Do Something Challenge Discussion Thread

[Alex Kenivel]

Some days I've got it and some days I don't. Today is a Don't Day.

This is the day I had originally planned to do the vocals for my Week 1 entry but like a child I couldn't wait, but this gives me some creative time today. I have a cool A/B riff that actually goes pretty well with an older riff - could potentially turn it all into something but every good drum take there's something wrong, either the snare is clipping, the snare isn't set up right, my timings just off... These are the kind of days that are good for garage work

I'm curious, what software everyone is using?

Here's what I currently have:

DAW: Garageband
Drums: EZ Drummer 2
Guitar: Helix Native, Scuffham S-Gear, NDSP plugins (Plini, Tone King, Soldano, Petrucci, Fortin)

Reaper, Addictive Drums 2, HX Native, Fabfilter and Waves plug-ins.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Now I'm just realizing that my riff sounds just like that Steve Vai riff on that old Ibanez seven string video

 

[DrewJD82]

Now I'm just realizing that my riff sounds just like that Steve Vai riff on that old Ibanez seven string video

The 7th Heaven vid? When I worked in a music store and 7-strings were getting popular, there'd often be someone not in the loop asking about them, I'd play that exact thing every time to demo it for them

 

[Alex Kenivel]

The 7th Heaven vid? When I worked in a music store and 7-strings were getting popular, there'd often be someone not in the loop asking about them, I'd play that exact thing every time to demo it for them

yep! that's the one. I had DLed a clip of it from Napster back when i was a preteen

 

[Bob Zaod]

It can be a quartet of trumpets! Skill level doesn't play a part of this!


You can record a clip of a song you learned!

I think I found something to play Nose Harp on!

 

[Bob Zaod]

Cakewalk is free, and Reaper is "free" - perpetual fully functional "trial".

 

[Jarick]

Some thoughts after completing the first song...

Most of the details that I worry about when playing on my own really aren't that important and get lost in the mix. Things like fine tuning the amp tone, picking between a bunch of IR mixes, even things like different PAF pickups just don't matter as you can't hear the differences. For the hard panned rhythm tracks, I used different guitars with different pickups and different boost pedals. But they still sounded pretty much the same.

This meant I was looking for things that sounded VERY different to stand out. Flipping between humbuckers and single coils, clean vs distorted, fairly dry vs lots of effects, etc.

With that in mind, I think that could influence the type of gear I'm interested in. I have a lot of guitars that overlap a fair amount (two PRS and a Les Paul) and for all purposes they will sound the same in a mix. But I could see something like a 7-string, 12-string, baritone, or Gretsch to be really nice to have for different parts.

It also got me thinking about workflow, especially around the writing and recording of tracks. When I need to get the ideas out of my head onto the project, I need to find the tools to make that happen as quickly and easily as possible, but able to end up sounding pretty decent. That's where the different drummer plugins really make a difference, and something I'll play around with.

Beyond that, it fired up in my brain a lot of the mixing and mastering tools that I used to use once upon a time. I need to re-familiarize myself with those, and long-term maybe add in some more character plugins like I used to have when I was recording my own bands.

 

[DrewJD82]

I think I found something to play Nose Harp on!

Poor man’s kazoo!

 

[DrewJD82]

Some thoughts after completing the first song...

Most of the details that I worry about when playing on my own really aren't that important and get lost in the mix. Things like fine tuning the amp tone, picking between a bunch of IR mixes, even things like different PAF pickups just don't matter as you can't hear the differences. For the hard panned rhythm tracks, I used different guitars with different pickups and different boost pedals. But they still sounded pretty much the same.

This meant I was looking for things that sounded VERY different to stand out. Flipping between humbuckers and single coils, clean vs distorted, fairly dry vs lots of effects, etc.

With that in mind, I think that could influence the type of gear I'm interested in. I have a lot of guitars that overlap a fair amount (two PRS and a Les Paul) and for all purposes they will sound the same in a mix. But I could see something like a 7-string, 12-string, baritone, or Gretsch to be really nice to have for different parts.

It also got me thinking about workflow, especially around the writing and recording of tracks. When I need to get the ideas out of my head onto the project, I need to find the tools to make that happen as quickly and easily as possible, but able to end up sounding pretty decent. That's where the different drummer plugins really make a difference, and something I'll play around with.

Beyond that, it fired up in my brain a lot of the mixing and mastering tools that I used to use once upon a time. I need to re-familiarize myself with those, and long-term maybe add in some more character plugins like I used to have when I was recording my own bands.

Good stuff and I’m sure as others move along they’ll find some of the same things present with their experiences.

The whole different sounding guitars thing is exactly why I started going for specific guitars for specific tones instead of trying to milk versatility out of one guitar; there’s never enough of a difference to be meaningful. IE- if I want to overdub a single coil tone over a humbucker tone, switching to single coil mode of my Fishman’s most likely isn’t going to deliver what I’m looking for when picking up a Strat with actual single coils and doing the same thing will.

And yeah, 2020 was my workflow year where I put my entire focus on getting things done as quickly as possible, no getting up out of my chair, no unplugging something cuz I need the USB for something else, setting up templates in Logic. Obviously a video on your phone can capture a quick idea, but when the inspiration is there, I don’t want to be f*cking with gear and lose the inspiration in the process.

Whenever I write a song that uses a different sounding drum kit, I just save the kit in SD3 so I have something ready to go as ’building’ kits can be just as much of a time suck as tweaking presets. I just need to get better at naming them because “F*cking awesome kit” doesn’t give me much info.

 

[la szum]

The whole different sounding guitars thing is exactly why I started going for specific guitars for specific tones instead of trying to milk versatility out of one guitar; there’s never enough of a difference to be meaningful. IE- if I want to overdub a single coil tone over a humbucker tone, switching to single coil mode of my Fishman’s most likely isn’t going to deliver what I’m looking for when picking up a Strat with actual single coils and doing the same thing will.

Vive la difference!

I love having radically different guitars in the arsenal. Tones are very much like a cuisine for me. Spicy. Sweet. Warm.
Cold. Crunchy. Sour. Creamy. Why would I want just one of those things all the time?

For me, the more character-driven and unique a guitar is the more I will probably bond with it---even if I won't play
it all the time. I can't imagine building an house with just an hammer. Give me all the tools!!!

I also think this is why I have never bonded with PRS as much as I have with a Superstrat, an SG, a 335, or a Les Paul.
I do like the 2 PRS guitars I still have, but I am more apt to grab one of the others depending on what I am going for
vibe/tone wise.

Not sold on monogamy just yet, I suppose.

 

[Jarick]

Vive la difference!

I love having radically different guitars in the arsenal. Tones are very much like a cuisine for me. Spicy. Sweet. Warm.
Cold. Crunchy. Sour. Creamy. Why would I want just one of those things all the time?

For me, the more character-driven and unique a guitar is the more I will probably bond with it---even if I won't play
it all the time. I can't imagine building an house with just an hammer. Give me all the tools!!!

I also think this is why I have never bonded with PRS as much as I have with a Superstrat, an SG, a 335, or a Les Paul.
I do like the 2 PRS guitars I still have, but I am more apt to grab one of the others depending on what I am going for
vibe/tone wise.

Not sold on monogamy just yet, I suppose.

For me the PRS overlaps heavily with my Les Paul but it fixes most of the issues I have. The Les Paul is overly muddy in the neck pickup, overly bright in the bridge, is pretty heavy (not that big a deal at home), and the first several frets have intonation issues (especially the G string). The PRS is much more balanced sonically, more comfortable to play, and has no tuning or intonation issues.

I guess if I were to swap into a different guitar, I'd probably start with moving the Les Paul out and bring in a couple other interesting voices:

Baritone guitar, like the Squier Paranormal:

Hollow body with Bigsby, like the Gretsch 5622:

 

[Jarick]

Went a little wild today and picked one of these up for $110:

This thing seems pretty versatile and is obviously completely different from a guitar, so seemed like a nice addition. I'm hoping I can do some fun stuff with pads and synths and add some more interesting things to song ideas.

 

[la szum]

Nice! I was shopping for a MIDI Controller today, too. My trigger finger is not as fast as yours.

 

[Jarick]

Holy crap this thing looks and feels like a toy. Great as the (likely paid) reviews are, might be swapping out for something a little less crappy.

@la szum - which one were you looking at? I might go back and check out the bigger size key version of this one, or maybe see what's in the $200 range...

 

[la szum]

Bummer!

Arturia Keylab 49 for $209. Not sold yet. Going to ask more questions and do more research this weekend.

I want full size, weighted keys at a minimum.

@Boudoir Guitar turned me that way.

 

[fretworn]

Bummer!

Arturia Keylab 49 for $209. Not sold yet. Going to ask more questions and do more research this weekend.

I want full size, weighted keys at a minimum.

“What is your lowest price?”

 

[Jarick]

Bummer!

Arturia Keylab 49 for $209. Not sold yet. Going to ask more questions and do more research this weekend.

I want full size, weighted keys at a minimum.

@Boudoir Guitar turned me that way.

Yeah I think I’m in the same boat. At first I was thinking start small but these keys feel worse than the Casio keyboard I had as a kid. And they came out of the box looking misaligned. Pads don’t have a great feel. Knobs are tiny. Buttons have a mushy imprecise feel.

I should know better for $100, but of course all the reviews were great!

I also think I need at least 37 keys maybe even 49. I don’t play much piano but the tiny little thing feels limiting right out the gate .

 

[woody]

Some thoughts after completing the first song...

Most of the details that I worry about when playing on my own really aren't that important and get lost in the mix. Things like fine tuning the amp tone, picking between a bunch of IR mixes, even things like different PAF pickups just don't matter as you can't hear the differences. For the hard panned rhythm tracks, I used different guitars with different pickups and different boost pedals. But they still sounded pretty much the same.

This meant I was looking for things that sounded VERY different to stand out. Flipping between humbuckers and single coils, clean vs distorted, fairly dry vs lots of effects, etc.

With that in mind, I think that could influence the type of gear I'm interested in. I have a lot of guitars that overlap a fair amount (two PRS and a Les Paul) and for all purposes they will sound the same in a mix. But I could see something like a 7-string, 12-string, baritone, or Gretsch to be really nice to have for different parts.

It also got me thinking about workflow, especially around the writing and recording of tracks. When I need to get the ideas out of my head onto the project, I need to find the tools to make that happen as quickly and easily as possible, but able to end up sounding pretty decent. That's where the different drummer plugins really make a difference, and something I'll play around with.

Beyond that, it fired up in my brain a lot of the mixing and mastering tools that I used to use once upon a time. I need to re-familiarize myself with those, and long-term maybe add in some more character plugins like I used to have when I was recording my own bands.

I find that using different speakers/IRs are a pretty easy way to decorrelate the sides
If you, say, use a Vintage 30 with a 57 on one side and a greenback with a 160 on the other side, the tones will differ substantially.
In times of IRs and load boxes, this is just a mouse click away.

 

[TJontheRoad]

Bummer!

Arturia Keylab 49 for $209. Not sold yet. Going to ask more questions and do more research this weekend.

I want full size, weighted keys at a minimum.

@Boudoir Guitar turned me that way.

The Keylab MKI or MKII? The MKI isn't that great. The MKII has the same keys as Arturia's flagship synths (PolyBute & MatrixBrute). I have a Keylab 49 MKII. Real weighted keys will be much more expensive and at least 73 keys.

 

[metropolis_4]

I’m a fan of the Keylabs. I’ve also always been a big Native Instruments fan. I think their Kontrol series are really great.

Typically if you’re looking at anything less than 49 keys it’s going to tend to be synth action non-weighted