Any Musicians around here?

[Nimrods Son]

Please post links to your muscial creations here!
To start off, her's my indie rock myspace space:
www.myspace.com/mardukh

some of the recordings I am very proud of, but I'm more interested in what the rest of mankind thinks of it  than in beweihräuchering myself. 

And - what do you sound like? 

[Tapewolf]

I've just listened to 'Back to the farm' and I'd be kind of curious to know what equipment it was recorded on.  I rather like it, although it could do with more keyboards.

As for mine... uh.  Where to begin?  I'd like to think I do progressive rock, but I'm not quite that good.  My first two efforts (i.e. albums) can be found here:

http://www.dougtheeagle.com

IMHO the second one was a mess in retrospect, although it has its moments.  The DMFA side seemed like a good idea at the time...

The third one is currently in mastering and will be called "The Mythical Creatures Exhibition".  The fourth is almost ready, although I'd like to try and rerecord one or two tracks in 16-track if I can sort out the sync problems I'm having.



Rather than listing my entire output, I'm going to list my favourite songs from each album:

A Day At The People Factory
(Taken from the cyborg conversion plant in 'Strife')



Return To Babel - Very harsh, almost industrial, with some very aggressive engineering (true backwards reverb, tape manipulation etc)

Pidge and Greg / The Gaming Guardians song - Ultimately it was Graveyard Greg's enthusiastic response to this - my first attempt at musical fanart - that convinced me I was on to something.

Quest for the Sacred Jaguar - Probably one of my favourite songs.  Written in 2004 and it still hasn't lost its charm.  Especially the ending.  It's almost 13 minutes long though.

Songs for the Wild-At-Heart
(Originally 'Legend of Daniel Ti'Fiona')



Borderline - IMHO the standout track on this album.  Featuring all the classinc prog rock keyboard sounds, and laced with M400 choir at the end.  Just don't ask what it's about.  Please.

Journey to the Kingdom of Hollyann - Keyboard instrumental.  I do like this one.

One Less Hero - This eventually evolved in the Jakob Pettersohn/Johan Cross mythos.

The Mythical Creatures Exhibition
(Named after an event in Bristol in 2002.  These songs are pre-mastering)



The Dark Revenge of Jakob Pettersohn - I'm coming to get youuu...

Beings and Creatures - Xenophobia in the magical land of Furrae.  Another DMFA song.

ZooCity - From Equidna's webcomic.  This was the last song to use Antares Autotune, and it shows.  Gives it a nice 1980s vocoder feel though.

Pancake Ferret
(See: http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_660.php - GreatLimmick on the old forum reckoned it would make a decent name for a band.  These songs aren't finalised and may change in the final version.)

Operation Wendigo (take 5) - From Turnsky's webcomic and currently my favourite song.  Period.

What Did Daniel Think He Was? - Another DMFA song.  I love the freaky chord changes in the chorus.  Wrote that bit on the way home one day.

Princes of the Dreams - Written by Xss and based on Tezkat's lyrics.  Arranged and performed by me.  This has got some bugs that need to be ironed out for the final version.

[Nimrods Son]

Unfortunately, the all of the synthie tracks I recorded got lost (my rhythm section said bye-bye and stuffed everything they had into the thrash), so Back to the Farm has to do without 'em keys until I get another recording possibility. $$$... it's more about the mixing, though.

Back/Farm was recorded on 16-track Tascam, Im' not sure; and mixed on a Mackie desk. Practically everything (safe the drums) was tubed through some "Goldmic" preamp. The guitars are Fender on a Marshall TSL 100 watts amp + Boss HM-3 metal distortion, the bass guitar (SG model) is played directly into the mixing desk.
The reverb module is some Yamaha equipment, I can't remember very well.

Mics:(I'm not sure about the serial numbers, sorry)

Vocals: Neumann/ Rhöde
Guitar Amp: audio-technica 30 for ceramic cell reflections + Sennheiser MD 24 for amp sound
Drums: overhead 2x audio-technica 30; bassdrum AKG D112; Snare Sennheiser MD 24

That's all I can remember, it's been a while...


I especially like you song Return to Babel - which keyboard do you use, I've always tried (and never succeeded) to build this sound on a Waldorf Q+ synthie!

My albums aren't near anything one could call recorded - I can't drum and personally only own a Tascam 424 portastudio
well, perhabs in some distant future..

here's a more progressive track you could like!
http://mardukh.de/mardukh/mp3/Mardukh%20-%20GUN%20grobmische.mp3
(can you hear the missing keyboards as clearly as anything else

[Tapewolf]

Back/Farm was recorded on 16-track Tascam, Im' not sure; and mixed on a Mackie desk. Practically everything (safe the drums) was tubed through some "Goldmic" preamp. The guitars are Fender on a Marshall TSL 100 watts amp + Boss HM-3 metal distortion, the bass guitar (SG model) is played directly into the mixing desk.

Cool.

Vocals: Neumann/ Rhöde

I take it this was at someone's studio?  The Neumanns are phenomenally expensive.

I especially like you song Return to Babel - which keyboard do you use, I've always tried (and never succeeded) to build this sound on a Waldorf Q+ synthie!

That's quite a question, because I've got a lot of them and the count has increased over time.  Here's a quick breakdown - I've got to update the pics on the website.

Original kit list as of 'A Day at the People Factory':

• Roland M-VS1
• Roland JV1010 with orchestral card
• Waldorf Pulse 2.01
• Cheetah MS6 running Kristofer Maad's new operating system
• Alesis SR16
• Lounge Lizard EP-1 softynth

Added in 'Songs for the Wild At Heart':

• Waldorf MicroWave
• Hammond XM-1 organ module with H&K Rotosphere
• Tornado Mellotron Engine (PC running some embedded software I wrote to play AKAI samples)
• Mr. Tramp softsynth (replaces Lounge Lizard as that had sync problems and I hate the copy-protection.  It would drop in pitch when slaved to tape, some weird SONAR bug.  I was forced to record Borderline by slowing the tape down during recording until the pitches matched.  Fun...)

Added in 'Mythical Creatures':

• LearJeff rhodes soundfont (replaces Mr. Tramp as that won't run on my Linux laptop)
• Retired the Antares ATR-1.  ZooCity was the only song that used it on this album, and I had begun to hear the pitch-correction artifacts.  My own pitch had improved enough to make it redundant.

Added in 'Pancake Ferret':

• Korg Triton Extreme 1.05 (drums and piano on 'Operation Wendigo' - replaces the
  Rhodes soundfont because the laptop couldn't quite run it AND the sequencer without
  stuttering on occasion)

As for Return to Babel itself, without checking the original MIDI file, I think it uses the
following sounds:

• 'Assault Organ' on the JV1010, which is the distorted organ sound
• '101 bass' on the JV1010 (about 1:30 - you can't really hear it)
• One of the minimoog leads from the M-VS1, this is the first sound you hear
• The growling sound is a custom bass sound I made on the Cheetah.  I can't remember what it consists of precisely but it's the same sound layered three times and played on two notes an octave apart.  Even though they're DCOs there's enough difference for it to produce a lovely phasing effect.
• The polysynth chord is either the MVS-1 doing an Oberheim impression or the MS6 again (the Cheetah has the same basic chipset as the Oberheim Matrix 1000).
• The 'Tom Sawyer' sound at the end is done on the Waldorf Pulse.
• The gibberish at the end was originally going to be done by cutting tape into little shreds and glueing them together randomly as was done to the steam-organ tapes by George Martin on 'For the Benefit of Mr. Kite'.  I couldn't get the kit to do that in time though so I did it digitally with a program called 'Mad Splatter' which I wrote for my brother when he was in his noise-rock phase.
  I also used goldwave a lot for that part.  It's fun to play this one backwards and hear the hidden message.  It was mixed in with a rendition of Psalm 23 by Creative Text-HOLE at high speed and further sped up with GoldWave to make it gabble.  These were printed onto tape and played back on the UHER 4000 through the Zoom RFX-2000's crap leslie simulator.
  While it was being transferred to the multitrack (at overload levels) I kept fingering the reels and doing all kinds of awful things to it.  I later learned that overloading a recorder like that when DBX is engaged will cause decoding errors, but it sounds okay to me.

here's a more progressive track you could like!
http://mardukh.de/mardukh/mp3/Mardukh%20-%20GUN%20grobmische.mp3
(can you hear the missing keyboards as clearly as anything else

I'll check that later tonight.

[bill]

I play the cello, but I guess that doesn't really count. Never tried composing myself.

[Nimrods Son]

I've had a Cellist in my last band. She rocked, but was too lazy to play gigs with. I was planning to have a real string section onstage, but never got far with it.


Neumann Mic: yes, we were recording in a pretty well-equipped youth club. In Germany, almost every major town has such a studio for amateur bands to use. some of them even are cheap AND well-run by some experienced engineer. It's a good thing, but if one wants to record a whole album, they'll show you the door

[Miaka]

I can sing, but even that not horribly well. >>

I've been meaning to get some recordings up, but damned if I'd know what to record.

[Tapewolf]

I play the cello, but I guess that doesn't really count.

Nice.  Although if you're anything like me, hearing the sampled cello on some of my scores probably grates your ears 

I suddenly became able to compose in late 2000, early 2001.  I didn't want to record anything until 2003 though.

Your second track, 'Gun - grobmische' or whatever it's called, is pretty decent.  You seem to be better at vocals than 'Bartman' (Torsten Bartowiac).  On first listen I was mentally comparing some of it to early Pink Floyd, although I can't quite remember why...

Oh, and here's the new studio.  Grotty scan done by Asda's photo-cd service.  I'm going to scan the negatives myself later:

http://dougtheeagle.com/lab/2007.jpg

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Heh. You know, I wonder if putting up shelves and the like to support specific tape units - eg, making it more vertical and less horizontal - would work in your situation, or not.

I mean, everyone has a preferred method of sitting, and moving, and stuff, and what seems like it should work might not, for probably extremely vague and unsatisfying reasons - but, just a thought, there...

[Tapewolf]

Heh. You know, I wonder if putting up shelves and the like to support specific tape units - eg, making it more vertical and less horizontal - would work in your situation, or not.

They're like 20-35kg each, so a wall-shelf is probably not a good idea.  Of the two stacked up on the right, the lower one will be put into a trolley like the other one when can build some rack-ears for it.  The upper one is spare and I'm not sure where to put it yet.  The Revox is happy enough on the chest of drawers, and although I'd like to put that in a trolley too, it's got the domestic casing (with the carrying-handle) and can't be rackmounted unless I can find a spare industrial case on ebay (I got outbid last time).

The two multitracks have to be close to the mixer since they are directly connected to it.  This will become more important when I can get the two machines to synchronise properly.

But yes, I am considering shelving for other things...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

wall shelf is doable, as long as you engineer it correctly - the brackets I'm thinking of are the strip on the wall, which you can nail in place every ten cm if you desire, using something appropriate, and keep nailing further up the wall (plugs into brick, perhaps, if you have a handy brick wall, would do nicely, but again, it depends on what's around) to make sure it can support the weight...

Alternatively, a large board, again plugged into the board, to spread the load... 35kg, whilst heavy, is not -totally- unreasonable, if you support it correctly.

The major issue is access - can you access all the bits properly in order to make it work, whilst the feet are ~4ft off the ground? Comfortably?


... *grin* -anyway-, probably enough ideas already. You sound like you've already got it sorted. :-)

[Nimrods Son]

wow Tapewolf, your equipment makes me envious a bit.  "grobmische" is an unusual German translation for rough mix; the studio mixes are not very decent 'cos the engineer copied the tracks out of sync, and afterwards the tape got re-used. the rest of the band was not willing to shell out money to buy it. I'm still fighting hard with my producer to get the song more clearly-sounding in order to put it on my first EP.

In the moment, I'm listening to 'broderline', I like the '80s vibe - it's a bit videogamish ("Raptor -Call of the Shadows"), I greatly appreciate that! Though I had probably edited the song down to 5 minutes for the album version, it sounds a bit like it was composed to open a crwded gig rather than to be part of an album. But then, I'm a popper in a way, so my "taste" in these things is nothing I'd suggest anyone to follow.


@ Miaka: why don't you try recording some short pop songs first, that doesn't get as much a task as recording, like, In-Gadda-Da-Vida or stuff. You could make a poll here and grant people (i.e., the majority) a wish

[Tapewolf]

wow Tapewolf, your equipment makes me envious a bit.

It's the result of about four years' e-bay hunting.  The MicroWave was a bitch to get, I had to get that from Germany as the local ones are way overpriced.  The JV1010 was the only synth I got new - everything else was second-hand or factory refurbished (like the Triton and Waldorf Pulse).  I actually got the Cheetah and the Zoom RFX as spares-or-repair and fixed them

"grobmische" is an unusual German translation for rough mix; the studio mixes are not very decent 'cos the engineer copied the tracks out of sync, and afterwards the tape got re-used. the rest of the band was not willing to shell out money to buy it. I'm still fighting hard with my producer to get the song more clearly-sounding in order to put it on my first EP.

I see.  That's nasty about the tape, although it does happen.  When Bal-Sagoth recorded 'Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima-Thule', they were forced to record it over the multitracks for their first album ('A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria') because the label refused to buy them any tape to record it on (..?!).  It's an eff'ing tragedy.

And I do know some german, but unfortunately neither of those two words.  Should have used google...

In the moment, I'm listening to 'broderline', I like the '80s vibe - it's a bit videogamish ("Raptor -Call of the Shadows"), I greatly appreciate that! Though I had probably edited the song down to 5 minutes for the album version, it sounds a bit like it was composed to open a crwded gig rather than to be part of an album.

If I ever do a gig I'll probably open with a longer version of 'Return to Babel'.  I have some strange test files kicking around where the gibberish comes in early and it solos on the Cheetah bass.  When I played it back I figured it would make a nice intro before cutting into the real song.  And I thought seven minutes was about right for an album track, at least with the style I'm aiming for.  'Project Dragonsong' is almost TWENTY-seven minutes.

If you want video-game music, try "Fear Of Flying" on the first album.  It was strongly inspired by the music from Heretic, Strife and System Shock.
Also 'Cubi Fight':  http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/cubi_fight.mp3

@ Miaka: why don't you try recording some short pop songs first, that doesn't get as much a task as recording, like, In-Gadda-Da-Vida or stuff. You could make a poll here and grant people (i.e., the majority) a wish

I've still got her recording of the Princes-Of-The-Dreams chorus.  (And the entire song done by Tezkat in his Jyrras voice, but that's another story)

[Stygian]

I sing, quite well I've been told. Opera, musical and such mostly, but I can adapt. Pretty good range. I also play the guitar, mostly electric. Have one in my room that I enjoy irritating the neighbours with. And then I'm "theoretical" with the piano, as in I know how to play, but I've not quite got the feeling, as I have little practice.

That's about it.

[Miaka]

@ Miaka: why don't you try recording some short pop songs first, that doesn't get as much a task as recording, like, In-Gadda-Da-Vida or stuff. You could make a poll here and grant people (i.e., the majority) a wish

I don't know any pop songs.

I do show tunes.

[Nimrods Son]

too bad

[Aridas]

I think I'm a musician, but the usual extent of my creativity is remixing music in odd formats. Usually VG music. Original compositions are far and few

[Nimrods Son]

you could hum some bad rhymes over the vg music, that would m,ake for a proper composition in most people's ears nowadays...

[Nimrods Son]

Here's a side project of mine, I had a fairly ok gig with the boys last friday, please give it a check:
www.myspace.com/youngwasted

[Tapewolf]

Here's a side project of mine, I had a fairly ok gig with the boys last friday, please give it a check:
www.myspace.com/youngwasted

'Come and play and Dance' is good, in fact I think it's the best of the four songs listed there.  The mix is a bit bass-heavy though.

[Nimrods Son]

the mixing was done with Soundforge 5 years ago, and I recorded it on my Tascam 424 Mk 3
Unfortunately, the single tracks got lost, so we can't remix it anymore

[Tapewolf]

the mixing was done with Soundforge 5 years ago, and I recorded it on my Tascam 424 Mk 3
Unfortunately, the single tracks got lost, so we can't remix it anymore

Pity.  You can fix the problem I'm hearing from the mixdown though, if you've still got a high-quality version of that.  Indeed, it's this sort of thing which I send my tracks off to a mastering engineer to sort out.

[Nimrods Son]

I've got a proper .wav, of course. but I haven't seen my producer for half a year now, but am too timid to ask another pro to do my mixing. Damn.