(Heavy / Instrumental) - I

[strangers]

It's been almost a year since I've recorded/posted any new music. Time really flies, doesn't it? That's not to say music has completely been on the back burner. Several months ago, I started playing live again. Just simple things for solo acoustic shows which have been fun. Last month I decided fire up Reason and start recording again.

One of my problems is I tend to sit down, come up with a ton of ideas, expand the ideas into full songs and then tell myself I'll wrap up the mixing/master phase later. 95% of those songs end up unfinished on my hard drive. In an attempt to avoid repeating that trend, I've decided to record a bunch of music I've written over the years but never recorded. The plan will be to compile these songs into an album of 5-8 songs. Here's the first song from The Lost Tapes.

As an added plus, being away from recording, mixing and mastering allowed me to take a new approach to mixing and mastering. To my ears, this turned out to be my best sounding mix to date. Enough blabbing... here's the song. As always, open to any comments, criticism, likes, dislikes, etc.



https://officialstrangers.bandcamp.com/track/i

[TritoneAddiction]

Sounds really good. Nicely recorded and played.

Yep there's always a battle to finish songs all the way through. With some songs I'm simply not motivated enough to put all my energy to make them the absolute best they can be. But rather than throw them away I try to make them "long enough" and make the mix "good enough". Not a perfect solution, but I'd rather have a finished song on the shorter side and with some issues than unfinished projects that never sees the light of day.

[gphg]

[Noplan]

I like it. Good sound.

[strangers]

Sounds really good. Nicely recorded and played.

Yep there's always a battle to finish songs all the way through. With some songs I'm simply not motivated enough to put all my energy to make them the absolute best they can be. But rather than throw them away I try to make them "long enough" and make the mix "good enough". Not a perfect solution, but I'd rather have a finished song on the shorter side and with some issues than unfinished projects that never sees the light of day.

That's a solid approach to keeping the momentum. Very useful tips to keep in mind going forward. Another thing I've been making a conscious effort to do is print to track as early as possible to avoid going back for endless tweaking. Lock it in and keep going.

I like it. Good sound.

Thanks. Guitar driven music isn't the norm here so I'm glad some will give it a chance and potentially like it.

[WolfZeit]

I'm listening to this in headphones and it sounds great. You have placed the different elements really well in the stereo field (if thats the right expression.) Your arrangement is excellent, you give us little breaks in the bridges (like 1.30) at just the right times. Rock/Heavy Metal isn't my go to music, but I enjoyed this a lot. The guitars are very present but never become too much and you've got the levels/EQ spot on.

[Last Alternative]

This rocks. Great symphony of guitars

[FrankJaeger]

Can't help but bop my head to this. Vocals would set this track ablaze!!!

[jfrichards]

Wonderful song! Only change I would like is to bring the lead guitar work a little more to the foreground, maybe just with an increase of the lead midrange. The lead guitar sounds so good, it's a shame it gets overpowered by the guitar chords. Stronger lead midrange would make the notes of the lead melodies stick out. Great work.

[strangers]

I'm listening to this in headphones and it sounds great. You have placed the different elements really well in the stereo field (if thats the right expression.) Your arrangement is excellent, you give us little breaks in the bridges (like 1.30) at just the right times. Rock/Heavy Metal isn't my go to music, but I enjoyed this a lot. The guitars are very present but never become too much and you've got the levels/EQ spot on.

That's the great part about this forum. The music may not be your genre/style but you can still appreciate it. That's the kind of thing that always brings me back to share and listen to new music from others on here. It's great to hear the mix turned out well. It's been a few months since I've dusted off the mixing hat. I used a new amp on this song and wanted to see how well I could balance get it to mesh with the bass. I feel like there's some room on the next song to beef up the bass a hair.

This rocks. Great symphony of guitars

Thanks! It's easy to get carried away with harmonized guitars. That symphony of guitars could be coming in hot sooner than later.

Can't help but bop my head to this. Vocals would set this track ablaze!!!

Glad you liked it. A friend of mine may be adding vocals to this. It's a matter of lining up schedules and getting it done.

Wonderful song! Only change I would like is to bring the lead guitar work a little more to the foreground, maybe just with an increase of the lead midrange. The lead guitar sounds so good, it's a shame it gets overpowered by the guitar chords. Stronger lead midrange would make the notes of the lead melodies stick out. Great work.

You're right. I made the mistake of not listening to this in the car before uploading. Once I heard it in the car my first thought was the same as yours... rhythm guitars are too loud. Pulling their volume back a little bit would have given the leads more room to stand out. Might be worth making that change before getting too far into the next songs.