New Forum, new music

[Drew]

Ok, since having a new forum is something that's corresponding with me actually getting serious about taking all my quick little song sketch demos and turning them into proper songs and arrangements, what the fuck.

Disclaimer - this was all done with DI tracks over a couple days, and most of the guitar sounds here are still DI/VST - LePou Lecto, mainly, though the clean bits are Lextacy or whatever that Bogner model is, since the Recto model doesn't really have a clean sound. Most of the guitars (and, especially, bass) involved badly needed a fresh set of strings, and when it comes time to record this in earnest I'll be startinng from scratch and tracking against the - hopefully by then more fleshed out - drum sounds, which themselves are just a Superior 3 preset.

Long story short, I've put next to no work into the mix or percussion, the only "real" guitar sound is the lead which I at least figured I could reamp that before sharing, and mostly I'm just posting this because we have a new forum and someone has to break it in.

Does the arrangement hang together? That last note of the solo (first half is semi composed, second half is just a placeholder) needs to just decay in wide vibrato and feedback and rhere needs to be some sort of drum changeup there, but hey, work in progress.

The lead is a mix of my Strat, for the softer parts, and my Suhr Modern 6, for the louder ones.

https://drewpeterson7.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/melancholy-e-major-song-new-arrangement.mp3

[metalheadpunk]

Sounds great. Some of it reminds me of stuff off of Strange Beautiful Music, which is my favorite Satch album. I think the chorus melody could be developed a little further. As is it sounds like it is leaving space for vocals or something. Love the bridge. Drum parts feel a little "samey" to me throughout the whole thing, besides the bridge. Might try for a little more variation between parts.

[Drew]

Yeah, I mean, I've barely done a thing to the drums, most of it is still the same static riff I had down while I was tracking this. It desperately needs, well, a lot of things, but more dynamic drum programming is on the short list.

And yeah, I hear you - my biggest critique with this is the opening does have a feel a little like "Starry Night." Always hated the production on that album, incidentally.

[metalheadpunk]

It’s been a while since I listened to that album, never really listened with an ear towards the production.

[Drew]

I thought it sounded like a demo when I first heard it. Sure enough in interviews Satch said they ended up using a lot of his home studio tracks run through a Palmer for the final mix since his engineer finally broke him of the habit of printing effects to tape while demoing so they actually had good enough tracks to use. If you ignore the Palmer, at least.

[Leon]

I dig it! The bridge has a huge 90's alt vibe, super cool

[Drew]

I dig it! The bridge has a huge 90's alt vibe, super cool

It's a blatant Billy Corgan ripoff moment. I own my generation proudly.

[Leon]

It's a blatant Billy Corgan ripoff moment. I own my generation proudly.

Well, there's nothing worse than trying to hide your influences. Best to just lean into them, and have a good time with it

[beneharris]

The solo after that bridge sounds a lot like a Corgan solo too. Some of those legato runs sound like something out of some his weirder Pumpkins stuff, or Zwan. Super awesome.

[Drew]

The solo after that bridge sounds a lot like a Corgan solo too. Some of those legato runs sound like something out of some his weirder Pumpkins stuff, or Zwan. Super awesome.

Yeah, I fucking love that chaotic edge to his playing, and I felt like it absolutely fit there, so I just leaned into it. Not sure what the second half of trhe solo will eventually come out like, but I do want to end on a big, over the top bend with super wide vibrato that I just hang on until the guitar starts blowing up on me, which sounds about right.