Two of my mp3s

[bonch]

I did this in about an hour as a test in Cakewalk. Thought it sounded neat so I uploaded it. Turns out it's gonna be the short little opening track on the demo CD. Right after this track will come the crashing opener. I kept adding another guitar on each new measure, and it tops out at seven guitars about midway through (Cakewalk Home Studio 9 only allows eight tracks of playback at a time, and I was using track 8 for panning/volume control).

Well, I hope you've played the PC game Duke Nukem 3D before, because this is my version of the theme song. I thought Megadeth's version sucked so I did my own. Lee Jackson of 3D Realms, who authored the original version in the game, has heard this and said it was the closest to the original he's heard so far. I added a beginning, bridge, and solo at the end. If you've played an Apogee game before, you'll recognize the fanfare riff at the end, and if you've played Duke 3D, you'll recognize the level music that is played out at the end. If you haven't heard the original theme song or don't remember it, you can find it at http://www.vgmusic.com somewhere. I'll throw this track on at the end of the demo CD...it's almost mandatory nowadays for bands to put a hidden track somewhere.

Anyways, there you go. Hope they don't suck too badly.

 

[Teddie]

Bonch, I listened to the Grabbag.mp3 file.
Okay, now, that was freakin' cool! That really brought back some memories for me... I really enjoyed it.

Regarding the mix. There are a couple of parts in the beginning where the "slide" guitar part seems like it's pushing the level and distorting.... and the only other thing I can think of is I think the drums could be punchier, maybe the over all level of the drums can come up a tad. I think.

Great job. I haven't played this style of music myself in a while, but were those "triplets" you were doing? Those were tight. They used to call me "Tedder the Shredder" (haha) when I was playing thrash and stuff when I was in my 20's. But my "triplets" and junk weren't as tight as yours... very cool.

 

[bonch]

Thanks so much for the praise!

Yeah, the slide guitar is too dirty. It's actually not due to overloading the volume levels, it's just the patch I used on my Zoom 505...for some reason it sounded better at the time, but it comes off as very dirty on playback.

You're right about increasing the drum level...I do that now with my new material.

I guess I should explain what I used to do the mp3s. I'm playing a Fender Strat Squire through an Ibanez Smashbox into a Zoom 505 with a custom patch to help simulate an amp. I'm using Cakewalk Home Studio 9. For drums, I'm playing on a Zoom RhythymTrak 234 drum machine. As for the bass... I'm just playing the low E, lowering it an octave in Cakewalk, and adding a bass-frequency plugin. It's all I've got.

I don't know if those were triplets. I'm just 17; I really don't know all the cool shredding terms yet. I assume you're referring to the solo...I wish I could have made the harmony part sound better, the two guitars didn't mesh as well as I wanted them to. Oh, well, it works.

One thing I wish I had done was play tuned to E so my tone wouldn't have been so muddy. I had been working on another song at the time and just decided to do Grabbag on a whim, so my guitar was tuned down to C and I was too lazy to tune up.

My original material (aside from the Iris mp3) has...*gasp* vocals! I'm doing everything on this demo...and it's taking me a long time! But it's fun.

 

[gibs]

downloaded both...Teddie mentioned the distortion and I agree, but I like the tunes.....I wish ya had a better bass sound to counter the busy guitars.....it would make a big difference in my opinion, to the overall feel of the music....ps yer drum programming was cool.....gibs

 

[Cooperman]

I d/l the Duke Nukem track... seeing as I REALLY like Megadeth's version I was very interested in what you could do. I pretty much agree with what everyone else wrote... I don't care for your lead tone... but that's made up by that awesome rhythm tone you've dialed up. The drums should kick ass... but obviously need to come up a bit. Pretty good really, it's awesome set of riffs that you can use to create something cool with... but I think I still like Deth's version better though

 

[bonch]

What I like about Megadeth's version is the awesome guitar tone, but that's a given with Megadeth. I don't like the way they changed the song so much. Apparently 3DRealms was disappointed with the track which is why they didn't use it for their upcoming Duke Nukem game as originally planned.

I've learned a lot more since I recorded that mp3. I'm EQing my guitars a different way, and layering them 2L and 2R, so it sounds a lot better. Plus I'm making sure to turn up the drums in all of my songs based on the feedback here...sometimes I get so caught up in recording guitar that the drums get left behind. So the comments here have helped in my recording of other songs.