Week #33 - Contentment

This is sort of a companion piece to last week - it's acutally more like a continuation as I could see elements of the two pieces being combined to form a complete piece. I definitely feel like one of the developments it needs is lyrical content. One of these days I've gotta pull my writer's cap out and get things working again.

Anyway, this nice, laid back, warm-and-fuzzy groove conjures images of lounging in bed on a cool autumn weekend completely comfortable and content. Or at least that was the idea...



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Description:

This week's piece is all about feeling nice and comfy and I never feel as comfortable as when I've got a nice groove in my head. Getting a nice beat and bassline going and then grooving out on the guitar is about as content as I get.

The other things this track is about is playing with new toys. Computer Music magazine's latest free software - Guitar Rig 3 LE and DrumCore 3 CM, are amazing considering they're free, and I just had to try out my new IK Multimedia plugins from the summer's best group mix. Some old favorites like Erratic 2, Zebra CM and Vintage Warmer helped round things out of course, but I was all about exploring the functions on the new beasties this week...

Tools:

Ableton Live 7
TAL-Bassline
u-he Zebra CM
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 LE
Submersible Music DrumCore 3 CM
de la Mancha Erratic 2
Studio Devil Virtual Bass Amp
PSP Audioware Vintage Warmer 2
BBE Sonic Maximizer
Voxengo Stereo Touch
KResearch KR-Delay CM
Wave Arts MasterVerb LE
IK Multimedia T-RackS Brickwall Limiter
IK Multimedia Linear Phase EQ
IK Multimedia Opto Compressor
IK Multimedia Vintage Tube Compressor Model 670
IK Multimedia Vintage Tube Program EQ 1A
IK Multimedia CSR Hall Reverb

Notes:

There are a lot of FX on this rather simple track, and admittedly not all of them work that well. I was just playing with them to see how they work and what types of tracks they work best on. Here are some of my first impressions:

- I really like the T=Racks compressors. The Opto Compressor is much more subtle than the Vintage Tube Model 670, but I think they'll both have thier uses. THe Brickwall Limiter is also good. It does what it sets out to do anyway, though I'm not sure my music is the type that really needs to be pushed to the limit so I may use it less. the limiter, along with the Linear Phase EQ will likely come in handy when I'm mastering finished projects.

- Speaking of EQ, I'm not sure about them. The Linear Phase EQ intermittently introduced a delay when used as an insert despite my CPU meter never going above 20%so that was kind of annoying. As for the Program EQ 1A, I'm just not sure I could hear it making much of a difference.

- The CSR Hall Reverb is nice. I used it on the lead guitar in conjunction with the Studio Devil Virtual Bass Amp and I was pretty happy with the tone. It's definitely very digital, but sometimes that's what you want. I still need to find a quality reverb puglin that sounds a bit mroe analog. The Wave Arts MasterVerb isn't bad, but being the LE edition I can only use one instance at a time so I usually put it on a send or over the master channel.

- Guitar Rig is a pretty nice plugin though I'm not sure it completely suits me. It's used here on the rhythm guitar. I also have versions of IK Multimedia's Amplitube and Ampeg SVX plugins, and while they have some usable tones, I'm just not sure they're my cup of tea either. The LE versions are limited of course, but I think I prefer the Studio Devil plugins, and I may look at their new Amp Modeler Pro. The Studio Devil approach is just so natural, and even though their plugins don't offer quite the range of the competition, they sound more like real amps to me. I use pretty simple tones anyway and don't crave anything too far out.

- DrumCore is a pretty cool little plugin. I'm not sure whether it's worth buying the full version or not, but it was definitely very easy to find usable beats and generate some variations. We'll have to see how much use this version gets. I wasn't that impressed with the sound sets that come with it, but as most of the loops have MIDI versions it was pretty simple to copy the patterns I like to a new track and use my own sounds either in Live's Impulse or Erratic as I did here which gave me the added ability to use the random probability settings to further vary an mangle the beat. I just wish there were MIDI files for the fills.

- The other new plugin I used this week was Voxengo's Stereo Touch. This was actually one of the first VST plugins I ever downloaded 5 years ago, but I'd stopped using it and never got the new version. I'm not sure what to make of it. It's definitely more subtle than its predecessor, though I could hear the difference it made. It's not as easy to use, but I suspect once I get to grips with it, it will offer even greater felxibility - or at least I hope so.

- Despite all of these effects, this isn't really mixed at all. There are no changes in the settings between sections, and though the IK plugins give it some power, and there's a decent amount of space, I didn't get the delays and reverbs sorted out so that things are kind of muddy in the midrange. The rhythm guitar especially isn't working right, and the lead guitar and synth still need work. Also the piano that doubles the rhytm guitar on the "chorus" isn't very good.

- It's also not much of an arrangement to speak of - just a couple of alternating riffs really. It would need something mroe to be a complete track, though as I said above I'm really thining of using these riffs in conjunction with parts of last week's piece to form a whole tune. (Look out for this to be something I include on my next full length album *wink* *wink*)

- I recorded a guitar solo over the "verse" section though I didn't include it here. Partly I wasn't 100% happy with any of the takes, and partly it just didn't make sense to have a solo come in when there aren't vocals yet. I'm also not sure about the lead guitar riff on the verse. I wanted something a little more melodic, but ended up with a moe rhythmic part so that will need to be revisited.

- I also have another candidate for the lead synth sound - it's a patch from Wusikstation CM, but I thought it made things even muddier so for now I've gone with this Rockit tone. It could use horn stabs too though I didn't have a chance to get to those.


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