Full Of Light

Pretty basic drum track, but I played ALL of the drums on my keyboard....

SG on Rhythm
Ibanez on Lead




are you full of light
just running in the night?
are you full of light
just running from oblivion?

are you always right
yeah cursed with second sight?
are you always right
do you know they're after you?

are your eyes still green
the best I've ever seen?
are your eyes still green
do they sparkle like the stars?

is your love still true
as if your heart were new?
is your love still true
and can you see eternity?


Z

Hi Z.....pretty cool song

OK.....Like the way you are recording the vocals now ......its a big improvement and adds clarity and focus to the song.
Using the SG and Ibanez together is giving you a good sound combination too....I like the delays on the lead parts.
The SG grunts the riff nicely adding the weight to the whole thing.

OK.....I know .....you are waiting for me to give an opinion on the drums LOL.

On playing the track I could hardly tell the difference between this and programming loops apart from once or twice where the snare fell behind.

To be perfectly honest this seems like hard work playing all this when you could make a loop......but if you are comfortable doing it and thats what you want then its your choice.

The end result is that the drums are Ok on this track....simple but effective....the toms sound nice but they are the same fill each time.....a variation on the fills would have been an improvement. This applies whether you are playing live or making loops.

I don't know how you were previously making your programmed loops.....were you drawing them in?

I use a step editor when I make loops so that I can do each drum part seperately....it enables me to drop parts out and build them up again. I enter the notes using the keyboard and I edit things like velocity and volume levels.

At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what you use......end result is all that matters to the listener

globaltrancemission wrote:Hi Z.....pretty cool song

OK.....Like the way you are recording the vocals now ......its a big improvement and adds clarity and focus to the song.
Using the SG and Ibanez together is giving you a good sound combination too....I like the delays on the lead parts.
The SG grunts the riff nicely adding the weight to the whole thing.

OK.....I know .....you are waiting for me to give an opinion on the drums LOL.

On playing the track I could hardly tell the difference between this and programming loops apart from once or twice where the snare fell behind.

To be perfectly honest this seems like hard work playing all this when you could make a loop......but if you are comfortable doing it and thats what you want then its your choice.

The end result is that the drums are Ok on this track....simple but effective....the toms sound nice but they are the same fill each time.....a variation on the fills would have been an improvement. This applies whether you are playing live or making loops.

I don't know how you were previously making your programmed loops.....were you drawing them in?

I use a step editor when I make loops so that I can do each drum part seperately....it enables me to drop parts out and build them up again. I enter the notes using the keyboard and I edit things like velocity and volume levels.

At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what you use......end result is all that matters to the listener

Thanks Peter!
Yeah, I agree they are a bit too simple and repetitive.
I thought my timing was off more than when I program...

Normally I draw the notes in and drag them around to make them not always on the beat.

This was just a way of figuring out if I can "sound more human" with keyboard input....

What it looks like I'm going to try is an Alesis DM6 (low end kit). They are pretty sturdy
and I can get more variations out of them. THe main reason for trying something like this
is that I think I can play with more feeling easier than I can program "feeling in."

This part was easy to do on the keyboard, but doing triplets and triplet runs would be pretty hard.

Glad you like the vocals. I am experimenting more with 1 track of vocals instead of two.
I think the vocals just have that "radio distortion thing I use" and some ambient reverb.

A DM6 looks like this:



Z

I guess I just mean I *can* program drum tracks that sound pretty "real" -- but it takes a long time.
Once I get to where I can play a kit, I can do the same thing much much faster.

I like both ways... just always wanted a kit to screw around with.


Z

Always good to have options Z..

If you feel that you want to try out real drumming and you don't mind the extra spending to find out then why not

globaltrancemission wrote:Always good to have options Z..

If you feel that you want to try out real drumming and you don't mind the extra spending to find out then why not

Yeah... just another toy for the arsenal of sound.
I'll just tell the wife she's getting it for me for my birthday....

The neighbors should be real happy when I hook it up to the 350 Watt PA system.

Plus my wife has been taking middle-eastern drumming lessons for a couple years so she
might even enjoy drumming on it.


Z

How crazy would it be if the next time I played with Dace, I was the drummer?
LOL. That would just be fvcking nuts!

Z

z wrote:

globaltrancemission wrote:Always good to have options Z..

If you feel that you want to try out real drumming and you don't mind the extra spending to find out then why not

Yeah... just another toy for the arsenal of sound.
I'll just tell the wife she's getting it for me for my birthday....

The neighbors should be real happy when I hook it up to the 350 Watt PA system.

Plus my wife has been taking middle-eastern drumming lessons for a couple years so she
might even enjoy drumming on it.


Z

Aha....you have another option.....the wife can do the drum parts for you....a trained drummer in the house...perfect

Seriously though.....using her middle eastern drumming on an experimental track would be cool

As for the neighbours.......well after hearing you playing Black Sabbath riffs through a Marshall they have either gone deaf or moved out by now.

Cool track Z! Nice Sabbath riffs!

holy smokes...this is awesome! your vocals are tooooooo coolz Z!!!!!!!!!! haha i love it...it's awesome to the 2nd power!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm trying to get the whole thing to stream...crazy computer. let me know how that drum kit works out for you. one of my uncles' told me about them. i was thinking about getting one myself, and letting loose haha.

added:
ok i finnaly got it to stream in lo-fi. still sounds great! i made it my new theme song on my soundclick profile lol

GinjaBug wrote:holy smokes...this is awesome! your vocals are tooooooo coolz Z!!!!!!!!!! haha i love it...it's awesome to the 2nd power!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm trying to get the whole thing to stream...crazy computer. let me know how that drum kit works out for you. one of my uncles' told me about them. i was thinking about getting one myself, and letting loose haha.

added:
ok i finnaly got it to stream in lo-fi. still sounds great! i made it my new theme song on my soundclick profile lol

Thanks GinN! Getting more confident on the vocal part.... so I can single-track them more.

Probably going to get an Alesis DM7 kit.
It's a bit more expensive than the DM6, but it has a 3-zone snare and a chokable crash.
It will be nice to be able to just go crazy on a drum part without dragging notes around...

Z

I am using Steinberg Groove Agent which is a plug in drum machine that runs samples of real drum kits of many varieties.
I used it on quite a lot of the Darkstarcruiser tracks but always had trouble controlling it.....as many other people have found out as well.
After a lot of time spent on trying things out I found out that if I switched from using Sonar to Cubase SX it works perfectly.
Steinberg have been crafty......it only does things properly in their own programs....its hidden in the manual but at last I cracked the code.
Its ideal for any type of Rock drums and the patterns are superb.

globaltrancemission wrote:I am using Steinberg Groove Agent which is a plug in drum machine that runs samples of real drum kits of many varieties.
I used it on quite a lot of the Darkstarcruiser tracks but always had trouble controlling it.....as many other people have found out as well.
After a lot of time spent on trying things out I found out that if I switched from using Sonar to Cubase SX it works perfectly.
Steinberg have been crafty......it only does things properly in their own programs....its hidden in the manual but at last I cracked the code.
Its ideal for any type of Rock drums and the patterns are superb.

Cool!
Whatever you are using it sounds really nice!

The DM7 comes with 400 drum sounds and 80 kits. And if I don't like those I can use MIDI into Logic and
get different kits.

Z

z wrote:

globaltrancemission wrote:I am using Steinberg Groove Agent which is a plug in drum machine that runs samples of real drum kits of many varieties.
I used it on quite a lot of the Darkstarcruiser tracks but always had trouble controlling it.....as many other people have found out as well.
After a lot of time spent on trying things out I found out that if I switched from using Sonar to Cubase SX it works perfectly.
Steinberg have been crafty......it only does things properly in their own programs....its hidden in the manual but at last I cracked the code.
Its ideal for any type of Rock drums and the patterns are superb.

Cool!
Whatever you are using it sounds really nice!

The DM7 comes with 400 drum sounds and 80 kits. And if I don't like those I can use MIDI into Logic and
get different kits.

Z

Looks good Z.......you could get a real drum kit for the same price but you would have the problems of noise and having to mic it up properly......plus only limited sound where the electronic kit will emulate lots of kits.

Don't forget that you will also need a stool !!!!!

If you can "obtain" a copy of Groove Agent you could play the awesome kits in there with this kit.
That might be worth thinking about later on.

Also might be interesting to experiment with using the drum pads to play synth sounds....could be interesting

Got my Creative hat on again LOL !!!!!

globaltrancemission wrote:

z wrote:

globaltrancemission wrote:I am using Steinberg Groove Agent which is a plug in drum machine that runs samples of real drum kits of many varieties.
I used it on quite a lot of the Darkstarcruiser tracks but always had trouble controlling it.....as many other people have found out as well.
After a lot of time spent on trying things out I found out that if I switched from using Sonar to Cubase SX it works perfectly.
Steinberg have been crafty......it only does things properly in their own programs....its hidden in the manual but at last I cracked the code.
Its ideal for any type of Rock drums and the patterns are superb.

Cool!
Whatever you are using it sounds really nice!

The DM7 comes with 400 drum sounds and 80 kits. And if I don't like those I can use MIDI into Logic and
get different kits.

Z

Looks good Z.......you could get a real drum kit for the same price but you would have the problems of noise and having to mic it up properly......plus only limited sound where the electronic kit will emulate lots of kits.

Don't forget that you will also need a stool !!!!!

If you can "obtain" a copy of Groove Agent you could play the awesome kits in there with this kit.
That might be worth thinking about later on.

Also might be interesting to experiment with using the drum pads to play synth sounds....could be interesting

Got my Creative hat on again LOL !!!!!

Good ideas!
Yeah I have a keyboard stool and a swivel chair. If those don't work good enough I'll get a normal drum chair.
I have a pair of sticks somewhere too....

It will take me awhile to get all my arms and feet going.... simple boom-boom-chick won't be a problem,
but simple is not where it's at...

I could get a nice used kit for the same price, but it would be a LOT louder and heavier and harder to transport.
One of these days when I have my own Airport Hangar to practice in....

Z

milk crates also work as a drum stool.

hey, so you can record with those like a keyboard/synth then? like useing different drum settings after recording...like midi style? sorry, i haven't really read into these drums much, yet. it would be awesome to use a taiko drum sample with it...

GinjaBug wrote:milk crates also work as a drum stool.

hey, so you can record with those like a keyboard/synth then? like useing different drum settings after recording...like midi style? sorry, i haven't really read into these drums much, yet. it would be awesome to use a taiko drum sample with it...

Yes, Electronic Drums are basically just MIDI controllers/triggers.
The good ones do velocity (louder when you hit harder), and have multi-zones (so a snare
sounds different depending on where you hit it [edge or middle]).

So, you can use each pad or cymbal to trigger whatever sample you want.
They usually come with built in kits and samples, so you can just hook the kit to a PA system and play,
but you can also just connect the MIDI to your computer and record or pick your own kit in the computer.


Z

Most cool Z.
DACE>