An experiment in instrumental metal. All feedback welcome!

bendbones

Member
I've been playing around with this (instrumental metal?) track today. Hopefully it doesn't sound like one gigantic guitar exercise :-)

AJ inspired by a bloke from a book a mate of mine is writing

Drums are a combination of a loop I found and a midi track using the 'Dumkit From Hell' set with EZDrummer 2.

Guitar (Les Paul 2015 Traditional) went through a Bias Amp 2 plugin described as 'Monster VH4' (possibly designed to emulate a Diezel VH4 but I'm not sure for certain).

Bass guitar was tracked from a clean electric guitar part using EZBass.

Thanks,
Ben.
 
Nice playing! Satriani fan? The melodies are excellent, they don’t sound like technical exercises at all. I feel however that it stays at one level of dynamics and doesn’t change much throughout...would be awesome if it built up more to a climax. The track deserves a better bass sound. Maybe add some harmonies, and more layers as things progress, making better use of the stereo field? Also more variation to the drums. I speak not as an expert producer but as an avid metal consumer :D

edit: listened on better headphones and the bass isn't all that bad. sounds like the lead parts are doubled rather than harmonised, is that right? if so, definitely get some harmonies in there!
 
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Thanks, yeah, all the lead parts are doubled to try and fatten out the sound - but will have a think about how to add some more dynamics and layering! I am indeed a huge Satriani fan! Thanks a lot for the feedback and production advice! :-)
 
Great playing! The drums and bass to me sounded a bit mechanical and repetitive, and I would have maybe added a synth pad, and 50 more tracks, and made a big mess LOL! Great sound though!
 
Thanks for the feedback. Based on comments, I have added some more layering including some tremelo guitar parts panned hard left and right, a few keys here and there and some guitar line harmonies. I also attempted to beef up the bass and tinkered with the drums a little. Hopefully the mix sounds more 'massive' now! :-D

AJ with more layering

Thanks,
Ben.
 
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Again, great chops on this one. Very solid stuff all around. And the mix overall sounds nice to me. I don't have too many nits on it, if any.

I would only echo my comments from the blues instrumental tune in the other thread. The phrasing---especially on the fast licks---is just a bit too predictable, IMO. I think literally every one of them started on beat 1 in this song.

Obviously, there's no written law that says you can't always start on beat 1! But I think it would make things sound a bit more interesting to branch out a bit, phrasing-wise.

Great playing!
 
Thanks famous beagle for the feedback! I know what yoiu mean about the chops being a little predictable. I'll try and play around with this on upcoming tracks. Cheers :-)
 
In response to the last feedback, I've added a middle-8 section between the second and outro chorus. Hopefully it freshens up the overall sound and makes the track a bit more interesting. Generally I think it's still missing something. I was wondering about doing a 'truck drivers gear change' on the final outro chorus but not sure.. what do people think?

AJ with new middle-8 bit (and EDIT: extended outro chorus)

Thanks,
Ben.
 
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This sounds very good to me.

Really still need more variation imo. It all starts to blend together. The middle 8 helps. I would work on bigger transitions and maybe a part where the drums go 1/2 time or maybe cut out altogether (at least the snare). Could be just for a few short beats. More drum work/rolls and towards the end really get the drums going with open hats and lots of symbol hits, rolls, etc...

Something to really change it up.

Really good so far though.
 
Thanks for the feedback Retrohazard. Glad the middle 8 goes a step towards tying things together.. but still, I kind of know what you mean regarding needing bigger transitions. I’m going to play with the drum fills and patterns in the outro chorus tomorrow. Will see what I can do!

Have a good’un,
Ben.
 
The riff reminded me of Killing Joke. Nice playing and progressions. Maybe just a touch more variation to make it really interesting
 
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