Ross Donovan – Lianne Kaye – Glow – Cobbled together Production

Behold my mangled entry!

Initially I was going to try and turn the song into something more metal. But the vocals dictated the way I eventually went. I kept it simple, nothing too OTT. Started out by recording a bassline that vaguely followed the acoustic guitars, opting to play with my fingers instead of a pick to try and keep the attack down a bit. Then I created some drums with SSD5 using a combo of playing my MIDI keyboard, and hand programming parts to match my playing quirks. Thought I could possibly get a guitar solo into it, so over 175 takes later (courtesy of my red light fever), I finally worked out something that was in key and kind of worked (I’m entirely self-taught so I admit that my theory knowledge is patchy at best, so I just follow the rule of “If it sounds good, it’s probably right.”)

I had to dial back the dirt and tossed a coin as to what FX to stick over it. Originally I recorded it with a wah pedal, but I eventually removed it because it made the part stick out way more than it already does. The song still needed something, a synth, strings, or some piano. But everything I tried really needed me to completely change the direction I was taking, and I just didn’t have time nor felt like completely restarting again. Ultimately I settled on recording more guitar and squeezing it through some FX to create a synth-like atmospheric pad.

I hold my hands up, I crammed the mixing into just a couple of days before deadline, so I know it’s a bit loud for my taste (this coming from a metalhead), and I’ve not got it quite balanced. There’s some excessive pumping here and there. But it is what it is, and I’m just doing this for my own amusement really.

Anyway, good luck all.