Hi Guys,

Just filmed my new track in a style of funk-blues-rock. Will be appreciate for opinions on that. Here it is:



This post has been edited by Danyl: Aug 15 2015, 02:48 PM

Hey man I think this is great, it's got a Gary Hoey peace pipe vibe. The only thing I feel is missing is a melodic structure. Maybe lyrics or a guitar melody that is memorable and maybe repeated. Your rhythm guitar work is perfect!

This composition is really cool! I like the rhythm and main riff of this one. I'm curious to know if you are used to compose your own instrumental tunes, or if this is one of the first ones. I think that it's a great way to polish your playing and keep on developing your own voice on guitar. So keep going and share other songs with us if you have!

Also, it would be interesting to know how was your approach to compose this one. Have you started with the backing? the riff? Does it include some improvisations? What software did you use?

Thanx man. Yep, but I just want it to be some funky-bluesy groove and not so melanholic this time.

Hi Gabriel,

Thanx for reply, really appreciate that. This is not my first instrumental (will share my old works below), but rather first one after long practicing, finding good sound and reviewing it for some time to introduce desired changes. Also I more seriously worked on mixing this time.
This composition borned as some riffing/chording experience I made influenced by guys like Jeff Kollman, Greg Howe and some funk songs. First I made a rhythm section with chorus, bridges, etc and after that solo part which appear as result of improvisation. But of course, I spent some time to make it more fit in overall song structure.

Gear used:

Guitar: Carvin DC400
Tuning: EADGBE
Preamp: Mesa Boogie Triaxis
Effects Unit: TC Electronics G-Major
Audio: Steinberg UR22
DAW: Reaper

Before I start recording this track, I made it in Guitar Pro 6. All sections: guitar, bass, drums made manually. For bass I used Ample Sound ABP VSTi plugin, so I export my bass track from GTP to Reaper and apply VSTi plugin on that to get bass. And it is really best plugin I've ever used. For drums I used Superior Drummer 2 VSTi Music City USA extension pack.
Guitar sound I get using my Mesa Boogie Triaxis preamp and virtual cabinets by Two Notes Wall of Sound

And here some of my previous, old works:







https://soundcloud.com/danyl-novhorodov/mount-blade

https://soundcloud.com/danyl-novhorodov/skeletons-march

Hey Danyl - that was funky!

Overall this is a very cool composition, I liked your guitar work here very much.
Not sure if you were planning to work on this one in the future? I'll share some of my impressions just in case I got when listening to the track.

- Solo is played over drum n bass backing. This is usually a cool setup for live gigs when a band has only one guitar. In this case, I think it would be very interesting to have the rhythm guitar kick back in at 2:31 (in the middle of the solo). That should make it more effective.

- Drums : although drums are playing an interesting groove, they have a tendency to sound too much like a drum machine. Now for this genre that is awesome, but to make that more effective you could go for some more obviously "drum machine" like sounds like electronic drums or something. In case you were going for real drums feel, what is missing is "humanization" of the drum track. In order to make the drum track sound more realistic and human, you could fiddle with the velocity of each drum hit. Velocity in midi controls how hard each hit on the drum set is. Human drummer would never really hit two notes the exact same way, with exact same force.

- Bass: bass lines and groove are awesome! Here the same comment as for drums stands, try humanizing the track to tweak each individual note attack (how hard the note is picked on the bass). If I'd be completely subjective here, I would maybe take out some of the notes on the bass where it follows strictly what guitar is playing (for example 0:59). This can allow the bass track to breath more and ultimately groove. You would just play one or two long notes there, or a slide and let the guitar do the riffing.

- Mix: the mix on my speakers sounds just a bit bass heavy meaning that even guitar seems to have a lot of bass (and lacking high end and clarity). Also, bass and drums are mixed a bit higher than the guitar but since the guitar is only "real" instrument here which sounds great I would probably do it the opposite way and have the guitar louder in the mix. You have great material here, I would tweak the mix a bit more. Maybe try adding some space (reverb) here and there (on drums and guitar). Just a tiny bit.

- Backing: finally, the song is great as it is but when listening to it I do get a bit of feeling how awesome it would be if some additional backing instruments would come in here and there to play a mini lick/hook or melody. Brass sections, saxophone and even additional percussions can make funky tracks sound amazing.

Overall, very groovy and well composed track - I really like it and it is catchy
It is still playing in my head even though I don't have it on hehe

Hi Bogdan,

Thanx a lot for response and suggestions. Yep, it's a lot of place for perfection here. I'm not so good in mixing - just learning. But I think it will sound really good and humanized only when I gather my music band with real drummer and bassist

Interesting stuff! It's always inspiring to know the details about how a song was build and also the details about the gear and software used to record and even to compose. I find the use of guitar pro for composing as a good alternative tool.

I'm checking that link to cabinets software and it looks really cool. It has many different possibilities and the design reminds me to altiverb, my favorite reverb suite.

About the mix of your sound, I think that there is more room to work on it and also on mastering to give this more power and a more balanced EQ.

You said that you are using Superior drummer. Have you been experimenting with the mixer presets for the different drum parts?

About mastering, what have you done?