rock and metal fans.. check out this track i made

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
I picked up a Roland TD-8 drum kit, and have it interfaced to my pc via midi. From within my editor, I have a plugin called EZ-Drummer and the DrumKit From Hell package for it. It's pretty nice actually, between the nice drumkit and the greatsounding soundpack, I'm pretty impressed with the drum recording I'm getting.

I'm not a great drummer (i can do some simple beats and play to a metronome), so I've been inviting drummer friends over to jam out some drums so I have stuff to play to. My buddy dustin came over tonight and came up with some short and sweet drum parts. I picked one tonight and laid down some spontaneous guitars.

I'm getting better at mixing, and with the better drum sounds I'm getting pretty excited about this stuff lately. With that in mind, I only spent about 10 minutes or so mixing this up, but with few tracks as there are, a lot can be done in that time. so be critical, but not toooo critical. In this mix I'm posting I already here stuff I want to change. I don't know if I will though, since I don't want to spend too much time on something random when I have other ideas.

http://quotes.cybercon.net/music/jam9.mp3
 
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angminas

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2006
3,331
26
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As a study in somethingness, that's pretty cool. Making stuff like this is like stocking the pantry so you'll be ready to cook. That track has potential...pick a few different directions for it (metal instrumental, video game level, metalcore song) and see what happens. Thanks for sharing.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
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Can't listen from work, but I'm marking this mainly to check out the software and plugins you mentioned later.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Can't listen from work, but I'm marking this mainly to check out the software and plugins you mentioned later.

EZ-Drummer is a nice piece of software. It's a VST, so it works with any editor that supports VST (even the cheapest ones usually do). Once you install EZ-Drummer, you have access to a basic rock drum kit. You can then buy expansion kits such as "drumkit from hell" (heavy metal), and other country, latin, jazz, and hip hop kits are available.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
456
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EZ-Drummer is a nice piece of software. It's a VST, so it works with any editor that supports VST (even the cheapest ones usually do). Once you install EZ-Drummer, you have access to a basic rock drum kit. You can then buy expansion kits such as "drumkit from hell" (heavy metal), and other country, latin, jazz, and hip hop kits are available.

Interesting. I'll have to see what all is necessary, and see if I can use my Rock Band drum kit with it all. I've had it running through a basic midi drum kit before, and that was years ago so it's probably a lot more usable now. I already have the cymbals so it's pretty much an electronic drum kit as it is.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Interesting. I'll have to see what all is necessary, and see if I can use my Rock Band drum kit with it all. I've had it running through a basic midi drum kit before, and that was years ago so it's probably a lot more usable now. I already have the cymbals so it's pretty much an electronic drum kit as it is.

A nice thing about EZ Drummer is that it's fully midi. For instance, the drumkit from hell package has close to 20 different drums. 2 kicks, snare, many cymbals, toms, etc. But my roland kit only has 8 drums total. kick, snare, hh, crash, ride, 3 toms..

If I record a drum roll that only covers 2 of my 3 toms, I can go in to the midi recording after the fact and drag/move the hits around. So let's say that drum roll was recorded as

tom1, tom1, tom2, tom1, tom2, tom1, tom1, tom2

I can go into ezdrummer and move the stuff around and use more than the 3 toms I have on my kit.. I could turn the above sequence into

tom1, tom1, tom2, tom3, tom4, tom5, tom1, tom6
 

classy

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
15,219
1
81
Ehhh. Guitars as a lead usually is only good if the guitar player is exceptional. If after leading in you really brought out some good drums you might have something. Its nothing in the song that is defining. Sounds like a bunch stuff preparing for practice.


War pigs is a perfect example of of what I am trying to convey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZCyOWLrRTE
 
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gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
456
126
Ehhh. Guitars as a lead usually is only good if the guitar player is exceptional. If after leading in you really brought out some good drums you might have something. Its nothing in the song that is defining. Sounds like a bunch stuff preparing for practice.


War pigs is a perfect example of of what I am trying to convey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZCyOWLrRTE

Uh yeah... because you shouldn't even bother playing music if you can't hold your own against BLACK FUCKING SABBATH

I haven't rolled my eyes that hard in a while. Everybody starts somewhere. Give them time. It's not exactly fair to compare this to one of the better regarded rock bands of the time.
 

TwiceOver

Lifer
Dec 20, 2002
13,544
44
91
Not bad, but you have a compressor or limiter somewhere that is really funking up the sound when the drums kick in.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Not bad, but you have a compressor or limiter somewhere that is really funking up the sound when the drums kick in.

I think the overall volume is too hot, causing the drums to peak out at some points. When I get home tonight I'm going to throw in a bassline, and try and mix it a bit better. I only spent about 10 minutes working on the mix after I got everything recorded.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Uh yeah... because you shouldn't even bother playing music if you can't hold your own against BLACK FUCKING SABBATH

I haven't rolled my eyes that hard in a while. Everybody starts somewhere. Give them time. It's not exactly fair to compare this to one of the better regarded rock bands of the time.

FWIW, I've been playing guitar and bass about 20 years. Been in quite a few bands, played in jazz band for high school and orchestra (cello), and I also play bass for my church.

I just don't have time for songwriting. This particular recording is completely improv, and since I didn't even have the structure of his drums memorized, I tried to keep things as simple as possible. Dustin recorded the drums in one take, and everything in the mix is first take as well. 2 guitar parts (both similar riffs) with a lead guitar part added to it (plus a second lead for the harmony at the end). Between all the guitar parts, I recorded everything in less than 30 minutes, having had no idea what I was going to play prior to hitting record.