Track #2
"Ride at Dawn" quite naturally follows the sunrise image depicted in the intro: catch the first wave of the day, and get a great shot of adrenaline! The original title from the old demo tape was "Midnight Drive", which would have resulted in a rather large temporal (yum, tempura) discontinuity!
I opened the Cakewalk file to jog my memory regarding the recording of this song, and surprisingly, I only used five tracks! All guitar tones were my "Main Distortion" patch, bridge pickup, with tone control set at 8. Drums were TTS-1 once again, and bass was Amplitude processed...nice and simple.
I again stripped out the harmony lead used on the original demo, and only added some overdub on the sustained lines at the end of the intro. The melody and timing are slightly tweaked as well. It took me a while to get that time signature properly programmed...I guess I'm just a musical hack! I especially like the way the melody worked out at the end of each repetition of the lick...it projects a rather adventurous and exotic flair.
I am particulary proud of the guitar solo in this song, even though it is rife with cliches. I think it really captures a hard-charging, high velocity feeling, and is quite memorable in a melodic sense as well! I added extra reverb to the whammy-bar dip near the end to give it an instant of vintage surf-sound. I still play air-guitar whenever I listen back to it! The sustained notes in the end of the solo created quite a dramatic, almost melancholy conclusion, kind of like the end of a great ride. It somehow reminds me of some Led Zep song, but I don't know which one...maybe part of "Achilles' Last Stand"?
The solo then goes into an ascending section, and from there into a sort of chaos, kind of like a buiding sense of fear when you've gotten in over your head, and then getting slammed and tumbled around by some nasty wave closing-out, followed by the relief grabbing a lung-full of air. I definitely had to retune the Strat after that! The bass effects were added purely within the computer. I think I could have done something to jazz up the main riff when it comes back in after the solo, as it was just a simple cut and paste. However, whenever I tried to add something else, it seemed to diminish the song. I suppose that's how you know when you're done!
My only other regret about this track is that the bass is not prominent enough. I suppose a bit of parametric EQ would be warranted to give it a bit more thump. It's tough chasing perfection!
Just ask Seven of Nine.
I opened the Cakewalk file to jog my memory regarding the recording of this song, and surprisingly, I only used five tracks! All guitar tones were my "Main Distortion" patch, bridge pickup, with tone control set at 8. Drums were TTS-1 once again, and bass was Amplitude processed...nice and simple.
I again stripped out the harmony lead used on the original demo, and only added some overdub on the sustained lines at the end of the intro. The melody and timing are slightly tweaked as well. It took me a while to get that time signature properly programmed...I guess I'm just a musical hack! I especially like the way the melody worked out at the end of each repetition of the lick...it projects a rather adventurous and exotic flair.
I am particulary proud of the guitar solo in this song, even though it is rife with cliches. I think it really captures a hard-charging, high velocity feeling, and is quite memorable in a melodic sense as well! I added extra reverb to the whammy-bar dip near the end to give it an instant of vintage surf-sound. I still play air-guitar whenever I listen back to it! The sustained notes in the end of the solo created quite a dramatic, almost melancholy conclusion, kind of like the end of a great ride. It somehow reminds me of some Led Zep song, but I don't know which one...maybe part of "Achilles' Last Stand"?
The solo then goes into an ascending section, and from there into a sort of chaos, kind of like a buiding sense of fear when you've gotten in over your head, and then getting slammed and tumbled around by some nasty wave closing-out, followed by the relief grabbing a lung-full of air. I definitely had to retune the Strat after that! The bass effects were added purely within the computer. I think I could have done something to jazz up the main riff when it comes back in after the solo, as it was just a simple cut and paste. However, whenever I tried to add something else, it seemed to diminish the song. I suppose that's how you know when you're done!
My only other regret about this track is that the bass is not prominent enough. I suppose a bit of parametric EQ would be warranted to give it a bit more thump. It's tough chasing perfection!
Just ask Seven of Nine.
posted by acnakagawa at 10:54 PM
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