We’re currently in the process of getting some samples up for you guys to listen to, and will shortly be starting our blog full of cool AE tips and articles.
At the moment we have Perish In The Flames in the studio cutting an EP. Perish are a death metal 4 piece from Cambridgeshire who you can check out here. Right now we’re making a start on tracking drums, guitar tracks are to follow over the next couple of weeks.
Stay tuned!
- Matt
DARKADIAN - NO MORE ROOM IN HELL
This is the first EP I wrote and produced in my first project studio. It's a little rough around the edges, and the tone choices are.... interesting, shall we say? As is the production.
It comprises of 4 tracks in total:
1. No More Room In Hell (instrumental)
2. Exhumed Alive (instrumental)
3. We Don't Go To Ravenholm (instrumental)
4. Deeper Underground (Jamiroquai cover, featuring Greg Pope on vocals).
Please freely distribute as you wish - make copies, send to friends, burn CD's. However, none of the material on this EP is to be sold, or used in a commercial capacity without permission from Matt Crawford.
GUITAR PRESETS AND DRUM SAMPLES
To help any budding engineers get started on some tracks, I have broken down and included most of the components used to complete the EP, for you to experiment with and/or use in your own projects.
Guitars
I used my Line 6 PodXT Pro, with two separate amp models handling the two tracks of guitar. These days, with my current material, I quad track the rhythm guitars, but at the time I was going for a really sterile, in your face harshness and didn't want to thicken it up too much.
In conjunction with the PodXT, I was using speaker impulses. To do this, you need a program like SIR, which hosts speaker simulation files that work in unison with your preamp signal. So, for example, on the PodXT I would turn off all cab simulation and record with the preamp signal only.
Then, after the tracking is complete, open up the SIR plug-in on the guitar track and load in whichever speaker cabinet you want, thus completing the power amp and cab part of the signal chain. It yields great results every time, and in my opinion has a more 3D and "real" quality over that of the Line 6 equivalent.
Click here to download guitar tones
Mattayus Rhythm 1 and 2 are the preamp-only tones to use with the Black Mesa impulse. Alternatively, you can choose your own A.I.R cab to use from the PodXT. I highly recommend the V30's cab, with a blend of 57 off and on axis.
The Black Mesa 4x12 impulse is a file I made by fusing two separate impulses together. One was a Framus 4x12 with celestion V30's, the other was based on a Mesa Boogie 4x12. Both these impulse files were kindly donated by the fantastically talented and knowledgeable mod team on www.guitarampmodeling.com, who do fantastic work for the world of guitar amp modelling for little reward. So please show your support and sign up!
Drums
The drums were made using a simple step sequencer program called Acoustica Beatcraft, which I used in conjunction with some samples from my drum library. It's a simple kit, with some drums having varying layers for different strength hits, others are just one-shots.
If you prefer going the MIDI route, you could also use something like Native Instruments Battery.
Click here to download drum kit