Just about finished the second song, just some final touches on a small part in the middle and finishing some bass lines I've rewritten to give the song some more depth. What turned out to be a 5 minute straight forward tune, has turned into something a little more intricate and as equally epic as the first song. Yeah I'm a humble guy, hehe.
We're both working to finalise this track over the weekend and I'll try get some sound bytes up on my YouTube channel during the week or week's end if it all goes well.
Sometime last week I put down my Bass track for the song, after a bit of tweaking I got a fairly decent sound, will sound even better with brand new strings though. It took me a take, some parts are a little rough around the edges, some other parts I'm trying to much, but I'm not to concerned about that right now, we're going to re-record it eventually anyway, so I'll get it down pat then. Here is a little snippet I posted on youtube to give an idea of what the songs sounds like with real Bass Guitar instead of the midi.
As of the start of this week, WonkyFonk has started work on the new track. I've given it a few more touches since I last worked on it, changing the intro to a riff that's a little more chaotic and an ending to suit. But I don't have anything to show of that just yet ...
It's safe to say we've just about finished writing Track 01. I think we're very happy with it, I think the song has a lot of energy and emotion in that it builds or snowballs on itself. I added a new video to my youtube account that shows a few other parts of the song.
Since this video went up we obviously got a lot more work done in terms of structure and layering. I also just added my bass guitar to it. Had some initial sync and sound issues at first, but I think I'm really happy with the sound (compression 4tw) I produced today and hopefully by the weekend I'll put another video on youtube to demonstrate.
The second track has a lot to live up to, it's much shorter in length but again has a lot of energy and progresses nicely. The structure is pretty much down, just looking forward to getting WonkyFonk's guitar and ideas down on it.
Spent the day putting down the last touches to the 11:30 minute intro track in the project. Was fun figuring out the harmonies to the bass melody for the second chorus riff and bridge that leads into the pre solo section of the song. I got them down on guitar and sent them WonkyFonk's way. He'll go over it and finalise the touches before recording his demo of it. We'll then approve it or make some tweaks and fit it in to the demo.
So we'll then put all the bits and pieces together to get the final structure down, listen to it in it's entirety, make sure it sounds right. I plan on replacing the midi bass with the real thing this weekend so we can get an idea on how it will sound against Wonky's guitars, so I'm looking forward to that. Then Wonky will have fun writing some solos.
We're plan on getting together with another Youtuber named Airbornedusty. Can find his videos @ Airbornedusty. We'll try get a few covers down in a colab. I think Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Brighter than a Thousand Suns is on the agenda.
So to finish off, once the demo is down and ready, I'll put out another teaser video and then we'll record the real thing, video ourselves playing and I'll edit in the video theme to go with it. I think it's going to be pretty epic, but time will tell.
And on a finishing note, I've finished preliminary work on Track Two and I've started work on Track Three. More info on these tracks later.
Sometime mid December I had the urge to write new material, so I got out my camcorder whenever an idea popped into my head so I could remember it for later. I think to date I have about 46 separate videos with a bass melody or two. So I have lots of material, some good, some bad.
Mid last year I got in touch with another YouTuber by the name of WonkyFonk and asked if he was interested in doing an Acoustic Maiden together. He'd play the 6 stringer and I the bass and I would lay the drums out using Fruity Loops (midi). As it happens, we did record a test run but we never got the time to complete it. You can find his channel @ WonkyFonk
So in late December WonkyFonk and I started work on some ideas based on my new material I had been writing. As I write our first track is the structure stage and coming along real nicely.
I'm using Fruity Loops to get the drums and bass down on midi, structure it, then send it over to Wonky so he can write the guitar lines. I'll restructure it based off of his guitar work, send it back and keep moving through the song until it's down exactly how we want it. The only thing difficult about the process is the distance and time-zones apart being that I'm from Australia and Wonky is from Ireland, but so far it's working out well.
Here is a short teaser video of our first track which is found on my YouTube page. For info on the video footage, please read the description.
Recently I bought a Guitar USB Interface which gives me the ideal opportunity to put down guitar harmonies and take the work load off of Wonky. It's also a great way for me to translate my ideas to him.
Today I spent the afternoon trying to get a harmony right for a phase in the song that leads in and out of the solos. It had me beat. I tried relaxing on the floor with guitar in hand and after a few hours I came out blank, It's funny how when you clear your mind doing something mundane the ideas start to work. As I was driving to the shopping centre to pick up some Ice Cream for my girls the harmony came to me and I put it down as soon as I got home and sent it off to Wonky. I'm really impressed with it as it really expresses itself perfectly in the song. Can't wait for people to hear it.
Early today the song we're working on was roughly eleven minutes, I'm making some alternate changes brought on by the parts I was working on earlier and now the song has blown out another two minutes, but we'll see if the idea sticks and importantly get Wonky's feel on it.
I've also finished the structure of a second song, put guitar on it. As soon as the first track is done we'll get to work on it and finalise any bits and pieces to it. It's roughly 7 minutes long. We'll get a teaser of that out as soon as we get some work done on Wonky's end.
Will keep this blog updated with out progress. Maybe I'll get another teaser going soon.
Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm a YouTuber known as The Acoustic Bassist, I've been a member under this handle for over a year now and I pretty much cover Iron Maiden songs using multi camera views. A lot of audio and video recording and editing, time consuming but fun to do, mostly. In my time before YouTube, I probably hadn't picked up the Bass consecutively for about 12 years. It wasn't until seeing other musicians on YouTube in their videos covering music I felt motivated to pick the old Bass up again, learning songs and having a go at it myself, but with an Acoustic Guitar. You can find my YouTube channel here @ The Acoustic Bassist. I've posted a few videos over the last year and a bit, slowing building a subscriber base and having fun with it, meeting new people, getting involved in projects, etc. All good fun. I initially started my channel with Acoustic in mind ... the reason being I didn't have the tools to record my electric and also because I wanted to try something different. Covering Iron Maiden with an acoustic bass guitar is very challenging, but all I needed was a video camera with a built in microphone and I could easily export it to my laptop and start editing. Easy. I think the result over time improved gradually as I was learning new techniques along the way. Before my 12 year hiatus from playing my Bass I had been in a few unsuccessful bands. Looking back, some I enjoyed and others I didn't. The people I played with were all awesome people, really, all of them, but I found pretty much in all the bands I worked in, the initial ideas were awesome but soon switched in different directions and evolved into whatever was popular for 2 months at that specific time. Which was always not to my liking and they always fell apart. Everyone just wanted to make it big over the shortest course and shortest time possible. Before that, back in 1987 I picked up my first bass guitar, was a really small badly made guitar with a huge palm plate over the bridge. Looked like a Gibson SG and had a really short neck compared to normal basses. I then bought a Fender copy which was too normal specifications except had the highest action, which for some reason couldn't be lowered. I guess the higher action was good as I think then it dramatically improved my playing and the high school band that I helped form but couldnt get a start in were soon asking me to try out again. The first band I joined was in 1989, a thrash band called Equinox, was fun for the short time I rehearsed with them but turned out they were not right for me.
After Equinox in 1990 I bought my first real guitar, an apple red Fender Precision (1982) with the help of my late Aunt. I soon had my old school band "Witchcraft" that I co-formed, but never got a starting position in knock at my door, wanting me to rejoin. So I did ... was fun whilst it lasted, never got passed the rehearsal stage but I learned a lot about my technique and music style. But I think importantly gained a lot of confidence in my playing ability.
In late 1991, I joined a band called Klimaxx which I joined through a suggestion from a good friend, a local Sydney band well established on the scene. I played quiet a few gigs with them before heading to Russia on a cultural exchange visa in 1992, one of the best experiences of my life. We played at a couple of university's and at a theatre where the performance was broadcasted onto local TV. Some tracks can be found @ Klimaxx
In 1993 I started my own band with my best friend called "Crazy Jack". Was the longest period being in a band but the direction changed so many times and in directions I had no control over. We played a few gigs, but never made any impact.
In 1997 my best friend and I tried again, formed a band called "Abstract Breed", found an awesome singer in 1998, wrote some pretty decent songs, but this time, guys lacked motivation, including myself and it never really sneezed past a few demo recordings and rehearsals. Can listen to some tracks on my MySpace page found @ Abstract Breed. 13 Years later, here I am.
