Ok....well done. I'm not a grunge fan and am not sure how this genre "should" sound but I might have added a tiny bit more punch to the kick and bass. But that being said......it's of VERY MINOR consequence to the overall very high quality of the song. Loved every aspect....especially the vocals.
Now don't take this the wrong way.......please........but how the heck did you write / compose...record....mix and master this all in one day???? And you even finished it 3 hours ago!!! Some tips on that would be great!!!
Thanks for the feedback. I agree with your comment on the kick and bass and I also found the drums lacking. I had two drum buss compressors stacked by mistake and this messed up the mix. I also addressed the bass and kick.
To answer you question how did I write / compose...record....mix and master this all in one day? That is just how I work. To start writing a song, I usually pull up a drum pattern and mess around on the guitar until I find a riff - no science to it. Sometimes I get struck by inspiration, sometimes not. When I find a cool riff, I record it and then I search for other riffs to compliment. Sometimes that leads to nothing, sometimes a song develops. When a song does develop, it happens quite fast, and then I have a whole song structure. When the juices are flowing, that takes 1-3 hours from start to finish. I have a mix template that I pull up during song writing, so when the drums and guitars are recorded, I can move quickly to a rough guitar and drum mix. I always have a mastering limiter on when developing a song so I can start to imagine how it will sound. Then comes lyrics, bass and solo. This time, I actually played the solo before the lyrics were written, but that is very rare for me. I am a very shitty soloist and not that great a guitar player. Solos are the hardest for me to pull off. Bass I do in midi on a keyboard - that is also quite quick - about 30 mins or so.
Writing lyrics for me is also very fast. I wrote these lyrics in about 15mins without a melody other than the "Hope for mankind, is fading away" part. That came to me very quickly as the hook first and I wrote the lyrics around that. Then I printed them out, pulled up the verse on a loop and just winged it. Once I have have a few takes and have at least one I like, I comp the takes - not crazy comping. Just phrases. Then I make a rough edit with that taken and make two doubles of it. Then I make three harmony vocals of the main vocal - sometimes a 2nd harmony (also three tracks). Again, the harmonies are "winged" - pull up the main vocal and find the harmony on the fly. In this song I have one part where I added a high harmony - so that is nine vocal tracks in parallel. That is the magic of Layne's vocals. He was a master at doubling himself and he layered like hell. I am not as good as Layne, but I have learned to double myself quite good. Vocals take the longest cause you have to get the doubles just right to sound like a wall and not sound "loose".
Mixing and mastering is quite fast. Like I said, I have a mix template in Reaper, and pull-ins lined up in offline mode. I bring them in as needed and mix quite quickly - like 15-30mins or so. Mastering is a continuous part of mixing for me because I have a limiter on all the time.
Hope that helps. Many people remark at how quickly I write a song. To me it is just normal. I once wrote two songs like this in one day. BUT I am by no means perfect and am still trying to learn to do better, which is why I am here and why your feedback is very very much appreciated.
