by nuno75 » 29th Apr 08, 01:05
Sorry, guys. I had no idea that it might be in my best interest to check this area once in a while.
Well, where do I start?
Yes, everything is me, except for the actual playing of drums. One bass-track, five guitar tracks, three vocal tracks and a drum track.
The drums are done on a program called Fruity Loops, loaded with a massive set of custom samples that I kinda-sorta lifted from another drum program called Drumkit From Hell. I could have just used DFH but I would have had to get used to the interface, so I just recorded all of hundreds of drums sounds, trimmed them up nice and neat and organized them into Fruity Loops, which is really just an elaborate step editor.
I program the drums, one pattern at a time, and then organize the patterns into the full song. Then I split the song into individual drums and export them to my mixing program, Adobe Audition, where I pan them all where I want them and adjust the volume and apply a little EQ here and there. Then I lay down the two basic guitar tracks. You don't have to know how to physically play drums, but you do have to know how drums are played... if that makes any sense.
The way I usually handle guitar tracks is I lay down the "rhythm" guitar, which is really two guitars and are the main guitars you hear... meant to be the two guitarists in the imaginary band. I pan these hard left and right opposite each other, and most of the time they're doing exactly the same thing.
Once I've got those down, I do the bass... it's pretty cut and dry, nothing special there.
Then I go back to guitar and record, usually two of what I call "ambient" guitar tracks... meant to mostly fill in the gaps, broaden things up a bit. These are usually very, very subtle and almost subliminal. These are usually panned 50% left and right.
Then I do whatever little lead guitar pieces, I might need, which I don't often actually need. In this particular song, the only lead guitar part is during the intro.
Then it's on to vocals... the process of recording those is pretty much exactly what you'd expect.... just hours of belting out the same thing over and over again until it's just right.
I use a Digitech GNX1 guitar effects processor for both the guitar and the bass. I don't use mics at all when recording guitars/bass, because the pedal has an amp-emulator system that allows me to plug it right into my soundcard and still get a pretty much perfect sound. For recording and casual playing around the house, I don't even use an amp anymore,
My soundcard is a Soundblaster Audigy.
I appreciate your interest in my music. I've fallen into a bit of a slump with writing and recording lately, and it's my belief that the interest and enthusiasm other people show in your work is the main fuel behid your being able to work.
After some pretty intensive looking at the options, and some even moe intensive impulsiveness, I've just ordered myself the GNX4.