Material (matériel?) from the archives is being removed from storage, dusted off, and a shiny new dress put on it, so I can take fourteen old things and call them "a record". This is a depository for random bits and pieces that bubble to the surface.

Some programming I was working on earlier. I'm thinking of playing up the film score aspect here with the strings and the cop show bass and guitars. Scratch guitar for now; the end result I think will have a bit more funk than the OG version: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Wasteland_programming_test.mp3

Filmscores is my jam. Interesting angle on this toon, from what the last one of it i heard was. Totally into it.

It's interesting, when I tracked the guitars I wound up going for more of a funk thing- I was thinking total '70s with a bit of Billie Jean in there, but the string part came out sounding more soundtrack-y, so I made some string patches and sorta rolled with a hybrid thing. I think I want to keep it less guitar-y.

There was a Garda live version for a while I may have a recording of on a busted-ass hard drive that took it in a completely different direction and kept up the Rock Action coming out of the bridge, á la Placebo's take on Running Up That Hill, but we decided against keeping it, so it reverted back to my possession.

Oh, and Chris, for what it's worth, there's a number of tracks that could actually use some, how did you put it, "sloppy noiserock drums" if you'd be up for it. Whatever you'd normally charge for recording, of course, and I'd gladly mail you a box o' mics if you wanted. I'll probably wind up doing the realdrums last of everything- totally backwards. But, y'know, throwin' it out there.

Totally down yo. At the very least, i am totally into putting something down for you to have the option to use it, or choose to do something else. You are aware at least in a general sense, of how i operate and what kind of sounds come out of my drums.

If you think it is something you might be able to use in some snaxosong, i would be down to swing it. And, worst case scenario, if you don't like how it winds up sounding, you can always just find a real drummer at some later point, you know?

Oh, and i don't charge anything for recording.

In a general sense, yes- which is totally the point. The usual two "real drummers" I work with have very different vibes to their playing- one is very restrained, kinda minimalist, the other is a metal guy- and there's some stuff here that really needs busy, kinda off kilter with a side of bombast, so...

Also, I figure, knowing yer drumming in the aforementioned general sense, I suspect you'd come up with something I'd never have thought to think of, which is always a plus. So yes, this should be done.

On a somewhat related note- percussive noises- I'm liking the Native Instruments drum sample stuff. I have it loaded up in Kontakt vs. using SD2 for the placeholder realdrum-sounding parts, and while it's not as tweakable as SD2- you're married to one set of cymbals and shells per kit, though you can swap out the snare- it does sound really nice, and it doesn't have that flavor we've all heard on everyone's internet demos.

Is that what the snare is on this one? It has a pleasantness to it that popped out at me the first time around, as being a bit different than what one normally gets in computerdrumsounds in various internetclippage, but i just assumed that it was just a matter of my unfamiliarity with SD2.

That it is. It's a fairly shallow steel snare, and though the manual is pretty useless at telling me which snares are available for what kit, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess based on the graphics it's a 12x5 Pearl Sensitone. There's something about the kicks and snares with these I like.

These are good sounds. I approve most highly.

Thanqs! The Native Instruments stuff isn't too shabby for bigger guitar-rock sounds either:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/All_Will_Be_Revealed_GTR_te.mp3

I still need to figure out the keyboards on that one. I have no idea what patches I used way back when save for the intro. But I digress. Ludwig Black Beauty snare there, I think. I like it. The programming is nothing interesting considering I want to replace it with real drums anyhow (save for the obvious drum machine parts), but I think the sounds are super solid.

And this, tuned up from C# and played with single coils takes on a bit different life; much more post-punk sounding:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Extinguisher_GTR_test.mp3

I think I remember Chris saying back forever ago it was kind of Gang Of Four-ish, and in standard E with even more jagged sounds that does come out a bit. This is also one, when I have the proper takes and arrangement sorted, I'd like to see if Chris would be willing to take a stab at drum-wise.

The guitar tones here are all DIs into modelers for now. Amp Designer/AC30 for cleans and LeCto and LeXTaC for filth. I'm using the Redwire impulses hosted in Space Designer. Uberkab/V30s for the faux-XTC and Recto cab for the faux-Rec, AC30 cab with Blues for the faux-30. All with Royer 121s at the edge of the cone two inches back. They do sound better than the stock cabs in Amp Designer, even when the AC30 cab is ostensibly the same thing.

Eventide for the delays (I tracked the majority of effects on input), the nasty guitar on Extinguisher is Pod XT running just the effect, everything else bypassed, essentially as a pedal. I found I'd saved the original patch. The tremolo on the clean guitar in the chorus I'd rigged up in Logic as I know I'm going to want to tamper with that with the real amp; one of the few I tracked dry even when I knew what I wanted effect-wise.

I wound up using a Bricasti impulse (Studio B Close; Dan [newholland] is fond of that as well) on the guitars as well as a bit of Decapitator and Waves LA3A. Why I'm doing this, I'm not entirely sure, seeing as it's all going to be reamped and whatnot anyhow. I suppose because I want to enjoy listening to it whilst working on keys and vocals and all the other random stuff?

Did I ever post the link to the Bricasti impulses? 'Cause those are nice, like, really really nice, if you like reverb.

Those guitar noises on Extinguisher are fucking amazing.

Honestly, the only reason I'd want to reamp them- the whole record in general- is to make them moar bigger/awesomer and uglier/dirtier with real amps and real rooms. Because I'm actually pretty pleased with the tones. I knew effect-wise what I was going for going in, which helps.

...and the right-side guitar patch is as follows:
Pod XT, everything bypassed except the Stomp and Gate sections
Effect- Synth FX Output 12:00 Ch Vol 3:00 Wave: 1 Filter: 63 Mix: 10 Gate: -50

...and that's that, just DIed into a Groove T00bs DI box, line in, and a Freeware fake-Bogner.

There's some bizarre reverb in Logic on the right-hand clean guitar. It's fairly demented. I think the chain is actually like spring reverb-tremolo-really weird 'verb.

The fake AC30 isn't too shabby at all either. It does the nasty trebly post-punk chord stab thing admirably.

This is sick as fuck, my dude.

I do feel the Gang of Four vibe on Extinguisher, sounds like it will be a really dope song when it's done.

Thanks Cam! That one has a shredly solo section and some more odd dissonant choppiness, if I can figure out what takes to use.

Speaking of not sure what takes to use: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/SilenceIsTheLoudestSound_te.mp3

I'll probably tamper with this at some point. The intro effect is just FilterFreak as a placeholder, and the solo's a scratch track. Still needs drum programming for the clean parts (which have obvious fakedrums) and whatever keyboards I decide belong there. This might be a bit overbearing on the bass as it was halfassedly mixed on headphones. Still all amp sims for now. This stuff so far is all single-coil guitars, too, every note of it. There's a lot more conventional hard rock stuff than if I'd written the songs recently, but I think still I can pull it off tone-wise for the riffy parts.

I like intro plurps.

You softened the swap to clean a bit eh? The older one had a really bright sort of splash into that section that i liked, i suppose that was just whatever reverb/delay you had in there? Is it also slightly slower than the old demo for the cleanybits?

I can totally hear the 60cycle trying to fight its way through the octave-downy sort of effect. It finally succeeds at the end, a noble triumph of the single coil.

I don't think the transition was a conscious choice on my part (especially seeing as it's totally not the real mix). I suppose I'll go back and reference it if I'm missing something cool. I did want a sudden, reasonably abrupt change in volume there though. Re: the tempo, it's just the half-time version of whatever I played it at; I think this is at 152 BPM. Whatever the original was, I'm not entirely sure.

The Strat, in particular, hums pretty bad. I actually have a gate on it in this one 'cause it's being used for dirty riffing. The Tele, achieving victory at the end, is far... less worse normally, but given the sheer amount of fuzz thrown at it, it succeeds in... humming.

I busted out the NTK earlier, and it holds its own with no EQ whatsoever, just compression and time-based things: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Silence_NTK_vocal_test.mp3 The NTK + whatever dynamics processing and the sound is pretty much already there.

Ayup that sounds right nicey just like that.

So I decided to elaborate on a piano part a little: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Imaginary_Girl_piano_test.mp3

There was always a piano in the last chorus out, but I was just hitting chords for texture. I decided to actually play something there, and this is what came out. I'm not sure whether I like it or not in context. I suppose it works, as the choruses are just acoustic guitar/bass/drums instrumentation-wise. Well, and a vocoder. It's the rest of the song that does the electronica thing (still with acoustic guitar throughout and live bass.)

Thankfully I recorded a MIDI track to trigger samples for the piano, so I can fix it if it sucks.

Acoustic guitar here is just a scratch track; a DI with a room reverb to make it a little less shitty, and is buried anyhow. The piano is just following the guitars- G, D, C7, B7- really, with a little melodic movement to make it interesting. And it doesn't clash with the bass, which is nice.

What I do like about it for sure is that the feel of everything with the piano in there could have come straight from glam-era Bowie. Which, I suppose given the lyrics in the chorus, is appropriate.

I definitely like the Bowie angle of the concept in theory. Some of my favorite ZIggy Stardust era stuff is that rompy piano/drums/bass biz. You'll need to pound the piano harder though for that. Bowies playing on that shit was moast unsubtle, even slamming the quiet parts. I suppose mine would be too if i was frequently needing to battle Mick Ronson's Les Paul though.

Also your piano is far too well-tuned.

I am curious to see how it pans out wif the rest of the toon though. It isn't so much of a direction change from the original, as it is coming in from a slightly different angle. I did kind of like the sparseness of the acoustic/drum/bass/vocal, but for sure, even as a foil for a lyric referencing sybaritic myopia. But 'the other way' could totally work, also. In fact, perhaps it also needs a string section and a single note Ronson-esque marshall riff.

Finally picking this back up; I finished tracking the bass for everything yesterday after re-learning a couple things in a different key. Anyhow, I figured I'd fool around with vocals, assuming there's be no one in the building on a Friday night. Until I set up and get things dialed in of course.

Not my usual vocal noise: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/wasteland_voxtest.mp3

NTK up close, NT5 about 15-20 feet away in a corner with the gain on the pre cranked. RNLA as an insert compressing compressedly. I sent the room mic to a plate 'verb; impulse from a Bricasti. The whisper track I smashed with L2. (L2 has to be good for something...) Lead vocal has a bit of Waves 1176 and API 550B EQ. +2 @ 20k, 1.5k, -2@ 240, +4 @ 100hz for this stuff 'cause, it's, well, a lot lower than I'd normally go.

I don't know quite what I was going for here or if it works. Needs rest of song.

Ooooh! I really like that approach to the vox.

And, i think it is not just because it is different(something i unfortunately but unsurprisingly always have to ask myself when i think i like something. ) but rather because it is righteous.

Yeah, that is rad.