3 new tracks!

[Newc]

Got 3 new ones for my next CD.

Lemme know what you guys think:

http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/TheRoadAhead/Dreams_Of_Etherium-128.mp3 - Not much to add to this one, if anything.

http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/TheRoadAhead/Sailing_in_the_Sun-128.mp3 - The solos aren't carved in stone, but liveable.

http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/TheRoadAhead/TheRoadAhead-128.mp3 - This one's still lacking solos. I'm looking for a specific sound. It's in my head, I just gotta figure out how to make it happen.

[Jack The Riffer]

Nice work Matt, love the funk vibe you got going on on The Road Ahead.

[Newc]

Thanks

If you've already downloaded Dreams and Sailing, get them again. Didn't realize they had problems till a few minutes ago. They're fixed now. I hope

[Shawn Lutz]

Matt, where do I start? The playing is average, bends out of tune, mic placement all wrong, the tone sucks, the mix is unprofessional and amature' ish. I fell asleep in the first song. Overall all the songs lack arrangement, any feel or direction, the shirt you wore while playing needs washing, your hair needs combed too. I'm a prodigy so you should know that Im a legend in my own mind ~ so listen to me bitch Post something else when you feel ready

Just kidding bro...good stuff. I liked Sailing in the Sun the best. I have an ass load of material and ideas that I need to take the time to lay down...just need to make the time..

What did you use to record and what did you use for drum tracks? Sounds really good...

[Jack Napalm]

Very cool stuff. How long did it take for you to put these together?

[Newc]

@ Shawn

Thanks fellas

I used the following:
Guitars: Split from a Morley ABY box to a Line6 AM-4 Amp Modeler pedal on one side and ADA MP-1 into a Digitech TSR-12 on the other
Bass: Bass POD
All into a Rolls line mixer with a Digitech IPS33 harmonizer in the loop (so both preamps can use it) into the Line Input of my Soundblaster Audigy Plat Pro, and Audition 3 for recording the tracks.
Drums: Fxpansion BFD2

Once recorded, I applied the Amplitube vst plugin to get more of an ampish tone to the guitars and bass.


As for how long it took, I've had the basic structure for Sailing for about 15 years now, but always felt it needed a little "something else", and the rhythm for the 2nd half of it just jumped out while playing around with it the other day.

The clean part in Dreams was a little piece I've had lying around for about 2 years but couldn't figure out where to go with it - kick in the heavy stuff, stick with the picked stuff, or roll into a strummed passage - so I took a cue from an X-Japan song (Alive from the first album, the part after the piano intro) and stuck a harmonized lead in it.

Likewise, Road Ahead I've had since about 94. It was a bass line my and my ex-singer were working with back then, but we had nowhere to go with it back then, so I kept it. Later I added the guitar parts.

I've got literally hundrerds of snippets from over the years and I'm trying to go through them to see what I can use and build on. Just little quick riffs and passages and noodle-jams that need to be sorted out and given form.


Usually when I record stuff I'll get the length of the song pretty much set by jamming on it then record the drums to that length, putting in whatever fills and such where they need to be. For these 3, I had smaller passages recorded and dropped into Audition. The bass track in The Road Ahead is 3 or 4 clips, not one continuous one, all made from sampling clips from the opening section up to the first "chorus".
Likewise the drums are made up of the same opening section sampled and stuck head-to-tail, with a single extra pattern (for cymbals and whatnot) stuck on an end to change it up.
The guitar parts were originally also sampled sections, but because I had one part that kept nagging me (which therefore repeated in each section), I redid it as one track.

Sailing In The Sun is made up of larger separate clips - the clean rhythm, distorted rhythm, solo1, solo2, bass1, bass2, but the drums are one track.

I had to start using shorter drum clips because BFD developed an issue where it would export tracks with holes in the cymbals: you'd hear "psshhh_shhh" and I couldn't get it worked out, so I just cut smaller patterns. It did Sailing just fine a few days earlier. I rebooted and played around with Sample Rates and all that, but nothing worked except using shorter loops.

Even with all that, it actually took less time to get these 3 tracks into their current/final state than if I had done each part as one continuous track.


The specific guitars used were:

Bass on all tracks: Jackson JZB2

Sailing: Slime Green Charvel Style1 for the rhythms, War Angel for the leads
Dreams: Custom Shop SLS with EMG 85/89 (rhythm and lead)
Road: Candy Green SoCal

[Newc]

Updated/fixed all 3 again. Burned them to CD and listened in my car, then again on headphones when I got home. Guitars were waaaaay too loud, and I fixed a few other things (like that annoying hesitation in the first note of the solo for Dreams )

Toned down the guitars in Road Ahead so the bass and drums have more presence in the mix.

Balanced the volumes in Sailing so the leads weren't so overbearing, and so the 2nd rhythm part would be more defined.

[BenoA]

Good job Newc!!!! Listening to "Dreams..." as I type.

I need to fix my things and finish a few songs too! I'm like ya, got bunch of riffs but I never finish anything!

Rock on!

[Newc]

Thanks.

Seems I"m still not done with them though

I want to bring the drums up in Sailing, and give the bass more definition in R.A..

I've already remixed them 3 times since the last update/upload, and there's always something else I find I want/need to fix.

[ToneZone]

Hi Newc.

I liked your songs. The funky feel of the two last ones is my kind of thing.
One your first song, Dreams Of Etherium, have you considered putting a slight reverb on the whole thing? I think it might give the atmospheric feel a boost. And I prefer the lead guitar just a tad lower. But all this is just my taste. Well played.

As for the last one, The Road Ahead: I can't wait to hear the solos. But I have to warn you: I hear all kinds of shit. I'm getting a Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen kind of fusion feel on this one. You better make it a badass solo.

[bratfink]

Love the 'Death' feel to Dreams of the Etherium

[Newc]

Thanks guys

TZ - I actually put a filter on the latest remix of Dreams so there's almost a bell-like tone running underneath. Makes those split EMG 89 clean spikes sound like a water organ (the thing with the glasses of water, whatever it is)

As I said I'm still playing around with all of it, and am taking everything in all 3 of these back down to square 1.


Definitely keeping the drum tone on Road Ahead - I like the definition - I just need to bump the hi-hat up a tad so it can be heard more clearly, but I'm pretty much happy with the cymbals (right mix of splash and gong), kick is punchy but not too fluffy or too clicky (I HATE a clicky kick!), and the snare has the right amount of pop. I also need to redo the bass line so it has more note-separation and definition - it's too loose in the important places.

Anyhoo, the solos are going to be a different animal. I've not listened to much Howe or Kotzen. Tried suffering through Fever Dream - seemed slightly predictable and bland. Technically it was great but musically it was wanking for the sake of wanking.

I heard some stuff from Howe's first album back in the day, but can't recall it from the mish-mash of stuff I've heard since then - Satch, Vai, Impilliteri, Vinnie Moore, Great Kat, Batten, etc. After a while, scalar runs start to sound the same to me. Since I don't listen to any of that actively anymore, it makes it even harder to pick them out of a lineup.

Might see what I can glean from Lone Rhinocerous for this - Belew might have a melody-in-a-melody I can dig out



Dreams is pretty much written, at least the rhythm. The solo sounds repetitive to me the more I hear it, like I'm using the same cliche`s I don't like hearing from others. Might play around with the harmonies manually and leave the IPS 33 out of it. Granted I'm not technically adept enough to know what mode or scale I'm in, so I can't tell what mode will compliment it or harmonize with it, so I'll just trust my ears.

I want these to be "non-musician friendly" as well, so aside from the couple of opening passages in Sailing (hey, I wrote it under the heavy influence of listening to Surfing With The Alien about 15 years ago ) , I'm trying to consciously avoid mindless wankery. I do like the contrast of going from a hummable melody in the first part to kicking in the speedy pentatonics in the 2nd half, though.


Anyway, enough "Behind the Music" for now

[Trem]

sounds good man, i liked Dreams of Etherium best

[skintaster]

Those sound great!

[Newc]

Updated all 3, kinda.

These should be the final versions (I hope )

Sailing In The Sun:
http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/The...heSun-128k.mp3 - better solos (IMO), 2nd half rhythm is more defined, drums sound better.

The Road Ahead:
http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/The...ead-128k-2.mp3
Couldn't think of a solo that sounded good to me. Probably due to a lack of skill


Dreams Of Etherium:
http://newcenstein.com/mp3/Album/The...ium-128k-3.mp3
Nothing much changed here. Cut back on the aforementioned bell tones which were too mid-rangey and caused annoying ear tweaks.