreciate that :metal:

#20

This is some really great music.

1 Like