Originally Posted by: light487I didn't think it was possible to crap out the almighty Mac? :P

but seriously.. isn't that you big new computer you bought recently? Have you got the new RAM for it yet?.. and also.. why didn't you just render some of the tracks together once they were done?

I listened to http://s93744050.onlinehome.us/Hybrid_Schmange_320.mp3

I wasn't sure which one to listen to.. so I just grabbed the middle one and hoped for the best. The first part reminds me kind of Bladerunner, but then at 1>44 it changes into more of a Sci-Fi TV Show theme type thing.. may be Sliders or something like that. Not sure really what to make of it as I am not generally into this kinda of composition. Towards the end there's a layered guitar lead solo but other than that I am not hearing much guitar stuff..

When you say guitar synth.. what do you mean?? Was all of this done on a guitar through some sort of synth/effects processing module?

wow..so many questions. :)
I'm still learning how to use the new Mac and Cubase 4.1 so these songs are from my old G3 running OS 8.6 and Cubase VST 5.1.
The new version of Cubase ended up being such a huge change that it's almost like starting from scratch. I ended up having to buy some tutorial DVD's cause I just wasn't getting anywhere. I'm working on my first song now and getting used to it but it's slow going. Just when I get on a roll, I try to do something that was relatively simple on VST 5.1 and boom... it's not where it should be and it takes 2 hours to figure out how to do it.
There's a couple of bugs in the new program too which threw me for a loop so I've spent a couple of weeks with tech support trying to get it sorted out.

I've got the RAM finally, but now I find out I need to get an external audio card because the internal one on a Mac doesn't have direct monitoring capabilities. Plus, even with all this RAM, it still craps out when I have a bunch of synths and plug-ins running. I need to get the processing out of the computer and get rid of the latency problems before I can fully go nuts with it. I also made the dumb mistake of buying an Audiophile 2496 card and then discovering that Mac has changed the size of their sound cards and it doesn't fit.
I figure it's gonna be another month or so before I feel comfortable doing a finished song on it.

The way it works song wise, is almost everything you hear is done using a guitar. I start with a basic set of drum loops, then use a drum machine (either Battery or LM4II) to start building up a copy of the loop from scratch so that I can fiddle with it. Each note on the guitar corresponds to a certain midi note and each midi note corresponds to a certain drum sound.
So I can sit here and fingerpick with my right hand and it translates into what sounds like a drummer playing. Then I'll tweak even more with sound effects or real drums.

The bass, if it isn't a real one is played on the guitar too. Usually going through either Pro-52/Pro-53, Halion, Moog Modular or some other synth.
Then it's the same thing again, play the guitar and it sounds like a bass.
Sometimes I'll set up arpegiated loops so I just have to hit notes on the beat to get 16 notes playing.

Synths are done the same way. Use a plug-in like Absynth or SampleTank. Play the guitar and pick what sound you want.

Last thing to do is add the real guitar and with that I'll just fill in whatever is missing, do a lead solo or rock up the background.
Sometimes I'll use really heavy effects to make the guitar sounds like a different instrument.

With this song I started out using Absynth and layering various synth sounds. Built it up with some loops and sound effects and added a lead synth line.
At 1:44, the drums are a copy of a loop filled out with with myself playing on guitar through Battery using a NI Electronic drumset.
The bass is done using MoodModular running a looping arpegio that's triggered on each on beat.
The other sounds are chords played on guitar run through a digital delay, chorus, reverb and compression that's also going through Absynth to play backup chords on the synth. There's also some overdrive guitar mixed far into the background.

When the real bass comes in at 2:34, it was done on two tracks.
One for the pop and one for the playing. I just played it once, combined the two tracks then copy and pasted it 4 times.
This was where the 16 part harmony also went.

From there, the rest of the song is taking a lot of what I'd already done earlier in the song and cutting and pasting it around and adding a new overdrive guitar with the bottom E tuned down by an octave and run through some heavy reverb.
Then a lead overdrive solo and fade out.


... man, Sliders. Haven't seen that show in years.
I remember my complete shock in seeing that girl in a [mature] video a few years ago.
I had to go back and watch the video a bunch more times just to be sure it was her :)


[Edited by light487 to keep things nice and clean and G-Rated]