Worked on this for a few weeks. My attempt at an angsty rock guitar instrumental. After about 14 versions, I came up with this:
HERE AND NOW – 2008 Download/ listen at ARCHIVE.ORG
Chords: Em/ D/ A + C/ G
Tempo: 90 bps
I’m not 100% satisfied with it. The sound engineering can be improved. The playback volume is not as loud as I want it to be, and I think the overall bass frequency can be adjusted better. But since I’ve reached the limits of what I know, this will have to do.
Started with a distortion guitar track (rhythm part), which expanded to include more guitars (lead and rhythms), then synth, bass, drums etc.
Then I let Adrian listen to this version (#10):Overall got his thumbs-up, although he didn’t like the lead (I didn’t like it either, ‘cos I half-heartedly recorded the lead to hear how the overall arrangement sounded).
So I took his comments and continued working on the piece, especially the lead. In the end, I decided to retain the initial lead melody, but I revised the middle part completely. You’ll probably hear a marked difference between version #10 and the final one.
This piece has 19 layers (my Macbook Pro’s 2GB memory wasn’t enough to cope, so I had to lock some tracks).
~ Ivan
Starfish Stories :: The Band 
should start from 24s (cos beginning a bit draggy -the guitar lead sounds to thin and tin-canny)
53s – drums super fierce
The powerchords got power – I am loving it
at 1min15s – the sudden tone change from distortion to smooth guitars and to a more major chords was excellent (should forget the distortion guitar here as it came in the way of the enjoyment)
Overall the professional level super high now
But where is a main melody?
3min – the plucking rhythm was nice and progressive as though one was on a journey
sounds more like a mood piece right now.
But still very powerful.. It made me get up and listen.
I kept anticipating for a melodious rift/lead somewhere but none came.
I didn’t like the sound of the lead guitar at the beginning cos it sounded very thin and as though it was played through a tin can. The sound is not pleasant to the ears and that recurring tune should change.
The lead coming in at 2min19 s had more body and was nice and thick
Overall I would say that it was sounding more professional, the drums were very good, the piece was indeed angsty. Very creative start and transitions. The only thing missing was a segment where a guitar let rip and had a more coherent melody instead of coming out in bursts. I think the engineering in this piece is a new benchmark for the starfishstories.
Thanks Adrian. I’ll work on a version 2 and see if it’ll work out better. You know, I did try to change the lead but I just couldn’t find a better one. You want to give it a go?
The drums were GarageBand loops. I spliced, mixed and edited them a little.
OK, I guess this is another confirmed song for the next album.
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