Showing posts with label odd time signatures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label odd time signatures. Show all posts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Headbanging Monks

It's been a while since I have regularly posted. This track is cool because it's different. I have two main themes going. It's kinda like two choruses - each with their own melody.



I am tuned to standard 8-string tuning: F# B E A D G B E. This song contains some 7/4 time signature.

I used POD Farm to record, as always, and my DAW is still Reaper. I have learned more about mixing and mastering, so it sounds better than what I used to put out.

You will hear multiple parts in this track. There is the ambient guitar, dual-tracked rhythm guitars (I didn't feel like quad-tracking), and occasionally lead guitars. You also can hear the guitar solos when the choruses (themes) play. The bass is my Ibanez RG8 guitar EQ'd and brought an octave down. It sounded better than using Trilogy plugin because I can easily slide around, giving it a more realistic sound. There's gotta be a way otherwise, but I always hated programming MIDI anyway. The drums are still EZdrummer DFH, but they are now compressed and EQ'd so they should sound way better like in Mt. Kilimanjaro.

It's a weird title, I know, but I wanted something that would catch people's interest and click on it. I also wanted to try the silly track name like Wide Eyes does. I couldn't find the perfect picture for this track because you just don't see many headbanging monks do you? I figured it was a great title - after I posted my starting to compose such a track on my personal facebook - because one of my "friends" on facebook liked the status, and I never hear from him.

The file is pretty big, that I uploaded, and so I hope the quality is nice.

I tried to follow my heart once again on this one.

Brandon of Analyzed Within
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Thursday, February 23, 2012

More progress on my new track

I have nearly completed the writing process of my track called, "Surge".

I really am enjoying this song. I have implemented a few time signature changes. Most of the song is in headbanging 4/4 time. The first change is 6/4 time, the second time the riff is played in the song, followed by a 7/4 time signature. I think I want to try out 5/4. Or maybe 9/8. Actually...that's the same thing. 9/8 is just a 4/4 and then a 5/4 right afterwards. But I guess the riff could be 9 bars long before a change.

This song is constantly evolving so the listener is not bored so easily. The riffs are hardly ever the same the next time you hear them in the track. I am blasting through my software POD Farm. I am emulating a 5150 amp head. Those things are monsters for heavy metal. If you have POD Farm 2 and the Metal Shop expansion download the tone here. I am playing my cheap Ibanez IJX 121 guitar for the rhythms, and my Ibanez RG350DX for the guitar solo. I am tuned to Drop B for my rhythms. I used Ernie Ball Not Even Slinkys, 12-56 string gauge.

My influences for this song are Demon Hunter, RED, Aria, WideK, Skillet, Hope for the dying, Kreepmaster, and the Guitar Master Class online site. I'm sure there are many more, but I would say this is a good list.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Odd time signatures

I'm finally starting to grasp odd time signatures and odd feels. I watched a Meshuggah lesson today on YouTube and it helped me. No, I don't listen to that band, but I do like the style and since they use a lot of odd feels and odd time signatures, I wanted to learn something like that.

I created a riff over a 4/4 drum track that has an odd feel to it. I think I am grasping 7/8 time after watching a sequel to that first lesson. It's really cool. I love it! It's awesome to play something different. I was getting sick of just 4/4 time: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. I can do 3/4 as well, but it's just not as weird as 7/8. Maybe I'll work on 9/8 after I get 7/8 down. I just wanna compose some stuff that's different from what I've been doing all of my life. Yeah, I played piano before guitar, since I was 8, so I'm ready for a change.

But hey, 4/4 time is not bad. If you mix 4/4 in with 7/8, that could be interesting. And even keeping 4/4 time all way through, except put an odd feel into parts of the song makes for an even more interesting song. Course, I guess it depends on your preference.