It’s all for…well…for me, really
I put together a demo for another song in the last couple of days. I wanted to try out the ART TPS II I mentioned last week, so I chose another one of my simpler tunes that I wrote a very, very long time ago. It’s called “It’s All For You,” and I’ve always been fond of it. 
You can download it from my .Mac site (password foogly). You might also be interested in checking out Death_Compressed, another old song of mine that represents my second serious effort at recording something. If anyone cares, I’ll post my recording notes on that, too.
In the meanwhile…
Nuts and Bolts: The tune was recorded in GarageBand, using a Les Paul Custom. There are two guitar tracks, one using the English Channel amp model (all the way to the left), and the other using the Classic Rock model (all the way to the right). I went ahead and actually recorded two tracks, as opposed to duplicating the first, because I wanted to add a bit of texture to the guitars.
Interestingly, the English Channel amp model is a bit louder than Classic Rock, so it took some tweaking to get them balanced.
The bass is an Ibanez, and I recorded it with the Modern Rock Bass model in GarageBand. I’m not a very good bass (or guitar) player, which is again part of why I chose this song. It’s all straight-ahead rock and roll. In any event, I’ve always found that whatever I am doing with my input and GB settings, the bass is never lound enough. Accordingly, I duplicated the track, and moved them to the left and right.
The drum loop is the same all the way through the song, because it’s that kind of song. If I had a set with which to record, I would definitely play it much differently, but this loop works well enough.
For some added rhythm and depth, I added in “holiday bells,” a loop of sleigh bells. I think it was the touch I was missing. I had tried to put down a piano part, but what I came up with stank, and my keyboard skills are rusty to boot. The sleigh bells, however, did the trick.
The vocals were recorded with the ART TPS II pre-amp, and I have no idea how to really use it. Accordingly, the levels are a bit hot and cold, and I overdrive once or twice (this is a rough demo, or I would have continued to mess with it).
I think part of my problem, BTW, was setting the TPS II up to work properly with the FIreWire 410 that serves as my I/O device for recording. I just couldn’t get the vocal line to sound as “up front,” for lack of a better term, as I wanted. Still, it works.
The mic used is the Audio-Technica AT3035, a condenser mic I’ve been pretty darned happy with. I used the Male Rock Vocals mic model in GarageBand, with the compressor setting turned on, and the Track Echo setting tweaked a bit. I was having a problem finding the right balance between a wet and dry sound, hence the tweaking.
Lastly, I used the Basic -> Default Master Track setting, but I turned on the compressor setting at about the 75% mark. None of the other presets were giving me the sound I wanted, but that did the trick.
A special thanks to Dave Hamilton for telling me about the built-in compressor in GarageBand. I knew it was there, but having never used a physical compressor before, I had no idea how much it could do for a final mix-down.
January 4th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
It’s amazing the difference the bells make—that’s awesome Bryan!! When I read that you put in sleigh bells, I thought, wow that’s brave, but it really does sound good.
I’m going to have to check out the compression in GB. I usually delete my recordings long before it’s time to use any finishing touches
I’d like to hear the story behind Death Compressed.
January 4th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Who the hell does “It’s All for You” remind me of?
January 5th, 2006 at 12:45 am
“It’s All For You” reminds me of a couple of songs (88 Lines About 44 Women, and another one that constantly slips away). It’s not particularly original.
Thanks for listening!
I’ll post the recording notes for “Death” soonish.
January 5th, 2006 at 1:37 am
It’s not one particular song it reminds me of, it’s a band sound.
January 5th, 2006 at 5:25 am
Industrial Disease is the song it reminds me of. I thought it was a band, but it’s that sound.
Nice job!
January 5th, 2006 at 6:19 am
it reminds me of a bit of really…wrong…art done by the artist behind http://somethingpositive.net/
January 5th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Hmmmm…Is that a good thing?
January 5th, 2006 at 8:47 am
If you’re talking about my post, yeah that’s a good thing
January 5th, 2006 at 11:30 am
No, I meant the really…wrong…art post.
January 5th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
I can’t really comment on anything John writes
December 8th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
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