The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

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Rainmak3r
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The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

Hi all,

it's been a long time since I shared something, since I basically didn't record anything after releasing Rainmaker months ago. While I could blame moving to a different house as the main reason, I think it was also a bit of laziness on my side (I finished moving 2 months ago :lol: ), and focus on other things during the summer holidays (like the open source adventure game engine I started working on just for fun). Nevertheless, I never stopped writing and thinking of music. And having recently bought some more instruments, I definitely had to give them a try, working on a simple idea that I had in my mind for a while already.

The end result is the song you can listen to here:

https://soundcloud.com/lminiero/the-cas ... exter-ward

The title comes from Lovecraft novel by the same name, the first work I ever read of him as a teenager (so back when the world was in black and white!). While it's not considered his best work, I remember it really hitting me at the time, and in fact I ended up reading many more works of his after that. And being Lovecraft the source, the music was inspired by some of the old lovecraftian Metallica's songs, like "Call of Ktulu", "The thing that should not be", and "The house that Jack built" (the last one is not a Lovecraft song, but it always gave me the same creepy vibe). That's how I came up with the very creepy first part, the more traditionally mid-tempo metal song in the second part, and the creepy (again) finale.

For solos, I originally wanted to have something that sounded like a talkbox (like some of Metallica's songs do, as a matter of fact): I couldn't find anything that worked well, though, especially with vocoders. Eventually I simply added a formant filter to the solo (which apparently is often involved in talkbox-y sounds), and a fake automated wahwah via a Rakarrack plugin: it's not exactly what I wanted, but I think it sounds the part, and is close enough to the vibe I wanted to convey. The other solo is more melodic, instead, calling back the intro theme.

The production process was pretty much the same as always, but if there's anything you're curious about, feel free to ask!
Hope you'll enjoy this, and I also hope it won't take me 4 months again to share something next time :mrgreen:
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Impostor »

Beautiful man, I get goosebumps all over! Fucking stellar intro!
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

Impostor wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:35 pm Beautiful man, I get goosebumps all over! Fucking stellar intro!
Wow, thanks, that's without any doubt the best review I could hope for! :D
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Impostor »

The string section (?) in the intro...how did you make that?
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

Impostor wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:51 pm The string section (?) in the intro...how did you make that?
If you mean the one that starts at about 1:24, it's a string section (1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos and basses) that towards the end is joined by woodwinds. The same string section is used in the finale too. I wrote the parts using MuseScore, and then imported the MIDI tracks in Ardour where I used both Virtual Playing Orchestra and KBH Strings together to give strings a more lush sound.

Everything that you can hear below guitars before 1:24, instead, are atmospheric sound effects that I found on freesound.org, and arranged for effect.
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by LAM »

Amazing piece!

If this is what you get being away for a while, you should consider taking breaks from music more often. :lol:

Jokes apart, this is one of your tracks I've enjoyed more. Thanks for sharing it.
Last edited by LAM on Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by sysrqer »

I love this story, it's one of my favourites of his. Interesting song that fits the theme!
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Tenaba »

I can hear the Metallica influence you mentioned, especially with the intro. And the VPO part right after the solo sounds massive!

Also, the new instruments you've bought look nice! I hear Harley Bentons are quite inexpensive for what they provide. The bass certainly sounds huge the way it's used in this song.

I make music as Tenaba! Bandcamp

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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

LAM wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:21 pm Amazing piece!

If this is what you get being away for a while, you should consider taking breaks from music more often. :lol:

Jokes apart, this is one of your tracks I've enjoyed more. Thanks for sharing it.
See you again in 4 months then! :lol:
Thanks, glad you liked it!
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

sysrqer wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:57 pm I love this story, it's one of my favourites of his. Interesting song that fits the theme!
Thanks, I wanted to convey the same vibe so I'm happy that worked for you!
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

Tenaba wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:23 am I can hear the Metallica influence you mentioned, especially with the intro. And the VPO part right after the solo sounds massive!
I'm glad you liked the ending, I love how it came out too! I think not having strings play exactly the same notes as the acoustic guitar helped, since it "accented" some parts over others.
Tenaba wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:23 am Also, the new instruments you've bought look nice! I hear Harley Bentons are quite inexpensive for what they provide. The bass certainly sounds huge the way it's used in this song.
I do love HBs! I have quite a few of them now, and they were all very cheap (well, compared to higher priced brands of course). The HB-35Plus was the most expensive one and it was just 250€. I got a 12-string acoustic guitar for ~100€ that sounds amazing, and I've used it a lot in my songs already, and a few months ago I spent just a little more of that for a gorgeous classical guitar I've used on Rainmaker too.

The new ones are a clone of the B.C.Rich Warlock that costed about 100€ too (and that of course I bought because of Eddie Munson and Stranger Things :lol: ), and a 5-string bass: this one was more expensive (250€), but I did want a 5-string bass (and I think part of the reason it sounds huge is because I was playing mostly on the fattest string, and taking advantage of slides to go even lower), and I really loved the color and look, so I was ok spending a bit more once in a while.
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by jeanette_c »

Hi again @Rainmak3r , ah with these references I much better understand where you're coming from with your drum sound and here it fits very well. Yes, we will probably always be on diffrerent pages when it comes to snares, but I am impressed with your processing of the snare for this song. It has much more energy and weight.
It's a great song, as every very well arranged and performed. Around 3:54 is that a sync synth lead? It was a nice little surprise. I can't resist a good sync lead. If it was your formant shaped guitar then you did a crazy job on that!
Now you just sit back and wait for James' call. :)
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

jeanette_c wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:48 pm Hi again @Rainmak3r , ah with these references I much better understand where you're coming from with your drum sound and here it fits very well. Yes, we will probably always be on diffrerent pages when it comes to snares, but I am impressed with your processing of the snare for this song. It has much more energy and weight.
Thanks! I did indeed spend a bit more time on EQing the snare for this track, so I'm glad it paid off.
jeanette_c wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:48 pm It's a great song, as every very well arranged and performed. Around 3:54 is that a sync synth lead? It was a nice little surprise. I can't resist a good sync lead. If it was your formant shaped guitar then you did a crazy job on that!
Now you just sit back and wait for James' call. :)
No, the one at 3:54 is indeed a synth: it's an arpeggiated part with a pedal E note that I was supposed to play with the guitar (possibly with the help of an empty string), but no matter how I tried I couldn't get it. As such, I just gave up and left the MIDI in, which I had Yoshimi play with one of its "overdriven guitar" presets: the fading effect actually comes with the preset, and is one of the reasons why I chose that one. The solo with the formant filter is the one after that, starting at 4:09, which I recorded normally and then applied the filter (using rezonateur as an LV2 plugin in Ardour) and the automated wah (an "alien wah" Rakarrack effect, again available as an LV2 plugin).
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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by oscillator »

Aw, that change from the 1st part to the 2nd gave me goosebumps. From a lovely build up (that for me is more beautiful than creepy) to that "basic" riffing -- I like it a lot! Listening in headphones, and it sounds great in many ways!

That ending was very good too!

Thanks for sharing this inspirational piece!

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Re: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Post by Rainmak3r »

oscillator wrote: Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:22 am Aw, that change from the 1st part to the 2nd gave me goosebumps. From a lovely build up (that for me is more beautiful than creepy) to that "basic" riffing -- I like it a lot! Listening in headphones, and it sounds great in many ways!

That ending was very good too!

Thanks for sharing this inspirational piece!
You're the second person that talks of goosebumps: it makes me so happy that this is the effect it made on some of you!
Thanks for the kind words, and glad you liked it!
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