FM3 I released my first album, all guitars FM3.

Will Chen

Will Chen

Experienced
The process has been an ass kicking self study in obsession and learning to let go even if everything isn't perfect. Overall, pretty proud of the result. The EP is called Round Trip Ticket and it's on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, pretty much everywhere you can stream. The feeling of putting music out there at this point in my life is both exciting and scary. I have big time insecurities about my playing which expresses itself as imposter syndrome. I've struggled over my adult life to accept that any music I write is good in anyway and looking back I've sabotaged some projects over the years (if any of you impacted happen to read this, I'm so sorry).

Onto some tech talk. The vast majority of the guitars are my Strandberg NX6 but a few parts the Harley Benton Dullahan makes an appearance. I used 3 amp models for pretty much everything: leads were all USA Lead Mid Gain Bright with the LT BRIT412 V30 Mix IR, Rhythm was a mix of that model and the FAS Modern same IR, the Clean stuff was a modification of preset 322 CE-1 Chorus/Vibe (used a JC-120 model). Bass was the GroveBass VST and drums EZDrummer. Recorded in Reaper.

Take a listen, hopefully you'll dig it.



 
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PatrickWD said:
Sounds great! Reminds me a bit of John Petrucci.
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Wow thanks so much, quite the complement. Some of the faster stuff is right at the edge of my technical ability. I really pushed myself. 1 specific run near the end of 9...I'm not totally sure what I even played. :D
 
Drago01121 said:
Great Mixing man! & Man, That Note you hit on the YouTube's Round Trip Ticket at 1:04 Sec, it's FKN well & perfectly placed & shows really your senses & feel when you play!
From a guitarist to another lol that note can tell & showed a lot of how you are emotionally in playing lol
\m/
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Wow, thank you so much!
 
Chromatizm said:
Just double "wow" then, man! Awesome
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Oh man, thanks so much! I've been finger drumming/programming since I was a kid, even had an e-Kit set up for a while. I love drums, wanted to play the kit when I was a kid but my parents wouldn't buy me a set. Canned beats almost never work for me. I did use a couple performance capture fills from a midi library I bought, can't remember which, cymbal roles are for sure. I've just tried a bunch of libraries but like the sounds I get with EZ Drummer most.

yek said:
Pffffff, if that counts as imposter syndrome, then you've just made mine a lot worse. 😀

Like the Beach tune the most, because emotion shines through.
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Wow, you flatter me. Thanks so much! I've gotten the most positive feedback on that song which ironically was a throw in! It's way more improvisational than the other songs which I obsessed and worked things out and tracked and re-tracked. A couple parts closer to the end feel almost too loose to me, but I forced myself to let it go and the positive feedback is definitely helping me with that as well as acknowledge that having things a little loose is perfectly OK and maybe even preferable. I almost scratched it at the last minute to more fully develop it for a later project!
 
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I’ve been wanting to get to listening to the new stuff posted, but been distracted with other things of late. I especially wanted to hear your music. It was worth the wait. This is excellent. Nice compositions and cool guitar tones and great recording and mix. Congrats!

Oh and “imposter syndrome”…uhg tell me about it.
 
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AtomicJeff said:
Haha. I hear ya, mang! I think many of us have it and don't want to admit it.
I say, "Just play it and share it!" For us non-pros, it's about having fun.
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For so many years, I just had fun but was pretty hard for me to share the stuff I was really serious about. I did do a trio for a bit and had some vids up of that. But most the stuff I've written I've kept locked away or started and never finished. Shoot, I've got songs on a cassette tracked in the late 80's/early 90's somewhere. I mostly remember at least 3 of them, maybe I'll redo them at some point.

EDIT: "for us non-pros" I think that was part of the issue for me for a long time. I wanted to go pro for a long time and accepting the unlikelihood of that happening was difficult. I still remember back in the day checking the mail everyday for a response from Shrapnel Records. I think I was trying to save my best stuff but as a result ended up holding myself back. Such is life...

GitGuy513 said:
I’ve been wanting to get to listening to the new stuff posted, but been distracted with other things of late. I especially wanted to hear your music. It was worth the wait. This is excellent. Nice compositions and cool guitar tones and great recording and mix. Congrats!

Oh and “imposter syndrome”…uhg tell me about it.
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Thank you so much for the kind words! Yeah...it gets rough for me. I come up with an idea and then think it's shit and lock it away. Fortunately I've recorded the vast majority of this stuff over the years, lot's of it just raw riffs but a lot of it more complete ideas. The 9/4 riff behind the verse in 9 has been bouncing in my head for over 20 years, this stuff is a long time coming. I hope to be pretty regular with releasing stuff going forward, we'll see.
 
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Mats Nermark said:
Great stuff Will!
Sounds are just spot on for the genre and your playing is awesome.

Cheers,

Mats N
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Thanks for the complement! It was a learning experience for sure. I mean I've recorded so much over the years but mostly more casual stuff. The tones changed a lot from the beginning of the process to the end, would've liked a little more body but that's a next time thing.

eddyrox said:
Will Chen this sounds incredible - congratulations on the release!
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Thanks so much, you are too kind!
 
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