Abyssal Reflection - A rock ballad (8:16)

STAT1STICK

Active member
I'm mainly curious about the composition and production on this one. Is it too busy or too minimal? It's a long song so I understand if you skip it. Not everyone has 8 minutes to spare on a home recording. I recorded this in my living room through my Digitech RP1000 as my audio interface since my Presonus Audiobox is a piece of shit (random pops). The vocals were recorded with an MXL 770. I used my Fernandes Vertigo guitar with a sustainer pickup for all the guitar tracks along with an Epiphone Thunderbird bass. I originally wanted to use synth in this song but I opted for all guitars instead.

I made an imgur post that detailed the recording process a bit more. You can see it here.

Abyssal Reflection 24-bit 48khz WAV Download

 
I've listened to the whole thing, and its good! Its well put together, and has some interesting twists. I like that.

If the RP1000 works so well, I wonder what's going on with the Presonus. It SHOULD be pretty reliable but I have heard of issues with the older Presonus drivers and Win10. I almost got the Presonus some years back but ended up spring for a Tascam instead.

Anyway, the song is pretty good. Nice job.
 
If the RP1000 works so well, I wonder what's going on with the Presonus. It SHOULD be pretty reliable but I have heard of issues with the older Presonus drivers and Win10. I almost got the Presonus some years back but ended up spring for a Tascam instead.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to it. I really don't know what it's deal is. It works fine as long as it's not connected via usb to my computer. It WAS a driver issue way back when but it was sort of resolved. Instead of having continuous pops and clicks while recording, it makes them randomly and sometimes not at all. I will get a good recording on one track but there will be some random pop that just ruins the whole take. I just can't rely on it the way I should be able to. So, it's just a bitch to my RP1000 now. It's fine, though. The RP1000 is great and has more control than you might expect. I can control mix volume/instrument volume right from the processor as well as the USB out level. It's actually my second one. The first one was plugged into a faulty outlet which fried it. I'm so glad I replaced it.
 
I like it. Reminds me of FFDP at times. What I am hearing: There are a couple times the vocals seem to go off key(purposeful?).
The transition from the clean guitar to the heavy guitars is pretty distinct in volume as the there seems to be a big drop. The heavy guitars seem to be the right level in the rest of the song, so I would look at maybe bring the clean down a little. Also, something is bugging me about the drum beat. The timing sounds off a lot. If your guitars on spot on the measures, you may want to look at other beats(assuming you are programing) and see if they fit better.

Oh, and you have this loud popping going on lol Regardless, great song, just need to fix a few things.
 
I like it. Reminds me of FFDP at times. What I am hearing: There are a couple times the vocals seem to go off key(purposeful?).
The transition from the clean guitar to the heavy guitars is pretty distinct in volume as the there seems to be a big drop. The heavy guitars seem to be the right level in the rest of the song, so I would look at maybe bring the clean down a little. Also, something is bugging me about the drum beat. The timing sounds off a lot. If your guitars on spot on the measures, you may want to look at other beats(assuming you are programing) and see if they fit better.

Oh, and you have this loud popping going on lol Regardless, great song, just need to fix a few things.

Thanks for the feedback! The vocals were left of key in places on purpose for a sense of discord. The guitar levels are of some concern and I'll have to go and see about changing that. The drums weren't pre programmed, I actually played the beat out on my keyboard and they were sloppy in places. I had to go through and manually adjust the timing of some beats to fit. Quantizing wasn't a great option because it ruined the groove pretty significantly. I actually had someone else do drums for this after I wasn't happy with what I had but when I got the tracks, they weren't what I had hoped for and the feel of the song was altered so I stuck with what I had. As for the popping, can you give me an example? Where did you notice them?
 
Thanks for the feedback! The vocals were left of key in places on purpose for a sense of discord. The guitar levels are of some concern and I'll have to go and see about changing that. The drums weren't pre programmed, I actually played the beat out on my keyboard and they were sloppy in places. I had to go through and manually adjust the timing of some beats to fit. Quantizing wasn't a great option because it ruined the groove pretty significantly. I actually had someone else do drums for this after I wasn't happy with what I had but when I got the tracks, they weren't what I had hoped for and the feel of the song was altered so I stuck with what I had. As for the popping, can you give me an example? Where did you notice them?

Disregard the popping comment. I found after posting that something went wrong with my browser causing this really loud popping sound that lasted about 10 seconds each time. I thought that was what you were referring to in your OP, but yet it was my own system.
As far as the drumming, do yourself a favor and look into one of the drumming plugins. I use addictive drums. Over the past few years I have bought a lot of the different beat packs and they are great for us that can’t drum well or have the ability to.
 
Disregard the popping comment. I found after posting that something went wrong with my browser causing this really loud popping sound that lasted about 10 seconds each time. I thought that was what you were referring to in your OP, but yet it was my own system.
As far as the drumming, do yourself a favor and look into one of the drumming plugins. I use addictive drums. Over the past few years I have bought a lot of the different beat packs and they are great for us that can’t drum well or have the ability to.

I actually used Addictive Drums for this. I didn't want to use a preset rhythm because I've done that so often in the past. Maybe I'll take a deep dive into the beats and see if I can find something similar to what I have. I also have superior drummer but I don't really care for it. AD is much more user friendly, imo.
 
I actually used Addictive Drums for this. I didn't want to use a preset rhythm because I've done that so often in the past. Maybe I'll take a deep dive into the beats and see if I can find something similar to what I have. I also have superior drummer but I don't really care for it. AD is much more user friendly, imo.

AD2 is all I use and I start with their preset beats and then work from there changing things as I need. If you listen to any of my songs, its is all AD2. Granted I have bought a lot of their packs, so I have a lot to choose from especially from the hard rock and metal genres. Also, I usually build the rest of the song around the drums, and not around the other parts. So they mesh up pretty nicely from the get-go and I am not scouring trying to find a beat that goes with whatever I am playing on the guitar. Your beat is probably fine, it is just off time somewhat. If it was more in time with the guitars it would probably be ok.
 
AD2 is all I use and I start with their preset beats and then work from there changing things as I need. If you listen to any of my songs, its is all AD2. Granted I have bought a lot of their packs, so I have a lot to choose from especially from the hard rock and metal genres. Also, I usually build the rest of the song around the drums, and not around the other parts. So they mesh up pretty nicely from the get-go and I am not scouring trying to find a beat that goes with whatever I am playing on the guitar. Your beat is probably fine, it is just off time somewhat. If it was more in time with the guitars it would probably be ok.

I definitely recorded guitars and bass before the drums which I normally don't do. I had just written the music and I was really excited to get it recorded. I played to a click but I have to admit that I got lost in the groove a few times and threw off the timing a bit in places. I guess I don't mind that much. I mean, I do but I'll live.
 
Good song. As another user mentioned above, I really like the interesting twists and turns in this track as well!
 
That's a nice change at 1.50. Tremelo guitar sounds great. Drums seem kinda hit and miss, they need to drive the groove more. Good job with the vocals. 8 minutes is a challenge. Have you done a stripped down 'radio friendly' version?
 
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