Desert Rain

Show off original scores and recordings made with Linux!

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

Hi all,

it's been too long since the last time I shared something here, so I'm excited to finally post this:

https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/desert-rain

It's an appetizer from a new album that I've almost completed, called "Rainmaker", and that I'll publish I hope in a week or two. It's fundamentally a "bombastic" metal track with middle eastern influences, even though it's a bit different from what you may heard from me so far. In fact, it's a bit more "modern", e.g., in the rhythmic choices, rather than stuck in the 80s as it usually happens. I also think it sounds better than my previous efforts, but of course I may be biased here :mrgreen:

It's also the first time I've done a more extensive collaboration with someone else, rather than doing everything by myself: my dear friend Paolo Navarretta, who I always bother about mixing/mastering stuff since he's a master of that realm, graciously contributed vocals for the bridge and refrain, and I think he did a fantastic job there, especially considering his tone is very different from mine and fits the song perfectly! If you're curious about Paolo's work, you can learn more on the Facebook page for The Black Crown, or their Spotify.

I hope you'll enjoy this, and I'm looking forward to your feedback!
I also can't wait to share the whole album with you, so stay tuned for more soon :lol:
User avatar
andropogon
Established Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:45 pm
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by andropogon »

I enjoyed this indeed. Classic arrangement, very nice bass drum. Stylish intro and outro included. Good guitars are mixed in the way I like it.
Personally I was lacking of bass but maybe because of my headphones.
As for the vocals it is nice and absolutely in style, but it seemed that in the verse it somehow falls out of the mix. But only in the verse.
The only question is about drums. It seemed to me that the main part was shifted to the left. Is that how it was intended or did my earpiece just break? And in general, the drum part is too mechanistic, monotonous and drab, as for me. Especially in solo.

And some offtopic if you don't mind. Years ago, when "the grass was greener and the light was brighter" I wrote a novel called "The Rain Collector". I was very small and the name was the best in it. Years later, I wrote a song with the same name. It was much better but still not for publication. I mean that the name of your album and your nickname and the rain in general are very close to me. And I love what you do, especially since you do it completely open source. Because I write heavier music as well, but can't cope with open source recording and mixing many tracks using guitars, vst-instruments and effects. So will never post here.

Thanks for sharing!
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

andropogon wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:45 pm I enjoyed this indeed. Classic arrangement, very nice bass drum. Stylish intro and outro included. Good guitars are mixed in the way I like it.
Personally I was lacking of bass but maybe because of my headphones.
Thanks for listening, and glad you liked it! The bass may be indeed a bit drowned, I'll see if I can get it to pop a bit more in the album version.
andropogon wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:45 pm As for the vocals it is nice and absolutely in style, but it seemed that in the verse it somehow falls out of the mix. But only in the verse.
By verse do you mean what I usually call refrain? That is, when we both sing together? I'm always confused about terminology, as I usually call "verse" the part when I first start singing, "bridge" the middle eastern part, and "refrain" the "bombastic" part. I'm pretty sure I have my terms wired up wrong here, though :mrgreen: If so, then yes, in that part my own voice is indeed a bit drowned, but I think it's because Paolo's register is in the upper range, while mine is quite low, and so I can't get past all the lower instruments playing together. I don't particularly mind as I suck as a singer anyway!
andropogon wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:45 pm The only question is about drums. It seemed to me that the main part was shifted to the left. Is that how it was intended or did my earpiece just break? And in general, the drum part is too mechanistic, monotonous and drab, as for me. Especially in solo.
I listened to it again and you may be right, the snare is a bit shifted to the left. Checking in the Ardour project, it looks like it's the Ambience mic in DrumGizmo that is causing this, as the snare alone is fine, and so is the snare coming via bleed from the other mics. It sounds fine in a fresh new project, so it may be the side effect of some of the processing, e.g., reverbs and such. I'll have a look at that too, but if it turns out it's too much of a hassle, I'll leave it like that.

For drums, I'm not great at writing parts, but in this particular song it was indeed meant to be a bit more monotonous, especially in the refrain where it had to sound more, again, "bombastic", so simpler parts but louder, with a lot of crashes underlining the chord changes. But more in general, drums have always been the weakest part of my production, and I don't think that's ever going to change... hopefully it doesn't detract too much from the rest of the song.
andropogon wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:45 pm And some offtopic if you don't mind. Years ago, when "the grass was greener and the light was brighter" I wrote a novel called "The Rain Collector". I was very small and the name was the best in it. Years later, I wrote a song with the same name. It was much better but still not for publication. I mean that the name of your album and your nickname and the rain in general are very close to me. And I love what you do, especially since you do it completely open source. Because I write heavier music as well, but can't cope with open source recording and mixing many tracks using guitars, vst-instruments and effects. So will never post here.

Thanks for sharing!
The album I'm going to publish will indeed be all centered around rain itself: it will not be a concept album, but all songs will somehow revolve around rain, like this song does too. My nick and the title of the album (and the title track that will come with it) come from this song by Kansas, one of my favourite of all times: if rain fascinates you, I'd suggest you listen to the album that song comes from (In the Spirit of Things), as it's a concept album on a Kansas town that was flooded after a violent storm (the Rainmaker song addresses a part of that story).

Thanks again for listening and for the feedback!
User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

andropogon wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:45 pm The only question is about drums. It seemed to me that the main part was shifted to the left. Is that how it was intended or did my earpiece just break?
I found out the issue... In DrumGizmo, HiHat, Ride L and Ride R are all mono tracks: for all of them I have a Calf Deesser to not make cymbals too annoying, but the Deesser is a stereo plugin. Just adding the plugin to the strip only caused the L pin to be connected, which caused their audio to be shifted that way. Manually adding the R connection too fixed the problem.

Unfortunately I don't have a SoundCloud pro account, so I can't replace the track: it will be fixed in the album, though. Thanks again for noticing this!
I'm pretty sure the same happened in some other track as well, so I'll make sure this is fixed in all of them.
jeanette_c
Established Member
Posts: 728
Joined: Tue May 12, 2020 5:53 pm
Has thanked: 347 times
Been thanked: 268 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by jeanette_c »

Hey @Rainmak3r ,thanks for sharing this. It's a great track! Even with some background in listening to metal - opposed to playing it -, I remain a keyboarder and am much quicker to get hooked on good harmonies.
There are great sonic textures, beginning at the beginning. :) As always fantastic guitar work, spot on! Good vocals, from both of you!
I wouldn't be me if I didn't say: personally, I would have preferred a little more punch and production on the snare, especially with the more modern influences. That's probably expectation from too many commercial productions. :)
Great song and I am looking forward to the album, too!
Best wishes,
Jeanette
--
distro: ArchLinux, DAW: Nama, MIDI sequencer: Midish
All my latest music on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rf ... 7jhC1Jnv7g
Albums, patches and Csound on http://juliencoder.de
User avatar
andropogon
Established Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:45 pm
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by andropogon »

By verse I mean the same that you mean. :) And refrain sounds good for me!
Thanks for pointing on Kansas. I'm listening to the whole album so haven't reached the Rainmaker yet. ;)
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

jeanette_c wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 11:41 am Hey @Rainmak3r ,thanks for sharing this. It's a great track! Even with some background in listening to metal - opposed to playing it -, I remain a keyboarder and am much quicker to get hooked on good harmonies.
There are great sonic textures, beginning at the beginning. :) As always fantastic guitar work, spot on! Good vocals, from both of you!
Thanks a lot for listening and for the kind words! I experimented a lot with sounds this album, so I'm really looking forward to what you'll think of the whole thing, knowing how you approach music :D
jeanette_c wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 11:41 am I wouldn't be me if I didn't say: personally, I would have preferred a little more punch and production on the snare, especially with the more modern influences. That's probably expectation from too many commercial productions. :)
Great song and I am looking forward to the album, too!
Best wishes,
Jeanette
It's a more han fair observation, since drums have always been my Achilles heel, and I doubt I'll be able to fix that soon. I'll have to learn how to better fix the snare, in a very "bleedy" drumkit configuration like the one I use, and avoid to make all the rest too weak as a consequence. I decided to more or less stick to what I know and make it more reverberated instead. There are a couple of songs in the new album where I think I did a better job, though, so let's hope I won't disappoint too much there instead :mrgreen:
User avatar
oscillator
Established Member
Posts: 1127
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:07 pm
Location: SWEDEN
Has thanked: 725 times
Been thanked: 296 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by oscillator »

Those guitars are tight! Wonderful intro!

Ths strings work great with the guitars.

I think the start of the singing sounds "too close" to the mic, I would like more reverb and distance.

I would like more bass! :)

Great composition and melodies! More, please! :)

MusE DAW running on Debian 11 Testing/XFCE4.
https://oscillator.se/musik

User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

oscillator wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 8:58 pm Those guitars are tight! Wonderful intro!

Ths strings work great with the guitars.
Thanks a lot, I'm glad you like that!
oscillator wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 8:58 pm I think the start of the singing sounds "too close" to the mic, I would like more reverb and distance.

I would like more bass! :)
You're right on the mic, I did sing too close to the mic in the verse (the same happened in a couple of other songs), and unfortunately there's no fixing that now (I'm most definitely not going to sing those parts, or in general, again :lol: ). I guess a tiny bit of more reverb may help, though. For the bass, I've already increased it a bit for the mix I'll use in the album, so hopefully that will sound better!
oscillator wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 8:58 pm Great composition and melodies! More, please! :)
I'm glad this got you excited! I really can't wait for the album to come out :mrgreen:
User avatar
andropogon
Established Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:45 pm
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by andropogon »

Reverb, Volume & Equalizer work wonders sometimes. I'd try to reduce volume level on verse vocal first. It is better to play with levels after a couple of "deaf" days.
Would be interesting to help you to cope with the drums but I'm not sure I'm qualified enough and can't imagine how we could do this having absolutely different workspace. Like you thrown me drumless audio and I throw you just drums audio back. But it needs some time and your release as I understood is about to come out and play.
So will it be commercial or amateur?
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
User avatar
Rainmak3r
Established Member
Posts: 888
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:24 pm
Has thanked: 49 times
Been thanked: 180 times
Contact:

Re: Desert Rain

Post by Rainmak3r »

andropogon wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 9:35 am Reverb, Volume & Equalizer work wonders sometimes. I'd try to reduce volume level on verse vocal first. It is better to play with levels after a couple of "deaf" days.
Would be interesting to help you to cope with the drums but I'm not sure I'm qualified enough and can't imagine how we could do this having absolutely different workspace. Like you thrown me drumless audio and I throw you just drums audio back. But it needs some time and your release as I understood is about to come out and play.
So will it be commercial or amateur?
I'll release it as I did the other one, so it will be on Bandcamp but also Spotify, Apple Music, etc. I guess you could call it "commercial", but to me it's very much amateur, since I don't expect I'll make any money out of it (I definitely didn't with the first one) and I do it just for fun.

For drums, I could definitely get some feedback, even though replicating the same scenario might not be super easy. I use DrumGizmo with the Muldjord kit, which means you get separate busses for each of the microphones: I also leave mic bleeding in, since when you reduce it, it takes away most of the Ambience mic which is IMO important for a more live feel. This makes mixing also more complex, though, as it means part of the snare is audible in other mics too, for instance, and so it's harder to shape the sound exactly how you want it. Bleeding can be configured in percentage, and I've noticed that putting it to 0 makes the sound very shallow: from what others shared in this group, it's what some did anyway, but then it means a LOT of work to get a good sound out of that just of processing. That's why I've always preferred keeping a more "natural" sound in, even though it's less punchy.
User avatar
andropogon
Established Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:45 pm
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by andropogon »

Rainmak3r wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 9:55 am I use DrumGizmo with the Muldjord kit, which means you get separate busses for each of the microphones: I also leave mic bleeding in, since when you reduce it, it takes away most of the Ambience mic which is IMO important for a more live feel. This makes mixing also more complex, though, as it means part of the snare is audible in other mics too, for instance, and so it's harder to shape the sound exactly how you want it. Bleeding can be configured in percentage, and I've noticed that putting it to 0 makes the sound very shallow: from what others shared in this group, it's what some did anyway, but then it means a LOT of work to get a good sound out of that just of processing. That's why I've always preferred keeping a more "natural" sound in, even though it's less punchy.
Isn't it too complicated given the result? Maybe it worth to try Hydrogen? There're some good sounfonts too. But that's just thinking out loud. I understand that you're using what you used to.
Rainmak3r wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 9:55 am I'll release it as I did the other one, so it will be on Bandcamp but also Spotify, Apple Music, etc. I guess you could call it "commercial", but to me it's very much amateur, since I don't expect I'll make any money out of it (I definitely didn't with the first one) and I do it just for fun.
By commercial I meant some work with the label with further promotion, smm-marketing, merch, reaching sales figures for the quarter, and all that stuff.
I thought about creating a BandCamp account, but now Epic Games has bought it and this conflict with Google has begun, so it's not clear if it will remain in its original form. But I still intend. As for Spotify or Apple Music I have no idea how an amateur can be placed there. This issue will need to be studied.
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
User avatar
LAM
Established Member
Posts: 992
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:16 pm
Has thanked: 140 times
Been thanked: 348 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by LAM »

Nice track @Rainmak3r, listened till the end to improve the soundcloud stats as always. :D

I agree with @oscillator, we want more bass. :evil:

in mix, nobody can hear your screen

User avatar
andropogon
Established Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:45 pm
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by andropogon »

LAM wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 12:20 pm listened till the end to improve the soundcloud stats as always. :D
It seemed to me that Soundcloud counts the audition almost immediately, isn't it?
Sorry if I distracted you with such a nonsense.
User avatar
LAM
Established Member
Posts: 992
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:16 pm
Has thanked: 140 times
Been thanked: 348 times

Re: Desert Rain

Post by LAM »

Could be, I was thinking about Bandcamp. :lol:

in mix, nobody can hear your screen

Post Reply