New Song in the spirit of Good Friday

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Hope everyone is having a Good Friday and Easter amidst the wake of these crazy times.

I have written a new song inspired by, and in the spirit of, Good Friday. My go-to kit always seems to be the Pearl Masterworks kit in the Core Library, and this one was no exception. Mind you, it was a close toss-up between the Stainless Steel Ludwig in the Progressive Library (another fave) and the Pearl.

Hope you enjoy, just I enjoy listening to everything posted in this forum (I play more music from here than Spotify because this forum gives me the inspiration to keep making music). So, a heartfelt thanx to all of you! You all helped me more than you may ever know.

https://bearfacedcow.bandcamp.com/track/take-me-to-the-cross

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

• This topic was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Bear-Faced Cow.

Topic

[CHRIS]

Bear-faced Cow,

Sounds very nice!  I occasionally listen to a Christian rock radio station in my car (I live near Los Angeles).  I could picture this song on that station.  Did I already comment on this song?  It sounds kind of familiar.

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Who really comments on Christian Rock songs? When they do, it’s comical, more from Christians than anyone else.

Maybe I need to write some “devil music”. LOL!

Like yourself, I just love writing songs… Many are just the product of an overactive imagination fuelled by emotion. I just can’t post every one of them here because they don’t all use Toontrack products, although I am starting to develop some weird ways of implementing them, thanks to recent software updates that add some method to my madness.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[CHRIS]

But then you write “devil music” and then you only get compliments from the devil worshippers.   😉   I know this guy (haven’t seen him in years), friend of a friend,  that is/was a serious devil worshipper.  About 20 years ago, he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment, and one of the bedrooms was completely devoted to devil worship: a large alter, upside-down crosses & pentagrams, and books for casting spells.  Scary stuff.  He had some little bit (acting) parts in some big movies.  He made a documentary movie about devil worship.  He had an interest in putting some of my music into one of his movies, but I’m not aware of him making another movie.  Not that I’d want my music in a Satanic movie.

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

• This post was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by CHRIS.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

But then you write “devil music” and then you only get compliments from the devil worshippers.

I doubt it… I’d probably get some derisive remarks. Mind you, that might be a sign that I was doing something right. 😀

I’ve received similar types of comments from the other side as well that make me chuckle.

I saw something on Facebook that went: why do we associate heavy metal with the devil? For all we know, he might like smooth jazz. LOL! 😀

Like I said, these days I just try to spill out whatever is in my head onto the computer. It’s good therapy for the times we live in.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

• This post was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Bear-Faced Cow.

[CHRIS]

Bear-Faced Cow,

Yes, Satan must like elevator music (ha ha).  A lot of my music sounds pretty dark, but typically has vaguely Christian lyrics.  Not that I’m into death metal (mostly because of the vocals), though I’ve heard of “Christian” death metal bands.  Not that you can understand a single word of the vocals.  I guess if their heart is in the right place…..

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Yeah, I’m definitely on the other end of the musical spectrum when it comes to guitar and songwriting. Lately, I’ve been more enthralled with old R&B, blues and other older stuff with a groove. If anything, I’ve been using my unfortunate COVID situation to not only keep my day skills sharp, but my guitar techniques. This dog ain’t never too old to learn new tricks. 🙂

I’m starting to challenge myself more and more by picking a random groove in SD3 as well as kit preset and then play the first thing that comes to my head. With the new version of Logic, I feel more encouraged to just get some ideas down and not worry if they will become a song or not. Some of them don’t happen right away. However, I can now play more of a game of chance with the live cell feature in Logic. It’s something I would have never thought have using before, despite the methodology being around with Ableton (I was unfortunately associating it with EDM and Hip-Hop).

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[CHRIS]

Over 10 years ago, I bought an iMac (a few months ago a bought a brand new iMac); it was the first computer I had had that could handle music-related plug-ins.  First plug-in (correct usage of the word?) I bought was from toontrack.  For a year or 2 I had wanted to buy EZDrummer (1) after hearing about it on the internet.  So I go to Guitar Center to buy it, and I was stunned that Superior Drummer 2 was on sale there for only $10 more than EZDrummer (1)!  So of course I ended up with SD2.  Recently my songs have EZX (various ones) drums operating within SD2.  If nothing else, the EZX drums seem to have longer cymbal sustain than the original SD2.  I assume you owned SD2 at one point.  How was SD3 worked for you relative to SD2?  I thought I posted this yesterday, but now I don’t see it.  How did you meet the Van Halen mixer guy?  Any interesting stories regarding your mother you wish to share?

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

I actually had to be dragged over to a Mac kicking and screaming over 30+ years ago, when I suddenly found myself employed by Apple (story in itself). Been a Mac user ever since.

I never owned SD2. I was a long-time BFD user and beta-tester (and was using all sorts of software and hardware prior – never really heard of Toontrack at the time). That’s actually how I met Rail (the Van Halen mixer guy)… aside from mixing great bands, he had a “whacky” idea of creating drum libraries of famous engineers, and when I discovered that the first library to come out was Andy Johns, I found myself getting it and raved about it on the forums which caught Rail’s attention. In time, we were speaking on a regular basis and I helped him put together the back-end of his web site at the time and in return, got more drum libraries from him (Joe Barresi and Jim Scott). He also gave me lots of mixing tips to which I use and share this day.

Based on those drum libraries, my switch to SD3 was a no-brainer. I just had to listen to some of the audio examples to hear music in the drums, rather than bombastic noise (one thing I criticized BFD’s libraries on). Mind you, I was halfway out the door when EZD2 was released (I was already starting to use other drum libraries because they sounded like music)… I was so hooked on the Edit Play Styles feature that I bought it right away. I also like the fact that the plug-ins available inside SD3 are quite good and I have gotten good drum mixes out of them. I also like the fact that they have been listening to us as far as feature requests go. Considering I get a lot of mileage out of this software, I wouldn’t be surprised if I stick with it for a long time.

Mom stories another time… must play some guitar. 😀

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[CHRIS]

BFC,

Thanks for sharing the stories!  I cracked up with your Mac conversion story.  From what I recall, I tried some trial version BFD software, but I liked my existing Toontrack software better, so I never pursued the BFD any further.  Though I know some people are fans of that brand.  Nevertheless, you have some cool stories relating to BFD.

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Trust me, how I wound up employed by Apple felt just as comical. However, they recognized my passion as a software developer and gave me all sorts of resources, so I am grateful for the 5 years I was there. Not to mention that they knew how to throw a party back then. LOL!

Despite not really knowing about SD at the time (SD2 wasn’t out yet), I did know Drumkit From Hell. Despite how good it sounded, it didn’t really fit a song that I was writing at the time, so I didn’t go that route. Like I said, it was the Andy Johns kits that kept me in BFD at the time. I even tried to recreate the EQ curves for the main libraries, but it was also the recording chain into the Neve console that made it shine and it made me realize how important it was to get the recording right at the source. I sometimes miss using it these days, but now I have so many great engineers, as well as studios, to choose from as far as drums go. That seems to have a greater importance to me now as I feel my musical tastes feel like they are starting to become a little more eclectic these days.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[CHRIS]

BFC,

Now listening to “Salvation Bluez/Cuz I Believe”: Hey this is really good man!  Sounds very professional.  Nice audio quality and contrasting scratchy record sound versus the better audio quality.  The wah guitar was a little loud in my left ear for a little while; my only gripe.  Excellent overall.  Feel free to share a story.

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

I’ll keep this one short, mainly because even though the Joe Barresi Evil Drums pack is available for Superior Drummer, I wasn’t using SD 10 years ago when I recorded this song. Up until SD3, both this along with the Andy Johns pack became my most used packs for reasons mentioned earlier. As well, those packs are both put out by Platinum Samples, which is (or at least was at the time) owned by Rail Jon Rogut and Shivaun O’Brien. To complete the story, Rail is the VH engineer (my bad – he didn’t do Balance), with plenty more to his name, I was talking about, and have known for well over a decade. Super great guy, like I said.

I wrote that song 10 years inspired by a martial arts injury that was getting progressively worse, debilitating me forcing me to put an end to my martial arts studies, just shy of going for my 2nd degree black belt. The opening was actually written after I wrote the rest of the song. It was inspired by my fascination with Southern Country Blues artists such as Mississippi John Hurt and Mance Lipscome. I love playing all kinds of music on guitar, and have many guitar heroes.

While you are there, I have a growing list of songs that I have been remixing with SD3 and posting. I have often toyed with the idea of doing that one, but in this case, I don’t think I could add anything to it.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

• This post was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Bear-Faced Cow.

[CHRIS]

Thank you for the story.  I have a story (a bit like Spinal Tap).  I played in several bands in the 80’s.  It was 1983, and let us just say our male singer was not attracted to women (he confided to our guitar player; I played synths).  We played a party at the guitar player’s girlfriend’s house.  Before the party, we rolled out plastic matting all over the carpet, except for about one square foot (where someone later managed to throw up on).  Our band played mostly new wave/alternative music.  Well, the crowd that showed up was mostly a bunch of heavy metal dudes, so the audience was not too keen on our music.  During the party (at night), a police helicopter shined its light down on the house we played at (one of the neighbors must have complained to the police about the noise). As soon as our band stopped playing, I started tearing down my keyboard set-up.  A drunk guy offered to help me (no thank you!).  I packed up my gear and left the party before things got any worse.  Later, I heard our singer got drunk and tried to pick up on one of the macho heavy metal dudes.  Fortunately, our guitar player rescued our singer from getting beat up.

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

[Bear-Faced Cow]

That is one hell of a story. I can’t say I’ve had anything that exciting. The only time we’ve had the police come was back in the early 90’s when we forgot to shut the basement door when we were rehearsing. They thought we just had the stereo loud and didn’t believe that it was us playing. Despite the visit, it felt good for our egos at the time.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[CHRIS]

Good one! The very first band I was in, our very first practice, some neighbor (young) kids came by to the garage we were playing in.  They asked for our autographs, which was amusing, so we gave them our autographs.  That was the last time anything like that ever happened.  I have more stories, but I will pace myself.   🙂

https://www.soundclick.com/aaronaardvark

Cubase 10.5, iMac OSX 10.15.7, memory 8GB, Steinberg UR22 mkII interface

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