A little original in progress... (Hardcore/Metal Content) UPDATED IN MOST RECENT COMMENT 6/22

[PhloridaMan]

I've tossed around whether to share this any time soon or not, but figured what the hell Just a little something I've been working on amongst about 14 other songs at the moment. Have been progressively learning how to get better at recording and I am pretty happy with how this one is coming out. Pretty straight foreward Drop A# Metalcore-ish jam with a fun groove riff.



Because we are obviously all gear nerds and someone will ask lol...

Drums are Superior Drummer 3 with just a generic combo of their stock shells and cymbals with some EQ tweaking

Live guitars mic'd with a single SM57 each... Left guitar is EVH5150III 100S with Mesa 4x12, Right guitar is Mesa Roadster on Harley Benton V30 212 with 7 String Solar A2.7TBR

Bass is currently just a generic DI. Still plan to re-record that with my GK1001RB and Avatar 4x10 rig along with a DI track from the out of the head to blend if I want/need. Also will be having my brother put down some vocals as well is possibly re-record actual live drums once he is off summer tour with his band Godseyes.

Still a work in progress but I'd love to hear thoughts on it's current state.

Enjoy >

 

[tallcoolone]

Love it man, well put together

 

[OldGtrGuy]

Pretty dope. Personally I think the guitars sound excellent but as with most drum programs, mine Included...the drums sound fake as hell.

I've been trying to figure out how to make it work, a lot of people make them sound amazing and super pro but I don't get it. Killer tune

 

[Soundstorm]

Pretty dope. Personally I think the guitars sound excellent but as with most drum programs, mine Included...the drums sound fake as hell.

I've been trying to figure out how to make it work, a lot of people make them sound amazing and super pro but I don't get it. Killer tune

I find a preset that’s pretty close to what I’m looking for, then I go in and tweak the hell out of it. Volume rebalance, change out cymbals and drums as needed, adjust attack times on compressors if needed, get rid of any master bus processing and add something of better quality in my DAW like UAD’s Distressor. They sound good at this point but then I run them out the box into a hardware saturator. I can get SD3 drums sounding killer, but it takes some work. FWIW the Death and Darkness drums, specifically the Darkness portion, are the best sounding drums in SD3. Fields of Rock also sounds great judging by the demos but I don’t own that one.

 

[PhloridaMan]

I find a preset that’s pretty close to what I’m looking for, then I go in and tweak the hell out of it. Volume rebalance, change out cymbals and drums as needed, adjust attack times on compressors if needed, get rid of any master bus processing and add something of better quality in my DAW like UAD’s Distressor. They sound good at this point but then I run them out the box into a hardware saturator. I can get SD3 drums sounding killer, but it takes some work. FWIW the Death and Darkness drums, specifically the Darkness portion, are the best sounding drums in SD3. Fields of Rock also sounds great judging by the demos but I don’t own that one.

I've wondered personally if the SD3 expansion packs are worth it. Haven't been able to justify buying the expansions. I bought SD3 just so I could put songs together and write. I don't really have anyone to jam with locally so this has been my solution for writing.

 

[Soundstorm]

I've wondered personally if the SD3 expansion packs are worth it. Haven't been able to justify buying the expansions. I bought SD3 just so I could put songs together and write. I don't really have anyone to jam with locally so this has been my solution for writing.

If you're just writing, then it may or may not be worth it. But if you're planning on making an album with it, it's definitely worth it. They all sound better than the core library IMO. Especially Death and Darkness if you're playing metal.

 

[ChuggNorris]

Sounds cool d00d

 

[PhloridaMan]

If you're just writing, then it may or may not be worth it. But if you're planning on making an album with it, it's definitely worth it. They all sound better than the core library IMO. Especially Death and Darkness if you're playing metal.

Appreciate that info. I'm definitely gonna look into that because I will absolutely at some point release solo stuff without real drums because it's so hard to get my brother nailed down for any period of times to lay out real drums. Thanks for the info!

 

[PhloridaMan]

So, I took some advice from @Soundstorm and got the Death and Darkness expansion pack. I also spent some time working on the mix, compression, eq etc.

Still feel like I need to do a little more, but it definitely sounds completely different from before.

Both mixes are here. What do you thinik? https://soundcloud.com/midnightamerica

 

[Soundstorm]

So, I took some advice from @Soundstorm and got the Death and Darkness expansion pack. I also spent some time working on the mix, compression, eq etc.

Still feel like I need to do a little more, but it definitely sounds completely different from before.

Both mixes are here. What do you thinik? https://soundcloud.com/midnightamerica

Hell yeah man, I like the riffs and the tones you're getting. What preset are you using here? Try out the White Light Kit preset on the Darkness pack and see if that fits any better. That one sounds great but doesn't have any bus processing, so you can add something like UAD's Distressor and do a parallel "crush bus" to really make it punchy. Also maybe try a compressor and limiter on your master bus.