Another WiP, my half of a previously posted track. A lot of the music was written today, so plenty of refinement required, but pretty happy with where it's going.
The pair of verses at the end were recorded last month to different skeletons, so they don't quite mesh and have some artifacts due to automated tempo modulation.
Above is the preceding track, which I posted previously.
I love the textures in these. I can't remember exactly how they sounded before, but I remember bits and pieces. I like the lyricism on plasticene era. I don't have a ton of reference for this genre, but it sort of reminded me of 21st Century Pop Song by Hymie's Basement (vocal delivery and lyricism... obviously your stuff is much more jazzy).
Thanks for the feedback, Halibut! I’m not familiar with Hymie’s Basement, but I’ll check ‘em out.
As part of the learning process, I’m making a very conscious effort to experiment with tempo/flow/rhyme-schemes to find a comfortable performative voice. So Plasticene Era (in particular) is a little bit erratic.
We've now got about 10 songs in various stages of progress, with plans for 16-20 (including interludes and whatnot). Pretty happy with how this one is developing and enjoyed playing some guitar on it.
@Halibut Excellent! Are those vocals sourced from some sort of Dune OST related sample pack?
Overall, you have a consistent grasp of aural space that helps your ideas feel coherent regardless of how you might explore conflicting textures.
My only real revisory suggestion is to cut the percussion in the outro and let the vocals lead the listener out.
Thanks for the kind words and the feedback!
The vocals are from a kontakt library called Vocalisa. Balkan-style singing with a lot of options for syllables and articulations. I lucked out and got it for like $20 when it was on sale. Though kontakt itself isn't cheap, even when it's on sale. The library and the way I used it doesn't really hold a candle to the real thing, which just sounds otherworldly to me, but I do like how the library sounds.
Totally agree about the outro. We recorded this d&d session and so I made this to fit under some edited dialog where the intro and outro work better in the context of what's happening. If I ever go back to do a proper standalone version of this song, those are going to be the focus.
Hi folks. I'm trying to force myself to have a greater presence here so I wanted to introduce myself.
For the past several years I've been working a sort of progressive pop-punk sort of project that I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to seeing real results with. Would anybody happen to have much experience working with VST's to DI guitars? I've been working on finding a tone I could be happy with but it's been very difficult.
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HalibutPassion FishSwimming in obscurity.Registered Userregular
Hi folks. I'm trying to force myself to have a greater presence here so I wanted to introduce myself.
For the past several years I've been working a sort of progressive pop-punk sort of project that I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to seeing real results with. Would anybody happen to have much experience working with VST's to DI guitars? I've been working on finding a tone I could be happy with but it's been very difficult.
Welcome! Sounds like some interesting stuff.
Unfortunately I've only dabbled in this area. I have a few free VSTs that emulate various amps, and one that emulates a cabinet (with a bunch of impulse response files to emulate some real-world cabs). However, I don't play the guitar, so I push software synths through them to add some (usually heavy) distortion.
This page has the one ones I've used. Effect chain is pretty straightforward. Take one of the amps/pre-amps and feed it into LeCab2. LeCab2 requires loading at least one IR (you may have to search the internet for some IR files.)
Again, I can't vouch for the authenticity or behavior from the perspective of a real guitar player. I got these primarily because they were free and they sound good for how I use them. I'm sure there are newer/better options if you don't mind spending some money.
Hi folks. I'm trying to force myself to have a greater presence here so I wanted to introduce myself.
For the past several years I've been working a sort of progressive pop-punk sort of project that I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to seeing real results with. Would anybody happen to have much experience working with VST's to DI guitars? I've been working on finding a tone I could be happy with but it's been very difficult.
Is there a specific problem you're running into or is it the bevy of choices making it hard to dial in anything? I used a lot of Positive Grid's Bias stuff early on in my journey; I found the amplifier emulations were good enough. But I ended up abandoning it because the plugins used too much resources on my machine, I kept getting delay issues when direct monitoring, and I was wasting a shitload of time on tones because of the paradox of choice.
Ultimately I ended up abandoning it all for a simple chain of Guitar -> Fender Champ -> SM57 -> Interface and never looked back. If I need modulations I'm typically doing them in the box. But I'm lucky enough I can play loud in my house.
Everyone is using modeling these days, and I feel like there are more than a few good lightweight emulations and cab sims, which I've been meaning to get some cab sims one of these days. But in my experience with DI in general, if I'm getting bad sounds, 80%/90% of the time it's because I need to work on playing the part better. (Which really annoys me.) The other 20% is usually having a good quality recording chain and gain staging correctly. For me, DI leaves little room for error, every artifact and mistake shows up.
Hi folks. I'm trying to force myself to have a greater presence here so I wanted to introduce myself.
For the past several years I've been working a sort of progressive pop-punk sort of project that I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to seeing real results with. Would anybody happen to have much experience working with VST's to DI guitars? I've been working on finding a tone I could be happy with but it's been very difficult.
Is there a specific problem you're running into or is it the bevy of choices making it hard to dial in anything? I used a lot of Positive Grid's Bias stuff early on in my journey; I found the amplifier emulations were good enough. But I ended up abandoning it because the plugins used too much resources on my machine, I kept getting delay issues when direct monitoring, and I was wasting a shitload of time on tones because of the paradox of choice.
Ultimately I ended up abandoning it all for a simple chain of Guitar -> Fender Champ -> SM57 -> Interface and never looked back. If I need modulations I'm typically doing them in the box. But I'm lucky enough I can play loud in my house.
Everyone is using modeling these days, and I feel like there are more than a few good lightweight emulations and cab sims, which I've been meaning to get some cab sims one of these days. But in my experience with DI in general, if I'm getting bad sounds, 80%/90% of the time it's because I need to work on playing the part better. (Which really annoys me.) The other 20% is usually having a good quality recording chain and gain staging correctly. For me, DI leaves little room for error, every artifact and mistake shows up.
It's definitely partially the massive amount of low cost options for sure. I have like six amp sim vst's not even counting all of the specific amps each of those vsts model. It's a lot to sort through. It's also just kinda hard for me to judge tone and I need to do a lot more comparing my tone to songs I'm emulating.
While on the topic of amp sims, I'm having trouble with the noise/buzz/hum of my amp sims (or pedals) when I push the gain up. I wonder if anyone has any "for dummies" advice on dealing with that. I have been trying to eq it out using either peaking or band stop filters, but I can't find a balance between preserving the tone and getting rid of the hum. Also noise gates. I think these are the right tools, I'm just not getting the results I want.
I have been using LePou and Ignite plugins mostly, but I just got the Tone King from Neural DSP for Black Friday sale. Sounds great btw.
I don't know where he got the scorpions, or how he got them into my mattress.
What's your signal chain going into the interface? Any noise floor coming in is going to get amplified a lot. If you can take steps to eliminate some of it there it could help. Otherwise, yeah it's a game of tradeoffs where you gain stage as careful as you can and use subtractive EQ, Filters, and or multi band comps to try and hit the worst of it. I record in a really noisy environment and have good results with gates as well, but I feel like they do change the dynamics of the sound no matter how surgical you try to get.
If it’s a Stratocaster the single coils may be noisy. Try slowly spinning in a circle and seeing if there’s a particular angle that hums less. Also if your pickups are reverse wound try the 2 and 4 positions, the noise may cancel out.
If it’s a Stratocaster the single coils may be noisy. Try slowly spinning in a circle and seeing if there’s a particular angle that hums less. Also if your pickups are reverse wound try the 2 and 4 positions, the noise may cancel out.
Definitely this yeah. I have to do the spin to win when I record in my house because certain angles are just wildly noisy.
I go straight from the guitar to the interface. Steinberg UR22C.
I use a strat, perhaps it's just something about the pickups.
How would a multiband compressor help? Would you compress and add gain to every part of the spectrum except the noisy/humming part?
In theory you could use a multi band compressor to tamp down only in the problem frequency range; this can be a different, gentler way to EQ where you're not having to carve huge chunks of problem noise out - it wouldn't get rid of it, but would quiet it down, sort of like what a de-esser does. Honestly though, strats with single coils are just noisy af, I guess you could call it part of the charm? Something with a humbucker would probably clean up a lot. There's also hum canceling boxes out there like these things, but I find they really kill guitar attack.
Looking back, it seems I've broken all the links of my WiPs on soundcloud. Whoops!
Anyways, still chuggin' along, jumping back and forth between revision and new stuff. This is a revision of "Contact!", which was (I think) previously posted as "The Dune Rap". You can follow the link to read the lyrics, which I just updated.
I'm considering taking a job writing the music for a solo VG maker. The money isn't great but I'm still considering. Some of his responses to my questions have made me nervous. I've asked if he had a prospective list of all the tracks he'd need and he seems confused. Perhaps I'm being unreasonable but it seems to me that by the time you're look for a composer you should have a good idea what you need. A list of levels and fanfares and bosses. Something like that.
Do you have a sense of the potential client’s experience?
Have they begun “pre-production” or some other planning stage in which to define such information?
I think you’re justified in seeking context for potential compositions, but the client may not be used to collaborating and not have a sense of “how other people do things”.
Do you have a sense of the potential client’s experience?
Have they begun “pre-production” or some other planning stage in which to define such information?
I think you’re justified in seeking context for potential compositions, but the client may not be used to collaborating and not have a sense of “how other people do things”.
I think they might just be very young. I just asked them if they had a timetable and they asked me "what's a timetable".
Posts
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
I love the textures in these. I can't remember exactly how they sounded before, but I remember bits and pieces. I like the lyricism on plasticene era. I don't have a ton of reference for this genre, but it sort of reminded me of 21st Century Pop Song by Hymie's Basement (vocal delivery and lyricism... obviously your stuff is much more jazzy).
As part of the learning process, I’m making a very conscious effort to experiment with tempo/flow/rhyme-schemes to find a comfortable performative voice. So Plasticene Era (in particular) is a little bit erratic.
We've now got about 10 songs in various stages of progress, with plans for 16-20 (including interludes and whatnot). Pretty happy with how this one is developing and enjoyed playing some guitar on it.
Been very slowly making progress on a big project. But in the meantime, something happened in a D&D game I'm playing in, so I made this.
Overall, you have a consistent grasp of aural space that helps your ideas feel coherent regardless of how you might explore conflicting textures.
My only real revisory suggestion is to cut the percussion in the outro and let the vocals lead the listener out.
Thanks for the kind words and the feedback!
The vocals are from a kontakt library called Vocalisa. Balkan-style singing with a lot of options for syllables and articulations. I lucked out and got it for like $20 when it was on sale. Though kontakt itself isn't cheap, even when it's on sale. The library and the way I used it doesn't really hold a candle to the real thing, which just sounds otherworldly to me, but I do like how the library sounds.
(The real thing, for people who haven't heard this kind of choir before.)
Totally agree about the outro. We recorded this d&d session and so I made this to fit under some edited dialog where the intro and outro work better in the context of what's happening. If I ever go back to do a proper standalone version of this song, those are going to be the focus.
For the past several years I've been working a sort of progressive pop-punk sort of project that I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to seeing real results with. Would anybody happen to have much experience working with VST's to DI guitars? I've been working on finding a tone I could be happy with but it's been very difficult.
Welcome! Sounds like some interesting stuff.
Unfortunately I've only dabbled in this area. I have a few free VSTs that emulate various amps, and one that emulates a cabinet (with a bunch of impulse response files to emulate some real-world cabs). However, I don't play the guitar, so I push software synths through them to add some (usually heavy) distortion.
This page has the one ones I've used. Effect chain is pretty straightforward. Take one of the amps/pre-amps and feed it into LeCab2. LeCab2 requires loading at least one IR (you may have to search the internet for some IR files.)
https://plugins4free.com/dev/258/
Again, I can't vouch for the authenticity or behavior from the perspective of a real guitar player. I got these primarily because they were free and they sound good for how I use them. I'm sure there are newer/better options if you don't mind spending some money.
Is there a specific problem you're running into or is it the bevy of choices making it hard to dial in anything? I used a lot of Positive Grid's Bias stuff early on in my journey; I found the amplifier emulations were good enough. But I ended up abandoning it because the plugins used too much resources on my machine, I kept getting delay issues when direct monitoring, and I was wasting a shitload of time on tones because of the paradox of choice.
Ultimately I ended up abandoning it all for a simple chain of Guitar -> Fender Champ -> SM57 -> Interface and never looked back. If I need modulations I'm typically doing them in the box. But I'm lucky enough I can play loud in my house.
Everyone is using modeling these days, and I feel like there are more than a few good lightweight emulations and cab sims, which I've been meaning to get some cab sims one of these days. But in my experience with DI in general, if I'm getting bad sounds, 80%/90% of the time it's because I need to work on playing the part better. (Which really annoys me.) The other 20% is usually having a good quality recording chain and gain staging correctly. For me, DI leaves little room for error, every artifact and mistake shows up.
I also have the POD!
It's definitely partially the massive amount of low cost options for sure. I have like six amp sim vst's not even counting all of the specific amps each of those vsts model. It's a lot to sort through. It's also just kinda hard for me to judge tone and I need to do a lot more comparing my tone to songs I'm emulating.
I have been using LePou and Ignite plugins mostly, but I just got the Tone King from Neural DSP for Black Friday sale. Sounds great btw.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
I use a strat, perhaps it's just something about the pickups.
How would a multiband compressor help? Would you compress and add gain to every part of the spectrum except the noisy/humming part?
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
Definitely this yeah. I have to do the spin to win when I record in my house because certain angles are just wildly noisy.
In theory you could use a multi band compressor to tamp down only in the problem frequency range; this can be a different, gentler way to EQ where you're not having to carve huge chunks of problem noise out - it wouldn't get rid of it, but would quiet it down, sort of like what a de-esser does. Honestly though, strats with single coils are just noisy af, I guess you could call it part of the charm? Something with a humbucker would probably clean up a lot. There's also hum canceling boxes out there like these things, but I find they really kill guitar attack.
Anyways, still chuggin' along, jumping back and forth between revision and new stuff. This is a revision of "Contact!", which was (I think) previously posted as "The Dune Rap". You can follow the link to read the lyrics, which I just updated.
Wish Bandcamp embedded.
https://metaghost.bandcamp.com/track/contact-2
https://metaghost.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-of-decaying-earth
Have they begun “pre-production” or some other planning stage in which to define such information?
I think you’re justified in seeking context for potential compositions, but the client may not be used to collaborating and not have a sense of “how other people do things”.
I think they might just be very young. I just asked them if they had a timetable and they asked me "what's a timetable".