Old 04-29-2013, 07:06 AM   #1
DOWNtheMILE
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Default Iron Sparrow (rough draft)

How's this for a guitar tone? Bad? Good?

*Ignore the drums... I haven't gone through and replaced the basic loop with proper drum tracks yet... so those suck, until I fix 'em... then they'll STILL be sh*tty - but at least a little LESS.

https://soundcloud.com/down-the-mile...ow-rough-draft
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Old 04-29-2013, 09:10 AM   #2
James HE
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I like the guitar tone of the intro a lot.

The other tones, not as much. I think the tone would work for me underneath some other action going on.

FIxing up the drums might be fine enough. Make it rock.
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Old 04-29-2013, 06:06 PM   #3
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Yeah, this tone is rad. A bit muddier than I usually go for, but absolutely PERFECT for this type of music. Kinda reminds me of Isis and Steven Wilson. Really good. Mind giving a rundown of what gear/mixing you used?
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Old 04-29-2013, 06:28 PM   #4
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Too much flabby distortion to really discern whether or not the tone is good after the intro... but the flabby distortion sounds pretty sweet. The tone is good in the intro.

Great start. I hope you post back as this progresses.

Are you planning to do more with accents as well? Vocals maybe? It gets a little repetitive (main 'verse' parts get really repetitive), so it needs quite a bit more to happen to stand on it's own.

You've got some really clever, catchy parts happening here. The pre-chorus/lift is brilliant. I love that. The chorus section has a really nice melodic feel as well. Should be a great vocal canvas.

Good stuff.
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Old 04-30-2013, 06:42 AM   #5
DOWNtheMILE
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Thanks guys!

The sound is pretty muddy, but the guitar I'm mainly using is muddy to start with so I'm embracing that sludgy texture. I like to call it "CHUNGE" because it's like chugging slathered in a grungy filth... Chug + Grunge = CHUNGE. haha

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Originally Posted by kindafishy View Post
Are you planning to do more with accents as well? Vocals maybe? It gets a little repetitive (main 'verse' parts get really repetitive), so it needs quite a bit more to happen to stand on it's own.
^^ YES... very repetitive. Trying to figure out a melodic overtone for it in the similar vein as the Chorus... And the reason I do this is because I don't sing, and finding a singer that will sing MY melodies and words just never happens... instrumental is my only option btu I'm not a fan of Steve Vai type sh*t. He's a great player and all, but solos start to finish is more boring to me than a riff repeated one too many times

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Originally Posted by VikingGuitar View Post
Yeah, this tone is rad. A bit muddier than I usually go for, but absolutely PERFECT for this type of music. Kinda reminds me of Isis and Steven Wilson. Really good. Mind giving a rundown of what gear/mixing you used?
^^ Glad you like the tone. Now I have to go listen back to a few of my Isis records to see if I hear the resemblance!

Gear/Mixing Rundown

Ibanez RG827Z 7-string tuned down to A-Standards (but the tuning probly fluctuated off of that) - The nature of this guitar + extra low string + low tuning = Muddy tone to start with... Why fight it? Embrace it.

USB interface/Amp Modeling: Fender Mustang II with a tweaked Fender Bassman preset + a 4x12 Greenback cab model (All in the amp and Fender Fuse) with some round crunch.

Mixing: I'm finding that low gain/vintage crunch comes out gainier in the mix and high gain presets tend to sound processed and TOO gainy in the mix causing a loss of character, tone and life... So I turn gain down now.

Crunchy Guitars panned hard right, hard left (I play two matching tracks with different amp settings). Clean parts are at about 75% Right/Left. The Left clean guitar is a Fender Telecaster + a Mooer Analog Delay. Solo bits have the Mooer Ana Delay and I think possibly some Fender Twin preset + Bassman preset. Tried a Les Paul, Strat, Telecaster etc for the solo bits but for some reason, the Ibanez just sounded better/cut better.

Bass is a cheap GK P-Bass copy running through an Ampeg preset in Amplitube 3 + some light "tube" compression.

Drums are EZ Drummer - hence why I gotta go in and swap the stock loop with proper drum parts and fills. That's usually sitting in a stereo track straight out of the plugin.

It should be noted that I have ZERO education or real-world experience with engineering/mixing... so I have no clue what I'm REALLY doing, just go by what sounds good to me, and on my cheap labtec speakers haha
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Old 05-01-2013, 07:15 PM   #6
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tweaked the arrangement, fixed the drums up... step in the right direction I think.

https://soundcloud.com/down-the-mile/iron-sparrow

Last edited by DOWNtheMILE; 05-02-2013 at 09:09 AM.
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Old 05-05-2013, 05:59 AM   #7
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Echoing my soundcloud comment: sounds mighty. I grew to dislike EZdrummer but it fits here nice.

Nice job of controlling this tuning too, A is rather low. I tuned my 4 string bass like that once and didn't hear anything, only books were falling off the shelves*). Dragging a .130 string through a typical 4 string bridge is an adventure too.


*)ok not really
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Old 05-05-2013, 07:15 AM   #8
tspring
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Reading the comments above, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like this. Generally I am put off by out of tune guitars and distortion that is loaded with white noise. To my surprise, I found this interesting to listen to even in its preliminary state. You have avoided a lot of the chug style clichés, and the flabby guitar sound is working pretty well. Still it is so flabby and distorted I think that I might not be able to pick up on all that you are doing with it (maybe missing changing harmonies?). Have you tried doubling the low A guitar part with another guitar played in standard tuning and that is less distorted? If you did that then you could mix to bring the notes being played into a little bit sharper focus. Also you might generate some interesting natural chorusing.

Great start. Keep us posted on progress.

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