Mmm, Christmas cookies are going to make you say this a couple more times next week.

One thing I've come to fucking love about amp sims: once you nail your takes, if you decide that your tone needs adjusting it's so easy to then go in and tweak knobs and stuff without having to re-record actual guitar tracks. I was working on the mix for a Gloaming song and was honestly pretty disappointed in how flimsy the tone sounded compared to the old stuff, so a while later and I had fattened it wayyy up without having to pick up my guitar.

Usually when you use real amps you go through that testing out before even recording and still the tone can be adjusted a bit with eq. So there wouldn't be any need for re-recording as well.

went and wrote today a bit. had to run do other stuff so I didn't stay around for long.

Hey man I tend to agree for the most part, except you can get awesome results with real amps by recording DI's then re amping from your interface output into the amp input with something like this:

http://www.radialeng.com/prormp.php

Best of both worlds

I've been writing some atmospheric black metal as well as trying to find time to record vocals for some funeral doom

Blacksoul Seraphim's "Christmas carol" tune, a rewrite of the classic Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", is 100% done and will be available within the next couple of days.

Oh sure, but then you gotta buy one of them thingies.

It's one thing to test out tone before recording, obviously, but another when you're quad-tracking guitars using multiple amp sims and the tone just doesn't add up the way you wanted it to. EQ can only do so much when really what you should've been doing is messing with the amp EQ, pedal settings, gain, mic placement, cab options, etc.

Same thing like I said before cause I quad track with multiple amp set ups and blend the tones now.

While you guitar peoples are on the subject of recording methods, have you even used a DI that hooks up directly into the amp? We had one at a venue recently and my guitarist loved it. He uses a big-ass pedal board and tube amp (or maybe I mean combo amp, it's where you don't have a separate head and cabinet), and basically you just disconnect the last plug going to the speaker and run that into the box. Apparently it's specialized and not just a standard DI but I have no idea what the difference is.

I'm probably not describing it very well, but it sounded pretty good on stage and he's thinking of buying one for recording so we can bypass micing. You guys ever seen one of these?

none of my amps have that. That's newer shit. And I'm not a fan of it when it is used because your tone isn't just your amp and your guitar, it's them and the cab you use. many guitarists fall prey to that where they will spend tons on a guitar and a head and then buy a cheap pile of shit for a cab.. that pile of shit will make everything sound like shit.

Honestly I know next to jack about guitars. Whatever the heck my guitarist is doing with his combo amp and pedal board, it sounds good to me. This was a neat little gadget though, the sound guy asked if he wanted to try out a new piece of gear, they tinkered in his amp for a minute and then as far as I could tell it sounded just as good as if they had mic'd it.

Is having a big cabinet more important when trying to get a thick, heavy sound like you'd want in rock or metal, or is that a misconception?

It def helps. But it relates directly to how that cab is constructed and what speakers you are loading into it. there are plenty of oversized piles of garbage cause they are made of the cheapest shit and done the fastest way possible. Also there are some decently put together cabs and then loaded with utter shit.. It's a combo of the two that makes a solid great cab.

and from the sounds of things I'm betting your guitarist gets more of his tone from the pedals and uses the combo basically as a pedal platform. Nothing wrong with that. And nothing wrong with DI. But I'm just plainly saying there is more to creating a tone than even most guitarists know cause they just are ignorant to it.

An important part of any guitar tone comes from the speaker cabinets and the mic that picks them up. This is true in both recording and live settings. My guess would be that they were taking the output from his amp and running into a cabinet impulse loader, either as a VST on a computer somewhere through a DI box, or through some standalone device that does the same thing.

An impulse is a sound file, usually a .wav. How it works is that some enterprising person sends a perfectly clean sine wave from as neutral a source as possible into a cab, then mics the cab and records this sound. Then, digitally, you remove that exact sine wave tone you sent in, and what you're left with is just the "color" from the combination of the cab and the mic. You can get free VST impulse loaders and speaker + mic combinations for a ludicrous amount of gear if you go snooping. The impulse loader then applies this coloration to whatever signal you feed it, i.e. from an amp sim or from an actual signal from an amp with a ton of pedals in front of it or whatever.

Do some recording this past weekend and got another song nailed down. Already heard the rough mix of it and its sounding great!

Only one song left to record for the Dalla Nebbia album, and it'll be a fun one

Interesting, thanks for the info dudes. I bet it was run through a VST on a computer somewhere, they have one of those newfangled systems where the sound guy can control the board via a tablet from anywhere in the venue. Pretty cool stuff actually, it was nice to get a proper sound check with the sound guy being able to wander around to different parts of the room and then setting monitor levels with us right on stage.

Just finished some drums for another member here. I haven't played funeral doom before, so it was interesting to try that.

Also rewriting some drums for those 4 year old songs I mentioned. Adding blast beats and double kick beats where they fit (the original drumming was more prog rocky with minimal extreme metal beats).

just got a multitrack. just getting used to it recorded this little track.
I want to try out depressive blackenedeath.
this is kind of how it will sound.but with death metal style riffing to black metal riffs.
recorded it straight from a speaker.dont know how to upload the track to the computer yet

check it out
http://youtu.be/59N1hr7klHE

I have worked with a lot of programmed drums in the past.just got an electric kit its another trip recording drums.and other instruments
any tips on working in a one man project.what instrument to record first etc.

have a scratch track, record drums first always.

that thing you posted was pretty much all vocals. can't hear much anything else it's all so far in the background


yesterday recorded drums to a Hell Coven song, worked on drums for something else

did vocals for that KP ep and then did vocals for this other death metal ep.

spent today playing diablo 3 cause fuck it I need a break from doing anything. beat diablo 3 and now I want the expansion and to play more :/

Just wrapped up most of the pre-release details for the album. Just waiting on the artwork so I can settle the sleeve/booklet and then email HPGD Productions that we're done. Can't wait to let everyone hear it, this will be the greatest Oshiego release ever. No sappy acoustic intros or clean vocals, just teeth-smashing death metal that will shit down your neck.

I've also been saving up for a new guitar, which is the best thing ever to do. Been considering between a Japanese Fender or a cheaper S series Ibanez with which to mod. I have no guitars in E standard at all which makes it troublesome sometimes (all Oshiego stuff is in Drop C).

Apparently the recent interview we did has gotten us over 40+ page likes on FB in less than a week. Guess a bunch of people do read that webzine.

I'll try to knock it out today.

I am mostly engaging in promotion now, and by that I mean occasionally e-mailing blogs but mostly playing video games and marathoning different series on Netflix.

But I am brainstorming a couple of new music projects. Some Batsheva stuff, some not. That being said, I have a tendency to start a lot of projects, musical or not, and never finish them, so I'm trying to mainline Batsheva and not lose sight of it. So, when I get time, I'll probably get back to writing/recording as usual.

OH, also, been busy looking for bands interested in splits. No luck yet. There was one band who expressed interest, but I think they wanted to get back to me in February, as they're working on their record right now. So, still looking for other bands.

if you are recording guitar tracks.do you have to do the whole song in one take.and if you don't how do you do it so it wont sound like it cut off and went into another recording..

https://soundcloud.com/darkrealmzero/massacre-the-weak

you can tell that I did that here.

im looking for someone to do death metal vocals for this track.
someone whos down with some deathrash.interested?

I can write lyrics.or you can. based on the song title massacre the weak semi satanic semi gore

It's better to do it in one take than splicing shit together. It'll always sound better if you do.

Like a great number of us have said... if you can't play your song all the way through without mistakes then you shouldn't record it yet. Practice it till you can and then record it.

cool man thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dhGuLnt-0Y

Ok after watching this video it's settled. No need to fork out cash for a new guitar after all. A Schecter Diamond Series 006 Deluxe (which I recorded Great Architect with) with a Bareknuckle Aftermath in the bridge is my current 2nd guitar. Buying this Gravity Storm for the neck position will give me enough noodling joy for months!!

EDIT: I like the idea of having a ceramic pickup in the neck and an Alnico 5 pickup in the bridge (this Steve Vai Gravity Storm set) when it is usually the opposite. I suppose it warms up the harsh/bright bridge tone and adds definition to the warm/bassy neck tone.

Finished recording the drums for those last three riff salad songs and will record the guitars soon. Planning on sending it to labels but not sure which labels would be interested in tech-death/mathrock stuff (do you guys know?) ugExplode was one of the labels I had in mind, but apparently it died in 2013. The release will have 5 songs at 29 minutes.

Just release it yourself. It's not difficult to do in the least.

@Clogged check that label

Released an album at midnight!

that's cool.

yesterday I recorded 3 Yzordderrex songs. finished mixing my black metal stuff to acceptable levels for my taste and started composing a few new things.

Recorded a black/crust thing with just a hint of doom? Fuck, not sure exactly what it is. Not entirely done -- need to do bass & vocals -- but sounds pretty neat.

(And so begins my descent into a billion side-projects.....)

welcome to quite a few of us like that.

to me it makes perfect sense to do a new project instead of shoveling everything you write into one project making it not stronger in diverse... but making your single project scattered with no strong identity

i'm up to nothing as a musician.. super depressed about my band, or lack thereof.
Finding the right people who really have the motivation necessary for a semi active band is pretty hard in these parts it seems. All of the projects I'm involved with always seem to fail and disband haha.
Ive tried NOT to push too much with my latest venture but that also seems to fail. Any tips?

It's also been a while since I recorded for other people. I guess it doesn't help to have the reputation of being a little unstable haha.
anyone want to come to Amsterdam and record a metal or punk or whatever thingy?

Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. An old friend of mine had a project once where he ran the gamut of probably every genre, and, while the songs themselves were good, listening to an album just seemed like listening to some dude's random ass playlist.



Ha. Well, if you ever want to do an online collab, I'd be down for trying. Could be fun.

I'm kinda used to most bands now disbanding rather quickly since 2010 for me. also there is a lack of people about that can actually play.

did jam with 2 friends today and turned out pretty fantastic and we recorded a demo of the song we wrote so we(they) won't forget it. probably going to jam again this week.

ugh.. just heard our screaming guy quit deathlord

Just got a request on Soundcloud to record vocals for a track to feature on a metal comedy webseries. I really don't know what to make of that. The message looks professional, but the guy's profile is bone dry of info or even a proper profile picture, so I'm not really hyped about it.

Then don't bother.

worked on mix on new yzordderrex yest and today. also recorded a new yzordderrex song today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDZ5Zozejh4

^ This is a lame riff but I warm up to this a lot and as a joke, because of this video, I always ask guys if they can play it. A surprising amount of wannabe shredders can't, to my ever present chagrin.

All of the drum tracking is completed for the new Dalla Nebbia album! Once all the rough mixes are put together I'll go back and listen and see if there is anything that needs fixing (much different listening to everything together compared to a scratch/click track). Pretty stoked to be done with it! Cannot wait to get it out to the public, really proud of everything we've done on it.

Managed to release the debut EP for my "band" Hellripper today finally. Link is in my sig, check it out if you're a fan of bands like Venom and Celtic Frost!