Behind the original
Posted on February 8, 2010 with 0 comments
The latest song I just put up, called from Your Angel, is an exercise in frustration. I don't want to get into the meaning behind it, as the lyrics are very direct and obvious, however, the process of writing this took place over months. Let me explain.
This song started life in 2002. I still have the rough demo of it which is even longer than the 7 minutes and 23 seconds it is now. It did not have a bridge section that you hear after the second chorus in its demo stage. It only had one guitar track as opposed to two and it was much lighter of astyle, mainly because I didn't like my guitar sounds. And of course, I wasn't playing to a click, so the rhythm is off badly.
I took this song and thought of lyrics. The lyrics alone took a long time, as I don't fancy myself a real lyricist. I went through a few tens of drafts before settling on the ones you hear and even then, a few modifications were in order, adding a line shifting words, etc.
Christmas day, I began laying the tracks. It is the first project I used Toontrack's superior drummer 2.0 on, as I finally got JAWS hot spots that make the program usable by the blind. The drums have been modified several times, different snares, different toms, louder, softer, etc. But they sound really good and have a nice punch to them, although I still feel like the toms need a little something more.
I continued with the basic tracks, actually started with the first sound you hear, the clean guitar, which runs through the whole song. from there, I put down the rest, like the bass, distorted guitar drums piano in the first quiet verse, synth and then started to get creative. IN the original demo, the drums run through the second verse, but Iopted to use aloop as I figured it may make the song more modern sounding. I also used an arpeggiator pattern from my Motif in the second verse and onward. And because I love filling up songs, I put a huge bass synth sweeping sound in spots strategically.
Then came the worst part, my crappy singing. It took several takes just to get a lead and then I wanted to double it. I have to thank John Pine for soe suggestions on how to alter the melody to better suit my range, but for weeks I worked out vocals, cut and recut, then worked out harmonies. I still feel that there may be a spot or two that could be touched up, though, but I am not going to beat it to death as I want the emotion to be left intact.
The mix down went through about 15 different mixes before settling on what I have. At first, there was no harmonies on the word home that ends the chorus, but there was a delay, but I stripped that out and put harmonies there. At the end, I tried different effects on the vocals before settling on what I liked. Folks from a mailing list I am on called MidiMag were instrumental in helping me fix what I couldn't hear, as after a while I lost my objectivity.
And here it is. And that's just one song. Imagine doing awhole album? I shutter at the thought.
This song started life in 2002. I still have the rough demo of it which is even longer than the 7 minutes and 23 seconds it is now. It did not have a bridge section that you hear after the second chorus in its demo stage. It only had one guitar track as opposed to two and it was much lighter of astyle, mainly because I didn't like my guitar sounds. And of course, I wasn't playing to a click, so the rhythm is off badly.
I took this song and thought of lyrics. The lyrics alone took a long time, as I don't fancy myself a real lyricist. I went through a few tens of drafts before settling on the ones you hear and even then, a few modifications were in order, adding a line shifting words, etc.
Christmas day, I began laying the tracks. It is the first project I used Toontrack's superior drummer 2.0 on, as I finally got JAWS hot spots that make the program usable by the blind. The drums have been modified several times, different snares, different toms, louder, softer, etc. But they sound really good and have a nice punch to them, although I still feel like the toms need a little something more.
I continued with the basic tracks, actually started with the first sound you hear, the clean guitar, which runs through the whole song. from there, I put down the rest, like the bass, distorted guitar drums piano in the first quiet verse, synth and then started to get creative. IN the original demo, the drums run through the second verse, but Iopted to use aloop as I figured it may make the song more modern sounding. I also used an arpeggiator pattern from my Motif in the second verse and onward. And because I love filling up songs, I put a huge bass synth sweeping sound in spots strategically.
Then came the worst part, my crappy singing. It took several takes just to get a lead and then I wanted to double it. I have to thank John Pine for soe suggestions on how to alter the melody to better suit my range, but for weeks I worked out vocals, cut and recut, then worked out harmonies. I still feel that there may be a spot or two that could be touched up, though, but I am not going to beat it to death as I want the emotion to be left intact.
The mix down went through about 15 different mixes before settling on what I have. At first, there was no harmonies on the word home that ends the chorus, but there was a delay, but I stripped that out and put harmonies there. At the end, I tried different effects on the vocals before settling on what I liked. Folks from a mailing list I am on called MidiMag were instrumental in helping me fix what I couldn't hear, as after a while I lost my objectivity.
And here it is. And that's just one song. Imagine doing awhole album? I shutter at the thought.