New song from another POD person...

[AlChuck]

Finally I've got something to put up here again... it's a little thing that grew out of a very cool free loop I got from Pocketfuel.com. I put it all together using ACID. The guitars are all through my POD with a little bit of plug-in delays on the two less-prominent parts. In the solo I make a bold attempt to be Mike Stern, with fair to middling success... The title came from onbe of the percussion parts inside the loop -- it sounded to me like a cash register. So I called it "Kaching," and on the web I found a cash register sound effect to drop into it.

http://www.mindspring.com/~wolcott.oehler/music.htm

 

[mixmkr]

nice intro. I do like the sound you get out of the POD too. Maybe a little reverb...but it sounds good. On my system, the drums sounded a little dull and could use some more high end to them. Admittedly, after the solo, the bass line and drum beat started to lose my interest....however this would make good dance music, I imagine. I suppose I am just used to the excitement of a Vai or Satriani in an instrumental piece....something with a little more pizazz than a phrase repeating 4 times, then a small variation, and 4 more times...etc. I think you have something going really good here.....just add a little more variation to it to keep the listener attracted....even more sound effects like the cash register....I'd go for that.

 

[drstawl]

It got my POD activated because it's late and I can't even play acoustic this late at night, but with cans and the POD (SONY MDR-7506, of course) I can jam all night.
Thanks again, Line6.
Ka Ching.

 

[AlChuck]

mixmkr,

Thanks for the good words. Yeah, I agree with you pretty much entirely. There was not a lot of thought or effort put into this, and it could benefit from something to carry the interest past the first statement of the theme. The entire main guitar part was done off the cuff -- I basically "wrote" the theme as I played and liked the vibe enough to leave it alone and just put some window dressing around it.

One thought I had was, when the main guitar stops and the second chord center returns with those two other guitar parts left alone, having some sort of filtering or flanging in tempo with the song that would give that a little more sonic interest there.

I really appreciate the feedback. This is just the kind of thing I need to help me think more deeply about my stuff and take it up a notch if I can...

drstawl, yeah, I do love my POD... finished recording this tune while the kids were in the next room sound asleep...

-AlChuck

 

[elbenj]

Hey Alchuck,

I liked the guitar sounds. Have been contemplating
getting the POD myself but Im looking at using it for the
Bass. Does it work equally as well with the Bass?

I liked the whole groove. It kinda brought to my mind
the opening to the movie "Men in Black' which I liked
alot. Keep it up!

 

[AlChuck]

Thanks, Elbenj.. I'll have to watch that movie again to see what you mean, it's been a couple of years...

The POD works OK on bass, I've used it's Tube Preamp model to good effect. There is a Bass POD too, you know, with bass amp models... also, the Johnson J-Station has some settings designed for bass. They just dropped the price of that sucker to $149, and it has an S/PDIF output if that's something useful for you. But Line6 is also offering a $100 rebate this month if you buy a POD... decisions, decisions...

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Very cool. Got that Michael Jackson backbeat thing happening. Pretty good mix. I think that maybe the lead could come down a tad as it drowns out the bass on smaller speakers. I also thought that the main riff was kind of overly-redundant...but I really like the change towards the end with the clean hammer riff.

Good work!

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Emeric]

Hey that's nice. Fusion like. Perhaps repetitive but you have the break part at 00:48 which is cool. Funky. I like the guitar tones, you have an interesting vibrato and good choices of notes, melodic but tense. I do hear some hum though, I don't know if this is intentional or not. Sounds like you had your computer monitor on when tracking with no noise gate. Very evident at 00:15-00:16, but I can hear it through the quiet parts without the lead. Is it on the guitars or the loop? Agree with S2K, the lead could come down a little, but not much.

Interesting stuff, like it!

Emeric

 

[AlChuck]

Thanks. Emeric...

Yeah, I sit here two or three feet away from the monitor (the display, not the near fields -- though come to think of it, I'm only two or three feet from them too ). I should be more careful about it... I should stand back a bit further or try turning off the display while I track guitar. It might be the durned house too -- we have a couple of those cheap fader light switches that sometimes are left "partially on."

I like the basic outline of this song but there is definitely a little too much repetition for my taste too, the more I think about it. I'll have to see what I can come up with. It just needs a little touch of something to lift its interest level in the second theme repeat and right after the guitar solo...

 

[CyanJaguar]

I like the beat.

THe kick got a little bit undefined in the mix, but just a small thing.

Now, I love the guitar thing over there. I love the far away reverbed sound and basically the cystal clarity of the mix

keep it up.

 

[AlChuck]

Thanks, cyanjaguar...

I hope to have a revised version of this ready pretty soon...

 

[ez-e]

cool

I dig it...I do have to agree w/the others that it becomes a little repititous. The only thing that I didn't like was the way it ended, I thought it stopped to abruptly. But great work, I really like it....I'm sure if you make an updated version it will just get better and better.

another think I just noticed, I think the snare could be louder..but that is just my opinion, I like loud driving snares...and it's a very cool beat.....maybe bringing the lead down a bit like the others suggested would help this too....

putting the cash register sound clip throughout the song would add to it too I think (kinda like "money" by pink floyd or something)

I might just have to break down and get a POD, almost everything I hear on here that is recorded w/one has good tone...

keep it up

ez

ya know, it's funny, it's repititous but I still keep going back and hitting play again and again, just kinda groovey to listen and relax to here at work....good stuff

 

[AlChuck]

To quote Adrian Belew: "I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat myself when under stress..."




Thanks for all the good words...