D20 - More fretless playing

[D20]

Just trying out a cover of an old Meters track with my fretless. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think?

The bass track and the guitar tracks were all Axe Fx on this one!!!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1046513/Tippi%20Toes.mp3

or

http://soundcloud.com/d20/tippi-toes

 

[RiF]

Even if I am risking repeating myself, but your bass playing is among the best I've heard. Your bass tone is beyond criticism as well. I really like the guitars, although I am not a fan of clean guitars, but this is funk-deluxe. You didn't doubletrack the guitars, right? But I hear a slapback-echo or something like that. What did you do?

I would rethink the reverb choices on the clean guitar and the snare, but that's a matter of taste. I would chose a short room or ambience and ditch the long tails.

Good job, D20!

 

[D20]

Even if I am risking repeating myself, but your bass playing is among the best I've heard. Your bass tone is beyond criticism as well. I really like the guitars, although I am not a fan of clean guitars, but this is funk-deluxe. You didn't doubletrack the guitars, right? But I hear a slapback-echo or something like that. What did you do?

I would rethink the reverb choices on the clean guitar and the snare, but that's a matter of taste. I would chose a short room or ambience and ditch the long tails.

Good job, D20!

RiF!!! It's been awhile friend!

Many thanks for the compliments on the bass tone and playing. I think the Axe Fx helps out a ton as far as the tone goes due to the fact that my fretless was $300 new haha. I'm still not that great on it yet, but i'm working at it.

I thought about double tracking the guitars, but i didn't. You are correct. I did use a send reverb effect (Cubase's Roomworks Reverb) though on the guitars and a tad bit on the bass (That was Smartelectronix Ambience). I also used a bit of PSP Psuedostereo on the guitar tracks as well to try to give them some width as well.

I guess it is a matter of taste as far as the drums go. I prefer really roomy drums....not sure why, but i just like them.
These drums in particular are Toontrack's Hit Factory Library. They are great and i really love the roomy sounds of them.
However, i can see what you mean as far as the reverb goes on the guitars. I may go back and work on that a bit. Many thanks for the tip.

Many thanks again for checking it out and commenting RiF!!!!!!!!!

 

[magoga]

Cool happy music with tasty playing
But i like more darkness :lol:

 

[D20]

Cool happy music with tasty playing
But i like more darkness :lol:

Haha!!!! Thanks magoga!

I have something dark and heavy in the works!!!

 

[soularflair]

I like it.
Although I'm one of those looking forward to this "dark and heavy" thing in the works as well

 

[RiF]

I guess it is a matter of taste as far as the drums go. I prefer really roomy drums....not sure why, but i just like them.
These drums in particular are Toontrack's Hit Factory Library. They are great and i really love the roomy sounds of them.
However, i can see what you mean as far as the reverb goes on the guitars. I may go back and work on that a bit. Many thanks for the tip.

I like roomy drums as well, but it's more about the sound of the reverbs. The reverbs you used do not really glue the things together, so it's more about the choice of reverb than about the length of the tail. My usual approach regarding reverb is the use of ONE room type reverb (that should sound similar to the room sound of the drums) and ONE longer reverb (plate or hall) which I use throughout all instruments. This topic is controversely discussed over at The Womb Forums, but it helps getting a natural room feel for the whole mix.

 

[D20]

I guess it is a matter of taste as far as the drums go. I prefer really roomy drums....not sure why, but i just like them.
These drums in particular are Toontrack's Hit Factory Library. They are great and i really love the roomy sounds of them.
However, i can see what you mean as far as the reverb goes on the guitars. I may go back and work on that a bit. Many thanks for the tip.

I like roomy drums as well, but it's more about the sound of the reverbs. The reverbs you used do not really glue the things together, so it's more about the choice of reverb than about the length of the tail. My usual approach regarding reverb is the use of ONE room type reverb (that should sound similar to the room sound of the drums) and ONE longer reverb (plate or hall) which I use throughout all instruments. This topic is controversely discussed over at The Womb Forums, but it helps getting a natural room feel for the whole mix.

Right on. I get what you are saying.

Ah the Womb Forums! Haha! I just finished actually reading Mixerman's book. Funny stuff in there! :lol:

 

[RiF]

Ah the Womb Forums! Haha!

My rep power on that forum went way into the red after a few posts :twisted: . Somehow strange people over there, but very knowledgeable as well.

I just finished actually reading Mixerman's book. Funny stuff in there! :lol:

I read it as well a few months ago, but I did not find it that funny overall. More like half-funny.

 

[RiF]

BTW... did you work on your "Redemption" song? It sounded pretty finished and well layed out, except that vocals are missing. I have it on my go-to SD-card in my car and listen quite often on my way to work to it.

 

[D20]

Ah the Womb Forums! Haha!

My rep power on that forum went way into the red after a few posts :twisted: . Somehow strange people over there, but very knowledgeable as well.

I just finished actually reading Mixerman's book. Funny stuff in there! :lol:

I read it as well a few months ago, but I did not find it that funny overall. More like half-funny.

Yeah i agree. i thought it was funny, but only at certain parts. It was a great read nonetheless.

BTW... did you work on your "Redemption" song? It sounded pretty finished and well layed out, except that vocals are missing. I have it on my go-to SD-card in my car and listen quite often on my way to work to it.

I haven't gone back and worked on that song in quite awhile. I kinda left it as is for the moment. My band just recently got a new singer, so i am waiting to hear what he does with it. Its good to hear that you listen to though! I'm currently working on a song in the same vein with the Metal Foundry Library (i've finally got a snare sound i'm happy with) that i should have done fairly soon.

 

[RiF]

I'm currently working on a song in the same vein with the Metal Foundry Library (i've finally got a snare sound i'm happy with) that i should have done fairly soon.

Expect an email from me very soon asking for assistance !
I am struggling with the Metal Foundry stuff for over 6 months now to get a beefy metal-able drum sound. I tried the Hit Factory kits as well (inspired from your clip in this thread) but did not really nail it yet, although I like the snares better than those in MF. I am still getting the best drum sound from the stock pop/rock kit from EZDrummer, but I doubt that it is really better than the other libraries that I purchased for SD2.0 .

 

[D20]

I'm currently working on a song in the same vein with the Metal Foundry Library (i've finally got a snare sound i'm happy with) that i should have done fairly soon.

Expect an email from me very soon asking for assistance !
I am struggling with the Metal Foundry stuff for over 6 months now to get a beefy metal-able drum sound. I tried the Hit Factory kits as well (inspired from your clip in this thread) but did not really nail it yet, although I like the snares better than those in MF. I am still getting the best drum sound from the stock pop/rock kit from EZDrummer, but I doubt that it is really better than the other libraries that I purchased for SD2.0 .

I hear ya! I still like the Hit Factory and the Avatar Libraries the best out of all the drum sounds i have. I think the Avatar Kit is still my favorite and the one i have been working with lately on my instrumental album i have been writing. I have heard some good mixes with the MF though and figured that i would give it another shot.

Here is a short clip (i've since modified it quite a bit) of what i have so far with the metal foundry. http://soundcloud.com/d20/metal-foundry-drumming

 

[RiF]

Here is a short clip (i've since modified it quite a bit) of what i have so far with the metal foundry. http://soundcloud.com/d20/metal-foundry-drumming

The MF-clip sounds very good, reminds me very much of Lamb of God's drum sound. Compressed mid-tuned snare, long reverb tail, punchy/smacky kick, controlled cymbals. I used this clip as a blueprint and inspiration for my own drum mix and I think I am progressing. I am still using the Hit Factory though, because this high tuned snare is exactly what I want. My kick still does a bit too much tok-tok instead of smack-smack and the cymbals are still a bit out of control, but I'll tweak some more.

I had to use a whole army of plugins like tape sims (AC2), distortion (Tapehead), highly invasive EQ and compression (Waves SSL), bus compression (Waves SSL busscomp) and parallel bus compression (CLA-76 in all-button mode + TapeHead distortion) to get a sound as punchy as yours... Hard work...

PS: Your drum programming always sound like a real live drummer, but I remember that you program the drums with your mouse and not using a MIDI drum kit, right? If so, I have no idea how you do that.

PPS: We're going a bit off topic here. Sorry.

 

[D20]

Here is a short clip (i've since modified it quite a bit) of what i have so far with the metal foundry. http://soundcloud.com/d20/metal-foundry-drumming

The MF-clip sounds very good, reminds me very much of Lamb of God's drum sound. Compressed mid-tuned snare, long reverb tail, punchy/smacky kick, controlled cymbals. I used this clip as a blueprint and inspiration for my own drum mix and I think I am progressing. I am still using the Hit Factory though, because this high tuned snare is exactly what I want. My kick still does a bit too much tok-tok instead of smack-smack and the cymbals are still a bit out of control, but I'll tweak some more.

I had to use a whole army of plugins like tape sims (AC2), distortion (Tapehead), highly invasive EQ and compression (Waves SSL), bus compression (Waves SSL busscomp) and parallel bus compression (CLA-76 in all-button mode + TapeHead distortion) to get a sound as punchy as yours... Hard work...

PS: Your drum programming always sound like a real live drummer, but I remember that you program the drums with your mouse and not using a MIDI drum kit, right? If so, I have no idea how you do that.

PPS: We're going a bit off topic here. Sorry.

All good about being off topic.

Lamb of God sound......I'll take that as a complement! I love the drum tones they have on their albums! Especially the tones on Sacrament! My fav is still the Avatar Kit, but i'm working on this one. I'm definitely using the Avatar kit on my instrumental album that i am working on.

As far as what i used on this clip....mainly I use PSP plugins (Mixpack, Vintage Warmer and StereoPack), some Voxengo (Varisaturator, LF Max, and HarmoniEq), some Cubase stock plugins, and my new by FAR fav compressor Cytomic's The Glue!

You are correct as well. All my drums are put in via mouse. Its way easier for me. I'm used to doing it that way, and its so fast doing that way for me now.

Thanks again for the compliments!!!