I don't know why this is so funny this evening, but it is. You're on a roll with the ornery-avian anecdotes.

One of the guitar-y ones, complete with solo: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/extinguisher_5_31_test.mp3

All ampsim tracks for the moment. LeXtAc and Amp Designer AC30, and SVX for the bass. I've taken a liking to the Ampeg B15 model on there. They'll get remapped eventually. I'm reasonably settled on the arrangement. No synths yet, if there winds up being any at all. It wasn't written with synths in mind.

Drums are halfass programming for now. No effort made on dynamics. This sort of noise could use our very own chris_d behind the kit, methinks, if he's up for it.

More guitar-ness; this is more straightforward pop-rock, less noise rawk: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/allwillberevealed_5_31_test.mp3

I'm not saying it doesn't contain noise. The bridge guitar with the Geiger Counter is pretty narsty.

I've had a hell of a time figuring out what I used for the synth on this originally. Which is a damn shame 'cause there's synth throughout and I liked most of it. The original is on a broken hard drive I... Wonder if I'll ever fix. I suppose I can just use new-and-better sounds like on... Well, half the synthy stuff. Some were sort of integral to the songs.

Eventide for all the clean delay stuff. Tracked with it, too. I remember being surprised how easy it was to keep it tight. Still mapsims on this. I should really get around to reamping what needs to be reamped. I'll need to borrow a couple high-gainers though for some if it. If my options are Herbert and tricked-out Recto, well, that's not really so bad, is it?

Realguitars all up in this nao: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/allwillberevealed_6_27_test.mp3

Bass and drums are still some scratch-thing that I used for tracking. I don't take them seriously and you shouldn't either. Just a rough mix, as it doesn't have anything else on it and I'm not sure whether certain things suck or not.

The high gain stuff is all Diezel Herbert (channel 3) through an old Marshall cab with Weber Blue Dogs and Silver Bells. 57 and NTK, with an NT5 as a room mic.

Everything else is AC30, mostly with an RSM-4 and NTK on a Celestion Blue, again NT5 for the room. The somewhat gritty thing in the bridge has an OCD in front and the ribbon mic swapped out for a 57. The disgusting thing in the bridge has the Geiger Counter with the aforementioned mic configuration.

Said gritty thing has an odd delay from Soundtoys Echoboy on it with the delay hard-panned right. The melody guitar in both Geiger Counter and Diezel form has some plain old boring Logic Stereo Delay. It delays things; that is all that is necessary.

And as I mentioned prior, delays on the clean stuff are all Eventide Timefactor.

Sooooo... I re-cut all the bass. For the whole record.

I may add more songs! Though I'll probably have to re-string ze bass again for that depending on what. I know a large number of engineers and bassists swear by less-than-fresh strings on the bass, but I like brighter rocksounds/funksounds, methinks, and if I want it mellower, that's what the tone knob is for. (And yes, I clean my bass strings after bassing; they are filth-free. The loss of "new string sound" is, apparently, due in large part to tension on the strings, from what I've read.)

A rare moment of my using a pick; this song sounded better with one: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/LeftOnMission_basstest.mp3

Totally fucking rawtracks over the scratch track. Unmixed- faders for the bass tracks at 0dB; turned the scratch track down and the master fader way up to get some level out of the thing. Random take. Clean DI track + Sansamp Bass Driver. (blend on full, gain @ 3:00, treble and bass @ noon, presence up slightly @ 12:30.) Jazz Bass with EMGs, both pickups and tone full on. Clean DI is taken from the parallel out on the Sansmap.

I like that bass sound a fair bit. Of course, i also like it mixed out front like a lead vocal in that fashion.

Sometimes i feel like the bass might be my favorite part of a mix. But then i suppose that hearing the bass the way i want to presupposes a good sounding snare, which really i suppose, is actually the bit i tend to focus on the most.

Yeah, this sounds awesome, man. Hate to use the reference, but it quite reminds me of Joe Lally's tone. I also hear what Chris is saying about this not being a completely ridiculous volume level to use in an actual final mix rather than tone demonstration. I would take it down a few notches, but the "lead bass player" angle is actually kind of interesting with this piece. This is a pretty fucking rockin' tune, also!

Well, "mixed" is a relative term here. Still, my plans for this whole thing involve big loud bass guitar very high in the mix. (Well, almost the whole thing; one song has no bass at all and another has cello (I am going to dare this on a real cello as a friend has one at his studioplace; I don't think I've touched one in years and years, and I was a violist... Wish me luck. It's simple as can be for that part though) and piano for what passes for low end. Both of these are instrumentals.)

Snares are so very important. And my production ideas necessitate having a few different snares for different feels on different songs. The drums are the one thing I really don't have sorted for this yet. I really, really would prefer all the realdrum-sounding-stuff to be realdrums. Drummers, kits and rooms isn't even a problem, it's more I need to have something people who aren't me can make sense of, which means a bit more organized work. And, also, not leaving the thing to sit for months on end.

But yeah, loudbass is going to be loud. The songs and the busy bass playing ask for it. And Cam, speaking of Fugazi's bassist, a quick search ('cause I'm that sort of nerd) turned up his using a Stingray (which I used on the first iteration of all these), Jazz Bass (which I re-did them with) and Tech 21 Bass Driver (for the filthiness on the latter). Go figure.

Speaking of filthybass, HM-2 kicks in here... You'll know where: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Australopithicine_bass_HM2_.mp3

Same sort-of-not-really mixed deal. Real, raw random bass takes over Pod/SD2 scratch track. Level 12:00, Low 5:00, High 3:15 (a little above 3:00; I keep meticulous tracking notes), Gain 9:30.

EDIT: that's another one that could use lead bass, at least in part; see vocal demo-clip: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Australopithicine_vox_test.mp3

While I'm on the subject, it having come up with one of me musical co-conspirators, the next song on the record is the new version of Where Monsters Are In Dreams, which starts off with a distorted bass patch on my Alesis QS6 that I did inappropriate things to. Both versions use that patch.

At the end of the last one on one of the takes of Australopithicine, I snagged a good loooong bit of fuzzbass just hanging out there for a good however long and being awful. I intend on making some sort of glitchy horribly transition into Where Monsters..., which is and forever shall be an instrumental quasi-soundtracky thing. And that synth patch is not too dissimilar in toan, so if I'm feeling really adventurous, I may re-make that loop out of a real bass and the HM-2.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Wasteland_12_14_test.mp3

I've been fussing with the strings- three different sample libraries, layered; parts divided up into 1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and mixed accordingly- and the drums all day and I'm sort of sick of listening to it.

Guitars are just placeholders with Guitar Rig. I think the guitars on this should be really stripped down, mostly. Also, thinking of dumping the rocked-out bridge from the original. I don't think it fits.

Wasteland is coming together pretty shiny now, yeah.

Everything is coming along perhaps a slight bit shinier than it's been in past incarnations.

Sometimes shinier means a certain sort of ugly: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Extinguisher_rough_12_14.mp3

I should probably be done hating my ears for the day. More Guitar Rig foolery for the, well, guitars. Seeing as these are the actual takes, unless I decide to replay the solo- not that there's really a reason to; it's a bit sloppy but that works for this song, I don't think they sound bad. Probably usable if I wanted to, but I really do like micing stuff up for real. Having some really solid takes of bass helps everything along immensely; I'm really happy I re-did those. Changed a few parts in here, but nothing major except for the bridge.

I suppose I should record the vocals for this too. There are words.

There's probably no point in adding any sort of electronics to this at all. No room for them. It's too frantic. And some of the guitar textures are fucked up enough anyhow.

Man, these drums are fucking crazy realistic. Nice and dense arrangement, just like I like 'em.

There's timing errors in there, for one. It's all "played" by hand for the dynamics- the kick and snare aren't slamming the hardest possible hits for everything- save for a few random hits I dropped in, to do the flams, ghost notes, cymbal chokes, that sorta stuff. The kick and snare are mostly quantized, but not entirely. The cymbals and hats aren't at all. That and having a sample library where you can ride on the crash without having it sound fake is a plus . They're sort of half-mixed in that I've taken to bouncing everything down to individual audio tracks to treat them like real drums, and I only did that with one layer of kick and snare here- there's multiple samples layered to create the effect; there's a set of totally raw samples mixed in with something a little more "produced" sounding, and the raw ones get beat on with the exact same stuff I'd use on a live kit.

Guitars on the last one can come up- finished it off in headphones, which is a bad idea- and some of the toans need help. But whatevs; I have something to track vocals to, and having a rough mix of the real thing to present as a demo never ever hurts.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Imaginary_Girl_12_15_test.mp3

This one was done on the monitaurs this morning. (I tend to get my basic tones and all the annoying shit out of the way on headphones- I find them good for examining things and I have no burning desire to have, say a naked kick drum blasting in the room while I fiddle with the expander. ) Actually, listening back throug 'phones I am really pleased with this.

There's a string part I left muted, 'cause I'm a dumbass. Still need to add the vocals here, and with them vocoder, and perhaps this neat vocal pad half sample/half synth thing I found. We'll see.

Guitars are a stereo stem, so for the real mix I'll have to bring in all those goddamn tracks and buss the fuckers down so I can treat the picking and strumming bits separately. But I don't think, given the compromises, they sound bad. Four tracks per part of guitar- NTK bridge, NT5 12th fret, KSM27 room, DI. (Just in case. I hate the sound of DIed acoustics, but it's useful here on the one part where I'm playing all those harmonics.)

Still mixing away like a fool: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/SilenceIsTheLoudestSound_12_15_test.mp3

I have a better idea of what I'm going for overall drumsounds-wise at this point. And yes, I like loud snare drums.

More sexy Guitar Rig action... And realizing here I should probably retrack a bunch of the guitars on this one 'cause there are some truly prodigious amounts of single-coil hum, even on the clean parts. My dumbass fault for tracking in front of a computer monitor with a Pod for some sort of tone. It does seem to get lost in the mix though.

Guitar solo on this as far as I can tell is just a Pod, scratch track and I never took a DI. I played it well, I think, and might keep it.

Never decided if I should put synths on this outside of the drum machine in the chorus. Probably doesn't need them.

Tweaked this a little: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Extinguisher_rough_12_15.mp3

Really, just pushed the guitars up some and tweaked the EQ.

Minus the intro. I think the "real" drums on this could probably use some spicing up: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/AllWillBeRevealed_12_18_tes.mp3

Still need to get all the synths sorted out. I don't really like the guitar tones I reamped over the summer. Not the gain tones, at least- too metal sounding. Went with Orange and Marshall models here for something a little brasher and rockier sounding for the rhythms. AC30 cleans, of course. Fake SLO for the end lead bit; the JMP was too bright and thin sounding.

This one is proper sublime sounding, the pads in the background add a really cool atmosphere. This might sound funny, but this makes me think of portions of Mellon Collie, but if Corgan were super into 808s. I am excited to hear a fully fleshed version of this. Proper catchy rock, this is.

That actually doesn't sound funny to me at all- I've absorbed a lot of Pumpkins over the years. Probably a bigger influence than I realize, because it's not a conscious one. I tracked some vocals for Extinguisher the other day I still need to bring home to mix, and I realized listening back the main vocal line has a whole lot of Billy Corgan in it. A lot of my vocals, if I'm really rocking out the upper part of my range, do. It's the way he enunciates things and his dynamics.

And he did have his 808s phase; Adore is such a gloomy, dark record, and that's electro-Pumpkins- and my favorite record of theirs. Eye from the Lost Highway soundtrack is one of their best songs, and again, mostly synths.

'Cause, obviously, there is zero Pumpkins influence here, y'know: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Silence_NTK_vocal_test.mp3

Totally unconscious, too, which is the worst part.

Re: catchy rock, listening back to the tracks in order, it makes me realize they really are all just Sad Bastard Pop Songs. All of them. And the instrumental versions really aren't that dark at all; the vocals bring the unhappy to the table, and the vocals are kinda fucker'd. I was talking to one of my friends (who fronts a cool industrial band) about this stuff, and I really don't sing here like I do on the Garda stuff. It's like the above, or the low, quiet Cohen/Waits/Gira/etc. thing á la Wasteland, or the Androgynous Robot Choir, the three thousand tracks of very high femme voice behind everything. Or I'm yelling into a really filthy signal chain. And I layer 'em all up at times.

'Cause this doesn't sound at all like the above: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/wasteland_voxtest.mp3

Man, I always forget about Adore! I've never actually had heard the album besides Perfect and whichever the other single is. Though, I am very fond of Eye and have been since middle school and should have recalled that. That song has a really fantastically creepy vibe to it. Though, it may be because I am hearing specifically Mellon Collie similarities. Particularly, I was reminded of Thru The Eyes Of Ruby.

Okay, man. I haven't listened to this album since my first time going to Alaska and man, I am remembering why I loved it so much.

And clearly, no Pumpkins influence at all. I get ya on the unconscious thing, sometimes I will be listening to my vocals and my inflections/cadences are reminiscent of usually the most unintentional though believable things. My brain does some weird shit in these spur of the moment baked vocal sessions, trippy shit what will come out without any premeditation.