Original Tunes by Loc!

[Loc Talon]

So...

 

I thought I would share somre art with you guys. My passion, if you will. That is, MUSIC!

 

I consider myself a professional amature, I do hope to one day make a decent living of my tunes. High hopes, right?

 

So, I present to the community some original tunes by yours truly.

 

All songs were composed and performed by me. Yes, that is me playing the bass, drums, guitar, and singing, in all four songs.

 

All songs were also completelly recorded, mixed, mastered and produced my me in my living room and...one of my bathrooms. ! Seriously..Bathrooms have great acoustics, and the price is just right.

 

So, check them out at...

 

http://myspace.com/altermatum

 

...and be sure to leave comments! Lemme know what you think!

[Folken]

Not bad. As one musician to another, your quality could use some work. But that just comes with time and better equipment. Running a home studio can be a real pain to set up sometimes, but if done right it can be just as professional sounding as a full studio. Just keep at it, you'll only get better and better!

 

What kind of Mic are you using for your vocals?

[Loc Talon]

I appreciate the response.

 

In regards to the quality issue. That is due to the fact that those were recorded before I made some recent investments. The vocals sound flattened because, at the time of those recordings, I only had an AKG dynamic mic to record through. The guitars sound a little muffled, because...I only had one mic to mic my amp with. Those were recorded like...Three years ago. I just haven't gotten around to re-recording them yet.

 

I've since gotten some significant equipment upgrades, including a condensor mic for the vocals. But, even with those recordings, I had some decent equipment(for the guitars at least) My set up is a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier through a Mesa 4x12 standard straight cab and a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser. But, at the time of those recordings, I didn't have the greatest recording equipment.

 

The fact that I was forced to use my computer's on-board sound card as my recording input(with no pre-amps or periphrials) also added to the downgraded recording quality. At the time, I was forced to make do with the resources I had. !

 

I should have some more up-to-date recordings up soon, with two new songs. I still need to tweak some levels and cut out some clipping, as well as play with the sound balance and frequencies some. But, needless to say, they are MUCH better quality than those were. Eventually, I plan to completelly re-record those four songs, I just wanted to have -something- to put on the site and felt the music was more important than the quality or available equipment.

 

 

You said that you're a musician as well? Do you have any tunes I could check out? Always love hearing new stuff! =D

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

I like a lot of it. Kind of reminds me of grunge with more metal elements.

[Loc Talon]

That's awesome! That's the exact element I was going for with that project. I wanted to create some tunes that were a throw-back to the early 90's grunge era, but mixing in more contemporary rock elements with it. Mind you, that is not the only elements that I draw inspiration from, just this current mix of songs that I've been working on. With each session, I try to incoporate different musical elements into the various compositions.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

That's awesome! That's the exact element I was going for with that project. I wanted to create some tunes that were a throw-back to the early 90's grunge era' date=' but mixing in more contemporary rock elements with it. Mind you, that is not the only elements that I draw inspiration from, just this current mix of songs that I've been working on. With each session, I try to incoporate different musical elements into the various compositions.[/quote']

Yeah, I hear ya. I like to play a wide variety of genres. Keeps it interesting.

[Loc Talon]

Absolutelly. I'm a firm believer that diversity equals longevity. If you look back through the history of music and take a good look at the most notable musicians and bands, that have withstood the test of time. Even as far back to the Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart periods, they all had diversity. And that diversity has allowed their music to carry on through the ages.

 

I think that if someone constricts themselves to one specific genre or style of music, they are only building walls around their musical creativity and freedoms.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

Absolutelly. I'm a firm believer that diversity equals longevity. If you look back through the history of music and take a good look at the most notable musicians and bands, that have withstood the test of time. Even as far back to the Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart periods, they all had diversity. And that diversity has allowed their music to carry on through the ages.

 

I think that if someone constricts themselves to one specific genre or style of music, they are only building walls around their musical creativity and freedoms.

Haha, I just think they're utterly uncreative to begin with if they follow that philosophy of singular genre only.

[Loc Talon]

I also think it has to do with fear of experimentation or exploration.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

What program do you use to record?

[Loc Talon]

Sony Acid Pro 7.0. It's not protools or cubase, but it gets the job done. I also have quite a few pre-amps and external interfaces that I run the signal through, before going into the computer, to help regulate the recording quality of the signal itself. Really, all I use Acid for is capturing the end signal and do very little editing(outside of final mixing and production) with the program itself.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

Sony Acid Pro 7.0. It's not protools or cubase' date=' but it gets the job done. I also have quite a few pre-amps and external interfaces that I run the signal through, before going into the computer, to help regulate the recording quality of the signal itself. Really, all I use Acid for is capturing the end signal and do very little editing(outside of final mixing and production) with the program itself.[/quote']

Yeah. I have cubase, but I'm a total noob with it, I am not really maximizing what I could do with it. So, the fact you're able to get a song put together and recorded right has me give you mad props. :cheer:

[Loc Talon]

Learning a DAW was actually one of the more easier things for me to pick up. It was just a matter of making like...A thirty second to a minute sound file and just going wild with the different editing options and features, to see how they manipulated the sound itself.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

Like this? http://www.vimeo.com/7283382 lol (And yes that is a picture from Aion)

That's from a while ways back when I had first got cubase, obviously it's going to sound a bit repetitive because it's just guitar. I was meaning to go back at some point and add more, but never figured out how to get the processed instruments recorded in as well.

[Loc Talon]

Nice. The flange through out the composition kind of holds it all together through the transitions and I liked the interlude with the use of delay in there as well. Were you using an alternate picking technique for the main rift?

 

I think it would sound that much better to throw some more instruments on top of it, definately some percussion. I might be able to help you with the processed instruments, if you give me a bit more detail on what you're refering to in that sense.

[Therese]

I'll combo breaker here and say I am not a musician so I cannot help you in any way whatsoever! =Db

 

Actually, I thought a lot of it was pretty good, even if it wasn't really my style of music. The vocals on Dance of Deceit was a little hard to hear though, and I'm slightly afraid you'd strain your voice if you keep sounding like that. ; I may not be a professional musician, but I did take choir and know that's not a good thing to hear. =x

 

Overall, if I heard that play on the Internet radio and was told that it was a hip new band that has some room to improved, I would have been convinced.

[Doktor_Ljubavi]

Nice. The flange through out the composition kind of holds it all together through the transitions and I liked the interlude with the use of delay in there as well. Were you using an alternate picking technique for the main rift?

 

I think it would sound that much better to throw some more instruments on top of it, definately some percussion. I might be able to help you with the processed instruments, if you give me a bit more detail on what you're refering to in that sense.

Alternate picking, yeah.

 

and as far as "processed instruments", it has some option where you can pull up a toolkit that acts like a keyboard, or a drum set, etc, and you can make a rhythm, or a string of notes without actually owning the instrument. Kind of cheating, but when you don't have access to a million instruments, it's kind of nice... I just never figured out how to get it to work.

[Folken]

Wooh, lots of comments went by

 

Anyways, I saw you didn't work with protools, I'd highly suggest giving it a shot. Most professionals choose to use it for a reason, it's damn good 8-)

 

And I've posted my assortment of songs here before, the thread is over Here

[Loc Talon]

I'll combo breaker here and say I am not a musician so I cannot help you in any way whatsoever! =Db

 

Actually, I thought a lot of it was pretty good, even if it wasn't really my style of music. The vocals on Dance of Deceit was a little hard to hear though, and I'm slightly afraid you'd strain your voice if you keep sounding like that. ; I may not be a professional musician, but I did take choir and know that's not a good thing to hear. =x

 

Overall, if I heard that play on the Internet radio and was told that it was a hip new band that has some room to improved, I would have been convinced.

 

That's mostly due to the lack of recording equipment and the fact that I only had a dynamic mic to record the vocals(you should use a condensor mic). I had to make do with what I had. The screams that you hear towards the end aren't even screams at all, just recording tricks. It's like...a high pitched yawn, with a lot of high-end equalization and reverb thrown behind it to make it sound louder and forceful, that what it really is.

 

and as far as "processed instruments"' date=' it has some option where you can pull up a toolkit that acts like a keyboard, or a drum set, etc, and you can make a rhythm, or a string of notes without actually owning the instrument. Kind of cheating, but when you don't have access to a million instruments, it's kind of nice... I just never figured out how to get it to work.[/quote']

 

Ummm...I know how to do that with Acid. And if the interface is anything similar(which I'm assuming it's not), you have to first create a designated "MIDI track" instead of an "Audio Track". Then arm to record, press record, and then play away. At least, that's how it's done with Acid. If I had a couple days to play around with Cubase, I could figure it out. You might try googling it. I'm sure there's some sort of tutorial out there somewhere.

 

Wooh, lots of comments went by

 

Anyways, I saw you didn't work with protools, I'd highly suggest giving it a shot. Most professionals choose to use it for a reason, it's damn good 8-)

 

And I've posted my assortment of songs here before, the thread is over Here

 

I've played around with protools before. It is a nice protools and, as you said, alot of professional studioes use it. Alot of that has to do with compatibility, as well though. The ability to take recorded works from one studio to another and not have to worry about the sound files not being recognized is a huge benefit. But, I do love some protools. It makes the process alot simpler. I just don't have two grand to throw down on the program and the propriety equiment required to get the full benefit of it. That is my next investment though, that's really all I lack for my studio and it would be nice to have.