TGF Do Something Challenge Week 2!!

[TravisG406]

Man, with a little production pizazz on the vocals this could easily be a song on the radio! I really dig the tones on this, the little grit with the main rhythm guitar and the warm lead tone. What’d you use on this??

Thanks! I used a factory Bassman preset for the main rhythm and the factory Fuzz Tweed preset for the solo

 

[Whizzinby]

Here’s my track for the week. I started this over the weekend with the idea of doing the entire thing in a couple hour window, (lulz) so I went into it trying to do a themed approach to shorten the time writing time. Went with a sorta new wave My Bloody Valentine meets Smashing Pumpkins theme. Of course drum hell delayed this way more than my lofty ambitions of doing a one session pass.

One thing I noticed this time too, is that by not having vocals it adds a wrinkle. I sorta crafted this in a very straightforward pop song kinda way, but once I tracked everything, without vocals, as a standalone instrumental track you run into needing to find little fills and variations to take up the dead space where you’d be chilling behind a vocal etc. So then you end up trying to cram little overdubs in to break the monotony etc. I sorta gave up after dropping a few little fills in, some of which I’m not really enthused about, but we have lives to live. lol

I think that’s a challenge trying to find the balance in these between a straightforward song approach and instrumental.






Guitar: Ibanez RG (Dropped C#)
Distorted Guitars: Fortin Cali
Clean Guitars: SLO
Solo Fills: SLO
Bass: Squire Precision
Bass Amp: Logic Modern Bass Amp
Drums: GGD Modern and Massive
Mix: Neutron 4 Essentials
Master: Ozone 10 Essentials

 

[DrewJD82]

Here’s my track for the week. I started this over the weekend with the idea of doing the entire thing in a couple hour window, (lulz) so I went into it trying to do a themed approach to shorten the time writing time. Went with a sorta new wave My Bloody Valentine meets Smashing Pumpkins theme. Of course drum hell delayed this way more than my lofty ambitions of doing a one session pass.

One thing I noticed this time too, is that by not having vocals it adds a wrinkle. I sorta crafted this in a very straightforward pop song kinda way, but once I tracked everything, without vocals, as a standalone instrumental track you run into needing to find little fills and variations to take up the dead space where you’d be chilling behind a vocal etc. So then you end up trying to cram little overdubs in to break the monotony etc. I sorta gave up after dropping a few little fills in, some of which I’m not really enthused about, but we have lives to live. lol

I think that’s a challenge trying to find the balance in these between a straightforward song approach and instrumental.






Guitar: Ibanez RG (Dropped C#)
Distorted Guitars: Fortin Cali
Clean Guitars: SLO
Solo Fills: SLO
Bass: Squire Precision
Bass Amp: Logic Modern Bass Amp
Drums: GGD Modern and Massive
Mix: Neutron 4 Essentials
Master: Ozone 10 Essentials

Man, that was a definite mix improvement over last week’s! You guys are getting far more comfortable in a DAW than I was early on!

And yes, the amount of restraint it requires to allow 8 full bars pass without adding a drum fill or guitar lick is extremely challenging. I have to force myself from adding in drum fills every 4 bars or call-and-answer guitar licks. Even when you think it’s fine, there’s that thought in your head ”Well other people are going to hear this and without vocals they’re going to get bored”, but they’re not hearing the full song and the song isn’t full until all the instruments are on it. Hopefully everyone here realizes when a song is intended to have vocals and when it’s not. I mean, if 8 bars go by just repeating a chord progression, it’s safe to say vocals are meant to go over that section.

Tight work, man!!! I love that clean/chorused tone and the guitars all sound great! Definitely feel the 90’s vibe in there!!

 

[fretworn]

That’s just slays Whiz!

I totally understand this song format dilemma… When you’re in ABABCAB …

Great choices all around- solid mix!

 

[JiveTurkey]

Here’s my track for the week. I started this over the weekend with the idea of doing the entire thing in a couple hour window, (lulz) so I went into it trying to do a themed approach to shorten the time writing time. Went with a sorta new wave My Bloody Valentine meets Smashing Pumpkins theme. Of course drum hell delayed this way more than my lofty ambitions of doing a one session pass.

One thing I noticed this time too, is that by not having vocals it adds a wrinkle. I sorta crafted this in a very straightforward pop song kinda way, but once I tracked everything, without vocals, as a standalone instrumental track you run into needing to find little fills and variations to take up the dead space where you’d be chilling behind a vocal etc. So then you end up trying to cram little overdubs in to break the monotony etc. I sorta gave up after dropping a few little fills in, some of which I’m not really enthused about, but we have lives to live. lol

I think that’s a challenge trying to find the balance in these between a straightforward song approach and instrumental.






Guitar: Ibanez RG (Dropped C#)
Distorted Guitars: Fortin Cali
Clean Guitars: SLO
Solo Fills: SLO
Bass: Squire Precision
Bass Amp: Logic Modern Bass Amp
Drums: GGD Modern and Massive
Mix: Neutron 4 Essentials
Master: Ozone 10 Essentials

This kicks \m/ Totally represents the timeframe stylistically and tonally while sounding modern as well. Great playing and killer vibes! Your production skills are top notch. I need to up my game!

 

[la szum]

My submission for the week:



My nylon acoustic and Strat have been neglected lately so I wanted to do something with them.

It’s called “WIP” because I didn’t have time to finish it the way I wanted. I ran out of time.

The guitar solo you hear was off the cuff and meant to be a placeholder until I had time to actually record a real one. It’s meh, but good enough for fun.

I’m also not thrilled with some of the electric guitar tones, but they’re close enough to the idea I had in my head.

Recording and mixing on iPad GarageBand is a major PITA… this is making me miss having a full DAW on a desktop. Lots of sloppy cuts between sections and tracks, and it did a weird thing where the lead sounds doubled for some reason… some artifact I’m guessing.

Equipment:
Squier CV Jazz Bass V
MIM Strat
Godin MultiAC
GarageBand drums
HX Stomp XL

I think I used these amps:
Bass - GK
Rhythm - Teemah! > Princeton
Lead/harmony - Dhyana Drive > Princeton
Solo - Scream 808 > AC15

All feedback, advice, comments, constructive criticisms welcome!

Makes me wanna go to Puerto Rico and dance on the streets. And I am a white guy.
Great playing. Some killer ascending licks in there. Tasty, Met! Love the tones, too.

 

[Whizzinby]

Man, that was a definite mix improvement over last week’s! You guys are getting far more comfortable in a DAW than I was early on!

And yes, the amount of restraint it requires to allow 8 full bars pass without adding a drum fill or guitar lick is extremely challenging. I have to force myself from adding in drum fills every 4 bars or call-and-answer guitar licks. Even when you think it’s fine, there’s that thought in your head ”Well other people are going to hear this and without vocals they’re going to get bored”, but they’re not hearing the full song and the song isn’t full until all the instruments are on it. Hopefully everyone here realizes when a song is intended to have vocals and when it’s not. I mean, if 8 bars go by just repeating a chord progression, it’s safe to say vocals are meant to go over that section.

Tight work, man!!! I love that clean/chorused tone and the guitars all sound great! Definitely feel the 90’s vibe in there!!

Thanks broseph. I felt way more comfortable tracking this time, which made the process a little easier and resulted in a lot less shitty cut-ins that sorta undercut the mix in the first week.

I could live in clean chorus vibes all day. Sometimes I have to tell myself do something productive and quite droning over washed out cleans.

In retrospect I think I should have quad-tracked the distorted guitars this week. (to get the wall of sound thing going) They sound a little thin to me. I did try to not pull out as much bass as last week (knowing my room is boomy) but I don’t know if I went too far.

That’s just slays Whiz!

I totally understand this song format dilemma… When you’re in ABABCAB …

Great choices all around- solid mix!

Neutron reallllllly helps me. I don’t know if I’d have the stomach to let anyone other than the dog listen to these, but Neutron really helps put a little polish on the tracks. I think Ozone did a really good job too, whereas last week I thought it took a little edge off.

This kicks \m/ Totally represents the timeframe stylistically and tonally while sounding modern as well. Great playing and killer vibes! Your production skills are top notch. I need to up my game!

Thanks man. Much happier with the drums this week. I used One Kit Wonder Metal last week for drums, but I got Modern and Massive this week specifically because it has a Turbo knob, which basically adds in mix/production elements to get it closer to a finished tone. I just dimed it and avoided using Neutron on it. I’m trying to outsource all responsibility for this to software.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

[…]



[…]

It‘s really amazing, how much talent lies in this forum. As a teenage metal nerd in the 90‘s I was sometimes too narrow-minded to give alternative rock a chance, which is a shame because I think I actually missed a lot of really, really good stuff. I don‘t know much about The Smashing Pumpkins or My Bloody Valentine, but what really came to my mind here is The Cure. The melancholy of your song is 100% up my alley and the 90‘s vibe - which you managed to capture really well - hit a nerve with me, too. And it‘s the very warm and cozy kind of melancholy that feels good to dwell in, not the more sad and theatrical one - if you know what I mean.

 

[metropolis_4]

Edit - Gear Used:

All Solars All The Time!

Guitar 1 & 2: Solar A2.6S loaded with an Elysian Trident II bridge pickup.
Guitar 3 & 4: Solar A2.6CAR loaded with Duncan Solars
Bass: Solar A2.4 loaded with whatever Ola put in it
Drums: Beta Monkey Drum loops & customized hits

All strings run thru my Helix Rack

Guitar 1: SD1>Deizel Lead>Ola OS Mesa IR
Guitar 2: SD1>Soldano Lead>Ola OS Mesa IR
Guitar 3: SD1>Soldano Lead>Soldano 412
Guitar 4: SD1>Deizel Lead>Ola OS Mesa IR (amp dialed in differently than the one for Guitar 1)
Bass: SD1>Soldano Lead>Mesa Recto 610

Duuude, SO tight and clean! You’ve really got a knack for those heavy riffs. I really love the sections at around 0:53 and 2:15 that break it up and provide a really nice contrast!

Would have posted sooner but had to feed me childrens... some kind of law on that or something.... Anyway I decided to go outside my norm and went for one of the rock beats... I had fun with this.

That was a lot of fun! I love the swing and the swagger it has. Nice concept

 

[Gearzilla]

aka House Slop

Gear:
91' Ibanez RG570
Apollo Twin Duo mk2 Thunderbolt
Logic Drummer
a couple of Logic loops
Helix Native--Placater-2 guitar tracks both independent of each other. One with Native's Boctaver . One without.
Valhalla Supermassive

I was finally able to redo the clip to get it to stop properly. I added an Easter egg this time around for @metropolis_4 for being such a good sport after hanging in there through the extended silence at the end of the initial version that I had posted earlier.

 

[JiveTurkey]

aka House Slop

Gear:
91' Ibanez RG570
Apollo Twin Duo mk2 Thunderbolt
Logic Drummer
a couple of Logic loops
Helix Native--Placater-2 guitar tracks both independent of each other. One with Native's Boctaver . One without.
Valhalla Supermassive

Trapzilla Love the groove and tones!

 

[metropolis_4]

As promised, there will be trumpet!!! Here’s some laid back jazzy country blues of sorts called “Frame Of Mind”. All performed by yours truly.

Gear used in production;

Roland Aerophone Pro AE-30,
CF Martin GPC14F,
Takemine EAN40C,
Taylor T5z,
Warmoth Thinline Tele,
Fractal FM9,
Arturia Augmented Strings,
Arturia Solina V2,
Arturia Mellotron V,
Swart R2 Ribbon,

Love the instrumentation choices! It has a great vibe to it that I really dig. I also love how it moves through all those different sections while still feeling unified

Holy s**t my throat is THRASHED. I need to do something softer/more mellow next week. The lyrical content of my submission this week may be interpreted as being lead astray by someone with power in say a religious role or a political one, or it's perhaps related to a polarizing piece of gear and corporate shenanigans of a certain company I'll leave unnamed.

"Ye Mighty and Despair (6th Heaven)"



Same Mac Mini/Reaper/Focusrite setup as before, just not playing actual drums because of family in the house. Vocals and mixing I did today (5th render!) 17 tracks total - Two of them being parent tracks.

I had started this song in another project on Saturday where I had some parts with tempo/time sig changes but after moving some of the elements around, the recorded guitar and some of the midi files got all f****d up so I had to copypasta into a new project and attempt to salvage my work. It started off at 85 BPM but it got skewed to 85.795, along with all of the media items (a play rate of 1.072) so editing had to be done mostly by ear and not to the click -- which I'm kind of used to from recording actual humans playing drums but was a PITA regardless.

• I programmed the drums with my Akai MPKmini using AD2 as a VSTi.
• Verse/Chorus guitar is my PRS S2 Standard 24 Satin in drop D running into my HX Stomp.
• Intro/Bridge guitar is my Ibanez SIR27FD in drop A into my HX Stomp.
• Lead guitar is my Ibanez Prestige AZ2402 in HX Stomp (broke my A string on the first pass)
• Bass is my cheap Ibanez Talman with Helix Native.
• Used my MPKmini to tap in a melody for the vocal -- first time doing this and it helped a lot with writing words.
• Vocals sung into a Behringer B-2 Pro condenser mic

Vocal Processing:

• 1 Vocal Master Track (FF Pro-Q 3 with some mid shifting to work around the guitars and a high shelf dropping a few DB)
• 1 Tape Saturation Bus Track (HX Native's Retro Reel)
• 1 Reverb Bus Track (Waves H-Reverb)
• 1 Delay Bus Track (HX Native's Stereo Crisscross Delay)
• 1 Shouting Verse Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• 1 Singing Verse Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• 1 High Pitch Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• 1 Shouting Chorus Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• 1 Singing Chorus Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• 1 Bridge Vocal Track (SSL Comp, FF Pro-Q 3)
• SSL Comp used to even out dynamics and Pro-Q 3 for low cut.

Guitar Processing:

• 1 Guitar Master Track (FF Pro-Q 3 providing Low Cut and mid shift to work around the vocals)
• 1 Guitar Left (Live tracked, Panned 50% L)*
• 1 Guitar Right (Live tracked, Panned 50% R)*
• 1 Guitar Lead (Center, Live tracked, HX Native providing Cosmos Echo and Dynamic Plate)

*Before I started recording this idea I was playing around with the L6 2204 Mod model into my Creambackatana. I chucked a Low/High Shelf in before it to remove some low end and drive the front a little bit and it was off to the races. I added the Horizon Drive to the same preset for the 7 string parts but switched to my usual Comp/808/Placater Dirty for the lead.

Bass Processing:

• 1 Bass Track (HX Native, FF Pro-Q 3) - I noticed a lot of you guys doing heavier songs are using guitar amps with bass cabs so I decided to blend the 2204 Mod with my usual SVT sound and I quite liked the results.

Drum Processing:

• Drums are all AD2 samples - Started with the Black Velvet - Post Grunge preset, changed the kick and hi hat. Added saturation and compression to the snare, which is pitched down a bit. Also elongated the sustain on the snare itself.

Nice groove! Props for doing vocals and lyrics! Nice solo too!

 

[fretworn]

Super vibes brudda G!

Gonna loop this on the stereos … love it

 

[metropolis_4]

Honey & Cheese

I'm a big fan of Tiamat's 1994 album "Wildhoney" and several similar sounding bands that emerged around that time. This week I'm submitting a small song written with the intention of capturing the style and general vibe of this era, which was an absolutely magical time for me as a rock & metal-loving teenager, discovering new and exciting music on a daily basis. Besides my usual gear I also used a 90’s keyboard (Korg Trinity), which admittedly sounds slightly cheesy by today's standards, but is an important part of the homage. Had a lot of fun putting this together for the current week of the challenge!

This made me feel nostalgic. It captures the vibe of that music and that era perfectly! Really enjoyed listening through this one. Great production too!

 

[metropolis_4]

Bumble B strat in drop D. FAS JP IIC+ Boosted Yellow and Boosted OG 5150 into Axe I/O. Drum by Drew!

I am in need of a break right now


I'll listen to everyone else's with fresh ears here in a bit.

That just straight up kicked ass.

Love the riff, love the vibe, love the tones, love the production

Here’s another iPad demo - a little sloppy

Great job! I love the pop rock singer-songwriter thing. Nicely structured, I love that it’s a fully realized song

 

[JiveTurkey]

That just straight up kicked ass.

Love the riff, love the vibe, love the tones, love the production



Great job! I love the pop rock singer-songwriter thing. Nicely structured, I love that it’s a fully realized song

Thanks Metro! I had fun with it \m/

 

[metropolis_4]

Here’s my track for the week. I started this over the weekend with the idea of doing the entire thing in a couple hour window, (lulz) so I went into it trying to do a themed approach to shorten the time writing time. Went with a sorta new wave My Bloody Valentine meets Smashing Pumpkins theme. Of course drum hell delayed this way more than my lofty ambitions of doing a one session pass.

One thing I noticed this time too, is that by not having vocals it adds a wrinkle. I sorta crafted this in a very straightforward pop song kinda way, but once I tracked everything, without vocals, as a standalone instrumental track you run into needing to find little fills and variations to take up the dead space where you’d be chilling behind a vocal etc. So then you end up trying to cram little overdubs in to break the monotony etc. I sorta gave up after dropping a few little fills in, some of which I’m not really enthused about, but we have lives to live. lol

I think that’s a challenge trying to find the balance in these between a straightforward song approach and instrumental.






Guitar: Ibanez RG (Dropped C#)
Distorted Guitars: Fortin Cali
Clean Guitars: SLO
Solo Fills: SLO
Bass: Squire Precision
Bass Amp: Logic Modern Bass Amp
Drums: GGD Modern and Massive
Mix: Neutron 4 Essentials
Master: Ozone 10 Essentials

That sounds awesome! I love the new wave vibe, and those parts mix really well with the wall of guitars distorted sections

aka House Slop

Gear:
91' Ibanez RG570
Apollo Twin Duo mk2 Thunderbolt
Logic Drummer
a couple of Logic loops
Helix Native--Placater-2 guitar tracks both independent of each other. One with Native's Boctaver . One without.
Valhalla Supermassive

Such a cool feel and concept! The styles here blend so well.

I kept listening all the way to the end wondering if there was gonna be some little Easter egg at the end

 

[Gearzilla]

I kept listening all the way to the end wondering if there was gonna be some little Easter egg at the end

Sorry about that. I couldn’t get it to stop at the endpoint for some reason this time when I shared it to SoundCloud. I’m not very adept with the DAW settings.

 

[metropolis_4]

I’m working on one of my guitars and had this playing as I worked; this is *perfect* music to have on while working on guitars! It’s chill enough to be distracting while keeping a steady pace. When it was over I didn’t think “That was the end of Metrop’s song” I was thinking “Damn, I wish I had more of this to listen to while I’m working on this guitar, that’s perfect for this”

I can’t believe you’re doing all that on an iPad! Bonus points for that, man. I’ve only made some beats with farts in GB on my iPad, I’ve never tried editing or anything on here, that’s really impressive you’re doing all that on just an iPad!

Thanks! Doing it in GB on iPad is a major PITA. Sometime this year I’m gonna have to invest in a new laptop and a DAW

I love this! Dig the melancholy pop vibe something fierce! Love the groove and the playing Metro

Met, that was fantastic. Grooves and tasteful chops. Really well done.

Makes me wanna go to Puerto Rico and dance on the streets. And I am a white guy.
Great playing. Some killer ascending licks in there. Tasty, Met! Love the tones, too.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun making it

Love the vibe with this one. Do you plan to complete it and share the final product? I'd love to hear that. Not that this sounds incomplete, but hearing more of this and what you envision for it would be awesome.

I thought about it, I’ve got a lot more ideas to flesh it out that I didn’t have time to record. I might come back to it later and finish it

You wanted feedback, you get feedback. So here it is. You‘re a fvcking liar, Metro!

I couldn‘t hear any of the sloppiness you were talking about. All I hear instead is beautiful and massively taste- and soulful playing. I feel cheated! BTW, the first part kinda reminded me of „Sultans Of Swing“, but in a good way.

Haha, thanks! I’m my own worst critic. I’m probably too hard on myself most of the time

 

[metropolis_4]

Sorry about that. I couldn’t get it to stop at the endpoint for some reason this time when I shared it to SoundCloud. I’m not very adept with the DAW settings.

Next time just throw a little shave and a hair cut or maybe some barbershop chorus on the end. Bring us all back to the days of hidden tracks on albums