I invite all illustrious members, and surfers to review some of my music

[leadfootdriver]

Please come and check out my freebie site, and listen to some of my music. Tell what you think no matter what. you wont hurt my feelings. Please click the link below.

[NMcGuitar]

Hey leadfoot -

I finally got the chance to check out your music.

Nice stuff, man.

[leadfootdriver]

Thank You Sir! That means a lot to me!

[Jim Soloway]

I liked The Last Goodbye. It had some interesting changes and the playing was solid. That being said, I was not at all crazy about the drum track and I thought the guitar could have been much more restrained both in tone and attack, especially when first came in. It felt like the guitar overpowered the song and in this setting I think the needs of the song should have come first. The harmony sections were very nice and would have like to have heard a bit more of them. Overall a good piece of work though.

 

Some really nice guitar playing on Highway Drive. Again I thought the harmony sections were very good. I also thought the dynamic shift both into and out of the solo guitar passage was very good. Even the speed passage sounded like it belonged in the context and flow of the song. Good job.

 

One last thought. I had all sorts of trouble downloading the material from mp3.com. There are a lot of sites that would be easier for posting on a forum. One site I would recommend is nowhereradio.com

[leadfootdriver]

Thanks for the repy. I agree that the solo in The Last Goodbye IS a little loud, but I feel that the playing is unique, and expressive. So it's not to bad.

 

Thanks for the tip about that web site. I'll have to check it out!

[James-Italy]

Hey LeadFoot! Cool stuff.

 

Liked "The Last Goodbye" the best, but they are all very good.

 

1. What did you record them on?

2. Are you playing the bass, or is it midi?

3. What'd you use for the drums? On "Quest" the drum sounded much different from the others to me, I prefered them. Is that your newest song? If so, sounds like you're getting better and better.

[leadfootdriver]

Thank you sir! You can see pics of my gear in the images link on my mp3 site.

 

For Highway Drive, and The Last Goodbye, I used A Fostex D 90, 8 track Hard disc. It's an 18 bit deck, that I run at 48k. I recorded Quest on my newer Fostex 1624 16 track deck. This is a 24 bit deck, that I run at 48k as well. These are decent pieces that require zero maintenance. After killing my 4 track cassette to death, I made the decision to just go with something like this. This was long before I had a computer. My board is a Mackie 24x8, with the HR 824 monitors.

 

My esteemed rhythm section is a Boss DR 5 drum machine. It's a cool piece that I've been working with for a while. Although the sounds are getting dull to me, I can work it well, so I'll just stick with it. I've heard some great sounding rhythm sections coming from computer set ups on the forums though.

As for the Quest song, I just used a different EQ curve for it. I tried to get a smoother sound. It's hard to get the perfect mix on that drum machine, because you get mix increment selections from like 1-12, so either my snare is to quiet, or to loud, and it throws everything else out of proportion as well. Since my decks are midi, I've sinked up the drum machine, and recorded every different piece seperately on to seperate tracks, as if it were a real drum set, get a good mix, but it's time consuming, and kind of overkill I think for demo stuff.

 

For me, it's kind of hard to record, because of time, and space. I mean, when you feel like it, it's to late, and you'd wake everyone up with your midnight, mad scientist tendencies. And when I do get some time to do it, you have all this gear pilled into 1 room, and it starts to fry fast. When I'm in there for a couple of hours, and leave the room, the heat follows you down the hallway! Not to mention trying to get in the mood, and chase a good take with other people in the house making noise. You get so into it, that you get real sensitive to the moment, and you think that any noise that was made, was made to distrast you. Or at least it DOES distract you! I wish I had a dedicated house, or some private space where I could go. I'm sure lots of people can identify with this. I could really go crazy, and get a lot done if I had the means to do so. I'm sure anyone could, but such is the struggle.

 

And yes, Quest is one of my newer works. I have some other stuff that I've written with a vocalist in mind, but I think that situatuion is going to fall through, so I might take some of that stuff, and write guitar melodies, where the vocals would have been. We'll see.

 

But thanks again!

[James-Italy]

Hey Leadfoot-

Listened to "Quest for the Astral Plane" three times in a row this morning. That's almost a half an hour of LeadFoot-ing! A song that's 9:33 is a big undertaking. Must have taken lots of time and energy. Did you start out with a nine minuter in mind, or did it just evolve?

 

While I'm more a vocalist than a guitarist, and don't have your guitar skills, I can really relate to what you're saying. I find the studio very therapeutic. Kind of relaxes me and it's amazing how the hours fly by in minutes. When I get into the studio it's almost as if there is a time warp.

 

I've been using the Emu Darwin 8-track HD for the last five or six years myself- think that is pretty close to your old unit. I thought it would be better to use a "stand-alone" system instead of a PC. When I bought the Darwin the PC hardware interfaces were so darn expensive and I misread the future direction of home recording. I've always used the PC with Cakewalk (now Sonar) for the midi/SMPTE time clock, but never recorded on it. Now, my little project studio is in stand-by mode, but I'm ready to do a huge overhaul and upgrade. I'm thinking about a dedicated PC hard disk system, but I still haven't decided on anything yet.

 

Like you, I've tried to record the individual drum parts and then Eq and mix FX for each. I found it to be very tedious. The sound is much better, but my songs seem to be in a never ending state of change. I'll add a break or shorten a bridge or whatever, and having to re-do all those damn drum parts is just too much work. So I find myself just running them in midi until a final-final-really-the-final version. Even then, I like a good drum loop of a live player much better. I just never seem to get around to using loops and stick with midi. I've considered the Roland V-drums, but I'm no drummer and I don't want to complicate things too much.

 

I've got a real problem with bass guitar. I never seem to do anything right with it.... You seem to do well with the bass though. Sounds like a real bass and it stands out from the mix without overpowering. Good job.

 

Like to hear some of your stuff with a vocalist in mind- if you feel you'd like to share it with us.

[doc taz]

Wow. Impressive stuff here!

 

Great work on the bass and "Mac Hine"

 

Yeah, I second James, get stuff with a vocalist going.

 

Do you ever get any chances to play live? I think people would like your stuff. It's rocking, yet catchy.

[leadfootdriver]

"Hey Leadfoot-

Listened to "Quest for the Astral Plane" three times in a row this morning. That's almost a half an hour of LeadFoot-ing! A song that's 9:33 is a big undertaking. Must have taken lots of time and energy. Did you start out with a nine minuter in mind, or did it just evolve? "

 

Thank you sir! This is new to me. I mean, having people listen to , and like my stuff. It does not suck. But I don't know exactly how I came up with it (Quest). Ya' know, inspiration comes in different forms. Like sometimes a lick, or a phrase will come to you, and you work around that as your theme. Other times you have to carve it out, like it's a dream. Like you know you had a dream about something, but you have to work on remembering it. I guess a little of it depends on what kind of mood yer' in.

 

"Like to hear some of your stuff with a vocalist in mind- if you feel you'd like to share it with us."

 

I posted this if you havent heard it yet. This is a ballad I wrote, but without a melody, hoping to find that ultra charismatic rock singer to come along, and make it into something special. But NO... It's hard to find singers where I live. Especially ones that are in touch with different emotions, and are willing to express themselves this way. But this is the link to a small clip. All I did was write a melody for the bridge section of the song, and harmonized it. Then I recorded the solo which I had written for it a long time ago. I really just laid it all down fast enough just to hear it, because nothing was becoming of it. I'll re-record everything, and work on a proper mix when it's done. But I don't have anything else for this tune yet.

 

http://www.digitalsoundplanet.com/Members/000116646_000004417_proj.mp3

[leadfootdriver]

Originally posted by tazzola:

Wow. Impressive stuff here!

 

Great work on the bass and "Mac Hine"

 

Yeah, I second James, get stuff with a vocalist going.

 

Do you ever get any chances to play live? I think people would like your stuff. It's rocking, yet catchy.

I have these 2 cats that I have been working with. A bass player that shows a lot of promise, but he just got a new job on afternoons, so that pretty much ruins everything. And a drummer which is real good, but has an attention span problem. he's pretty much everywhere in his thoughts, and actions. Real obnoxious. He's great, but it's a problem. We can have a great practice, but then the week latter it would all fall apart because he's just not with it. So, since the bass player is starting a new job, I think this thing will end. Plus, they live about 45 minutes away in good traffic, and I'm the one who has to make the trip. It's just getting to be NOT worth the trouble. I would love to rock out sometime, but it's hard to find people into doing the same things around here in the Detroit area.

 

But hey, I'm real glad you did my stuff! Here is a link to some older stuff, when I was more into metal. It's probably from like 1996, or 97, when I still played an ADA MP-1. I didn't get my triaxis untill May 1998. I just looked at the recipt This rocks pretty good. It's called Friday Night.

 

http://www.digitalsoundplanet.com/Members/000116646_000004390_proj.mp3

 

Since you like more rockin' stuff you can check this one out too. This one's called Claim Station.

 

http://www.digitalsoundplanet.com/Members/000116646_000004401_proj.mp3

 

I hope you like these two as well.