Original Music I Wrote, Played Everything On And Produced Solo In The Studio - Give It A Listen Here
After recording a song that had a pretty heavy feel to it, I took a short break and returned to record something a bit more pop.
If you missed the last song I posted you can hear it here.
One Finger Keyboard Playing
On this instrumental track, I did everything except play the drums. It's a drum machine, but I did program it. I spent about a week trying to make the drums sound more human.
I'm not much of a piano player, but I can pluck out a melody with one or two fingers just fine. The keyboard I used only had 22 keys on it which for all that was needed for this song.
I used Cubase 5 to record and mix it on and a program called Guitar Rig to plug a Fender Strat into. Guitar Rig can make your guitar sound like anything you want. It's really cool. Even the bass on this track is my guitar made to sound like a bass guitar.
I did all the basic tracks before playing the guitar melody. If anybody wants to write some lyrics go for it.
Let me know what you think. You can be honest. I can take it. I not one of those sensitive songwriters.
Should we call for the stage hook or would you like to hear more?
The hats and snare sound pretty real. Are there actual drum samples you're working with?
Yes, all the drum samples are actual drums.
The hardest part of using drum machines to me is getting them to sound real. I vary the dynamics (volume) and timing by fractions of a second to try to capture the nuances of a real human being playing drums. It's very time-consuming, but the results are worth it.
I worked on the drums for about a week to get it right, the rest of the song was recorded and mixed in about one more week.
Sounds like the same process when we are editing live drums, lol. My last time in the studio we also triggered all the drums and layered the trigger sounds with the live sounds. Turned out great.
Anyway, I just want to say good work. Even to my drummer ear, I had a hard time telling if it was a real kit or not. I usually can tell right away. Especially if the drums are over-played. So well done.
That's a real compliment coming from a drummer. Thanks. It is a lot of work to mix drums, real or machine. I struggled with it. To get the dynamics right especially. Felt like I was a programmer dialed into the zone.
I like it a lot! The drums sound amazing as well, the only thing for me is during the chorus bits I would have turned down the keyboard volume a touch but hey that's just me cos when I hear distorted guitar I like that to have the edge over the other instruments!!
Hey, I'm glad you liked it. I'm a big fan of guitars too. Thanks for listening and your input.
Always a pleasure man and thank you for an awesome track!