My quick project last weekend...

[hiwatt357]

This is an mp3 of a song I just submitted to the copyright office this week. Long story, but it involves former band members continuing to play a song for which I came up with the music & arrangement. It's a quick job, since it was only for submitting it for copyright, but I'd still like to get some feedback on it...especially in regard to the guitar tones. No vocals, as I didn't write the lyrics to this song.

Here's the link to the soundclick page, and it's the only song on there (called "drugs"): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=436449

Thanks!

 

[Seeker of Rock]

I dig the guitar sound and parts. The bass is under the mix until the break somewhere towards the end, but cool. Drums sound digital, namely in the bell ride parts. Tweak your software on the bell rides. Need a good strong vocal melody and delivery and the song will be awesome. I love the energy of the tune. Once you get a vocal, work on the drum sound and pull the bass a little forward into the mix, I'll buy it for $15.99 +tax.

 

[David Player]

Guitar tone sounds killer!!! Question?? How did you record that? Mic to amp? Marshall amp? Strat or Gibson? Nice beefy sound that you have going. I'd be happy if I could get the same.

 

[hiwatt357]

I dig the guitar sound and parts. The bass is under the mix until the break somewhere towards the end, but cool. Drums sound digital, namely in the bell ride parts. Tweak your software on the bell rides. Need a good strong vocal melody and delivery and the song will be awesome. I love the energy of the tune. Once you get a vocal, work on the drum sound and pull the bass a little forward into the mix, I'll buy it for $15.99 +tax.

Thanks, man. Interesting, though...the drums were tracked live. I guess the "digital" sound comes from tracking to a Boss BR-532 digital 4-track and mixing down to only 128 kbps. I can't tweak any software, so would mixing down to a highter bitrate fix the sound you're talking about? As far as the bass goes, maybe I was playing harder towards the end of the tune? Only way I can think that it might have gotten louder towards the end. Thank you for the compliments on the energy of the tune, though. I've always loved that riff, and I guess that the band made up of former members still playing it as their own sort of confirms that it's pretty decent in some manner. With the lyrics, it was a rockin' song...but I didn't write the lyrics, so I can only copyright the music. I'm going to try to write some new lyrics, so maybe this riff will have life once again.

Guitar tone sounds killer!!! Question?? How did you record that? Mic to amp? Marshall amp? Strat or Gibson? Nice beefy sound that you have going. I'd be happy if I could get the same.

Thanks! As mentioned above, I recorded with a Boss BR-532 digital 4-track. Rig-wise, I used my Peavey Classic 50 140 running clean mic'ed with a SM-57 straight against the grill cloth about midway between the dome and the edge of the cone. The distortion comes from an old (Japanese-made) Boss DS-1 distortion pedal. The guitar in the left channel is my '94 Gibson Les Paul Studio and the guitar in the right channel is my '76 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe/Standard (a Deluxe "converted" to a Standard by routing for humbuckers and using the Gibson 490R/498T pickups common to Standards for a period of time).

I might try a re-mix of this this weekend with the bass more present in the mix. I really am interested in whether mixing down to a higher bitrate would fix the "digital" sound of the drums. Although, I'm only using 4 mics on the drums, so I'm not really expecting much out of my drum sounds. *shrug*

Thank you very much for the input thus far.

 

[ido1957]

I don't think the drums sound digital - especially when you start beating on the ride for that bell sound - it rocks.....Maybe we need to get a drummer to review this for a more precise critique. I'm more of a guitar player.

Good riff - I can see why you'd want to copyright it.

Do you play all the instruments - if so nice job and I'm jealous (haha).....

Awesome guitars - nice tone and well panned/balanced.
Kind of an Entwistle bass tone on the bass solo
Hurts to think of routing out that Deluxe but their stock pickups are so BRIGHT you need sunglasses to listen to them (lol).

Cool tune - good luck with the vocals - maybe repost when they're done too...

 

[hiwatt357]

I don't think the drums sound digital - especially when you start beating on the ride for that bell sound - it rocks.....Maybe we need to get a drummer to review this for a more precise critique. I'm more of a guitar player.

Good riff - I can see why you'd want to copyright it.

Do you play all the instruments - if so nice job and I'm jealous (haha).....

Awesome guitars - nice tone and well panned/balanced.
Kind of an Entwistle bass tone on the bass solo
Hurts to think of routing out that Deluxe but their stock pickups are so BRIGHT you need sunglasses to listen to them (lol).

Cool tune - good luck with the vocals - maybe repost when they're done too...

Thanks for the input. The ride is an old Paiste 2002 ride. Not much of a bell on those, so it's actually kinda hard to hit.

Which sort of leads to the answer to your question...yes, that's me playing everything. Thank you for the compliment.

Bass tone-wise, that's a built-in COSM preset in the BR-532 called "drivin' bass". I'm playing my Fender Taco-Jazz bass (Made In Mexico...duh) in which I dropped a set of the 60's re-issue pickups.

I flippin' wish I could play like Entwistle, though.

The '76 Deluxe was already routed for humbuckers when I bought it (for $550), and it had DiMarzio Super Distortions in it...but I never really liked the way they sounded. So, having a luthier do a little extra routing to make room for the Gibson pickups didn't hurt me too much.

 

[true-eurt]

High energy here. I love the Drums and the Bass. I can hear some really kickin leads in this. I hope you work some in. Great song.