Submitted to DistroKid | Hyperfollow here
This track was sort of an accident. I was having a conversation on discord with Striped McCoy (If you are reading this, and have not listened to Striped McCoy, stop now and go do that and come back later… trust me).
One way or another the topic of vocal chopping came up. I don’t usually ‘chop’ much of anything and started asking questions about how its done. Got some great pointers and my immediate thought was – do it to a bass!
LOHM chimes in at this exact moment saying “Justice does this a lot”.
Now the gears are turning hard.
I fired up reason immediately and recorded a quirky bass groove with the idea I would chop and pitch bend it into a new, cool sound.
This is what the bass ended up looking like. It looks like more than it is.
Its not even close to justice bass sound, however i thought it sounded pretty cool and extended it into a chorus section, now could try new things with the mic. I wanted to try something sung loud, as well as something kind of ‘medium’ in intensity. Low intensity I did play with but nothing fit the track.
I also had just received my new SM7B microphone in the mail. I wanted to try that thing out also, so I started singing lines in over the groove.
I ALSO got wrangled into buying Guitar Rig 5 after Murr said he thought it would sound good for my sound. I got the 30 min trial version, and was sold in probably about 10 minutes of that. I did use the full 30 and get locked out. I bought it and kept going.
Guitar Rig 5 is getting really good sounding distorted guitar. It sounds near pro level to me in its quality, with fairly little effort on my part – I am happy so far with the purchase. Its used on all the vocal takes, the guitars, and one layer of the drums. All of these are on guitar rig 5 presets with little configuration.
Lyrically this is kind of an embellishment of a frustrating week I had at work the few weeks prior. Dave Grohl said in an interview once “Lyrics should be like bumper stickers.” And this track is really kind of one of those.
Main VOX:
3 M-Class EQ’s : These are being used to subtract db from harh tones in the take. I scan for these and pull them down.
Selig DeEsser: This helps with harsh S sounds mostly. It adds a little polish to the overall sound as well.
Guitar rig 5: Set to the ‘many vocals’ preset (so manly)
HIKU: I just put this bad boy on everything, it makes things sound more crisp and clear in the mix and thats about all i understand about what its doing. Some kind of stereo / multi band effect.
Pump: Also used heavily – its basically a sidechain simulator.
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Feedback is now gathered:
Overall very positive.
Neon M Suggested a guitar solo before the last chorus – i am totally on board with this idea and am trying it out.
Several suggestions to thicken the backing vocal, and bring it back in the mix. I will try this.
Suggestion to try to slightly thicken the lower layer the verse vocals to tame the ‘whine’ slightly – going to try this.
I want to also add more drum fills – (drum repetition mentioned)
The last chorus vocal / outro still does not feel right to me.