pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Hey folks - We just finished the mix & master of our new EP and its just gone live... http://www.ourhelicalmind.bandcamp.com/album/analogftw This one features the MC talents of Duke01 & Non-Thespian and is a big step forwards to us. Pretty happy with the mix as well. We did this all live as a 2-piece. If its not a drum beat, it was me, on bass, with no overdubs or samples etc. If you like music light and jazzy, stay away. lol Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Wow! That is a fantastic sound you have there... I'm amazed that you did it with no overdubs, etc. Really impressive stuff. I need to get my head around creating this sort of music in a live environment, but I need to invest in some more kit before I do so (an excuse for GAS if ever there was one!). Let me know if you're ever gigging in or around Manchester, as I'm guessing you guys are **** hot live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Schmmgrooowwwsshhhzzhhhbppppphhhhhkkktzzz Yup, thats the sound of Roscoe goodness baby Love it mate, more more schhrwwoooowwwwwgghhhttzzz I say, more! Lovely kit recording as well, great kick sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 [quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1316697226' post='1381616'] Wow! That is a fantastic sound you have there... I'm amazed that you did it with no overdubs, etc. Really impressive stuff. I need to get my head around creating this sort of music in a live environment, but I need to invest in some more kit before I do so (an excuse for GAS if ever there was one!). Let me know if you're ever gigging in or around Manchester, as I'm guessing you guys are **** hot live. [/quote] Thanks dude. We are playing in Bolton next friday and Duke01 (vocals on Barcode Babble and the 2nd half of The Threat Of Reason) is coming with us as well as a local MC called 'Karizma' (who frankly, is amazing)... which will be awesome. It's tough with out overdubs. I was going to do the last part to 'Threat' as 2 tracks (bit with the tremolo) as you have the fat clean sub underneath and the trem on top and the change over is quick. Basically I have the length of the drum break that leads into that section to change the setting on my Line Selector, change the patch on my MP-201, start the LFO exactly on the beat and change the frequency of the FreqBox. It took a few attempts, but now I can do it all live in about 5-6 seconds! That track sounds sooooooooo different without vocals when you can hear all the bass sounds. I tried to upload the instrumental version to the Dubstep thread but the forums uploader is still struggling with large files since the forum move. [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1316700608' post='1381675'] Schmmgrooowwwsshhhzzhhhbppppphhhhhkkktzzz Yup, thats the sound of Roscoe goodness baby Love it mate, more more schhrwwoooowwwwwgghhhttzzz I say, more! Lovely kit recording as well, great kick sound. [/quote] I have no idea what 'Schmmgrooowwwsshhhzzhhhbppppphhhhhkkktzzz' means, but with your permission that will be a track name on the next EP!!!! Yeah, Tom's drum sound is lovely. We tune the kick drum up in pitch so it doesn't interfere with the bass or sub - effectively is fills more of the mid range in the absence of guitars and keys. The Roscoe's natural growl really helps beef up the Octave tones and fuzz as well - The love fuzz pedals! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 [quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1316701433' post='1381687'] I have no idea what 'Schmmgrooowwwsshhhzzhhhbppppphhhhhkkktzzz' means, but with your permission that will be a track name on the next EP!!!! Yeah, Tom's drum sound is lovely. We tune the kick drum up in pitch so it doesn't interfere with the bass or sub - effectively is fills more of the mid range in the absence of guitars and keys. The Roscoe's natural growl really helps beef up the Octave tones and fuzz as well - The love fuzz pedals! [/quote] Schmmgrooowwwsshhhzzhhhbppppphhhhhkkktzzz is a very bad attempt to phonetically spell some of the excellent layered clean/distorted/filtered/trememeloed bass sounds you're making there. Be my guest to use it as a track name! Ace banana I love the fact that you're using such a superb source sound (the Roscoe) and then just going at it with a wall of fx to make the final timbre. Like getting a superb camera then sticking loads of weird filters over a distorted lense and taking a portrait piccie of your mum. I think they call this art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Art. Yeah that'll do To be honest - the Roscoe makes a huge differenece. Most fretless basses I've played do not have an even tone across the whole range and the treble section suffers. I often find that the B & E strings are great along with the G & C, but many have something lacking in the middle strings regardless of what you do with EQ and pickup height. For me, this led to issues with Octave tracking as it would always glitch out when using those strings, but also with Fuzz pedals and certain notes having a huge leap in sound as the frequencies cut through better. The Roscoe's are very very even and have solved all my pedal triggering problems and offer me a super consistent sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 I concur! Brilliant work & good to hear something completely different. Some of the sounds you are making are immense!!!!! Let me know if/when you're touring up this way & I'll be there (or if I'm down your way at all...). That reminds me, PM coming your way shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Will do - We are currently looking to get out more and are interested in playing pretty much anywhere, we only ask that we cover out costs of travel (happy to not come out with any profit, just to get the material out there). If you know people putting on popular nights that cover HipHop/Drum & Bass/Dubstep etc then hook us up! Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 [quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1316701433' post='1381687'] Thanks dude. We are playing in Bolton next friday and Duke01 (vocals on Barcode Babble and the 2nd half of The Threat Of Reason) is coming with us as well as a local MC called 'Karizma' (who frankly, is amazing)... which will be awesome. [/quote] Great! I'll try to get a 'pass out' from my other half and might bring a few mates along if I do... Sounds like you have some fancy footwork going on there with the various pedal switching. That's even more impressive. I can barely control a wah while playing, as my coordination isn't the best. I might need to take up tap dancing or similar to get my tootsies in shape! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Would be great if you can get along. Dan Owens (fellow Basschatter) band 'The Broken Door' are playing also - Another fantastic live Drum & Bass group! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 ^ Nice one, sounds like a really good gig! I bought a wah pedal off Dan last year... be good to see him live too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Back to the recording... lol... Here is a link to the Instrumental version of The Threat Of Reason so you can hear the tones I'm using. It all kicks in with the parallel effects after the drum break... If you're listening through laptop speakers or similar then you won't hear it as its too low lol [url="http://soundcloud.com/ourhelicalmind/the-threat-of-reason-1"]http://soundcloud.co...eat-of-reason-1[/url] This track is basically Moogerfooger heaven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Thats very very cool.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Cheers dude. Ironically it prob uses the least number of pedals of any of the tracks we do! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Good lad, that is ace :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Cheers Chris, appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 if it is all live, how is that whistle sound at the start being made - is it a triggered sample? Where can I buy the full ep? Is it on iTunes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 The sound is from the Boss Slicer, tap tempo'd to 80BPM, it's a pattern tremolo and some patterns have little extra beeps etc like harmonics. This is actually the only track I use the slicer for and I've now removed it from the board. I do similar now by feeding my Low Pass Filter with a Sample + Hold wave and very high resonance, but for the recording it's all Slicer. I use it on that groove throughout the track. There are no tricks - it really is live Both 3 track EP's are available here - www.ourhelicalmind.bandcamp.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Just realised I don't actually know what song your asking about! Lol. My answer above is for Barcode Babble, the other track that has whistles (and whale noises) is 'Neon Tangerine' - for that one I'm controlling the resonance of my LPF with a triangle wave as I open the cutoff, then pulling back quick. The delay catches the notes and creates some interesting noises. ALL the bass is live. All tue drums are live other than reverb added to the intro of 'Get Money!', sample applied to the Bass Drum on the 'jungle' section of 'Face 4 Radio' and 2 snare strikes in 'BigDug' have delay applied. That's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 COOL. I was not doubting that its live :-) Just wondered. It is the beeping on the pattern which I heard. Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Yeah cool The Slicer thing is easy. Just any other modulation effect. The sounds at the start of Neon Tangerine are a little more difficult (and a little bit different everytime). That's all the fun though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 I listened to this last night at home with my sub. I really like it! Especially the tracks with MCs (I get bored easy). To be honest I thought your sounds in general could have been "fatter" - more overdrive or something? It's difficult to describe the sounds i'm imagining in my head. Obviously you'd probably disagree as it's a personal thing and no doubt you've been through millions of sounds to get what you want. You should try and get a gig at The Sugarmill in Stoke. They have drum n bass and hip hop nights, although I don't know if they've had any live bands at them. I'd deffinitely come to watch you guys! In fact i've just texted the manager your band name as he'd love your stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Glad you like it dude, and thanks for the nod regarding the venue! As for the bass sound and 'fatness', I agree and disagree. The bassist in me thinks the fatter the better - and when we play live I tend to beef up the OD a little more. It's quite hard to accurately reproduce what you hear live in a studio though as every amp and pair of speakers sound very different, so I tend to stick to a 'good' sounding medium. I like to keep my 'fatness' as a clean octave sound and my fuzzy/distortion tones quite high. More importantly though, where the recording is concerned I'm trying to NOT sound like a fat live bass, rather a synthesised bass-sound. After all we are trying to make programmed music - made live. A few tracks step out of this mould, but as a rule I try and keep the distorted/fuzz tones to be more biting/synthesised/bit crushy etc etc. If you ever get to see us live you'll see I use much more ZVEX Mastotron and less FreqBox though. That said, I am looking to pick up a fat overdrive to beef up a few sections for when we don't have an MC with us, and to be honest, for what I'm doing the old Boss ODB-3 seems and sounds most suitable due to the massive amount of bass you can add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 [quote name='pantherairsoft' timestamp='1316797340' post='1383144'] Glad you like it dude, and thanks for the nod regarding the venue! As for the bass sound and 'fatness', I agree and disagree. The bassist in me thinks the fatter the better - and when we play live I tend to beef up the OD a little more. It's quite hard to accurately reproduce what you hear live in a studio though as every amp and pair of speakers sound very different, so I tend to stick to a 'good' sounding medium. I like to keep my 'fatness' as a clean octave sound and my fuzzy/distortion tones quite high. More importantly though, where the recording is concerned I'm trying to NOT sound like a fat live bass, rather a synthesised bass-sound. After all we are trying to make programmed music - made live. A few tracks step out of this mould, but as a rule I try and keep the distorted/fuzz tones to be more biting/synthesised/bit crushy etc etc. If you ever get to see us live you'll see I use much more ZVEX Mastotron and less FreqBox though. That said, I am looking to pick up a fat overdrive to beef up a few sections for when we don't have an MC with us, and to be honest, for what I'm doing the old Boss ODB-3 seems and sounds most suitable due to the massive amount of bass you can add. [/quote] Interesting take on it. Live its way harder to control all that super low stuff, I'm surprised you dont let the madness out more when recording (accepting I can only imagine how hard it is to get this just so). How many tracks of bass do you have at mixdown? One all glued together or one for each 'branch' of the effects system and a clean, or who knows??? Fascinated to get an idea of your process, think we may have time for a good old chinwag tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 The 1st EP was done different to the 2nd. On Subscapes we played the tracks over and over, then selected the best sections for the final cut. So you had certain bits with a 'verse' from one take and a 'chorus' from another. Also, due to the effect changes between sections, to keep it tight it was not possible to go straight from A to B, where as I can get away with it live. This time we wanted to do it like you hear it - we played through it once to get a structural guide track, then Tom played the track over and over until we got a single track that he's happy with start to finish, without the need to cut out sections etc. Then, this time I did the same with bass until we get a take we like. It's hard work doing it without drop-ins, but as there are only 2 of us we use the time you'd do guitar and vocal takes to really hammer it live. The drums took a while, but getting a single, solid take feels more natural and ultimately just sounds better. I spend LOTS of time leading up to recording in my studio tweaking sounds and EQ's so my tones are very complex and sound 'full' as a single track of bass, then record that. Therefore, with the analogftw recording, what you are hearing is a single track of bass, recorded in one take per track - the sounds can be reproduced exactly the same live. Fuzz, Harmonics, Sub - all done together. The way we 'beef' up the complexity of the recorded sound is to use 3 mics on the cab (2 at different distances from the speaker and one on the tweeter) and a DI on the amp, then use a blend of all 4 for the final result. Each mic has slightly different characteristics so the texture works well, but they are all recording the same sound. I prefer this method, and sound, to having a clean take recorded, an octave take etc etc then blending them together at the mix stage. Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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