Hello & question

[In_Mist_Shrouded]

Hello Ron, I'm a big fan of Spastic Ink, and I just joined this forum.
Spastic Ink is probably one of the few good bands that play intelligent metal today. I think a lot of bands today forget about creativity, and knowledge of their instruments, and that's why there are so many boring bands today (with exceptions, as SI)...

Anyway, just wanted to say hello, and congratulations for your great work, and I have a question: In Ink Complete, the drums sound a bit artificial, were they really played by Bobby, or are they programmed drums? Or maybe V-Drums? If they are real drums played by Bobby I have to say Bobby is a maniac drummer, he is a drum god. I downloaded the video on your website of Bobby playing, and all I can say is that he is gifted like yourself.

So see ya man! Thanks for the music.

 

[jimbobhickville]

They were real drums, as I'm sure Ron will verify. And yes, Bobby is a demigod.

 

[ronjarz]

Shrouded, many thanks for the compliments. Much appreciated...

Yes, Bobby played everything on "Ink Complete".

Back when we recorded "Ink Complete", I didn't have a computer, didn't know what quantizing was, and barely knew anything about triggering. We put these cheap triggers (I think Bobby got them from Radio Shack) on his drums which sent signals into an Alesis D4. It's the same unit that I later used for my solo CD "Solitarily Speaking...".

We recorded "Ink Complete" in two sessions. First was "Mosquito", "Hare", "Suspended" and "178". Those have all live toms. I don't even remember if the sounds for the snare and bass drums are live. Then the other songs, we used the triggered tom sounds from the D4. So whenever Bobby hit a tom, the sounds came from the D4. The toms on "Baking Shuffle" sound very artificial because we used the same sample tom sound, tuned at different pitches. We should have used different different sampled toms, but hell, we barely knew what we were doing at that time.

With "Ink Compatible" I of course had a computer by then, and could do a lot of EQing and compressing with the drums, and got the live drums to sound better. The snare and bass hits were all resampled and mixed with the live hits, but the toms are all live. But again, no quantizing whatsoever.

Ron

P.S. And yes, Bobby is a maniac...

 

[The Heart of Winter]

P.S. And yes, Bobby is a maniac...

Agreed.

 

[ACRONYM]

PHHHP! is a pretty awesome album. I like the analog feel it has, which reminds me of early Buckethead stuff.

 

[In_Mist_Shrouded]

Shrouded, many thanks for the compliments. Much appreciated...

Yes, Bobby played everything on "Ink Complete".

Back when we recorded "Ink Complete", I didn't have a computer, didn't know what quantizing was, and barely knew anything about triggering. We put these cheap triggers (I think Bobby got them from Radio Shack) on his drums which sent signals into an Alesis D4. It's the same unit that I later used for my solo CD "Solitarily Speaking...".

We recorded "Ink Complete" in two sessions. First was "Mosquito", "Hare", "Suspended" and "178". Those have all live toms. I don't even remember if the sounds for the snare and bass drums are live. Then the other songs, we used the triggered tom sounds from the D4. So whenever Bobby hit a tom, the sounds came from the D4. The toms on "Baking Shuffle" sound very artificial because we used the same sample tom sound, tuned at different pitches. We should have used different different sampled toms, but hell, we barely knew what we were doing at that time.

With "Ink Compatible" I of course had a computer by then, and could do a lot of EQing and compressing with the drums, and got the live drums to sound better. The snare and bass hits were all resampled and mixed with the live hits, but the toms are all live. But again, no quantizing whatsoever.

Ron

P.S. And yes, Bobby is a maniac...

Hey Ron, thanks for answering to my question... I'm saving to order Ink Compatible soon... I'm just really broken at the moment hehe (I'm a student)... I downloaded an mp3 from from Ink Compatible, and it sounds a lot better... Still, Ink Complete is an awesome concept/technical album, really brilliant.

Well, see you later!
Keep on doing such great intelligent music...