This time I pressed save

Spyke

Those that read the last thread about my epic failure can rest assured that I learned from my mistake and now save on a regular basis.

I tried again with this piece and it changed a little from what I recorded on Monday, largely due to the fact that I have an atrocious memory and couldn't remember what I played - I'm bad like that. I'm no shredder, I can't even play a solo - but I think this could benefit from a nice lead.

Epiphone Special I into a 505II to the 8ch mixer and line in to the laptop. Recorded and mixed on Audacity.

Drum loop, courtesy Alan (thanks!). 80bpm upped to 100bpm tempo only. I would have liked something closer to 150 / 160 but it served the purpose at 100.

Mercury

In my personal opinion, the OD needs to come down (less gain) and I need to lift the highs. But this can happen when a bass line is created. The OD guitar 'fills' in for the bass.
'Violining' level needs to be lifted and the drums dropped a touch. Very strong presence in the car, which is where I judge most of my music as I have an SQ install.

FatBoy

Hey thats a cool tune Spyke! I can't really give advice on the mixing side as my own stuff is still quite shyte, but I really liked this track! More more more!

Spyke

Thank you... :-[

NorioDS

Sounds very cool dude!

If I can, I'll contribute a lead later ?

AlanRatcliffe

Very nice. It makes me hear all kinds of basses and harmony parts as I listen, which is always a good sign.

The amount of distortion is fine. Could come down a little, but then you'll lose some of the dissonances in the chords, which are unusual, but nice.

Mixing is fine for now. There's a bit too much low end on the guitars which is fine for the moment, but you'll have to put low cut filters on when you get the bass and other parts in there to stop the mix from muddying up. I also suspect that when the mix gets busier, the clean phased guitar is going to need a bit of compression to stop it fading in and out of the mix.

Spyke

Thanks guys,

I was looking for a slightly crisper, lead type OD for the chords but will address this when the bass is recorded.
I also feared that adding the bass would cause a muddy sound (sonic space story that we've previously discussed).

I think this will be the track that i use to learn about compression as it's still a swear word in my vocabulary. ?

LMinnie

Me likey.....

Ever thought about rerecording silver scott?

This has the same catchiness to it.

We definately need to jam when Iam up there next week!

Spyke

I have a few pieces that I'd like to redo, Silver Scott is one of them.
With effective drum modeling I'd be able to...

Guy-Onraet

Norio wrote: If I can, I'll contribute a lead later ?

Me first! ?

i had the same idea, but at 09:01 ?

we do this a lot on another forum i go to often. someone makes a backing track and then people submit their improvs. might be a cool thing to start here. great practice for recording and improvising. and nice to hear other players ideas as well.

Spyke

So i took a look at the mix and went about trying to make a patch on the 505 that would work better than the current one. After struggling for a while i thought 'stuff it!' and plugged in my DS1...

Man o man! How i missed this pedal! Sounds just right! I can see this being the start of a very expensive exercise... ie: pedal board rather than multi-effects.

I can upload the revised version of the song if anyone would like.

Guy-Onraet

yeah, do it.

i didn't get a chance to solo over version 1 last night, so if you're happier with the sound of version 2, Norio and I and who ever else can have a crack at that. 8)

Spyke

No problems, instead of overwriting the previous one - here's a new one so you can choose which one you'd prefer to use.

Mercury 1.1

ps: the name was random, I have no idea why i thought about Mercury until i stumbled upon Bloc Party's Mercury... oh well, it's only a W/T.

Gray

Nice track dude.

Karmatized ?

scratchy

I like it, I like it a lot.

Spyke

Thanks guys... I think this one will go into the ballad section. Working with LeafDrums to get a nice 160BPM beat going. I will probably alter this one then to get a slightly 'punkier' feel to it.

Guy-Onraet

Arjun and i did some impov'd solo's on the weekend, but the levels need a bit more tweeking, i'll put it up tomorrow.

Spyke

Awesome stuff! Keen to hear it

NorioDS

Spyke wrote:Here's a new one so you can choose which one you'd prefer to use.
Mercury 1.1

Dude, I gotta tell you, I'm sitting here rocking to your tune in my head. You know you've done something right when it gets stuck in peoples' heads! Seriously, kudos to you for finding a spot in mah noggin!

Spyke

Bwahahahaha! Thanks Norio!

I've always been one for fairly simple, catchy tunes - the stuff you hum along to or wake up in the morning with it rattling round in your pip. I think I managed to do that with this one.

FatBoy

Yea I agree, that tune is still stuck in my head. Good job on that! Keep working on it!