On 09 Mar 2008, at 08:18 , Michael Carlyle wrote:
Wow. A Hawkwind reference! There's something you don't come across every day.
I'm a not-very-closet Hawkwind fan. ;) There's a cover of their "Hassan I Sabha" on my recordings web page <http://www.carlaz.com/ music/>, but it uses drum loops rather than DB (free Drums on Demand Apple loops, I think), so less interesting for this list. "Afterburner" borrows "musical inspiration" ;) heavily from Space Ritual/Doremi-era Hawkwind, particular the songs "Master of the Universe" (the grinding E riff and false ending) and "Time We Left This World Today" (the bass freak-out ;), while the lyrics obliquely reference lines in "Silver Machine" and "Born to Go". Actually, some of the synth bubbles in the middle bit are lifted directly and shamelessly from the original intro to "Silver Machine", though I have a friend who should be doing me some new proper synths and Dr- Who-style swooshy noises (see below).
I sort of remember listening to this once before. I can't recall what I thought then, but I do like it now. The drums are convincing. The guitars are a bit present in the mix and kind of in- your-face. Don't know if that's what you were going for. The bass track is sort of buried until you start playing in the upper registers two thirds of the way through or so.
Yeah, it's more or less the intention -- it's supposed to be that "blazing wall of molten guitar" that drives all before, with the bass burbling up from the depths occasionally and then erupting in the instrumental section. There was a certain fat-yet-punchy vibe in the bass overdrive (done with a Roland COSM amp model, a JC-120 guitar amp model actually) that I haven't gotten close to in the Apple amp sims yet. I did think to tweak the guitars back a bit, but having put in various changes in to the volume in the GB Track volumes for the guitars, I was getting too lazy in the moment to tweak _all_ the change points done a notch. I've got a friend who plays synths for an improv-based space-rock band in Scandinavia -- most of the low-mixed synths here are culled from some samples he sent me a few years back. But I'm getting him to do some "purpose-built" synths for the piece, so when I go back to mix in those, I might re-tweak the guitars, too. (Depending on how loud I like my guitars that day ;)
I have trouble recording and mixing bass, but I've just stumbled across a tried and true recipe.
Now _that's_ a leading statement. ;) Do tell! On 09 Mar 2008, at 15:22 , Sion Morris wrote:
Like this a lot. tons of energy! The doubled guitars work well and I've always liked the chunky bass sound you get - both go together really well with the doggiebox track. Again, passes the 'forget that the drums are programmed' test. Interesting song sections, especially the middle with solo. This bit reminds me a little of 'London' by the Smiths. And the ending is cute!
I was vacillating between a fade out and a sudden stop, and so decided to do both. ;) The original drum part had this thing where it whacked away at the same ride sample almost all the way through, without even regarding whether the drummer should be using some of his hands on the snare rolls, as well. ;) The new drumer is less of an octopus, and hits both ride and hat now (though much more often the previously). He also shifts from his basic pattern at least in the guitar solo, now, though he's given in to my indulgence for smacking the cymbals around a fair bit. (I briefly experimented with taking away some of the original cymbals hits, but then ended up putting in more than ever! ;)
Comparing with the original version (using Ben's kit?)
I could swear it was the kit Mike C. made that used the old ns_kit6 samples, rather than Ben's kit. But I don't actually remember! :)
it does sound like v1 is the demo, especially where the drums are concerned. The only thing I'm not keen on in the drums in v2, are the hi-hat strikes just at the start. They sound a little too much like sequenced samples to me. the rest of the drum track sounds great though.
Yeah, I'm actually not sure about keeping those either. I kept taking them out then putting them back .... I might try twiddling them so more, or I think I might just take them out again. I'm not sure they add much!
I do think the vocals should be higher in the mix - I think we 'unwilling vocalists' always tend to put our vox too low down! I'd definitely like to hear this belted out with the vocals up an octave too (neighbours permitting), sounded really good in Twa Corbies - though "take a ride' sounds good lower down must admit. There again if you want to keep the air of 'menace' going, lower down is best... or maybe both!
I was thinking of recording a new vocal pass -- the existing ones are very old and very quiet, and the way to raise them is painstakingly tweak everything else down -- but haven't sprung new vox on the neighbors yet. ;) If I seem sufficiently alone sometime in the coming weeks, I might go for it. ;) Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson http://www.carlaz.com/