In Soundcloud: D.D.M.
First thing that was different was that I recorded all samples direct, so I could apply any effect to them if the initial sound wouldn't work. That is an idea I've been tinkering with for years; to have a comprehensive, clean sample pack, so I could use whatever amp sims I see fit.
Second thing was that I basically mixed this in Modplug Tracker. I demoed the sounds there and then just copied them to Reaper when the song was done. Only sounds I crafted in Reaper itself was the clean guitar, since for a brief moment I had this song mixed without intro and outro, despite the fact that I had them composed already.
Third thing is that I switched the file format from .it to Modplug's own .mptm module. That change I did because it handles the tempo better and it seems to work quite similar to .it in other aspects. So now I can make songs in any tempo and not rely on few select ones that hit even numbers (like 90bpm for example, which this song is in for the most part) with the speed and tempo variables.
And lastly, the fourth thing I did differently happened in Reaper; this time I didn't use any group tracks. I found out that the individual tracks' sound affects that of the group track (which now when I think of it is like "duh!"). So when I have a bass for example that already has some modeling going on and then group it for some more modeling, we end up with a sound that is different on the group track even if I'd put the same effects on the individual track. So just to stay clear from any of that, I kept all tracks separate and applied all effects directly to the tracks. So for instance, there are two instances of same effect on different tracks going on in the song instead of one on a group track. But that is not something my pc couldn't handle, so we're good.
So, soundwise this song turned out kinda garage-y, which isn't such a bad thing because it's in line with the first D in the abbreviation of the song title.
I wanted this song to be muddy and I think it turned out better than I had hoped.
There was only a clear vision of the guitar sound in my head when I doodled these riffs; there should be no nice-and-clear high end in the guitars. That was the driving idea behind it all. Everything else just basically (almost) fell into place after that.
At first I thought (and tried) that I'd just put bass, depth and mids on ten and roll off all treble and presence. That didn't work because there was too much bass at that point in the guitars, so I just left bass halfway and depth on ten. That seemed to be a good spot where the guitars became gritty and muddy but not boomy.
I kinda had hit jackpot with the amp model at the start when I went for the AD30 with matching cabinet. Don't know why, but I thought right from the start that Orange would have a gritty sound to it, despite the fact that I've never played real one myself.
After that I just boosted it a bit and added a compressor to tighten the sound. And that's where the right and left channel differs; they have different booster pedals assigned to them, though with same settings. That adds a little flavor there, to not have the exact same sound on both sides. And it's something I like to play around with every now and then.
Bass was giving me a bit of hard time at first. What I had set up for it just didn't work with the rest of the mix, it didn't fit in there. So I scoured through the clean amps, despite the fact that there are two dedicated bass amps in the Reamp plugin. I had the settings for the bass done already; all boom and no blingbling. So, full on everything that goes boom and zero on everything else. Now it was just the matter of finding the right amp and cab for the job because there were no pedals involved. So I scoured first the amps and found out that the Jazz Chorus on bass goes enough boom without distortion, so that was our amp. For cabinet I knew it had to be one of the Marshall's the plugin has.
1960 with Vintage 30's was too much boom, since bass is loud in the song, Greenback cabinet turned out to be a great one; not too much boom and an interesting sound for a low tuned bass (this can be heard before the third verse). Kinda lo-fi in my opinion but that was just perfect for the soundscape I was going for. Now it sat really nicely in there, providing a great low end for the song.
Drums in this song are the ones who really bring the garage to the soundscape. They couldn't be nice and clean and punchy; there had to be dirt in them. So what a better way to put dirt on anything than to drive them through a guitar amp. In this case I used Audio Assault again, this time Grind Machine II. There are only a few clean amps in that plugin, so not much to choose from (and two of those clean ones are from an expansion pack), but then again the cabinet is the one what really shapes the sound, so nothing to worry about.
I had only an idea for the bass drum sound to be kinda "thud"; like you wouldn't have a too good recording space or skills. And it wasn't too hard to find since I have played around with that plugin quite many times in the past. Bassmaster amp and Fat German cabinet -> Fat Bass. ;)
Then just more bass from the eq and mids for some snap and roll off everything else and voilá, garage bassdrum.
Snare, hats and toms were basically trial and error around the bassdrum; just playing with the clean amps and feeling them in the role; what felt good, stayed. After that I applied EQ accordingly; boom to toms, crisp to cymbals and mid(town) madness and crisp to the snare. It was all-in-all pretty straightforward and didn't take long to have a nice garage kit to go with the guitars and bass.
So that was the song for quite some time because in my initial sample recording session I didn't record the notes for the clean guitar. But after I finally got to do it and laid the parts down in Modplug, I went and crafted the sound for it in Reaper.
At first I didn't know what to do with it; should the sound retell the sound of the distorted guitars or be clear as day? So once again I just went with trial and error with the clean amp section in Reamp Studio.
I had recorded the clean guitar direct just like everything else, but with the singlecoil neck pickup instead of the bridge humbucker because the only things I did know were that they would be softer than anything else in the song and they should have the same cabinet as the distorted guitars. That is because in many cases when I compose or mix songs I always think what they would be like to play live. So what I ended up with was a Highwatt DR100 model with a couple of pedals.
At first there was only compressor to even and boost the sound a bit. But it felt like it needed something so I tried a mid boost. Still the sound was somewhat thin and dull, so I thought to put acoustic simulator there for the fun of it. And that worked, it made the sound kinda like a dull, distorted glass of sorts, if that's a way to put it. So in the end I didn't use the mid boost at all. The sound isn't crystal clear by a long shot and it wasn't quite what I might have thought it would be. But I think it works in this context and I really, really like the sound by itself, so that's the main reason it stayed.
So, there we have atleast one song released for quite some time, and blogpost too after like 3 or 4 years. Enjoy the experience.
