Do Something Week 8! FINAL WEEK!!!

[fretworn]

I’m stoked to go through the thread and listen to everybody’s submissions later today. Always a blast!

I’ll post something up as soon as I can get into the studio and do a final mix w fresh ears.

Enjoying the crap out of this

 

[TravisG406]

Ok, got these four done last night at 3 am - I have 4 left, might be an idiot and try to finish them tonight

Falls Short - realized I forgot vocals on this one last night so I got them done this morning haha


Fighting Gravity


Closer


Miss You

 

[TravisG406]

Figured I could do one last demo song

Love this one!

 

[TravisG406]

Decided to sit and do a track strictly with my 1994 Ibanez "brothers". I bought my 94 RG470 brand new the day it landed at Veneman's music in Rockville MD. A few months later my brother bought the 1994 EXB445 from, IIRC, Chuck Levin's in Wheaton MD. Both were used on a few demos from one of my old bands and four songs recorded for compilation albums.

Around 1997, my brother loaned the bass to a friend, who got stupid and pawned it for drugs... as you can imagine, that created all.the.drama.

About 5 years ago, my bother pinged me said he found his bass on eBay, then he bought it back. I asked how he could be sure, and he just said "I know."

Then, about 2.5 years ago he died suddenly. I went back to DC for the funeral and inherited the bass. The second I picked it up, I knew too. It has these weird stains on the back of the neck, that almost look like is soaked up dirty motor oil in a few spots. But, it's been that way since he bought it. The second I saw those stains, memories came flooding back and it was 1997 again.

In 2016(7)? I had to sell the RG on Reverb to help pay the mortgage in a tough season. After getting the bass, I wished I'd never sold the guitar. A little over a year ago a friend who builds custom guitars bugged me to try and get the RG back. I tracked down the buyer on Reverb, reached out, and after some Radar O'Reilly level wheeling and dealing, I got the RG back. I swapped the tuners, trem and pups and that same friend then did a super sweet set up on it.

Not long after, my bandmate in TWOxFOUR @LiveeviL2000 (who does amazing guitar refinishing) offered to paint the bass electric purple, the color my brother always said he wanted to have it redone in "someday". Once I got it back, I slapped a set of Bartolini pups in it and now both the RG and EXB have new life full of old memories.

Now that I've bored you to death with too many words, here's the track done entirely with the RG and EXB:



For some bizarre reason, GarageBand decided to export it with almost an entire minute of dead air on the end. I deleted it, re-saved, re-exported and got the same result... no clue what that's all about, but whatevs...

That's the silence for us to reflect on what we just experienced

 

[fretworn]

Week 8:




The details:

• PRS P24 with a brand new nut, strings and ebony tuner pegs. Likely yellow tortex or black 000 picks.
• Bass is PRS pitched -12; into bogner amp
• Amps: FAS komet concourse (rhythm) and dr z 38 (solo)
• Logic Pro Drummer
• Alchemy and clips for synths and transitions
• Neutron4 on some instruments
• NI SSL plug and Ozone 10 on the stereo mix buss

I want to add that this has been terrific. At the beginning, I didn’t know my way around a DAW… Downloaded freeware Audacity and hacked something together for our first effort.

Got totally hooked by that and went off the deep end for about a month buying crap to do this more. Each submission has been a step forward for me in learning how to do this stuff. I hope this one is an improvement.

I love learning, and the journey is important to me. My goal here has been trying to make guitar based music and record/mix well enough so it sounds “right” (in a week lol).

And in that spirit, I am wide-open to critiques of the mix or suggestions on how to make it better.

Thanks to all y’all!

 

[fretworn]

Figured I could do one last demo song

Liked that a lot - super cool vibe - great tune.

 

[fretworn]

Ok, got these four done last night at 3 am - I have 4 left, might be an idiot and try to finish them tonight

Falls Short - realized I forgot vocals on this one last night so I got them done this morning haha


Fighting Gravity


Closer


Miss You

Dude I sure as shit hope you're in a band playing this stuff live.

 

[TravisG406]

Dude I sure as s**t hope you're in a band playing this stuff live.

My best friend got hired to work in another state so my band is either dormant or dead. The next step after the next 4 demos is recording real drums!

 

[fretworn]

My best friend got hired to work in another state so my band is either dormant or dead. The next step after the next 4 demos is recording real drums!

 

[Iron1]

Woke up and decided to do something with my Solar A2.6CAR guitar & A2.4BOP bass since the last thing I did was with my Ibanezes, Ibanai, Ibaneese? Whatevs...

Two Solars, and it's raining outside, so I clearly ran out of talent naming this track:

 

[Iron1]

Had all sorts of plans today that involved being outside - then it rains all day... blah.

 

[Iron1]

 

[fretworn]

@Iron1 - you’re an absolute machine…

I’m gonna try to remix today.

I think I’m struggling with the tenor of the midrange a bit… Sounds fine on bright systems but other systems with less high mids fall apart real quick.

Also, I think the rvb fx busses might be a little loud.

 

[fretworn]

Mix 2 - seeking comments/feedback on the mix

OK I went back and re-mixed it because didn’t translate well to other systems. (I reset all the faders/sends … within my world, a drastic move. I realize not so much in today’s automated digital world. lol)



I don’t know how this reads to others so I’m gonna post it and let you tell me if you’re so inclined.

TIA

 

[Mongillo19]

Mix 2 - seeking comments/feedback on the mix

OK I went back and re-mixed it because didn’t translate well to other systems. (I reset all the faders/sends … within my world, a drastic move. I realize not so much in today’s automated digital world. lol)



I don’t know how this reads to others so I’m gonna post it and let you tell me if you’re so inclined.

TIA

I can't comment on the mix but it was a wild ride to listen to (in a good way!)

 

[la szum]

Mix 2 - seeking comments/feedback on the mix

OK I went back and re-mixed it because didn’t translate well to other systems. (I reset all the faders/sends … within my world, a drastic move. I realize not so much in today’s automated digital world. lol)



I don’t know how this reads to others so I’m gonna post it and let you tell me if you’re so inclined.

TIA

Mmmmmmmm........ feedback. Yum.

Really cool and unique vibe with a lot of tasty bits coming in and out of the mix. I like it, fret. Has
vibe. And sounds well-balanced here.

 

[Iron1]

Mix 2 - seeking comments/feedback on the mix

OK I went back and re-mixed it because didn’t translate well to other systems. (I reset all the faders/sends … within my world, a drastic move. I realize not so much in today’s automated digital world. lol)



I don’t know how this reads to others so I’m gonna post it and let you tell me if you’re so inclined.

TIA

Sounds killer on my iPhone. Makes me think this is what King Crimson would sound like if they had some metal running thru their veins. Great job!

 

[la szum]

@Iron1 and @TravisG406 both want that win, Baby!! Duking it out for the Title in the Final Round here.

 

[fretworn]

Thank you for the kind words all of you.

The one thing that was cool, and it happened a few times … is identifying a problem … And then going in and solving it.

I had a fairly muddy bass in the first print. Fixed.

I’ve had a few moments where that’s occurred; a couple of issues have been found by collaborators, because I was too ear dull and brain damaged to hear it.

I’m sure there’s still a ton of other issues in there. I’d like to be able to identify and fix, but thank you all for your input. Helps me grow and improve.

 

[mavrick102000]

Mix 2 - seeking comments/feedback on the mix

OK I went back and re-mixed it because didn’t translate well to other systems. (I reset all the faders/sends … within my world, a drastic move. I realize not so much in today’s automated digital world. lol)



I don’t know how this reads to others so I’m gonna post it and let you tell me if you’re so inclined.

TIA

Good balance in the mix overall. Of course great audioscape ideas overall as usual.

Funny as you mentioned Audacity in your first mix. About 15 years ago, I felt like I could post something on the other site based upon a track from a user....and rather than use Cakewalk, I just went into Audacity with my AxeFX Ultra, did a basic mix and made a post just to get it out there.

Folks were more than kind to me, although I ran out of musical ideas within about 20 seconds and fell back into the minimal skill default of "the box" for the solo section and it got boring really quick for the listener as well as myself. LOL