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MG.ORG song, cover and lead challenge season 1, week 1

6K views 50 replies 11 participants last post by  Iron1 
#1 ·
So, here we are, week 1 of the mg.org something for everyone challenge. Born out of some people liking doing covers, whilst others like writing songs, with a combination of a few people just not having enough time to do full songs (hence the lead a week). Do one, 2 or all 3. Also, it means I only have to track one of these per week.

Rules are simple, do 1-3 things every week, Post your creations in the weekly thread as soundcloud/youtube links. I'm aiming to get various contributions for backing tracks, each one will be credited to the author. As it's the first week I'm doing a dropbox download, but we should get some dedicated hosting or something like that courtesy of chris.

The deadline for this week is end of play, Sunday 15th March

Short rules:
- You have until sunday midnight/monday morning to post your submission
- Either do an original song, a cover/medley or a lead over the provided backing track per week.
- Submissions must be stuff you've done this week, no matter how awesome an old track/recording is
- 10 points for each submission, per category.
- submissions as souncloud or youtube links. Well, as long as it is playable from a post in the thread really.
- You can do multiple entries per category, but only the first one will score points.
- no eliminations, do your stuff as and when you can
- leads can be layer, melodies, you can chop and rearrange the track, whatever floats your boat really
- Don't be a dick to other people. You can go to ss.org for that.
- Don't steal other peoples songs
- Don't steal backing tracks or pass it off as your own, give credit where it's due if you want to share your awesome yngwie malmsteen unleash the fjokking fjury face melting solo.

LAW Track:

This weeks backing track is courtesy of myself throwing something together in about 30 minutes with drag and drop drum patterns (amazing, I know). It's 150bpm, no funky times signatures and might be somewhere near the key of D whatever the fuck. It can be downloaded from here as mp3 or wav:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ytsnyn7x1pfvro8/AAB3dZvWl7oHq006aW811zpFa?dl=0

Have fun peoples!
 
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#8 ·
Works for me, good job! I won't be using it as I'm probably the worst lead player in the history of MG.ORG, but I'm excited to hear what others do.

My entry this week is my first attempt at a song in A standard - not quite sure I like it, but I'll at least don one song before I consider tuning back up to B.
 
#10 ·
I’ve put in about 8 hours so far on an original. Had some issues with GGD last night with the UI not functioning properly when making adjustments and it set me back about 2 hours before I sorted it out. Started the song in one direction, then 2 minutes into it hit a “Where am I going with this? This isn’t going anywhere yet.”, and decided to revamp everything from the start. I’ve been programming every single drum hit in this one as I seem to be having an issue with GGD’s MIDI mapping. If I weren’t so far into it, I would just go back to using EZDrummer, where I have a thousand fills I could choose from. After I finish this song I’m going to go through and re-program the MIDI map so I can use all the MIDI files I have in it. This is a nightmare of programming.

This is the first time I’ve done legit tracking with my AxeFX and I’m stoked with the tones I’m getting. Most of it is being done with the JP2C+ model for the heavy rhythm stuff and then there’s some effect-heavy sections, but they might get cut.

I’m really just glad for the spark to be ignited again.

Edit-
When I got home the Mission Engineering expression pedal was sitting on my step. I got it specifically for wah stuff in the AxeFX as I'm way too used to that Dunlop feel for wah's and regular expression pedals won't cut it. Loaded the backing track and spent about 30 minutes dicking around with a lead before going back to working on my tune. I might pull both out of my ass for this week!
 
#13 ·
I woke up with a sore throat this morning and we're under pretty strict owners from the owner of my company to not chance a single thing and just stay home. While I still have to get some work done remotely, I'll be in my studio all day. Made a lot of progress yesterday and ended up re-arranging the whole song I was working on after getting stuck in that "What the fuck am I doing with this?" mentality for longer than I'd prefer. Going to try to finalize the arrangement, write the drum fills and then all I'll have left is recording the actual tracks as everything is a copy/paste/edit now. And vocals, but I may not realistically have time to get those done before Sunday.



Hopes and prayers!
 
#18 ·
That was really cool! I never heard the song before so I checked it out on YouTube after listening to yours. Great job, man!

I stayed home again today. Just wrapped up writing the song I'm submitting. I'm going to add some drum fills and then start tracking the actual guitar and bass parts. No time for vocals this week. Our window installer called me last night and said they're ready to install our impact windows so they're starting tomorrow morning aside from the sound of tearing out my old windows, my studio is going to be completely dismantled while they're doing the work. That and my throat still feels like shit from maybe-it's-coronavirus.
 
#20 ·
Just want to rant for a second-

I went to do a multi-out of Get Good Drums via Kontakt and without getting into detail, it's all fucked. Fuck GGD AND Kontakt. I don't care which one of them is responsible as I've heard stories like this regarding both programs. But fuck this. GGD comes with a heavily EQ'd kick and snare, but the toms are straight raw, minus room mics. The reason from Nolly was "I figured you'd like to fine tune those on your own." Sure. I'd love that. But it's impossible if I can't fucking export the fucking tracks individually. So fuck it. When I post my track the toms are going to sound like ass. I just spent an hour and a half dicking with this shit and fucking fuck it up the fucking ass.

I'm buying SD3 for future use.
 
#24 ·
Here's my entry for week 1. Wasn't sure I was going to dig tuning down from B standard to A standard on my 7 string, but I'm sort of happy with how it turned out...

https://soundcloud.com/iron1/modern-war-3-1-3
 
#25 ·
Here's my entry for week 1. Wasn't sure I was going to dig tuning down from B standard to A standard on my 7 string, but I'm sort of happy with how it turned out...
Good job - the guitars sound pretty damn brutal. The drums have cool changes all over - I wish I could think of stuff like that, as the stuff I write always ends up having somewhat boring drums.

I made a LAW as well - was somewhat inspired at first, but started running out of ideas towards the end. The last part is just the best of about 30 improv attempts, where I got some kind of idea how it should sound.

 
#32 ·
Alright some back story on this one, I just picked up another used multiscale Ibanez RG and it came tuned to fucking drop E (sort of, more like drop A on a 6 string + a low E). I usually tune my sevens to drop A so mixing shit tuned this low was new to me. My stupid brain initially thought "bass = guitar an octave lower" and let me tell you, it sounded fucking awful :lol: So then I hit duckduckgo to see if that's what other people really do, but it turns out that aside from some mental bands, they usually just tune the bass to the same octave, including Meshuggah. Holy shit, night and day difference in the ability to get a mix that doesn't sound like a muddy bassy mess. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, I have to say that even though it's essentially tailored for these kind of tunings, I really don't like the Aftermath very much. It is stupidly tight as advertised but it also has this jangly characteristic that I don't jive with. Strangely though, I do enjoy it for low gain leads, when I don't usually even play leads on the bridge pickup.

Managed to get some vocals done on this one thanks to COVID-19 and "working" from home :lol:

 
#35 ·
My studio is ripped apart due to the window installation, but I'll have my tune in sometime in the afternoon tomorrow. Just have to double track the rhythm guitar and it's done.

As I did before, I always wait until I'm in my studio to listen to everyone's submission cuz I actually want to hear what everyone did. It's awesome seeing multiple submissions again!
 
#43 ·
Just put the studio back together after the installers left. I completely emptied it out and started fresh because it was CRAMMED FULL OF SHIT and you couldn't move anymore.

Just threw dinner in the oven, opening Logic now and should be done in an hour.

Ugh....after uploading it I realized I didn't put anything on the master bus and it's quieter than I prefer and on laptop speakers the guitars sound way too bright. I didn't check this in my truck yet, which is where I reference everything. This is the most half-assed I've posted a song yet.

 
#47 ·
Damn, after listening to everything, one thought kept coming back in my head- I need to step it up!!!! It's so fucking cool to listen to these now compared to what we were all contributing when this started last year. Everyone has improved in different ways and that's just awesome. Whether it be mixing, playing or writing, there's a big difference in what everyone is putting out that's really fucking inspiring and endearing, while providing some healthy, positive competition!

I've been posting on forums since 1995/1996, this is easily the coolest thing I've ever seen or taken a part in in all that time.
 
#50 ·
Completely agree. This has been a great kick in the ass to practice songwriting, play guitar, and get more experience recording & mixing. I feel like I have benefited greatly from it, and that's why I'll keep participating as much as I can.
 
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