I bought a MetalZone for cheap today. I wanted a cheap stompbox to use for rehearsals and stuff, and keep the HT-Blackfire pedal only for serious use, since it's a bitch to take care of, having the 12AX7 tube in it and all making it delicate as fuck.

I was afraid it would be a total waste of money since pretty much 9/10 demos of it on YouTube sound like fuck, but I was playing around with it today and got a good enough sound out of it. If Cannibal Corpse still swear by it, there must be something that most people are doing wrong when they EQ it. I think it sounds fine the way I adjusted it, though of course it can't hold a candle to the Blackfire. But hey, this cost $40 and in mint condition.

I really hope that I am able to score at least a little bit of new gear around Christmas time this year.

I wrote some drum parts last night. I'm working on two songs at once. One is a heavier and influenced by sludgy death metal and one is what I would call somewhat of blackened NWOBHM/thrash song.

Where do you see this Cannibal Corpse still swearing by it. They certainly don't record with it.

They both still use it in their live rigs, and I've read an interview with Pat where he states he's tried every distortion pedal he could get his hands on and still finds himself going back to his Keeley modded MT-2. Exact words "I'm always trying to outdo them but they win every time." For rehearsal and practicing purposes I think it's fine. I'm too lazy to use a tube pedal just for 1.5 hours of rehearsing, and the metalzone sounds better than the crappy heads they have in the rehearsal studio we always use. When I saw Sadistic Intent live they were using it too.

For comparism's sake, I'm certainly liking it a lot more than most of the Boss distortion pedals. I know the HM-2 is the swedish legendary tool, but for what I play it doesn't really have the tight bottom end I like for fast triplets and chugging.

weird I don't ever remember seeing them stomp on any boxes any time I've seen them.

In the last few "making of" videos that cannibal corpse has put out, Pat O'Brien's rig has consisted of his BC rich flying V and a mesa boogie head, that's it. Jack owen used a bunch of preamps and pedals and stuff, but Pat O'Brien is basically a guitar and amp guy. No clue about live rigs though.

Went and checked out some drum kits at guitar center today. I'm also loosely considering getting a weekend job there. Some extra cash would be nice, and I'd like to work with musical instruments. But I've been wanting drums for a while now, the issue is of course volume, with me living in an apartment. And of course purchasing a halfway decent kit, a double pedal, and enough decent microphones and stands would end up costing quite a bit. There's some really nice electronic kits that I messed around on. They're not perfect but it might be a good option for me. And they're sounding better every year. I dunno.

Why not make and sell guitars for extra money? You've clearly got the chops for it, and it seems more fulfilling and more profitable than being a sales monkey at a corporate chain.

Well, the custom guitar market is really hard to break into and actually make money from. And I do very much appreciate the compliment, but I don't feel my guitars are really sellable. Too many little mistakes, gaps, dings, etc. I just enjoy building them for myself every once in a while.

I think I'm going to re-arrange my studio tomorrow morning. Stack all the speakers on one wall and all the amp heads on another, instead of my current wall of half stacks. Basically make it more convenient for constantly switching amps while using the same speaker cabinet. And I'm going to try to slap together some form of cabinet for my old peavey vtm60 head, even just a board for the chassis to sit on. I should go through my old computer as well, I probably have a bunch of old music sitting on there. And I need to go for a run in the morning, but it's going to be cold. Fuck. I also really need to try to work on my next OSR album a bit and get some songwriting done, and polish up a few other tracks and release an old school death metal EP. And think of a name for a record label to release all my shit under, just to keep track of it.

call it "self-love' which is what I was told i should've called mine. also was told the Jared Moran Jackoff Sessions.

jammed with Dragunov today wrote and recorded 2 more songs.

did some demos for a friend to pick which tone he wants for this project we are doing. I didn't have anyway to get it home and forgot to get some cd-rs before I left and at that time it was time to get home to go to dinner.

Haha. I should call it long pig and see who gets it.

Next paycheck I'm going to pick up a few of your paintings for my studio and for some presents. Or maybe just tomorrow. We'll see.

I've been thinking a lot about how i released a grind EP under the OSR name and it's always bugged me. OSR is not a goregrind or deathgrind band, and I don't like that i released that album under that band name. So I'm going to delete it from the OSR catalog and remix it and re-release it under a newer, grindier name. It'll give me an outlet for the billion grind songs I have sitting on my computer if nothing else.

Long Pig sounds great!

Not doing much musics since it's my finals week, just rehearsals and general practicing to keep my chops up.

Just deleted the grind EP from my Only a Shadow Remains catalog. Now I just need to think of a name for a grind band, re-mix everything, and re-release it under a new name. And I have enough stuff for a couple more grind EPs after that. Maybe I'll think of a record label name today as well; then I can start lumping everything together under that name and build a webpage for it.

Decided to look at drums on craigslist. There's some really good deals there. I may end up picking up a set this weekend. I know it'll take forever until I'm able to drum for my faster stuff, but I'll be able to drum for my doom after a bit of practice.

Just bought a drum set and a double pedal, WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Congrats! Show us the beauties!

It's all dark in here and I don't have much for lighting. Tomorrow when the sun comes up I'll snap a pick. It's kinda crowded in here now, with the drumset and all my amps and guitars. And I just need to figure out a way to get my stupid hi hat pedal around my left kick pedal. Still working on arranging all that stuff.

That's cool infinitenexus! It shouldn't take too long to play blast beats if you keep practising and never give up. I remember "playing a blast beat" was also the reason I started playing drums.

Well I can already do some pretty decent double kicks, just because I practice the coordination with my hands and feet all the time. I can play bloodbath's "eaten", the double bass part of that, although my fills are a lot sloppier, hahaha. I think in a week or two I'll be able to play a halfway decent blast beat. I think I'll learn the drums quickly, it's just going to take a bit for me to get used to them. And to get them all arranged properly.

When I first started playing drums all I did was play blast beats. literally nothing else. after about 2-3 years in I had to learn how to play slow and groove. But before that it was all speed and blast beats. And yea post up your set!

also on a side note... with yo grind.. why not fold it into the project we are doing cause when we started talking about doing grind I kinda thought it was going to be more along those lines with the shorter blast driven songs.


Anyway yesterday recorded my track for the project with my friend in NC. It's pretty much along the lines of the Fall of Efrafa with a bit more blacken parts and the doom parts being nastier. And a tad less melodic. 22mins long. all the main instruments were played all the way through in a single take. I was honestly surprised I was able to do that with the drums. I did have one false start and then the 2nd attempt went through without a hitch. Goes to show you that knowing your own song well enough to play through it is key. ha.

I want to hear this song you speak of. Sounds awesome.

Yeah I guess I could just make it another breaking wheel EP/album. Might as well. Saves me the trouble of thinking of a new name, haha. Guess I should go ahead and put it out today and get it out of the way.

And yeah playing slow can be surprisingly difficult. I keep speeding up. Makes me respect doom drummers a bit more. Makes that click track super important, too. Also learned some basic heel/toe technique today and practiced it. It'll take a while to be able to do it decently, but at least I have something fun to practice.

After some googling, I found a way to mic a set with 1 mic that actually sounds surprisingly decent, considering. Basically use a condenser mic pretty close to your right knee, pointing at the snare. Using that I recorded some drums to a song I wrote, the tuned down to F# stuff that I still haven't decided what to call yet. It's kinda death, kinda sludgy doom, kinda this kinda that. Who knows. But after playing drums for 1 day, here's my first drum recording! I'm happy with it. Even got some double bass in there, almost in tempo! Haha. No vocals in this song yet. Still have to get around to doing that.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/728 ... 0drums.mp3

And here's a picture of my setup. Unfortunately I only have one cymbal, a typical "beginner" crash/ride. It sounds like shit. I just bought a used 10" splash with stand from ebay for $30, that should be here soon. It won't sound great, but it'll be an improvement, which is what counts.

You can also see my tiny mic stand sitting on a box. Hey, I didn't have a stand the appropriate size, so I had to improvise. And my tone of death red Ibanez hanging on the wall. And my 2X12 cab with speakers from the 1960s that I love so much. And my dirty carpet. No drum throne yet so I just use my computer chair. Hey, whatever works. Welcome to my studio, I guess.

Also I had decided on the name Saloth for my low tuning stuff, then I decided to use that name for my old school death metal. Now I'm switching it back to my low tuning stuff. So now I need an OSDM name. Or death/thrash to be more accurate, I guess. Fuck I hate thinking of band names.

It sucks because I already made an awesome 80s looking logo. Ah well.

You've got a sweet setup there infinite!

Thanks! Now after a few cymbals and some more mics, hopefully it'll sound good too.

I think it already sounds perfectly usable
The one mic setup is sounding good.

Yeah I was really surprised at how good one mic can sound. I'll continue using this and tweaking it for some of my music but when ever it comes time to drum for the next only a shadow remains album, I'll have to have the full run of mics to get a sound I'll be happy with.

Now I just need to practice lots and lots and lots.

That one-mic drum recording sounded perfectly viable for me. I dunno if I'd use it for ultra-clean melodeath or something, but that sounds like it'd work fine for OSDM, black metal, doom, dirty heavy metal, grind, sludge, etc.

I'm pretty happy with it except for the kick drum. I like a pretty solid thwack on my kicks. But hey, for one mic I can't complain!

Recorded drums on another Saloth song. I think I'm getting a bruise on top of my right foot from the kick pedal beater bouncing back and hitting the top of my foot. I should probably adjust my technique haha.

Oh I found another video with Barrett and O'Brien talking about their rigs, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amO9LZDfGO4

Learnt a couple of Machine Head songs for practice's sake and also because it's fun. My vocalist is producing a couple of bands' recordings right now so our work's been a little slow as of late.

Hmm. I don't remember him mentioning any pedals on the making of evisceration plague. It was just guitar->>amp. Either way, their guitar tone is better than mine, haha.

Finally got around to making my own little "label." musicforthedead.com. I'll pile all my music there, and maybe whenever I learn some more html, make a halfway decent looking website. Ohhh, now I get to label my albums stuff like "MFTD001" and "MFTD002", WOOOOOOOO. I guess Licrest will be number one, Yfel number two.

Yea that single mic recording was pretty damn good and yea spot on playing. Good job!

and thanks Wizard. I might post up a rough mix of what I have tmwr since I have to send one on to the vocalist so he can write and record his vocals to it.

Kinda fucking around with some Blackened Death Metal shit at the moment, not entirely sure how I feel about it, though.. some riffs just don't seem to switch off well with others. Fuck it, I'll throw down some vocals tomorrow and see how I feel then.

SLK - I might need your help with ipage later today when I get home from work. Mostly with uploading pics to ipage and then putting them on my page. I can't seem to find the URL to my uploaded pics, they're not where they're supposed to be.

Well I just played drums along to some old metallica and hypocrisy until I got a blister on my hand and my toe, so I feel like I've practiced sufficiently for the day. I can play metallica's "one" on drums now. And not even that sloppily! I just have to build up a lot more stamina and speed and practice sticking with the tempo. Also recorded the drums to another Saloth song. I should have an EP out by the end of year, and maybe even finally figure out the sound I want for that.

Congratulations! With two days of practice, you are now officially a better drummer than Lars, who cannot play "One".

I'm close to finishing the demo of my band. Only bass and vox left . I'll finally have some more time to play rather than record/mix all day. Also I'll be able to finally master something. I didn't do that in a long time, I'm sure it will be a bit of a change from mixing.

ahahahahah. I remember seeing some videos of them playing live and his kicks are super sloppy on the famous fast part. If it weren't for songs like "dyer's eve" I would say he's total shit.

After listening to my drums for a while, I'm pretty happy with the sound of everything from just one mic, except for the kick drum. I mean the toms are kinda bleh, but I use the kick so much, I want it to be so much "kick"ier. So I'm going to scour eBay for a good drum mic (I just missed one that went for $15) and do my one mic method + a kick drum mic. So I can get basically the same sound but with a better kick drum. If it sounds as good as I think it will, I'll redo all the drums on the Saloth songs I've recorded thus far, which is 4 or 5 or so, and release an EP.

So I think my 19 years or so of playing guitar and being a musician (I started playing guitar at age 13) has come in handy. Also, I tap drum beats constantly at work, and that also seems to have helped me learn drums. I finished this song today, and recorded the drums after having played drums for a total of 2 days (but more like 5 hours). Not to be egotistical or anything, but I'm pretty proud of this (although I have still yet to master a decent blast beat).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/728 ... rising.mp3

Lemme know if you need any help or tips. I've done a ton of reading on this, and while I'm no expert, I do know a decent amount.