New album: Bad Blood

[aarontunes]

I know you all wonder how I can work for Warmoth, maintain such an intense hair-care regimen, AND continue to churn out hit after chart-topping hit. Trust me, I'm just as impressed with myself as you all are.

But without further ado, here's the new album: a big slab of straight-up hard rock that will change your life forever!

 

[aarontunes]

 

[Hodgo]

I’m two tracks in and liking what I’m hearing so far! This is unadulterated hard rock. Angus would be proud.

 

[Spud]

Aaron outstanding!

 

[Don O]

Nice to hear good old R&R is still being created !

 

[Jebberz]

Love it! Excellent work as usual Aaron

 

[alexreinhold]

Very cool @aarontunes did you self-produce again?

 

[aarontunes]

Very cool @aarontunes did you self-produce again?

For better or worse: yes.

I also tried something new on the guitar tones. All the rhythm guitars are either P90 or Filtertrons. I used humbuckers on the lead guitars only. Listening to it now, I think it gave everything a more ratty sound, which hopefully serves the songs.

It's all hard to grasp as you're building it. You need to finish and walk away for a while, then come back and listen to it as a finished product to really understand what you've created. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you don't. LOL.

 

[Hodgo]

For better or worse: yes.

I also tried something new on the guitar tones. All the rhythm guitars are either P90 or Filtertrons. I used humbuckers on the lead guitars only. Listening to it now, I think it gave everything a more ratty sound, which hopefully serves the songs.

It's all hard to grasp as you're building it. You need to finish and walk away for a while, then come back and listen to it as a finished product to really understand what you've created. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you don't. LOL.

Guitar tones were .

You described something here that continues to plague me, I can’t finish writing to save my life. It’s never good enough. They say comparison is the thief of joy, and that’s my M.O. - I want everything to be “Achilles Last Stand” or “One Rainy Wish” but I’m not Page or Hendrix!

I applaud anyone with the guts to put themselves out there.

 

[aarontunes]

Guitar tones were .

Thanks!

I applaud anyone with the guts to put themselves out there.

My mantra: quality only exists in the midst of quantity.

So I'm just playing the percentages. If I put enough stuff out there, odds are at least a little of it will be good. lol

 

[Spud]

I liked the ratty edge of the p-90's

 

[Spud]

Not to sidetrack, but I thought STP guitarist got great tones with p-90's too.

 

[Floyd_Argus]

Guitar tones were .

You described something here that continues to plague me, I can’t finish writing to save my life. It’s never good enough. They say comparison is the thief of joy, and that’s my M.O. - I want everything to be “Achilles Last Stand” or “One Rainy Wish” but I’m not Page or Hendrix!

I applaud anyone with the guts to put themselves out there.

Regarding the chronic problem of being unable to finish an original song: There's a YouTuber named Trey Xavier who concentrates on teaching song-writing and recording fundamentals, and besides his weekly live stream on Fridays where people can submit their finished (or unfinished songs) and get his advice on next steps or improvements in general, he also made this video describing the steps anyone with this problem can follow to get their unfinished songs completed, that he calls the "7 day riff to song challenge". Check it out:

 

[Floyd_Argus]

I know you all wonder how I can work for Warmoth, maintain such an intense hair-care regimen, AND continue to churn out hit after chart-topping hit. Trust me, I'm just as impressed with myself as you all are.

But without further ado, here's the new album: a big slab of straight-up hard rock that will change your life forever!

Aaron,

Very cool. I'm enjoying the tunes.

Did you play the drums yourself? Program them? What equipment/plugins/etc did you use?

 

[alexreinhold]

For better or worse: yes.

I also tried something new on the guitar tones. All the rhythm guitars are either P90 or Filtertrons. I used humbuckers on the lead guitars only. Listening to it now, I think it gave everything a more ratty sound, which hopefully serves the songs.

It's all hard to grasp as you're building it. You need to finish and walk away for a while, then come back and listen to it as a finished product to really understand what you've created. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you don't. LOL.

Not bad, honestly. You gave it a good "live" feel which I think is the hardest to achieve when self-producing and recording all the instruments yourself. I think it's your best production so far. Or at least the best according to my taste

 

[alexreinhold]

Btw, did you "play" the drums or are those midi drums?

 

[aarontunes]

Aaron,

Very cool. I'm enjoying the tunes

Thanks!

Did you play the drums yourself? Program them? What equipment/plugins/etc did you use?

Btw, did you "play" the drums or are those midi drums?

MIDI - I programmed all the parts.

I use Superior Drummer 3.0, and I don't even render them as audio. I just leave it all in SD3 as midi.

The only thing I do is add some room ambience to the entire drum bus. For that I use the FAME plug in from IK Multimedia. Can't say enough good things about that VST. I used it on every bus, and I'd say it is best in class at what it does. I really want to try their Sunset Studios one as well!

 

[aarontunes]

Help me PICK THE FIRST SINGLE!!!

I'm planning to do videos for one or two songs. For those of you who have listened to all the songs (and thank-you so much, BTW!) which two songs would you choose for the "singles"?

 

[Floyd_Argus]

Thanks!





MIDI - I programmed all the parts.

I use Superior Drummer 3.0, and I don't even render them as audio. I just leave it all in SD3 as midi.

The only thing I do is add some room ambience to the entire drum bus. For that I use the FAME plug in from IK Multimedia. Can't say enough good things about that VST. I used it on every bus, and I'd say it is best in class at what it does. I really want to try their Sunset Studios one as well!

Aaron,

Thanks for the insights about the drum production. It's really helpful to those of us that are competent on guitar, have original songs they want to self-produce, but are daunted about how to get good drums sounds without having to learn how to play drums (!). One last question in this regard: are there any particular instructional Youtube videos or other online content that helped you learn how to create realistic drum patterns? As far as what beats to place the kick on, which beats to place the snare on, etc? and fills? Thanks in advance!

 

[aarontunes]

Aaron,

Thanks for the insights about the drum production. It's really helpful to those of us that are competent on guitar, have original songs they want to self-produce, but are daunted about how to get good drums sounds without having to learn how to play drums (!). One last question in this regard: are there any particular instructional Youtube videos or other online content that helped you learn how to create realistic drum patterns? As far as what beats to place the kick on, which beats to place the snare on, etc? and fills? Thanks in advance!

Honestly, learning how to program realistic drums was hard-earned practice. I've been doing it for 40 years now! It's the result of a lot of trial and error, observation of the drummers in my various bands, and just learning what works and what doesn't.

Here are a few tips:

• Observe, observe, observe. Watch what drummers do. Actively listen to the drums in songs you like. Bonham, Copeland, Alex VH are all key for me.
• In a rock context, the simplest possible pattern is kick on beats 1 and 3, snare on beats 2 and 4. Hat or ride playing 8th or 16th notes - usually hat in verses, ride in chorus.
• Think of the bass and kick drum as one instrument - the bass is the melodic voice of the kick drum. This doesn't mean they have to always do the exact same thing, but they must be working together to drive the song.
• As you program, remember that drummers only have four limbs. That's the hard ceiling for how many things can be happening at once.
• Always err on the side of making things simpler. It's much harder to get something "wrong" that way.
• I apply a tempo map to every song. This really breathes life into the song. Lots to unpack here, but one universal rule is to increase the tempo as the song progresses. That's what humans naturally do.
• Always listen to the song, and do what it tells you to do.