Some songs from my band.

Cerpin

Cerpin

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Hi guys.

I`m the main songwriter and guitarist in my band called Grim.
I don`t know what else there is to say, so I`ll just post a song.

The production is just a "demo-demo", so don`t expect anything amazing.

http://www11.nrk.no/urort/user/song.aspx?mmmid=98675

Tell me what you think.

And no, we do not have a singer YET, as you can hear.
 
Wow I'm impressed. Pretty good, I have some constructive crits though.

1. I think you should clean up the distortion a bit. I know the genre requires more distortion, however you want your band to have a distinctive sound so that when people hear your songs they will say "hey that has to be Grim, it sounds just like them" and the distortion just makes that less and less possible.

2. I like the guitar solo but I think you should liven it up a bit, at some more bends and vibrato into it to make it more emotional (not in a "gay" or "wimpy" way) and just make it seem more complete.

3. That bend at the end is wayyyy off, doesn't seem to end on a note in the triad of the last chord we heard. Try the 3 or flat 3 (if the last chord is major or minor) to make it stand out more as its the last thing we are left with in the song.

Stupid 4. This is a stupid idea and is completely up to you but I think you should try some Eddie Van Halen style double tapping in the solo. Just try to see how it sounds...I don't know. This idea you can completely ignore.

Other that I love the song and the progression. Its pretty damn cool.
 
Good for what it is... Metal/Hard Rock
Still it was very clear and fluent, so good job!

My taste = thumbs down
Metal/Hard Rock = thumbs up
 
I agree on most of your comments, milkman, because this is just something I did in an hour, so I didn`t bother in micing up my amp, which has a far cleaner, and far better sound. I just used a Line 6 POD with the Diezel VH4 preset here. The solo was just me improvising over the chords, so it`s subject to change and that bend at the end is just something I always to when recording stuff. Usually when I play piano, and the song is in the key of D, I always play this horrible single F# note at the very end just to upset people. End it sour, to make it stick ;) Thank`s for the good feedback though, appreciate it!


Oh, and it`s really just "rock". If you had heard the rest of our songs, you could easily said "Hey, that`s their heaviest song", because most of our stuff is more akin to the mars volta or muse, than heavy metal. My main inspiration is actually from musicals.
 
Cerpin said:
I agree on most of your comments, milkman, because this is just something I did in an hour, so I didn`t bother in micing up my amp, which has a far cleaner, and far better sound. I just used a Line 6 POD with the Diezel VH4 preset here. The solo was just me improvising over the chords, so it`s subject to change and that bend at the end is just something I always to when recording stuff. Usually when I play piano, and the song is in the key of D, I always play this horrible single F# note at the very end just to upset people. End it sour, to make it stick ;) Thank`s for the good feedback though, appreciate it!


Oh, and it`s really just "rock". If you had heard the rest of our songs, you could easily said "Hey, that`s their heaviest song", because most of our stuff is more akin to the mars volta or muse, than heavy metal. My main inspiration is actually from musicals.
Click to expand...


How do you like the POD? Instead of buying a super cool amplifier Im thinking of just buying a POD XT Live for the same price but with obviously much more sounds. I think its the God of multi effects pedals. But I have only tried it for a very short amount of time at guitar center. How do you like it? I know the regular pod is different but same make, same effects...so yah. My teacher thinks for the same price I should get a Line 6 Spider II 212 amp...but I have fallen in love with the pod.

oh and for the ending thing...I like your idea of making it sound sick or sour but...it just doesnt work lol. I mean technically its in key and would work with a D chord behind it but whatever chord thats at the end it just doesnt work with. I mean your making the music for the people, why are you trying to upset them and leave them with that F#. End with the 3rd or flat 3rd of whatever that last chord is...itll sound buttifull.

Im not saying this is your mindset but a lot of people and bands I see (hear) these days are always trying to make it seem like "music theory=bad...random=good". And to rebell against the theory they intentionally go out of key or bend terrible sounding notes. They dont get that it sounds bad. Remember its not evil or "cliche" or "unoriginal" if you do that, the best guitarists of all time almost always solo in key and eccentuate notes that are in the chord behind the solo. Page does it in all of his solos, gilmour does it, Hemmit does it. They all know a lot of music theory and use it to their advantage. Of course the saying "if it sounds good it is good" is always right. Stairway to Heaven, is all over the place music theory wise, there is not explanation, but the Solo and that cool riff, its all Aminor in key and in chord notes. All of it. Im not saying this to you cerpin, just to everyone...remember this!

Then again, I hate the Mars Volta, so maybe its just a matter of taste. Also link me to ur other songs...im interested.
 
The POD is great. Provided you have a good amp to back it up. Really ironic, seeing that Line 6 advertises that you don`t have to buy an expensive valve amp but rather the POD, when you actually need a good amp to make it sound good. I run my guitars into a Digitech Whammy, and then into a POD xt Live, which goes straight into my lovely Orange AD30 head. It sounds very good, but that`s because of both the POD and the AD30. I guess you could get some nice sounds out of the POD alone, but you would really miss the warmth a real tube amp would give you.

About the foul notes, I think I presented the issue a bit wrong. You see, I only do that stuff because it`s this internal funny thing me and my friends started doing after I did a soundtrack for a lame horror movie. I has nothing to do with rebellion against music theory or anything like that. It`s just for fun. So the sour note at the end is just an homage to the good times we had at school, really :)

I agree with you on your last paragraph, because music is music, and noise is noise. I actually use mostly chord notes when I improvise, like the old jazz guys did before they started applying scales to their jamming. Nothing intentional, it just comes natural to me, I guess it`s connected to my relative pitch.

Mastering music theory is great, but relying on it can sometimes be boring and predictive. I don`t rely on it when I write songs, but I use it to understand why the stuff I write works, to some extent, and therefore gaining knowledge and experience. So as you said, if it sounds good, it sounds good.

I`ll get another song up soon. Sadly, the production is even worse as it was just something I sent to my drummer to show him how the chorus was going to be like. The verse is polka, so the recording is pretty much a joke, except the main riff and the chorus.
 
Yeah I agree...I use the theory to guide me so I at least have an array of things that I know will sound good. So that helps in jamming with people, you never hit a wrong note and say oh shit if you know your scales. But when your making your own stuff, you gotta take out the structure of the scale...its gotta sound like a solo and not like a scale or an arpegio, those get pretty ****in boring too. Right now to do that right Im jamming to certain riffs I make and saying "OK for this session, I will only use the high E and the A string...nothing else" And then that forces me to get creative, creating cool licks that I would have never found otherwise.

But I realized that you knew your shit when I heard the solo, the whole solo sounded awesome. I now understand the last note, and Ill shut up about that.

You connect a Wah pedal through your effects pedal that has Wah? That sounds interesting...but sounds like you got a lot of wires going through your room. What does that do? I seriously know nothing about how these things work from a technical standpoint. Do you have a POD XT Live? Also I like the sound of the actual amp or stompbox better also...but the thing is, I rather pay 400 bucks to get 30 amps and 80 effects into one small metal chasis, than buy 600 dollars worth of stompboxes which would add up to like 7 effects, and 3k on a bunch of amps.

I want to hear more songs damnit!!!!
 
Yes, good gear is expensive! It`s not a Wah, it`s a Whammy, which is a harmonizer pedal. You can use it to raise the notes you are playing by an octave or two, or lower them down to three octates. You can also add an octave up or down to your current notes, which will give you that Zeppelin sound. You can also use it to create harmonies, like adding a 5th or 7th to the current notes. Pretty cool pedal, although expensive! If used with delay you can create some spacey sounding stuff.

You can hear the whammy in use on the song I posted here, when I drag the pick across the strings in the beginning. That is the "single octave up" effect, with delay, and pushing the Whammys footpedal down as I scrape with the pick. The part after the main riff after the chorus, where I arpeggiave the chords, right before the solo, the left speaker has a guitar running with the added octave up effect. The solo also has the added higher octave effect as well, if you listen closely!

Yes, I have the POD xt Live. I actually only have three cables. One from my guitar, a short patch-cable from the whammy to the POD, and a cable from the Pod to my amp. Now, I`m not playing gigs or anything, so I have pretty much the same setup in my room, only that the POD is connected to my PC via the USB cable, which you get when you buy the POD. I have some other effects as well, such as the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, a hand made fuzzpedal, which has some of the best distorted tones I have heard. I only use that live sometimes, as well as when recording properly.

The songs are coming, hold on :)
 
Thats pretty cool, what kind of guitar do you have? I assume it doesnt have a whammy bar attachment cause then you wouldnt need the pedal...or would you?
 
The Whammy and a whammy bar are two different things, so having both is good :) I have two Ibanez Iceman guitars, as well as my first guitar, which was an Epiphone Lez Paul. I keep it because it was my first. What about you?
 
lol, even if you search google you cant find my guitar. It came in my yamaha beginner strat pack. Its not that bad though...it just doesnt really exist. Theres a fake name on the headstock "EG 112C" havent found that anywhere. And the original half a foot by half a foot amp it came with...yeah my guitar kicks all 3 your guitars asses lol. I also have a fender amp thats much bigger...it cost me about 20 bucks.
 
Well, here`s the latest recording.

http://www11.nrk.no/urort/user/song.aspx?mmmid=100258

This is just a test mind you, to see if the main riff and chrorus would work the way I intended them to. The verses are just a joke, because frankly I don`t have any verses yet. There is also this quiet piano part after the first chorus and main riff, but that didn`t work out as I could`t get the right feel of the drums.
 
I love it. The verese is pretty frickin funny lol...good joke this time.

2 Problems...2nd is actually just a suggestion

#1-At exactly 2:28 there is this really ****ed up sound. And it almost made me want to take a shit...it sounded really terrible...sounds like an accident. Just thought you would know.

#2 I dunno why but I think this songs deserves an awesome heavy wah solo. But I love the chorus, I love the ending, and I love the everything (of course the verse is gonna change so thats a given) cause keyboards sound no where near as good as vocals would. I love your sound its awesome...the effects you use at the end are pretty neat.

I want more...
 
considering you recorded this off home, the sound is awesome! (compared to what other people can muck up in their own home studios) Im hoping to get into home recording, and im wondering what equipment you used to record your latest recording. Did you mike the drums as well?

good song btw, i like it a lot :D
 
Thank`s for the good input! The drums are midi this time around as well, though with some good EQ`ing and subtle reverb. I use my Line 6 POD for everything, as it has this setting called "Tube Preamp", which is designed so you can use anything with it, drums, bass, vocals, you name it.

#1 That`s a nasty bend by me, influeced by Muse`s Matt Bellamy`s live playing. As the song is just a test, I tend to play stuff like I would play it live, with slides and muck ups etc.

#2 I`ve written three solos for this song, or one solo, and two instrumental guitar parts. The first one is going in the first verse, that`s why it`s so friggin long, a little gypsy/eastern thing with a very clean sound, melodic stuff. The second is the chorus repeating again after a quiet part, and doing a crazy Whammy AND Wah-Wah solo over that one, with some delay maybe.

The third is also a clean one, and more "jammy", as the song ends with this very egyptian sounding piano thing. If you have seen "The Prince of Egypt", imagine the songs there, only with a sinister edge. Before the vocals start on that part, I will play around some wird eastern major scale.

I`m looking forward to record a proper demo this winter, and I will surely let you guys know as soon as it`s done :)
 
This is some good stuff mate, where you from btw?
 
Really like the first song :) Great stuff dude! ;)

Oh, cool band name too!
 
If you ever start touring make sure u come to Cardiff Barfly mate
 
Ah, sure will. We`ll se how things go. The album is coming along nicely. It`s just that I want the recording to be perfect, so either we have to be discovered by some huge label, or we have to work our asses off to afford a professional studio.
 
Any timescale on the album, i'd like to state my interest in getting a copy once you have released it
 
We`ll try to do a full demo album before christmas, so I`ll keep you posted on this thread as we go along. Glad to hear someone appreciates it :)
 
You need to get yourself a drummer. The MIDI loops ruined it for me.
 
We have a drummer. This is just something I did in my room, so I could get a better overview of the songs.
 
Alright cool. I would love to hear it with a live drummer.
 
You should, the drumming is so much more intense and varied that what I can do with shitty midi programs like GuitarPro : /
 
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