Here’s a little ballad about the real problem with covid-19
2 Likes
Hey there @antihero
can you please copy the sound file onto your post so that it comes through the site player?
Ta
1 Like
Very Offspring-esque. Well done! 
1 Like
Ha. I thought everything about it was well done. Mix and performance were solid.
1 Like
Good stuff @antihero well written, played and recorded. I liked the arrangement with the use of backing vocals to keep things interesting. Ramones, Green Day? Well done!
1 Like
Sounds excellent! - Reminds me of Bad Religion, or even early The Living End (Aussie Band).
I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of adding the mp3 right in your post, as I know a lot here like to play the file from the site, rather than open a link.
… So is this your band? What instrument(s) are you playing? Are you the vocalist? In any case, great job on the recording and mixing!
1 Like
This song is great, I love the politically engaged lyrics.
This is very nicely produced, songwriting and performing is flawless. The only thing that caught my ear is the drums, I wish they sounded more organic and less compressed.
Great job, hope to hear more from you here!
1 Like
Fun song and lyrics. This reminds me of The Offspring. I like how you arranged the song. Interesting and engaging throughout. I especially like how you threw in Cat Scratch Fever at the end. That twist made the song even better. Nugent will probably want to shoot you for this, though. 
Great job!
1 Like
Thanks to all of you.
Thank you. It’s not my band, it’s just me. I played and recorded everything. Real playing, real instruments, real sounds. I recruited help from my wife and friends for the gang vocal backups and marching at the end.
I don’t want to be difficult, but yes I do mind that it’s embedded in a post. I don’t want it up here forever. It’s in a Google drive. It’s safe. If someone can’t be bothered to open a new tab to hear this song, then that’s okay. I understand and no hard feelings.
Thanks, I’m not too thrilled with the drums either, but they’re okay with me. I’ve done better but I decided these are passable. I like a little compression on drums, but these are fast-ish and I didn’t play it very well, so it took more work to even them out.
Haha thanks. I don’t know why Nugent would be mad though. He should be flattered that someone under the age of 75 knows him for something other than his awful shit personality.
1 Like
Bonus points for using that in a song… hehahahahahaha… I’m still laughing.
1 Like
Well, you’re obviously a very talented fella. It’s very rare to find someone who has such a high level of musical proficiency across all of those instruments in addition to serious song writing, production and mixing chops.
No problem - your call, obviously. I generally find, the way this forum works, any songs I post are very quickly buried so deep as people make new posts, it is rare that anyone would discover them unless they specifically searched for them.
Just to let you know, one of the reasons why many prefer to embed their songs in the OP is so when they do updates/changes to the mix suggested by the respondents, those listening can compare the various iterations, track the progress of the production, and learn something in the process.
Not sure what you mean by that…safe from download? I’m not familiar with the specific controls of Google drive, but if you want to stop people from downloading your track, there may be an option available to do that. In any case, at present, anyone can download it.
Great job on the production! Any details you care to share about your setup for recording and mixing?
1 Like
It is the miracle cure! Never mind medical science. You can’t trust doctors, or medicine, or…science. When a morbidly obese spray tanned trust fund racist nationalist tells you it’s good, it’s gotta be legit!
Well thank you. I don’t consider myself any kind of anything, but I do okay at my own little slice of the musical pie.
Understood. Thanks. I might “release” this song into the wild one day. Maybe soon. I’m on the fence about it. It might do well…it might get me killed! Who knows? Exciting! Anyway, that might mean a tweak or a re-mix. I just don’t want an “inferior” version of it floating around the cybercosmos somewhere.
No, sorry, I mean safe as in Google Drive is safe for people to go to and check it out if they choose. It’s not a weird hosting site full of ads or pop-ups or viruses. It’s freaking Google. That’s all I meant by that. I don’t mind if the few people that check it out want to download it. It won’t be up for long anyway. Or if going to a Google Drive is too much hassle, that’s fine too. I get it.
Thanks. Um, I don’t really know what to say about it. It’s actually really basic. It’s really usually just drums, bass, and guitars. What I do really obsess on is getting good sounds to begin with. And for me that means having really good gear. When you have good sounds to start with and you play your parts well, a mix pretty much mixes itself. I know that’s a nauseating cliché, but it’s true.
2 Likes
Wow, really strong mix. FWIW, I do like the drums. I also like the panning and placement of the guitars relative to the drums. Solid, tight, well-balanced mix.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t gettcha killed, cuz I’m looking forward to hearing more of your stuff! Very impressive! Keep doin’ whattcha doin’. Love it! 
1 Like
Thanks!!!
Fair enough - I totally get that.
Ah ha… yes that makes total sense too.
True, but this track does have some pretty cool production touches - like the vocal chants and the sound FX… that’s really going the extra mile, and it separates a drums/guitar/bass vocals demo-sounding track from a fully-realised, well-thought-out production, IMO.
Fantastic! Yeah, that was kind of what I was getting at. I was interested in what are you using for your recording chain - your instruments, mics, pres, interface etc
1 Like
This is SO GREAT. I love it to bits. Really reminded me of one of my very favorite bands, which is X from the late 70s LA club scene, featuring John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, and Don Bonebrake. I would kill to hear Exene do one of her trademark weird-ass harmony vocals on this.
Please let us know when you’re ready to release this into the wild, so that I can share it. 
1 Like
Ok yeah well the gang vocals are just what they are - a gang of vocals. That’s me, my wife, an old high school friend, I got a friend of mine sent some in from Canada, and probably more that I’m regrettably forgetting. It’s just stacks and stacks of people shouting the same thing. I find that if you want gang vocals, you have to use a gang of people. You could do it yourself a bunch of times, but it’s tough to make it not just sound like you. You need different voices. Same with the stomps…although you could just do that yourself. I enlisted help because I didn’t feel like stomping my way through 30 tracks.
Okay the instruments…this is gonna be long:
Drums - Mapex Pro-M with Remo Emperor coated heads, Evans G1 bottoms, and Paiste 2002 cymbals. Ludwig Supraphonic snare with a Remo Powerstroke 3 batter head and a Remo Ambassador Hazy snare side. Puresound 30-strand wires.
Drums are recorded in a big room with close mics and stereo overheads.
Audix D series drum mics into an old Tascam US1800 interface with a little 4 channel mixer for extra channels.
Bass: Fender P/J bass. I only use the “P” pickups, but I love the jazz neck on this thing. I don’t remember which amp I ran it through, but I always track bass through a clean guitar amp. I like the bite and midrange you get from bass into a guitar amp. I don’t want a ton of low end on faster songs like this. I just watch the volume so I don’t melt a speaker. It’s probably a G12H30 speaker in a Marshall 4x12 micd with an AT4047 from about a foot away. I don’t remember, but that’s usually what I do and probably what it was.
Guitars: This has three different guitars on it. Les Paul Jr clone on the left, a Rivolta Mondata XVIII on the right (look one up, they’re cool), and the lead is a 1965 Mosrite Ventures MkI. The amps…I’m pretty sure I used a Marshall Jubilee and a JCM 800. I don’t remember exactly, but it sounds like the 800 is on the left and the lead, and the Jubilee is on the right. I think the lead and left rhythm is through a Vintage 30 Marshall 4x12 and the right is a Greenback Marshall 4x12. The cabs were probably micd with a 57 and an AT4047 blended. It’s all done very loudly. I like double-miking cabs. You get a very natural sound and you don’t need much, if any, EQ. Just juggle the two tracks. One mic is dark-ish, one is bright-ish, and blend to taste. No EQ necessary if you do it right.
Vocals: Just the AT4047 again.
Interface and DAW: Focusrite 18i20 running into Reaper.
Ha thanks. Yeah I’m very familiar with X. I saw them live just last year…you know, back when shows happened. Before the pandemic was mishandled into the clusterfuck it is now by the fat orange menace.
2 Likes
Generally always a good choice, if you have access to one.
Cool - Straight forward and effective!
Great tip!
Very cool looking guitar - looks like the dashboard of an old Caddy or something!
Wow, I imagine that would be very collectible! We have a guy here in Brisbane, Australia who runs a guitar shop called Tym Guitars, who is a real Mosrite aficionado (and Ramones fan). I think he actually used to build “Wosrite” guitars, which were (apparently very highly regarded) copies of the classic Mosrites.
I love 800s - That was the first Marshall I was captivated by the sound of. For rock, you can’t go wrong with an 800.
Again, those speaker combos are killer. I have a 2 x 12 Marshall cab loaded with Greenbacks.
That’s something I’ve never really tried. I’m too lazy to bother about the potential phase issues, so I just stick with a 57. Cool sounds you got here, though!
Awesome - Again, simple and effective!
Thanks for the run-down!
1 Like
I haven’t followed them much in recent years, although I am a huge fan of John Doe’s solo work and have most of those albums… did they play the old stuff the old way, or did they keep it more Americana style (I gather they’d been exploring that kind of territory for a while)?
1 Like
Yeah they’re a Dennis Fano/Eastwood collaboration. Very retro cool and unique.
Yup I’m familiar with Tym Guitars. He is Australia’s Mosrite guy for sure.
Agreed. To me the JCM 800 2203 is the perfect rock and roll amp just as it is.
The phase issues aren’t really a problem unless you’re trying to use an exact 50/50 blend of the two mics. You can’t be haphazard and lazy about the mic placement, but close enough is good enough since you’re probably not going to have the two mics at equal levels anyway. And if you’re recording digital you can always micro-slide one of the tracks so they line up perfectly if you want to.
I saw X at a festival and it was pretty rock and roll. A lot of old material. Definitely no Americana! Poor old Billy Zoom had to sit the whole time though. He had a knee brace on
1 Like