New dense melodic/progressive song

[exzem]

Hey guys,

I've been working on this new song for the last couple of days that I thought I would share with you. The song is pretty melodic, maybe not super metal:ish, but maybe some of you dig it.
I had some major problems while mixing cause I kept running out of RAM/virtual memory and Cubase crashing. Well I'm getting a new PC soon and going 64 bit to get rid of this shit, tired of spending so much time bouncing tracks.

I'm at my parents place and didn't bring my bass so bass is just my guitar pitch shifted. It's maybe a bit loud, not sure how a sub would handle it.
Distorted gtrs are just onqels x30 sim and cleans soloC.

Links:
stream: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=960121&songID=8568789
direct: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1063820/conqueringthemist_256.mp3

 

[Erkan]

Wooow, the intro was REALLY setting a nice mood. So atmospheric, I love the loooong delay (long as in lots of feedback). Kinda made me think of a blend between Textures and Sybreed. Are any of those bands an inspiration source for you?

You should try finding a vocalist for this stuff asap man, it's really nice.

The only bad thing about it is that... I'm reminded by the 80's for some strange reason haha Keep thinking about some drama scene where the hero's girlfriend cheated on him or something lol. It's probably just me, I'm weird!

 

[tobin1]

mad chill shit man, extremely natural sounding mix and great song as usual!

 

[demirichris]

I loved this. Very well written and performed. Mix sounds great as well.

A lot of bands in this style seem to just drone on for ever with no build up or rise and fall. I like that there was always movement in your track, keeps things interesting.

 

[Tokyurot]

What a great song & mix! I love this even without the vox, and actually I think this composition
sets the bar quite high for the vocalist not to ruin the great atmosphere in the song

 

[Erik Monsonis]

It's awesome, period.

 

[onqel]

I fucking love your writing!!
Would like to hear some March Hare'ish vocals on this one..

 

[DominikJW]

Now that's some seriously beautiful music man, awesome ambience. Love that parts when distorted guitars come in...

 

[LosingReality]

Wow. That was great!

 

[Mago]

The only bad thing about it is that... I'm reminded by the 80's for some strange reason haha Keep thinking about some drama scene where the hero's girlfriend cheated on him or something lol. It's probably just me, I'm weird!

lol'd my ass off

but the track has a nice atmosphere *thumbup*

 

[Nuno Filipe]

You and Splat88 are my favourite composers here. Another awesome track. Dude make an album and I will buy it.

 

[exzem]

Erkan: Ah, yes I like both Textures and Sybreed. Would be awesome to find a vocalist to collaborate with, unfortunately I am a bit lazy actively looking for one

The only bad thing about it is that... I'm reminded by the 80's for some strange reason haha Keep thinking about some drama scene where the hero's girlfriend cheated on him or something lol. It's probably just me, I'm weird!

haha, I guess getting some kind of emotion when listening to music is a good thing

tobin1,demirichris,Tokyurot,Dandelium,onqel,utarefson,LosingReality,Mago and Nuno: Thanks guys, really cool that you liked it!

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I have been hearing some of your music and I cant imagine a vocal for this track and also for Dreamfreed or Phobia. They are songs that flow very well. But if you manage some vocals it should be fucking good or it´s not worth!lol

 

[Plankis]

One really gets sucked in to it, you start the player and 6mins later you start to wonder, oh is it already over? Some really epic choruses in it.
I think some of the distorted rythmguitars could be louder on some parts though.

 

[exzem]

I have been hearing some of your music and I cant imagine a vocal for this track and also for Dreamfreed or Phobia. They are songs that flow very well. But if you manage some vocals it should be fucking good or it´s not worth!lol

Nah, I didn't really planned for vocals when I wrote the songs. I was more thinking on new stuff. I think you have to plan all vocals when you write the music for it to turn out good rather then just fitting vocals in afterwards.
You tend to get a bit limited when you just write instrumentals, harder to keep the song interesting until the end.

One really gets sucked in to it, you start the player and 6mins later you start to wonder, oh is it already over? Some really epic choruses in it.
I think some of the distorted rythmguitars could be louder on some parts though.

Thanks man! Yeah didn't want to get to much distorted gtrs in there, I had them louder at first but things got too muddy with everything else added.

 

[fenders]

Wow. This song is amazing. Congrats man on a great song and mix. You say the bass is just pitch shifted guitar? That is by far the best sounding fake"bass" I have heard. How do you get it to sound so real?

i am pretty experienced with using it, as i cant afford a bass atm, but im interested on what kind of processing you do for yours. If you are willing to share, that is

 

[Ola Englund]

Ace! You are the king of clean passages!!!

 

[Plankis]

Thanks man! Yeah didn't want to get to much distorted gtrs in there, I had them louder at first but things got too muddy with everything else added.

It was just one section near the end, that I had in mind. It was almost only rythmguitars and drums if me remembers correctly. Can't remember where it was today haha. Maybe around 7.20?

Ah well, I dl'd this one today. Great song, really liked it.

 

[phatfil]

another great tune, exzem. no vocals needed, imo. i'm a big fan of instrumentals anyway, but yours are damn good.

 

[exzem]

Thanks for the comments guys!

For the bass I played using the neck pickup, EMG 89 in humbucking mode (EMG 85). For the slower stuff like verses I used my fingers. The "faster" stuff I used a pick but using the thicker side of the pick. I picked very softly because I didn't want too much pick attack. Then I processed all DI:s first with a lowpass at 2k, then pitch shifted one octave with the pitch shifting algorithm set to C2 as root.

Dunno if chain settings will help much because it has so much to do with the source but I used 3 tracks.
One for lows focused around 50-120 hz. Compressor (taking around 5db 3 ratio 15 ms attack 150rl)-> ampeg svx -> more compressing another 5 db -> hp 40 hz -7 db 30 hz.
One track for more mids(100-200?), pretty similar chain as the first track, but mainly different eq, hp 140hz cuts at 500hz and 1000hz.
And the last track with a very light distortion using studio devil bass amp, hp 200 hz -13 db at 600 hz, compression 0.5 ms attack 150 rl, 15 ratio remove 10 db max. This track is mixed very low. It still gives the track some attack without popping out to much.

Then everything into a bus with mild compression, taking max 1-2 db. eq to remove some 300 hz and some 1700 hz, boosting 100-150 hz.

Again this depends much on how the source tracks sounds, so it probably won't mean much to you