Hi! Thanks for the good words. I wanted to put more backing vocals, harmonies, thirds, fifths, but I thought: "This song, specially the chorus, is already full of stuff, harmonies in chorus will just make it blurry." In verses, that would be a nice thing, maybe I'll do it.
So, for the process, it'll be a long text, and I can't remember exaclty everything I used, but I'll try to explain it briefly. You were right, drums are not real. As a matter of fact, NOTHING is real, except for all Guitars, and, of course, Vocals. I wanted to see people's reactions, before telling those instruments were VST. I play the Guitar, that's my instrument. I can sing, play bass, and keyboards, but I'm not an expert in those instruments. I put in the same link:
http://www.soundclick.com/johnnybelmont , the song I recorded before "Wake Up", named "Bruna". In that song, I played real bass guitar, not Virtual Instrument. If you hear it, you'll see (I think), that I improved the mix from one to another, and see why I chose to use more VST now. I'm far away from having a Top-notch equipment. But I try making the best I can with my poor equip. What I used:
Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer. The audio interface (sound card) used was Creative Audigy. All Guitars and Vocals went through this mixer and then to the audio card. The Daw used was
Sony Acid Pro 7.
So, for Vocals:
I used a Shure SM-58 Mic, pluged on mixer, going through audio card. The plugins:
Waves De-esser, Waves X-Noise, Trident A-Range, Sony EQ, SPL Vox Ranger, Tube Tech Compressor
CL-1B, Stillwell Verbiage Reverb on all vocal tracks, Adverb reverb on more sustained stuff, Nomad BT-Tempo Delay on other sustained vocal stuff. For backing vocals, added Nomad BT-Oilchan Echo and Waves Doubler. On final vocal before fast solo, used
Waves Super-Tap and Classic Delay Freeware (KJAERHUS Audio).
For the electric guitars:
I used a fender mexican strato, with
a Line 6 Spider II 212 amp. For the pedals, I used
a Boss BCB-60, that contains: Boss DD-3 (Delay), Boss CS-3 (Compressor), Boss SD-1 (Overdrive/Distortion), Digitech Metal Master (Distortion), Digitech RP-50 (for tremolo) and Marshall Jackhammer (Overdrive/Distortion). The connection was: Guitar -> Pedals -> Amp -> Mixer -> Sound card. Every clean guitar and distorted solos were recorded with the Boss pedal Delay effect already On. On a clean guitar that enters right before song's chorus, I used
the RP-50 tremolo's effect. For clean guitar chords (except tremolo), I used Dimarzio Super Distortion and Fender Strato pickups. For Crunch Guitars, I used Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups only. For solo guitars, I used in some, the Dimarzio Super Distortion, and others, HS3 Humbucker pickups. And, for tremolo guitar and the clean solo guitar at the end, I used Dimarzio HS3 Humbucker pickups. All clean guitars and solos were recorded using the Two Speakers out (Left and Right) of the Amp, going into the mixer. Heavy Chord Guitars (Crunch) were recorded differently. I first recorded two channels at the same time, using Boss SD-1, one channel using Shure SM-58 without the ball recording one of the speakers, and the other speaker using the Direct out Line. Then, I recorded two more channels using the same stuff, but now with Marshall Jackhammer. Since my soundcard doesn't have two inputs, I recorded the double guitars, panning on my mixer, one to the left, and the other to the right. Then, in my daw I separated left from right, making four tracks. With these four channels, I mixed each one individually first, using Amplitube X-Gear VST plugin with all packages, chosing four different amps. Then, I put the two first channels and panned all the way left, and put the other two all the way right, making them sound like Two Guitars. After this, just used Sony EQ on them. For other guitars, no virtual amps, the plugins I used: Redline Preamp, Tube Tech Compressor,
SPL Twin Tube, SPL Vitalizer, Trident A-Range, SPL Full Ranger, Waves Meta-Flanger (The Phaser on clean guitar verses),
Softube Tube Delay (Just on first crunch guitars of the song, that preparates drums), BBE two timer (after final solo), Transiest Shaper (Schaack), BBE Green Screamer, and Sony EQ.
The bass:
I used Reason's Electric Bass Refill (with Fender Precision Finger virtual bass), always Rewiring and making MIDI tracks directly in ACID. Used Amplitube Ampeg SVX package, for Bass. Also used plugins SPL Transiest Designer, SPL Bass Ranger, Sony EQ, Tube Tech CL-1B, Voxengo LF Max Punch, Waves C4.
Acoustic Guitars:
I used the Music Lab Real Guitar VST, making one channel with "Finger" for verses and two different channels with "Pick", for everything else. Other Plug-ins: Voxengo LF Max Punch, Tube Tech, SPL Vitalizer, Trident A-Range, Transiest Shaper, Sony EQ.
Drums and Percussion:
I used EZdrummer, with Pop Rock, Latin Percussion and Drumkit From Hell expansions. For Electronic Stuff, and also the first "bomb" effect on song, I used some Drums that came with Reason. On beginning, there's an Electronic Drum, another phasery drum, and an electronic Cajon, all from Reason. In the first solo after the chorus, and at the end, I used one of the electronic Drums together with EZ Drum, to cause a different effect. Plug-ins:
Voxengo LF Max Punch, Transiest Shaper.
Keyboards, Piano, Cellos and Violins:
I used Bome's Mouse Keyboard, with my PC keyboard, and played simulating a Midi Input on the program. The Connection was: My Pc keyboard -> Bome's Mouse Keyboard -> Passing Through Midi Yoke -> and recording Midi on Acid. I used some Vst's: True Piano, Reason Korg Triton Refill, Reason Roland Fantom Refill, Garritan Groffiler Cello, Stradivari Violin. Other Plugins: Stillwell Verbiage, ESP Uni-Q, Waves C4, SPL Vitalizer, Sony EQ.
For mastering, I used the Limiter:
PSP Xenon.
Well, I think this pretty much covers it all. Thanks.
