Pumping on the Limiter

[DwaneHollands]

Dwayne...instead of duplicating the guitar, do an overdub and then pan them hard left hard right...and don't use the phase !
Sometimes I use 4 overdubs at different pan widths (in choruses)

Oh yeah, I did do two separate takes. THe left channel is Amplitube2. The JCM800 was right. Only 2 takes. (pretty sloppy ones at that).

Thanks for the tips about the 4 overdubs with slightly different pan positions!

[NYMo]

Hi there,

Dwayne..then do 2 x JCM 800..pan left right ..then 2 x amplitube etc

Cheers

N
Y
M
O

[heathen]

Keepin it tight is where it's at with Nymo's technique, ya gotta be bang on or it will sound sloppy, when you get it really tight that's when things usually start blending nicely together without clashing on either side.

Have a listen to "American Pompeii" on Anthrax Stomp 442, I love the guitars in that they are killer.

[DwaneHollands]

Dwayne..then do 2 x JCM 800..pan left right ..then 2 x amplitube etc

Hi Nymo and Heathen,

OK, took your advice and did 4 tracks. I also backed the gain back a bit on the two most prominent. THe higher gain ones are a little lower. But they're all live guitars. No amplitube. Which is unusual for me.

Since we're still writing I had the vocalist do a few vocal takes to practise and to see whether her voice would work with the song. She did a harmony and I've got some delay's on certain parts.

I tried to get the guitars nice and clean, the bass to erupt after the initial transient and the kick and snare to work. (the kick is a the BFD2 8bit DX Kick which I swore I'd never use! But it was the closest to what I wanted. lol!)

The snare is way dryer too! Pretty much started over on the drums since I was getting no where before.

Just a small clip of the chorus now.
www.hollands.com.au/R21Studios/Audio/Epic2b_6.mp3

[DwaneHollands]

OK,

I spent some more time working on the chorus tonight. Changed the closed hats to open hats to try and get more life into the chorus. Added some rolls.

Adding some guitar riffs to make the chorus more interesting. Killed the harmonies. Mixed the kick higher and also added some overheads. (little bit of snare, little toms, tiny amount of kick).

Submixed the bass and the guitars together and tried the parrallel compression thing. Also took off more top end on the guitars as they were heaps sibilent.

All comments welcome! What drives you nuts about it! It all helps!

http://www.hollands.com.au/R21Studios/A ... c2b_14.mp3

Thanks guys.

[heathen]

Coming together quite nicely, a couple of things, sounds a little muffled in the bottom end, not bad though, snare could maybe be a touch brighter in the midrange. Bass could be a little fatter (maybe), riding the fader on bass could help to accentuate accents and the like.

Vocals need a little more riding on the fader as they jump out slightly in places and dip back a little also, compression may help but I'd ride that fader up and down before comping more.

1 Cymbal hit really jumps out.

Reverb is working much better, though still sounds a bit hollow to me, could just be the plug you're using. Even riding faders on reverb and other fx can have dramatic effect on soundstage and keeping a track interesting, especially with delays, bringing them in riding them up and dropping them out can all make for a really interesting mix. Though being subtle is the key. Backing voc can come up a bit in places, more fader riding.

I reckon it's sounding pretty good, balance is'nt too bad, it's getting more to the tweaking stage now.

Cool track I don't mind it actually, good work so far.

[heathen]

Also actually the girl singing has quite a sweet voice, would really like to hear some more of her breath in there, if possible maybe get her to do an extra track or 2 with accentuated breaths (from her singing) then you can blend/drop them in/out with the original, comp heavey and eq so they blend and accentuate the main vox. May or may not work. Will probably work better with a stereo chorus effect than verb.

[DwaneHollands]

Even riding faders on reverb and other fx can have dramatic effect on soundstage and keeping a track interesting, especially with delays, bringing them in riding them up and dropping them out can all make for a really interesting mix. Though being subtle is the key. Backing voc can come up a bit in places, more fader riding.

That's very interesting, I'll have to really think out what I'd like to do in that arena. Lots of experimenting no doubt!

I told the singer that you thought her voice was sweet. She didn't take it as a compliment. lol. She doesn't think she has a sweet voice. I told her she definetely doesn't have a harsh or throaty or manly voice and surely sits right in the sweet side of the threshold. ha ha. Sigh...anyways...

...and she doesn't like the idea of a breathy performance. We've got to re-record those vocals. Main focus is on a larger hip-hop performance in a month or so. Meant to have finished working on that song last week. But I want to change the verse guitars. Pretty boring at the moment and a bit harsh. Might use Amplitube 2 for them and put a little bit of interesing high register lead licks in there. It's not very layered or progressive at the moment in the verses.

I did manage to get another track almost finished tonight that I started today with no inspiration. Found a 'midi groove' in the BFD2 library. I've never created a 'boom boom' hip hop track before so I was completely uninspired. The groove started something though. THen I grabbed the kick part of the midi and swapped it to this Orca Synth Instrument that I got free with BFD2.

I'm honestly not a synth guy, so I mucked around with that orca thing which is pretty cool fun! Added the usual guitars and lead. Solo is not a keeper and needs some serious comp and eq as it's right in your ear.

But I was happy at being able to create a 'phat-ish' beat from scratch. Pork Pie Kick and layers of that Orca gives a fairly good thrust.

http://www.hollands.com.au/R21Studios/Audio/HipHop2.mp3