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Guitar tracking (LO2) + (LO3)

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Update on the gear I am using to record the guitar tracks. I am using my LTD JMII, which is a pretty versatile guitar with allows me to cover the whole range of sounds needed for the track. I mounted a new set of strings (10-52 gage, ideal for the tuning used in the track) to make sure to have the best tuning stability and the best possible sound.

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I took this week to track the final guitars that are going to be in the song. All the guitar parts are already written in the demos, now I have to make sure to play them as cleanly, precisely and expressively as possible. I have to particularly focus on the timing and on how I am going to interpretate the tempo of the song, as this is a key element that will have a massive effect on how the groove is going to feel.

SONG 1:

They main focus was to play them as tight as possible, a key element that is going to make a huge difference in the tune, as the idea of this song is to be very sharp and aggressive sounding.

SONG 2:

I've made some good progress on the tune, and being a more experimental track, a lot of the guitars I had to record were ambient guitars or some sort of layers to complement the electronic elements.

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Here are the final guitars for the metal track:

1- Rhythm guitars (blue)

2- Lead guitars (dark blue)

3- Clean guitars (light blue)

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Potential collaboration, possible research, challenges (LO1)

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First riff idea and main sound choices. (LO2) + (LO3)

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I think the overall technicality of both tracks will be the main challenge: the ideas that I have require very good timing when playing guitar, as rhythm is a massively important in these kind of tracks.

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SKILLSTETS LIKELY TO GAIN

Guitar technique

Learning new production methods and songwriting abilities

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SONG 1:

So far I am using a drum library made by GGD, the One Kit Wonder: Metal kit, which allows me to achieve a sound that fits well for this musical genre. I think it is the best choice, as all the elements of this drum kit a very powerful attack and sound really clean and precise, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a modern metal production.

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INSTRUMENTS

Electric guitar obviously and maybe a bass, even though a virtual bass might work even better. Same for drums and other instruments like synths.

Maybe some good quality plugins to elevate the sound production of the song(mix and master) (LO1)

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SONG 2:

I've been experimenting with Playbox, an instrument which actually allows me to obtain any kind of sound, but I found out that you can obtain some really cool and original drum beats with this instrument, so I've been using this for now.

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This is the TIMELINE where I'll show all the process week by week of the making of the song I'm writing for this course module.

⚪️ INTRO: Initial ideas, potentials timelines, LOs Chart

🔴 WEEK 1: Research, potential challenges, resources potential collaboration.

🟡 WEEK 2: First riff ideas and sound choices. (LO2) + (LO3)

🟢 WEEK 3: Additional sound choices. (LO2)

🔵 WEEK 4: Demo & song structure 1 (LO2) + (LO3)

🟣 WEEK 5: Demo & song structure 2 (LO2) + (LO3)

🔴 WEEK 6: Guitar Tracking (LO2) + (LO3)

🟡 WEEK 7: Sound design (LO2)

🟢 WEEK 8: Mixing (LO2)

🔵 WEEK 9: Mastering (LO2)

⚪️ CONTENTS PAGE/BIBIOGRAPHY (LO1) + (LO2)

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Mixing. (LO2)

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Additional sounds + Metal track progress and initial ideas (Synthezisers) (LO2)

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Sound design and additional retouches (LO2)

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Demo & Song structure 2 (LO2) + (LO3)

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SONG 1:

John Browne has been an inspiration of mine for a lot of time, but to further research and learn his approaches to both songwriting and technique all the way to production and tone choice will for sure help a lot my process and inspiration for this track.

SONG 2:

Tim Henson (Polyphia) is known for innovating guitar technique and bringing it to a new level. I'm certainly not expecting to reach his level of ability, but learning his approaches to writing will be very helpful for this project.

(LO1)

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For the first song:

When it comes to metal and djent, DjinnBass by Submission audio is the ultimate bass sound. It provides a lot of clarity and pick attack, with a lot of focus especially in the very low notes, which is going to turn out very handy for a song like this.

For the second song:

I've also been experimenting with Playbox, and I was able to obtain some sounds which perfectly fit the style and sound I' looking for this production.

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WEEK 1

For week 1 I'd like to have some kind of demo of the beginning of the tune, and deciding precisely which tempo, bpm and main chord progression tu use in general for the song.

PRIORITY⚠️

As I'm going for a Heavy/Rock groovy track It's important to find the main Riff for the song

WEEK 2

In the 2nd week I'd like to find the main parts that are going to compose the song, the "building blocks" (riff, verse, chorus, bridge etc...)

WEEK 3

I'd like to have to have the final song structure, some sort of demo with all the main elements that are going to compose the song.

Final guitar tracking should be done around WEEK 6 - WEEK 7 maximum

WEEK 8

Mixing

WEEK 9

Final mastering

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Here's a recording of the riff.

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Demo & Song structure 1 (LO2) + (LO3)

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MASSIVE progress for the metal tune:

Had a lot of inspiration and ideas coming out of the first riff idea that I had.

Wrote more riff variations starting from the first one, as well as a chorus and a more ambient - focused section and a first idea of a guitar solo.

Song structure:

Riff 1

Riff 2

Chorus

Riff 2 (with some variations)

Ambient section

Chorus

Solo

Riff 2

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Mastering (LO2)

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◾️ John Browne:

This is the first research I did on John Browne:

He uses Mayones guitars, which possess a very sharp pick attack sound and high output pickups, which allow him to obtain a very aggressive sound without losing clarity in the notes. He uses a variety of amplifiers, including amp sims.

◾️ Tim Henson:

This is the first research I did on Tim Henson:

Similarly to John Browne, Tim's sound possesses a very sharp pick attack, often obtained by using various types of boosts before hitting his amplifier, which delivers a very crunchy and hi -fi sound.

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I've been thinking of tracking all the guitars with my LTD JMII, which fortunately matches the sound I'm looking for in both songs very well.

As I normally do in my productions, I think I'm probably going to use a guitar plugin, in this case Archetype Nolly by Neural DSP. It provides me all the sounds I'm looking for for both productions, from the super pristine cleans, all the way to the super aggressive sounding distortion. I probably am going to use the Peavey 5150 emulation for the metal track.

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Two songs:

SONG 1: A modern metal, pretty fast - paced instrumental song, with a lot of riffs and melodic sections

SONG 2: An experimental track, blending electric guitar with trap music and electronic beats.

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Metal track first ideas:

Today I came out with a riff that I really enjoy and fits the style that I'm going for the metal track.

Key:

C minor, alternating between Eolian and Phrygian mode.

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Here's a gaunt chart of what the process of these tracks could look like.

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I progressed a lot in terms of the production of the metal track as well.

I've done a provisional mix which is actually likely going to be very close to the final mix of the track. The source tones were very good, so I didn't have to massive moves in terms of EQing and compression. In the picture we can see a couple of plugins that I used. The 1176 made a particularly big impact on the mix, especially on drums, making them sounding massive and powerful.

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Found some inspiration for my Beats-oriented track. Experimenting with the Playbox instrument, I've found a beat which will probably allow me to write some cool guitar parts over it. All the tracks seen in the screenshot are Playbox instances, using it has drum, bass and to add some rhythmic and melodic elements.

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ALBUMS WHICH INSPIRED ME FOR THIS PROJECT

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ALBUMS WHICH INSPIRED ME FOR THIS PROJECT

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I made two playlists on Spotify to show exactly what the inspirations for both projects were:

SONG 1:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/558iRyNN6VpNUmIN08rsEA?si=62f5d47f9f474950&pt=6d3d4351cd8fa4f008ced86c0f34db49

Standout inspiration. from this playlist:

◾️ John Browne (Flux Conduct, Monuments)

He is my major inspiration for this first track. His aggressive picking technique on the guitar offers a lot o learn from him, from harmony to rhythm choices.

SONG 2:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uCwUTJiVFq8ZAz6Bu34T7?si=80b6a21acd984616

Standout inspiration. from this playlist:

◾️ Polyphia

Polyphia is band that has had a lot of success and recognition in these last years, for their innovation and guitar technicality

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I'm planning about using some synths in the metal tune as well. Alchemy is a Logic Pro X plugin, and it offers a wide variety of sounds which will be very handy for this production for sure.

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I continued with some more beats in my second track.

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References list using Harvard referencing. (LO1) + (LO2)

BROWNE, John. 2021. "I changed my entire mix" Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvwIV1XuxLo&t=1893s [ accessed 5/02/2025]

BROWNE, John. 2024. "The Captain Meets John Browne (Monuments)! - First Look at his New Signature Schecter Guitar!" Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0cn8XtAiIQ&t=2068s [accessed 02/02/2025]

BROWNE, John. 2023. "Demystifying DADGAD with John Browne (Monuments) - PERFTalk"2023" Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZ7r0pZkx0 [accessed 03/02/2025]

GETGOOD, Adam (2018) Adam "Nolly" Getgood Mixing Masterclass part 1 of 2: Master bus and drums. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgfBcFTbir4&t=361s [accessed 20/9/2024]

LEVER, George. "MIXING MONUMENTS GUITARS w/ George Lever" available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnT1gGYVI5E&t=465s [ accessed 9/02/2025]

PRENC, Lance. " How Lance Prenc masters LOUD(ft.Polaris)" available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGFJaMBato4 [ accessed 10/02/2025]

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I added some background synths to further reinforce the harmony of the beat (green track) I also added an arpeggiated synth (yellow track) and an arpeggiated guitar loop (blue track) to add some rhythm and movement to the beat.

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Here are the final guitars for the beats track. They are the blue tracks, mostly arpeggiated patterns and guitar scrapes, as well as some more ambient chords in some sections of the tune.

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This is the process I made on the beats song o far. (mp3 due to padlet limitations)

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SONG 1: (Metal song)

The first track has progressed a lot. I managed to write the whole song, just might need some retouches in the guitar solo, but the song is almost complete.

SONG 2: (beats song)

I managed to lay down some cool beats, which for sure will allow me to write some good melodies with the guitar on top of it. Did a provisional mix, but it might need some more work.

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Here are some final post production retouches I did for the final version of the metal track. Mostly volume and reverb automations, as well some riser and boom FX to add additional tension to the track (the red tracks at the botto of the image)

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Here's the final mix for the metal track. Mostly EQing and compression, removing possible harsh frequencies especially from the bass and the guitars. A choice I took for this particular track was to particularly compress the drums, as I found it fitted really well the overall mood of the song, and added a lot of power and aggression to the overall mix.

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Here's the fina mastering chain for the metal song. EQ at the beginning as well as some saturation. The tricky part was using the maximizing tools, but I'm pretty happy with the final result. I even stacked 2 clippers to give the track a squishier sound, but still maintaining a lot of the transients and the attack from the drums, a cool trick that I learned from Lance Prenc (see references) while I was exploring the URM Academy YouTube channel to further improve my production skills.

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Here are some of the final automations I did on the beats track. Mostly playing and changing parameters like cutoff in certain synthesizers, as well as some volume and reverb automations.

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Here's a screenshot of what the mixer page looks like after the final mix of the song. I've kept it pretty simple, as a lot of the samples and instruments used sounded good without any additional processing. Most of the plugins like compressors where mostly used for a purely artistic choice, as I used one on a synthesizer in side chain mode, to obtain a pumping effect each time the drums where playing.

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Here's the final mastering chain of the beats track. As well as the mixing, kept it relatively simple, mostly working on my maximizer tools (compressors, limiters, clippers) to make sure that the track sounded punchy without squashing it excessively.