AFIII Classical Prog Fusion w/ Far-Field IRs

antcarrier

antcarrier

Power User
Hi!

For those of you who have plenty of free time and patience, here is my latest composition and biggest project to date. It’s still a demo as I would like to overdub real soloists over the virtual orchestra, and add a real drummer (there is a missing drum solo from 24:20 - 24:45).

The IRs used are some of my own 1x12 reflection-free far field IRs. The main distorted tone is an ODS HRM model and uses a FFIR blend of a Fanes - A60, F70 & AXA12 - with a hint of Mesa V30 for some cut.
There is a higher gain tone using a gainier ODS preset which uses a FFIR from an OEM Mesa EVM 12-L.
The clean tone is a 5F8 model with an IR blend of a Fane A60 and EVM12L classic.

EDIT: The drums are now real! I spent a week in Jan recording my brother Chris on drums who did an amazing job playing this.
The bass guitar now uses a FFIR as well. The link is now updated for anyone interested in having another go :sweatsmile:

I hope you enjoy! If you can survive to the end :yum:

Jon

 
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Wonderful!

EDIT: Had to do some stuff in the middle, I've now finished the whole thing, and wow!
This is quite a piece of work!
Wonderful feel, composition, arrangement, playing, mix, everything.
I hope it brings you whatever you're after in creating it.
Huzzah!
 
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Thanks a lot Dave!
I'm really glad that you enjoyed it and even made it through until the end :D
I have no idea what I'm after :sweatsmile: haha
 
I just listened to the entire suite. Wow.
Where to start. It’s an amazing composition. A beautiful mixture of rock, classical and Jazz harmony, all in a very unique vibe.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening.
Your tones are exquisite and your playing absolutely divine.
Is that the PRS throughout?
The FF IRs are perfect.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
 
Hi Patzag!
Your feedback is very kind, thank you!
Yes it is a PRS Hollowbody 1 for the whole piece.
Thanks for taking the time to listen :)
 
antcarrier said:
Hi Patzag!
Your feedback is very kind, thank you!
Yes it is a PRS Hollowbody 1 for the whole piece.
Thanks for taking the time to listen :)
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It was my pleasure.
Love that guitar tone. It prompted me to look into these guitars. Lovely.
 
Patzag said:
@antcarrier
Are these FF IRs available anywhere? I’d love to try them. And would you let me know which amp you used in this recording?
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The IRs aren't available just yet, but I do plan on making them available in the future. At this stage I'm going to continue working on an IR library while I finish recording my album, then put them both out at the same time. Still work to be done on both fronts!
All of the distorted sounds are the Dumble ODS HRM, and the clean sounds are the 5F8 Tweed Bright.
 
antcarrier said:
The IRs aren't available just yet, but I do plan on making them available in the future. At this stage I'm going to continue working on an IR library while I finish recording my album, then put them both out at the same time. Still work to be done on both fronts!
All of the distorted sounds are the Dumble ODS HRM, and the clean sounds are the 5F8 Tweed Bright.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much. I look forward to trying them out when they become available.
 
I have updated the link as this track now has real drums, a FFIR on the bass guitar, and generally sounds much improved :)
 
Can you say a bit about your writing and recording process?
What's the order of recording the instruments?
Do you play the orchestrations on a keyboard?
Is there a lot of adjusting after the initial performance?

Really great work, seriously!
Completely transcends all that tech stuff I'm asking about.
 
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Marantz said:
Astonishing work, really incredible, I can't imagine how many hours you put into this.
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I would shudder to think, haha.
Patzag said:
Thanks for this. Thoroughly enjoyable! One of the very, very few recordings posted here I listen to for pure pleasure!
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No worries, thank you very much! :)
Dave Merrill said:
Can you say a bit about your writing and recording process?
What's the order of recording the instruments?
Do you play the orchestrations on a keyboard?
Is there a lot of adjusting after the initial performance?
Click to expand...


I usually record as I go when I’m writing, beginning with an idea on usually a single instrument (or section) then add additional layers until the arrangement for that part of the piece sounds complete. Ideas often stem from the guitar if I’m writing a melody or riff, but in many ways I find it easier to write orchestral material starting from the bass guitar and working upwards, since electric guitar can easily occupy the same space as cellos, violas and brass. Trial and error has taught me that bass guitar and double bass should typically not be used at the same time :sweatsmile:

Once I’m happy with my arrangement of a particular part or riff, I sit back and think “what do I want to hear for the next bit?”, then jump onto whichever instrument (or VI) that I feel fills the space of whichever vague idea comes to mind, and mess around with that for a while until I come up with something more concrete. Then I’ll record that and start the whole process again. That said, I didn’t proceed like this from beginning-to-end, but in chunks. I wrote a fair bit of this piece back-to-front really, with many of the more layered and complex parts towards the end being written first, then deconstructing these into simpler variations for sections to use earlier on, or adding hints of these ideas into earlier riffs to build some familiarity.

I definitely don’t find this easy and there’s a lot of material written this way that doesn’t make it too. The actual DAW session is over 2 hours, mostly consisting of unused ideas that weren’t up to scratch. I hate discarding ideas because it’s a lot of hard work down the drain, but it would sound really random otherwise.

I rarely keep any orchestral material played directly from a keyboard, and I may not even touch an instrument if writing for a 5 part string section or something. Firstly I’m not a very good keyboard player (and will often use a LinnStrument for note input, which is more guitarist friendly). Usually this is just for brainstorming, and then I’ll manually enter all the notes in the piano roll or edit the MIDI for what I have played. Unfortunately I feel that this is a necessity for orchestral sample libraries, which can rarely be played convincingly in real time due to the quirks of the samples and the necessity to trigger articulation keyswitches frequently, in addition to volume automation to create a sense of flow. Any orchestral VI that I do record in real-time requires a lot of MIDI editing afterwards. The exception to this is the brass (sample modeling brass), which is the only orchestral VI with which I have been able to produce a lifelike real-time performance, and most of the brass parts are recorded with a keyboard or linnstrument and breath controller. This is undoubtedly my favourite orchestral VI because it’s the only one that actually feels reminiscent of playing an instrument while still sounding good, and doesn’t require too much editing afterwards.

I hope this answers your questions :) and thanks for listening!
 
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