Stuff I've been working on (Rock Inst)...

daren_woodall

daren_woodall

New member
I joined the group recently. I'm always looking around for information that will help me get better. I thought I should share some tunes and let everyone hear where I'm coming from.

I started writting and recording at home about a year and a half ago. I'm primarily a bass player but play some guitar as well. At this point, I've recorded several rock instrumentals (since I can't sing, and know it ;) ).

I switched to PC based recording from a ZOOM MRS-8 in December. I currently use an MBox Mini, Pro-Tools LE, Amplitube 2 and some other odds and ends. I enjoy partcipating in the peer review system of GarageBand.com and have seen some decent luck out there.

Here are some of the tracks I've completed over the last year or so. I'm always eager to hear feedback, both complementary and constructive.

The Way Through - First song completed using MBox2 Mini/PT LE.

Restless Anticipation - One of my earlier songs. Recorded entirely using a ZOOM MRS-8. My highest rated tune at GarageBand.com. Currently #37 of 2061 all-time.

There are others here.

I've already heard some good stuff posted to the forum so far and I'm looking foward to listening others.

Thanks,

Daren
MySpace
 
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Well Daren, I have no crits on "The Way Through". For a self professed bass player you play guitar as well as many of the guitarists around here :D. The song is well crafted and builds very nicely to a climax at 2:20. Then it changes up and does the whole cool thing all over again from a different angle to the end. I love the build ups both musically and intensity wise. Super job.....:D:):D:)
 
Thank for listening and for the nice comments.

I'm glad you recognized the build up. That was a writting goal for this song and I'm glad others are able to pick up on it. When it was finished, I felt the build up might be too slow and listeners would loose interest before it got to the "meaty" parts. This song was my first tune using more reputable recording equipment and I gave the production a lot of attention. I used this song as a training platform. The production is pretty good given my limited experience and the effort taught me I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks again for the thoughts,

Daren
MySpace
 
The Way Through: Nice work! I love that bass sound, and the guitar over it fits perfectly. I especially like how it goes from an almost jazzy intro to full out rock towards the end. I also enjoyed the guitar harmonies at the end there, it gave a great sense of excitement to the closure.

Restless Anticipation:The guitar is far too high in the mix. I do enjoy the arrangement though. Catchy riffs, call and answer style. Good bass break to segway into the harder rock section. The song kind of loses it's edge here, but not enough to deter one from listening.

Your mixing skills are improving, glad to hear that. And you certainly pull off a respectable guitar tone for a bassist. The drums fit for the song. They sounded like samples, but they could be live, it was hard to tell. Either way, good job there.
 
Thanks IronFlippy, I appreciate the comments.

"Restless" was an early effort and is a good representation of were I started. Inspite of it being a quickly written tune, I think there are some redeeming qualities to it, but it needs better sounds and production all around for them to be realized. For instance, in the final section following the solos there are four distinct guitar parts going on that I'd like to be clearer. Some day I will create a version 2.0 of this song.

The drums for "Restless" were done using the MRS's build-in drum machine with tweaked versions of some built in patterns. Lousy samples, but I like the shuffly groove to the beat. If I can figure out how to export the MIDI, I'll redo it with better samples.

"The Way Through"'s drums are done with pre-recorded drum loops. These are studio recorded drum grooves that are sequenced using Acid Pro. I really wanted something natural sounding as possible and I put considerable effort in arranging the drums. I'm occasionally asked how I did the drums in this song, so a made a page showing the process. If anyone here is interested you can see that here

Thanks again for the feedback,

Daren
MySpace
 
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