Call of the 80s

[Rainmak3r]

Hi all,

I just uploaded a new track, and for the first time every there's a video for it too

https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/call-of-the-80s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_T7G8cOrIo

As with many I've shared, I started composing this more than 20 years ago (you can listen to this old MP3 from 1999 that used WinGroove at the time), and got back to it only now. It's an obvious and shameless homage to that synth-based metal/hard rock that was so popular in the 80s, like the efforts by Malmsteen, Crimson Glory, Queensryche, Journey and many more: it paved the way to progressive metal at the time, even though it was often closer to AOR or Arena/Pomp Rock as a genre thanks to its catchy tunes. I'm pretty sure the main influence for this track was Malmsteen (it's dangerously similar to Queen in Love, that I adored), and for the solos I actually tried to "mimic" his style a bit (of course as far as I physically could...). The fact I just bought his autobiography from a few years ago is purely coincidental!

I recorded and mixed this pretty much as I always do, with the key difference that this time I didn't use Guitarix or Rakarrack, but dusted off my old POD X3 Live instead: it still had a couple of useful presets in memory, so I decided to try and use those for a change. Unfortunately I couldn't use it with Jack right away for some reason (it's recognized as a soundcard, but then Jack won't start), so I just plugged it in my Scarlett FocusRite Solo like a generic external audio source. Mixing is far from the best I ever did (drums are quite weak, for instance), but I didn't feel like spending too much time on this...

As anticipated, I also prepared a small video for this too. These past few days I've started tinkering with OpenShot for fun (which led me to do a simple video for the Intro / I'll be back for you combo as well), so I deciced to try and record a video of me playing all the parts, and use the clips in a cheesy and probably goofy video. I used a nice 80s background loop I found online, and went a bit crazy with animations, and that's the result It wasn't a smooth ride, though... for some reason, OpenShot decided to not keep audio and video in sync when exporting (preview was fine), which meant I had to manually align the different parts exporting small chunks time after time. It's probably not the best video you'll ever see (quality isn't that great either), but I think it came out nicely for a complete n00b

Looking forward to your feedback!

[Basslint]

Bella traccia Lorenzo! I always like the writing on your guitar parts, this time I am also familiar with the "source material", so to speak (being a big fan of 80s metal myself), so I can say you totally nailed the sound!

[Rainmak3r]

Bella traccia Lorenzo! I always like the writing on your guitar parts, this time I am also familiar with the "source material", so to speak (being a big fan of 80s metal myself), so I can say you totally nailed the sound!

Grazie mille! (ora che ci penso non credo di sapere il tuo nome, gravissimo!)

Yeah, one of the reasons why I went went with the POD X3 Live this time was because I had a couple of presents that I really thought could fit the part: the rhythm guitars use a preset that emulates the "Marching Out" album by Malmsteen, while for solos I used two different presets that mimic the sound Gary Moore and Malmsteen used at the time. All in all, it was fun trying to try and capture that era's sound, especially with the synths!

[Basslint]

Grazie mille! (ora che ci penso non credo di sapere il tuo nome, gravissimo!)

Fabio, there is at least one awesome metal musician with that name! (Fabio Lione).

Yeah, one of the reasons why I went went with the POD X3 Live this time was because I had a couple of presents that I really thought could fit the part: the rhythm guitars use a preset that emulates the "Marching Out" album by Malmsteen, while for solos I used two different presets that mimic the sound Gary Moore and Malmsteen used at the time. All in all, it was fun trying to try and capture that era's sound, especially with the synths!

I suggest you try tubeAmp by @olegkapitonov if you haven't already, it's great for overdriven sounds!

[turbidh20]

Very good, love the "cheesy" video - great fun Nice soloing!

[Rainmak3r]

Fabio, there is at least one awesome metal musician with that name! (Fabio Lione).

I must have listened to the first albums by Rhapsody a gazillion times

I suggest you try tubeAmp by @olegkapitonov if you haven't already, it's great for overdriven sounds!

Oh I never heard of that, I'll make sure to check it out, thanks for the tip!

[Rainmak3r]

Very good, love the "cheesy" video - great fun Nice soloing!

Thanks for listening! Too bad I didn't have a green screen or the video would have been even better

[milo]

I also enjoyed the video. The 80's graphics are cool. They remind me of my childhood. It's always nice to see the guitarist's fingers in a video. I get frustrated when the cameraman for a music video just wants to show the facial expressions. Let me see the fingers!

[Rainmak3r]

I also enjoyed the video. The 80's graphics are cool. They remind me of my childhood. It's always nice to see the guitarist's fingers in a video. I get frustrated when the cameraman for a music video just wants to show the facial expressions. Let me see the fingers!

Thanks for listening, Alan! Yeah, I had to focus on fingers also because there's actually not a single trace of facial expression in any of those 3 minutes... But I did enjoy looking back at how I played those licks: they took an astronomical amount of takes to get right, so it's cool to see them from outside. Being recorded on camera also meant I couldn't "cheat" like I sometimes do, e.g., recording the different parts of a solo separately, but at the end it was worth it.

[GMaq]

Hi!

Bruh!! Shred much!!??

Great guitar work and arrangement of the whole song!

I really should be much more 'into' this genre... it was in it's heyday right when I was a teenager becoming interested in music but I just never could get into it... However now that much water has gone under the bridge I can see that it is much more complex and depends on a much higher degree of musicianship than I ever realized before... And regardless of genre things like strong melodies, precise playing and interesting arrangements are always hallmarks of good music so thanks for sharing another wonderful piece of good music!!

[turbidh20]

It's always nice to see the guitarist's fingers in a video. I get frustrated when the cameraman for a music video just wants to show the facial expressions. Let me see the fingers!

This is one of my all time pet hates. Worse in the past but still happens these days. Even worse, I do not want to see just the strumming I know what strings are being picked by what's happening on the neck! Aaaargh!

[Rainmak3r]

Hi!

Bruh!! Shred much!!??

Hahaha
I like arranging and orchestrating stuff more, but from time to time, why not?

Great guitar work and arrangement of the whole song!

Thanks, I'm really glad you enjoyed it, especially knowing how skilled a guitar player you are yourself!

I really should be much more 'into' this genre... it was in it's heyday right when I was a teenager becoming interested in music but I just never could get into it... However now that much water has gone under the bridge I can see that it is much more complex and depends on a much higher degree of musicianship than I ever realized before... And regardless of genre things like strong melodies, precise playing and interesting arrangements are always hallmarks of good music so thanks for sharing another wonderful piece of good music!!

Yeah, the 80s were a weird period. If I think of the kind of music we had in the 70s, and how that translated to the 80s, I get the "hate" sometimes: Renaissance and Kansas are two of my favourite bands of all time (Renaissance in particular had a unique blend of orchestra and rock), and both didn't do as well when they tried to ride the 80s "wave" to remain relevant (even though Kansas managed to still make amazing albums like "Power" and "In the spirit of things" anyway). I guess that for taste it really depends on how much synths were actually prominent: I think in the right proportion they did give a good vibe to tracks, and that's why I'm particularly fond of the heavier stuff that came out in that era. Iron Maiden are hardly a synth-based band, for instance, and yet "Somewhere in time" and "Seventh son of a seventh son" for instance were great *also* because of how they integrated keyboards in their works.

[folderol]

Yep. Works for me

[Rainmak3r]

Yep. Works for me

I kinda abused Yoshimi this time around, hope I did a good work with all the synths... Thanks for making it so easy to use in Ardour!

[Tenaba]

I'm really liking that synth part about 0:20 in, and your shredding is cool too. Also, I didn't know fender made guitars with Floyd Rose's in them. Good stuff.