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The Best of the HFC – Vol 4 is LIVE!


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1 hour ago, diablo175 said:

I was digging the tone you were working on your tune- nice growl-y tone. Perfectly suited to the bluesy swagger of your song. Channeled a lil' bit of Joe Perry? 

 

Oops. 😆

I wasn't really going deliberately for anything, although I can see what you mean about Joe Perry.

I just clicked around in Garage Band until I found a setting that seemed to let the notes sound clearly, then doubled it with a different setting that seemed to help balance it with the other settings for different parts.

The most fun I had with it was playing around with stereo, i.e., putting slightly different rhythms in the doubled guitars so that they would kinda echo each other (like in Heart's Barracuda). So y'all should listen to it at least once with headphones on.  There is one section that was a mistake, but apparently I was consistent with fumbling the part, because I redid the take a half-dozen times and could clean it up. (at 01:36)

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On 1/1/2021 at 11:23 PM, cmatthes said:

Good stuff in there, Mike!  Thanks, HFC for participating, and extra points for putting a shirtless Brooks on the cover!  ;)

Ya know, Kiz asked if I liked the new cover, I thought it was "the Victim", I completely forgot about that pic, haha

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8 minutes ago, Brooks said:

Ya know, Kiz asked if I liked the new cover, I thought it was "the Victim", I completely forgot about that pic, haha

Don't know why I didn't think of that!

image.png

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Took a few days but was able to give everything a listen. There is a wide range of styles represented and its not difficult to find something to like regardless of your musical preference. Interesting how some of the influences can be clearly heard while others may not be as obvious or a mix of many. Congrats to everyone who participated and Kiz for putting it together

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Really really good compilation. Like has been said before, all songs kick ass. I enjoyed each and every one.

Any chance the artists on the compilation could detail what they performed on each track, how it was recorded, what Hamers/gear was used and maybe a songfact or two?

I’d also like to know who had real recorded drums and who used samples... and if drum samples were used, which samples were they.

I’m dying to know the stories behind the tunes... EVERYONE should chime in.

Special thanks to Mike, he did a great thing with this compilation... it is seriously probably the best compilation any fan club has ever made. I am just so blown away by the level of talent here... seriously... there was ZERO dogs and even the members that aren’t confident about their playing should be proud and bold since they all ripped and shredded their guitars like pros!!!

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8 minutes ago, zenmindbeginner said:

Any chance the artists on the compilation could detail what they performed on each track, how it was recorded, what Hamers/gear was used and maybe a songfact or two?

I’d also like to know who had real recorded drums and who used samples... and if drum samples were used, which samples were they.

I’m dying to know the stories behind the tunes... EVERYONE should chime in.

I would encourage those who sent me their tunes to post here any details they would like to share.
I had wanted to include them in footnotes to the appropriate songs, but there isn't a mechanism for that (that I know of) in the playlist we use in WordPress.

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2 minutes ago, zenmindbeginner said:

Really really good compilation. Like has been said before, all songs kick ass. I enjoyed each and every one.

Any chance the artists on the compilation could detail what they performed on each track, how it was recorded, what Hamers/gear was used and maybe a songfact or two?

I’d also like to know who had real recorded drums and who used samples... and if drum samples were used, which samples were they.

I’m dying to know the stories behind the tunes... EVERYONE should chime in.

Special thanks to Mike, he did a great thing with this compilation... it is seriously probably the best compilation any fan club has ever made. I am just so blown away by the level of talent here... seriously... there was ZERO dogs and even the members that aren’t confident about their playing should be proud and bold since they all ripped and shredded their guitars like pros!!!

+1

Kiz has some of the details, or at least he asked for 'em.

Poppy Metal was done with the invaluable help of Gary, drummer from my prog rock project, using e-drums, the bassist- Forrest- was a former bassist in the old cover band and, of course, me doing all guitars. Mixed and mastered by Pete Cippa at Crash Lab Studios in Bellmore, NY.  I used 2 of my '89 Cali LE's: the BenCal striped one w/ a Gravelin BJB in the bridge for lead and the Calioactive w/ a Gravelin Mongoose for rhythm. All through my Fractal Axe FX3. I recorded mine and Forrest's parts on my iMac's Garage Band and sent the wav stems to Pete via Google Drive. Gary has Logic and sent his wav's to my G drive.

The story of it's creation is equally uninteresting - about 5 or so years ago, I decided to write a more accessible, pop-ish hard rock/hair metal tune, vaguely in the style of VH. It kicked around in my solo practice sessions until 2 months ago when I decided to do something with some other HFCers. It seemed timely given EVH's demise and VH inspired the attempt at pop-y hard rock. So, I dusted it off and voila!

 

 

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9 minutes ago, diablo175 said:

+1

Kiz has some of the details, or at least he asked for 'em.

Poppy Metal was done with the invaluable help of Gary, drummer from my prog rock project, using e-drums, the bassist- Forrest- was a former bassist in the old cover band and, of course, me doing all guitars. Mixed and mastered by Pete Cippa at Crash Lab Studios in Bellmore, NY.  I used 2 of my '89 Cali LE's: the BenCal striped one w/ a Gravelin BJB in the bridge for lead and the Calioactive w/ a Gravelin Mongoose for rhythm. All through my Fractal Axe FX3. I recorded mine and Forrest's parts on my iMac's Garage Band and sent the wav stems to Pete via Google Drive. Gary has Logic and sent his wav's to my G drive.

The story of it's creation is equally uninteresting - about 5 or so years ago, I decided to write a more accessible, pop-ish hard rock/hair metal tune, vaguely in the style of VH. It kicked around in my solo practice sessions until 2 months ago when I decided to do something with some other HFCers. It seemed timely given EVH's demise and VH inspired the attempt at pop-y hard rock. So, I dusted it off and voila!

 

 

See, it's good you shared this, because I can confirm I *definitely* got an EVH vibe on a few aspects of your song, particularly harmonic use.

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5 minutes ago, Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame said:

See, it's good you shared this, because I can confirm I *definitely* got an EVH vibe on a few aspects of your song, particularly harmonic use.

Can't say I was necessarily going for a full-on Eddie feel- yeah, I copped some EVH-inspired tricks (but I wouldn't amount to a pimple on the ass of even his guitar tech)-  it was more the pop-ish aspect of Ed's writing, the supposed accessibility of a short-format pop song.

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37 minutes ago, zenmindbeginner said:

Really really good compilation. Like has been said before, all songs kick ass. I enjoyed each and every one.

Any chance the artists on the compilation could detail what they performed on each track, how it was recorded, what Hamers/gear was used and maybe a songfact or two?

I’d also like to know who had real recorded drums and who used samples... and if drum samples were used, which samples were they.

I’m dying to know the stories behind the tunes... EVERYONE should chime in.

Special thanks to Mike, he did a great thing with this compilation... it is seriously probably the best compilation any fan club has ever made. I am just so blown away by the level of talent here... seriously... there was ZERO dogs and even the members that aren’t confident about their playing should be proud and bold since they all ripped and shredded their guitars like pros!!!

I came up with the main lick for the song several years ago.  It took me a few months to work it up into a complete A section. I caught my daughter humming it one day, and that told me it was a good hook, and also got her name on the song.

It languished for a while.  It took me a good year to come up with a good B section.

If I had kept working on it, I might have never finished it, but I finally got my home "studio" set up (a mac mini with Garage Band and an iRig2), and started recording it. I messed around with a few bass lines for the A section, but the B section was just pure serendipity/inspiration. I was first going to do the bass lick in pentatonic (root, 7th, 5th), but something made me try the 6th, and it was clearly perfect, so I kept it.

At that time, I heard another song that had held on a chord, and then shifted upward a minor third, and I really liked how it added energy, so that became the alternate B section.

I recorded it, and played it for some friends, and my son, in particularly started nodding his head and tapping along with the B section, so I knew I had a hit.

But it still wasn't done. No idea when it would have reached completion, but the HFC Vol IV announcement came out, and I decided to do it.

I needed to re-record to use the beater Centaura I had just picked up, and that was the only guitar I used.

2 days after the announcement, I was waiting for some online activity to start and pulled out my office guitar (Michael B's Tele-Dega) and started trying out the circle of fifths riff from one of my favorite Chinese rock songs.  I figured I could make it work for the C section of this.

Then I began structuring the song.

The drums are all Garage Band, mostly the Jesse AI on the Smash set. half time for the A section, then regular time for the B section.

I switch to Benny in half-time for the C section (still on the Smash set), and closed the C section with Rose doing double time on a Slow Jam set.

For guitar/bass settings, I used a beater 1990 red sparkle Centaura for all guitar parts, and the bass was a Jon Kammerer 5-string.

The A section was doubled with Surfin' in Stereo and Clean Studio Stack.

The B and C sections were both doubled using Brit & Clean and Burnin Tweed. But some different virtual knob twiddling resulted in different tones.

Finally, I really recommend people use headphones to listen to Noel's Boogie. The use of stereo for the guitar parts are likely overdone and amateurish, but it was really fun doing it, and I like the effect, even if I could have been more judicious in the application.

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My song "Systems in Place" was created by my Hamer Prototype II.

It was the beginning aspiration of this song so I thought it was the best choice to submit.

I had just bought it for my 50th birthday. was noodling and recording and made the simple opening rythym track and put a small change part in. It was my first guitar with a decent tremelo system so I wanted to play with the tremelo.

I recorded a jam solo over the rythym track using as much wild bending as I could. Parts of it I liked, parts of the solo sucked. So, why not make it a song. Added a bass track and drum track using Drums on Demand apple loops. And left it there for a few years.

Started listening again and thought I should put lyrics and was dealing with frustration at work because of stupid people in charge. You probably know how it is.  Things are working well, we should think of a better way. Nope we have our ways of doing things.  Can't change.

Systems in Place Then I thought about the mental state of avoiding what we need to do.

System in Place

We have systems of avoidance we use in our life
methods of madness to limit our strife
With pre-planned procedures of simplistic scope
limits our thinking and ways we can cope

We have systems in place
We have systems in place

you build up defenses like building up walls
You don't take the chances you won't take the fall
Don't peak out your window or  crack open your door
You won't reach your limit, Can't take anymore

We have systems in place
We have systems in place

Worked on the song off on on for years but never liked the drum track. Then logic came out with their new Drummer Tracks and I decided to try them out and decided I liked it. It felt like a Peart who beleieved in Off-time rythyms. 😉

All guitar tracks are my 1984 Hamer Prototype II.  The bass is my 83 Cruise bass. Drum is the logic drummer and vocals are me. Recorded and mixed in Logic Pro.  The guitar amps are all Amplitube 3 and 4. I did some mastering in Adobe audition using T-Racks 5 and Izotope software a few years ago when I decide to finnally put out an album and mastered or tried to master all my songs for the album.

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29 minutes ago, BubbaVO said:

I was thinking that goes without saying, but there’s always that one guy ...

This is a topic I deal with almost every day as an art educator. Critiquing is a valuable tool for instruction and learning; it can point out areas both of strength and weakness- or incongruity with established learning objectives or aesthetic 'norms'. It's those 'norms' that become a dodgy issue, given how art (of which, music is a major component) and people's sense of what is appealing is HIGHLY subjective. But critiquing should NOT be negative. I think we can all agree that constructive criticism can still point out shortcomings and make suggestions for improvement, provided they sidestep the quicksand of subjective interpretation or preferences. That's a tall MF order. Administered and received correctly, critiquing can be immensely helpful.

 

 

Edited by diablo175
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3 hours ago, zenmindbeginner said:

Really really good compilation. Like has been said before, all songs kick ass. I enjoyed each and every one.

Any chance the artists on the compilation could detail what they performed on each track, how it was recorded, what Hamers/gear was used and maybe a songfact or two?

I’d also like to know who had real recorded drums and who used samples... and if drum samples were used, which samples were they.

I’m dying to know the stories behind the tunes... EVERYONE should chime in.

Special thanks to Mike, he did a great thing with this compilation... it is seriously probably the best compilation any fan club has ever made. I am just so blown away by the level of talent here... seriously... there was ZERO dogs and even the members that aren’t confident about their playing should be proud and bold since they all ripped and shredded their guitars like pros!!!

I wrote and recorded my song (So the Story Goes) specifically for the project. As such I made sure that I used only my Hamer Cali with the J.O'C graphic. Recorded using NI's Guitar Rig Pro 5 through my M-Audio Profire 610 interface into Reaper.  I've recently re-floated my Floyd Rose after having it blocked with the Tremol-No for years so I knew there would be some whammy bar action. I wanted a deep groove with some sex appeal  and played a lot of diads and triads instead of full chords trying to capture a really early 80's rock sound and vibe. The main guitar part (left side) is a single continuous take as is the bass. Solo was improvised and a comp of two takes - I kept the lines strongly melodic but put a little speedy run in there to let you know I could, and used the whammy in a very traditional early 80's way as a nod to EVH.

Bass was my Fender P - also through GR5 Pro

Drums were going to be real but ended up being Superior Drummer 3.... but I'll talk about them later

Vocals all triple and quadruple tracked and slightly thickened with an Eventide plugin via micro-pitch detuning - only one vocal harmony part in the pre-chorus section to allow the guitars to dominate that section (3 guitar parts in that section where you first hear the wha and it gets super full...

Wha was my Dunlop Crybaby -- slightly modded with extra shielding to help with noise

Keyboards were all done on my Arturia mini-lab using various keyboards from the Arturia V collection and other soft synths. Used them more as sound effects and as pads to add some depth to the mix again keeping with an early 80's rock style.

Since I mixed this and released it here I've continued to tweak a few things -- removed one keyboard part on the instrumental verse sections before the second verse and after the solo before the 3rd verse., It stopped sounding good to me... basically at lower volumes that part (which is slightly detuned as a patch) doesn't sound right - it sounds better cranked, but the ear hears it differently at lower volume so I 86'd it on later revisions.

Drums: I really wanted to work with a real drummer for this as I am starting to feel more confident in my playing and production to allow myself to surface a bit in my music community after being AWOL for almost 30 years. In my past I was fortunate to work with world class drummers so my first call was to my friend Zoltan - probably the best technical drummer I ever played with (Jazz and Rock)  - a total straight edge dude who turned his back on the rock star calling in the 90's despite being heavily recruited by Canadian Rock royalty for years..... I was too late -- found out Zoltan had passed away suddenly 2 years ago from a heart attack at the age of 49/50. Huge shock. He was an amazing guy and a totally healthy straight living guy.... that was a gut punch. My second choice (If Zoltan wasn't to be available) was going to be is another drummer friend I used to play with who did play and tour for years with some A list Canadian recording acts.... I knew he had a studio and did regular session work -- but COVID had forced him to give up his studio this summer so he just wasn't available to take the gig and there was no time to book sessions anywhere...... So I went with plan C in the end -- Superior Drummer.

Song Theme: Boy meets girl - open question about life and timing and will they last - love perseveres.... a Universal theme slightly based on real life. Hopefully Universal enough - innocent in keeping with the early 80's rock theme of my adolescence.

I really wanted the guitar to shine here in keeping with the Hamer theme - so I hope I accomplished that. I still struggle with the Musician I used to be vs the one I am today --- but I love music and I am tickled to death to be able to record like this in my bedroom. It was you guys here at the HFC that inspired me to try to play again - and it was sharing stuff here that helped me overcome my fears of being judged as less than I used to be -- you guys were such a great audience and your encouragement really drove me forward to finding a creative outlet where I could call myself a musician again. I am eternally grateful for that kindness and was happy to contribute to the project - it was an honour and privilege to do so.

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My drums were done using samples in Logic (SoCal producer kit) via Roland V-Drums as triggers.  I played it, fixed what I needed to, and from there basically treated like you would any drums. 

The song is about a girl I fancied for years before finally cutting her off, getting older, and how I used to write songs about these things but not just yell them into the void on social media. 

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13 minutes ago, Dasein said:

I wrote and recorded my song (So the Story Goes) specifically for the project. As such I made sure that I used only my Hamer Cali with the J.O'C graphic. Recorded using NI's Guitar Rig Pro 5 through my M-Audio Profire 610 interface into Reaper.  I've recently re-floated my Floyd Rose after having it blocked with the Tremol-No for years so I knew there would be some whammy bar action. I wanted a deep groove with some sex appeal  and played a lot of diads and triads instead of full chords trying to capture a really early 80's rock sound and vibe. The main guitar part (left side) is a single continuous take as is the bass. Solo was improvised and a comp of two takes - I kept the lines strongly melodic but put a little speedy run in there to let you know I could, and used the whammy in a very traditional early 80's way as a nod to EVH.

Bass was my Fender P - also through GR5 Pro

Drums were going to be real but ended up being Superior Drummer 3.... but I'll talk about them later

Vocals all triple and quadruple tracked and slightly thickened with an Eventide plugin via micro-pitch detuning - only one vocal harmony part in the pre-chorus section to allow the guitars to dominate that section (3 guitar parts in that section where you first hear the wha and it gets super full...

Wha was my Dunlop Crybaby -- slightly modded with extra shielding to help with noise

Keyboards were all done on my Arturia mini-lab using various keyboards from the Arturia V collection and other soft synths. Used them more as sound effects and as pads to add some depth to the mix again keeping with an early 80's rock style.

Since I mixed this and released it here I've continued to tweak a few things -- removed one keyboard part on the instrumental verse sections before the second verse and after the solo before the 3rd verse., It stopped sounding good to me... basically at lower volumes that part (which is slightly detuned as a patch) doesn't sound right - it sounds better cranked, but the ear hears it differently at lower volume so I 86'd it on later revisions.

Drums: I really wanted to work with a real drummer for this as I am starting to feel more confident in my playing and production to allow myself to surface a bit in my music community after being AWOL for almost 30 years. In my past I was fortunate to work with world class drummers so my first call was to my friend Zoltan - probably the best technical drummer I ever played with (Jazz and Rock)  - a total straight edge dude who turned his back on the rock star calling in the 90's despite being heavily recruited by Canadian Rock royalty for years..... I was too late -- found out Zoltan had passed away suddenly 2 years ago from a heart attack at the age of 49/50. Huge shock. He was an amazing guy and a totally healthy straight living guy.... that was a gut punch. My second choice (If Zoltan wasn't to be available) was going to be is another drummer friend I used to play with who did play and tour for years with some A list Canadian recording acts.... I knew he had a studio and did regular session work -- but COVID had forced him to give up his studio this summer so he just wasn't available to take the gig and there was no time to book sessions anywhere...... So I went with plan C in the end -- Superior Drummer.

Song Theme: Boy meets girl - open question about life and timing and will they last - love perseveres.... a Universal theme slightly based on real life. Hopefully Universal enough - innocent in keeping with the early 80's rock theme of my adolescence.

I really wanted the guitar to shine here in keeping with the Hamer theme - so I hope I accomplished that. I still struggle with the Musician I used to be vs the one I am today --- but I love music and I am tickled to death to be able to record like this in my bedroom. It was you guys here at the HFC that inspired me to try to play again - and it was sharing stuff here that helped me overcome my fears of being judged as less than I used to be -- you guys were such a great audience and your encouragement really drove me forward to finding a creative outlet where I could call myself a musician again. I am eternally grateful for that kindness and was happy to contribute to the project - it was an honour and privilege to do so.

Yours was among several standouts in an all over solid collection IMO. The vocals, the arrangement, the melodies and the guitar tones were really strong! Just a real great tune. It prolly didn't hurt that you did on a Cali, too ;) 

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Hey guys! 

My tune is called "I don't know". Here's a breakdown:

I wrote it during the Covid lockdown for my wife. We were both really frustrated and saddened because we had to delay fertility treatment because the clinic was closed. 

Anyway, the recording: 

My friend played drums on his electronic kit, I took his midi tracks and used the samples from Native Instruments for the drums. Bass was another friend, he send me a DI signal and I manipulated it with Guitar Rig and some other effects. 

I played and recorded acoustic, electric, keys, sang and mixed it.

It took me a long time to mix, it was the first time I had tried mixing drums (even sampled ones). Also, I got new monitors at a certain point, so I went back and redid it. The monitors made a big difference for sure. 

Oh yeah! Almost forgot the Hamer content, all the electrics were done with one Hamer. A silver studio that I got from Toadroller. It's a mix of mic'ed amp sound and models from Guitar Rig. I tried to use different sounds for each electric track to thicken up the sound. 

I recorded it in Reaper with a mix of stock and waves plugins. I've since got some FabFilter and Slate stuff that I like better, I'm tempted to go back and do it again, but I might let it rest for a while since I've listened to it so often. Maybe go back in a couple of months.  

Edited by sonic1974
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Loser was written by a friend who moved next door when I was a freshman in high school. I'd been trying to learn guitar on a horrible piano store acoustic and he lent me a Silvertone amp-in case guitar.  We immediately formed a band and have been playing together off and on ever since.

The song was first played in public, at a school dance, in the mid 70's. 

Two years ago we decided to record some of the songs we wrote and played in bars through our teens and 20's.  Loser was the first.  Sadly, (for me anyway) it was the only one we completed tracking and got to the rough mix stage.  

We recorded at Sosonic Sound in Madison, WI.  The drums are a Ludwig acoustic set. I did the guitar tracks primarily with a 1981 Hamer Special, but added some "Christmas" with the drummer's RIC 660 12 string, my Gretsch 6120W and a Warmoth Strat.  The solo is all Hamer.

All guitar parts were played through my Victoria 5112 at maximum volume.

After listening to it a few times, I decided that the raw mix suited the song and its history.  I would like to clean up the ending and add a gong, though.

 

CQfyfJf6RUinhhLmB3kKDQ.jpg

zM0tr2Y4R4aFTgYxQ2o1Cg.jpg

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7 hours ago, diablo175 said:

This is a topic I deal with almost every day as an art educator. Critiquing is a valuable tool for instruction and learning; it can point out areas both of strength and weakness- or incongruity with established learning objectives or aesthetic 'norms'. It's those 'norms' that become a dodgy issue, given how art (of which, music is a major component) and people's sense of what is appealing is HIGHLY subjective. But critiquing should NOT be negative. I think we can all agree that constructive criticism can still point out shortcomings and make suggestions for improvement, provided they sidestep the quicksand of subjective interpretation or preferences. That's a tall MF order. Administered and received correctly, critiquing can be immensely helpful.

 

 

😂

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2 hours ago, BadgerDave said:

Loser was written by a friend who moved next door when I was a freshman in high school. I'd been trying to learn guitar on a horrible piano store acoustic and he lent me a Silvertone amp-in case guitar.  We immediately formed a band and have been playing together off and on ever since.

The song was first played in public, at a school dance, in the mid 70's. 

Two years ago we decided to record some of the songs we wrote and played in bars through our teens and 20's.  Loser was the first.  Sadly, (for me anyway) it was the only one we completed tracking and got to the rough mix stage.  

We recorded at Sosonic Sound in Madison, WI.  The drums are a Ludwig acoustic set. I did the guitar tracks primarily with a 1981 Hamer Special, but added some "Christmas" with the drummer's RIC 660 12 string, my Gretsch 6120W and a Warmoth Strat.  The solo is all Hamer.

All guitar parts were played through my Victoria 5112 at maximum volume.

After listening to it a few times, I decided that the raw mix suited the song and its history.  I would like to clean up the ending and add a gong, though.

 

CQfyfJf6RUinhhLmB3kKDQ.jpg

zM0tr2Y4R4aFTgYxQ2o1Cg.jpg

Kiz told me my song was the oldest recording, but one song was older.  I love it.  I've listened to it as many times as any song on the compilation.  We all hope something we had a hand in will forward our legacy after we're gone.  Like I said.  I love it.

Edited by The Shark
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6 hours ago, diablo175 said:

Yours was among several standouts in an all over solid collection IMO. The vocals, the arrangement, the melodies and the guitar tones were really strong! Just a real great tune. It prolly didn't hurt that you did on a Cali, too ;) 

Thank you so much for the kind words. Cali-brothers we are! I'm just very pleased to have been able to contribute and participate with you guys who have all been instrumental as an audience encouraging me to make music again. Very grateful.

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7 hours ago, Dasein said:

Thank you so much for the kind words. Cali-brothers we are! I'm just very pleased to have been able to contribute and participate with you guys who have all been instrumental as an audience encouraging me to make music again. Very grateful.

...we've been instrumental???

 

Haw! I got that one!

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Okay, y'all, time to put me some f'n knowledge in here, if you don't mind.

So many people have talked about "mastering in _____."  I didn't do any mastering. I don't know what that is. I guess I can grasp that "mastering" is fiddling with the EQ knobs and stuff to balance parts and make sure parts aren't muddy and stuff.

I did tweak the slider knobs for output on each of the parts, like deciding I wanted the drums louder, and on the doubled guitar parts, there were times one amp was "louder" than the other, so I messed with those sliders to often make the Left channel slightly quieter, because I don't know why, it just seemed right.

Is that "mastering"?  Is that extremely rudimentary mastering?

Mike, did you do some mastering on it for me?  I can't really hear any difference from the .mp3 I listen to from GarageBand's "Save to Disk" function.

Does the song suffer from lack of mastering? Does it make it clearly amateurish? 

 

Background: I know a sound engineer is important for getting the best out of a song. I still believe that the best engineered album I've ever heard is Brooks' "Generic Hustle" album, where every single part is crystal clear. Most of the professional albums I've heard aren't that good.

So to my untrained ear, my song is no worse in sound engineering than most of the old albums from the 70s I've listened to, and maybe better than many of the ones from the 60s.

Is this a stupid opinion?

 

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5 minutes ago, Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame said:

Mike, did you do some mastering on it for me?

I did nothing.  Wouldn't even know how.
Tracks which were submitted as WAV were converted to MP3 in iTunes (because the WordPress playlist doesn't recognize anything but MP3), but that's literally it.

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