Horrifying Rock Instrumentals - Suggestions?

[RogerG]

Hi all,

I've been having the darndest of times getting a lead line into my track "The Unlucky Ones" that will fit with all of the other racket going on. I'm wondering if the bells work? Or are they throwing this way out into left field? The track is called "WIP - The Unlucky Ones" and can be found here:

http://www.taxi.com/rogergilpin

The listing this is for is:

HORRIFYING ROCK INSTRUMENTALS a la Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch, Mushroomhead, Otep, etc. needed by the Music Supervisor for placement in a new Horror Feature Film starring many prominent members of Metal/Rock bands. He's looking for instrumentals that have a lot of ENERGY and SUPER-STRONG melodic themes that are MEMORABLE and UNIQUE. Production must be fresh and interesting, but NOT too overwhelming. HE SAID: "I need STRONG performances with tons of ATTITUDE. Please don't send tracks that are effects-laden and hard to put to picture." THINK: Chunky guitar riffs, driving bass lines, and heavy hitting drums that can provide the perfect restless tension to a Horror flick! NO VOCALS, INSTRUMENTALS ONLY! Broadcast quality is needed (excellent home recordings are fine.) You must own or control 100% of your composition and master recording. Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD, include lyrics (if applicable). All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS ONLY - NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI - and must be received no later than NOON (PST) on Monday, February 6, 2012. TAXI#D120206IN

All suggestions are appreciated as usual. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I may have to abandon this one if I can't get it to come together soon. I'm also wondering if this is a little "harsher" (for lack of a better word) than what they're looking for?

Anyway thanks for all of your input/suggestions as always. - Roger

[rpittelman]

Hi Roger

Ok, here are my 2 cents. I think this is a very cool riff and some nice drum work but there is one major issue I'm having with this that's not making it stylistic of the artists referenced. You only have ONE GUITAR track. You gotta have your guitars at least doubled and panned hard left and right. It doesn't matter how nasty your riff is or if you've got a seven string. If there is one guitar in the center of your mix its not going to work. I also think that you need to pull some of the mid range out of the guitar sound to darken it up a bit. I think that if you do those 2 things you may find that this tune doesn't need anything else. Oh yeah, I liked the bells

Anyway, I hope this helps

-Robbie

[RogerG]

Hi Robbie,

Nice catch. I thought I had two guitars. The guitars were recorded in stereo which isn't what I normally do (not much point, I typically only use one close up mic). The one had way more strength when panned left than the other guitar that was panned right. The end result was the right hand side guitar was getting absolutely buried. So I've converted both tracks to mono and remixed now.

Thanks for the help/heads up! - Roger

[rpittelman]

Cool. I see that you are also a Berklee alum. When did you graduate?

-Robbie

[burpo]

Too harsh? NO WAY!!

This sounds like it'd be right at home in a Rob Zombie movie.
The bells are good. I'd add a lead guitar playing a counter to
the driving rhythm riff.

The Ultimate Fighter reality show had a deep catalogue of
this sort of thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j3wqlcUtFk

What you've got so far is great, Roger!!

[feaker66]

Wow

Bout jumped otta my skin with this volume so loud:)

I vote that this is right in the ballpark.

The riff is a little long at 20 seconds befre it changes.

This old man still loves this struff.

Paul

[RogerG]

Hi guys,

Sorry Paul (no, not really ). Thanks for the listen. And ironically I actually turned everything DOWN when I recently remixed this as the one guitar was way in the red before...

Robbie, I graduated in 1992 with a major in songwriting but only got serious with Taxi a couple of years ago (I subscribed every now and then but just didn't "get" how Taxi worked plus I didn't have the wife kicking me in the butt that I do now ). And you? I see you've done quite a bit of film work related to your major?

Thanks for the link Burpo (assuming that's not your real name? ). It helps. I'm always wary about putting strong leads on a track unless they specifically say it's for opening a show or something where I know there won't be any dialogue. I don't want to be potentially stepping on dialogue as a supervisor won't use it then even if Taxi does forward it for some reason. It's a balancing act (one which I haven't quite figured out yet honestly) of how to keep things interesting with guitar leads but not step on dialogue at the same time. However I heard both in your link, so I'm going to go back and listen again hoping it gives me some kind of feel/direction.

Thanks again everybody! - Roger

[rpittelman]

So we overlapped at Berklee. I started in Fall of '91 and graduated in '94

I've been pluggin away at this music thing ever since. I took about 6 years off from around 2001 to 2007. Kinda lost all the progress I had made but I've been pretty focused again over the past 4 years and things are really starting to pick-up some momentum now. I'm pretty excited about things musically these days actually.

I just posted my own stab at this one too. Come give a listen if you'd like. Its called "Death Hath No Fury" its on my Taxi page (that title kinda makes me laugh actually)

-Robbie

[RogerG]

Hi Robbie,

(I left a comment on your thread for your track but basically it sounds good to me )

Cool. No offense but I don't remember the name of course. I perfectly understand taking a break. I made my actual living doing computer networking but music was always in the background (many a dysfunctional cover and original band until my current cover band that I started with very old friends way back in 2001. We gig sporadically though due to a lot of busy schedules). As for Taxi, in the past when I had the money I didn't have the time, and when I had the time I didn't have the money. But I married someone who understands computer networking is not and never was my passion. I got extremely lucky there. So with her help we turned things around so I could concentrate on music and pretty much just music. I consult now and then to keep my hand in the computer field and my skills up but it's not something I absolutely have to do anymore. So why I'm with Taxi again and sticking with it/working very hard this time. It's pretty much a promise to my wife (and not one that's too hard to keep since I'll always write/compose/play music regardless of whatever else is going on).

Anyway, it seems we have some parallels. Hopefully I didn't bore you with my life story... Talk to you later. - Roger

[playagibson]

Doesn't sound harsh to me, but I'm not hearing the bass cut through like it should.
The bass will gel it together.
As far as leads go, simple passing tones will work well, or take some vitamins and shred like there's no tomorrow.