Very, very, very nice.
–c.

Do you want some?

–c.

Anyway, if you’re a regular reader you probably know most of the saga behind this track. It’s inspired by the Stephen King “Dark Tower” series, and in particular the lead character, Roland of Gilead – the last Gunslinger. It’s 200bpm, the rhythm guitars are played on a drop-A tuned 7-string, and I did all the lead parts on my fixed bridge Blackmachine B2. All guitar tones by my the Behringer V-Amp2. Drum programmed in Cubase drum editor, sounds from a soundfont called Gold Drums that I use for literally everything.

Guest solo in the middle section by Dan Ranger – thanks for playing, man. Nice one.

Caveat: I’m not an engineer, and I’m still not 100% happy with the mix, but I have to just get this out the door now so I can move on. Perhaps I can come back and remix at a later date.

No further ado, here it is: Gunslinger. [MP3, 5m05s, 192kbps, 7Mb]

Enjoy.
–c.

PS: The title of this post is pretty self-aggrandising, I know. The “wait” referred to is me waiting to get time to finally finish this track and get it out the door. I’m not implying that hundreds of adoring fans are awaiting every note from my guitar with baited breath…

Anyhow, without any more ado, I give you:

The Devil Went Down To Georgia remix [MP3, 192kbps, 3m48s, 5.3Mb]

Comments welcome!

–c.

Ah, bless the Fostex X-26. What a machine! On it I started out by learning and then recording cover versions of Joe Satriani tracks, and it was though doing this that I learned not just how to play some cool tunes, but how best to go about everything from starting to write an instrumental right down to getting it on tape and mixing it. Latterly this has translated well to digital recording and that’s where I find myself nowadays, but with no experience of doing things vocally. It followed that I should perhaps start by doing a cover song or two.

I tried doing a Nickelback tune to start with, but quickly found that I couldn’t reach the high notes. So I ended up doing something that’s pretty easy to sing, although I’ll be honest, I did manage to pick something with some tricksy guitar parts. Anyway, I’ve just lobbed together an MP3 of the first cut of it, and here it is.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia. [MP3, 192kbps, 5314Kb]

The mix is well off in places and things go up and down seemingly at random due to my eccentric approach to punching in and out, but I think you can see where I’m going with it. Hopefully I can find time in the next week or two to get a proper consistent mix done.

Anyway, let me know what you think! (Unless you’re Charlie Daniels… I think he might not be my bestest friend for what I did to his poor song…)

–c.

* A few years ago I did record a version of “The Old Apartment” by Barenaked Ladies, but it was pretty rubbish. I was even using Antares Autotune to cram my wavering voice into the right key.

I squeak, of course, of the Guitar Hero series of games available for the console of your choice for a few years now. However, I completely avoided them citing a total lack of interest because, primarily, I play the real guitar – why do I need a guitar game?

Well that belligerent resistance melted away like butter under a blowtorch this Christmas when I opened the largest box under the tree to find the latest instalment “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” (complete with wireless Kramer Striker guitar!) and I plugged the fucker in.

Wow, what fun. I can’t quite decide if being a real guitar player makes it easier or harder. Slash (for he is a level boss and unlockable character in the game) was interviewed for the game and he claims it makes it harder, and on one level I definitely agree with him. Your guitar playing brain expects things that aren’t always there and makes you second-guess the game a bit too much making you play notes that aren’t there and lose points. On the other hand, songs I know very well like “Welcome To The Jungle” and “Paranoid” are much easier to get to grips with than songs I have never heard before like the Sonic Youth tune (which is bollocks, by the way – never did like them).

It’s a great game, though. A new feature in this instalment is Guitar Battles, where you have to play against a famous guitarist and try to make them lose their cool and fail the song before you do. Once you complete the last of these, you have won the game on the current skill level. (I have at this time finished it on Easy and Medium, though Hard is causing me some bother, and Expert is frankly terrifying.) At this point the credits roll, and you get to play a bonus song – “Through The Fire And Flames” by Dragonforce – and once you do it on Medium, you unlock that song so you can play it when you like.

This was my first introduction to Dragonforce‘s music, having long ago dismissed them as ridiculous speed-metallers that I had no interest in. Aside: Long ago in the mists of time (Easter 2002, as it happens) I was at a jam event populated by Ibanez enthusiasts, one of whom was Herman Li, one of the guitarists in Dragonforce. He was fucking awesome.

Anyhow, I found myself loving the song more than I expected to (regardless of my lacklustre Guitar Hero performance of it – it’s crazy difficult on any skill level) so I grabbed their latest album from which the track comes, entitled “Inhuman Rampage”.

Bugger me if it’s not my favourite album of the past few months. Whoa yes, sir. Can’t stop listening to it. It’s utterly ridiculous and layered with wall-to-wall metal clichés, but fucking hell it’s good fun. The musicianship is without question jawdropping, but it’s the sense of humour with which Herman and Sam approach the guitar sounds and solos they use that really makes it for me. You’d have to listen to the album to really get what I mean.

Do so. You might like it.
–c.

I am desperately proud to announce that I have completed my first original song in a little over 5 years. I’m so chuffed, I’m giving it away to you all right here:

“The Smoke” [mp3, 192Kbps, 4m35s, 6.3Mb]

This is the second full-length song that will form part of my second album, the first being “Kalahari” which I completed in October 2002. I have several other half-finished songs laying around on my E: drive and with this new-found enthusiasm I hope to finish this second album by the end of this year.

However, I won’t be giving away all the songs like I am this one. Or why would you give up a few quid for the album when it’s done? It won’t be expensive, I promise, and any money received won’t be going into my pocket – it’ll be going to pay back the people who dug into their own pockets to pay for the production of my first album, “Earthman”.

For those of you that care about this kind of stuff all the guitar sounds are generated using a Behringer V-Amp2 straight into my PC’s soundcard. I used one of the Ibanez Jems for the clean guitar, plus a friend’s Coral Sitar (thanks Andy!), then my Les Paul Custom for the distorted rhythm guitars, and all the lead was done on my Blackmachine B2.

Anyway, the big news of 2008 is that I’m back writing and recording again, and I hope to have a new disc finished before 2009.

Enjoy the tune,
–c.

Snowmelt. [MP3, 192kbps, 7.11mb]

I got snow, but I’m not a snowman.

Merry wossname everyone, and I’ll be back at some stage – probably half a stone heavier.

–c.

What, that you say? The intro to Beethoven’s 5th? Computer says no.

It’s from a piece called “Gran Valse” by Francisco Tárrega, and it’s the tune that comes as the standard ringtone on Nokia phones. Yep, that one.

Bit dull, though, n’est-ce pas? Well not any more! Now you can download a short MP3 of me playing those 13 notes in a rock styley, and use that instead!

Rockia.mp3 [113Kb]

As always, you’re welcome.
–c.

Yes, I do own and play a Blackmachine guitar. It’s a 6-string B2, and I was in fact Doug’s first official customer (That’s what he said when I bumped into him recently, anyway!)

Check the guitars page for evidence of my guitar, and if you want to check out my playing or my band then the music page will be of some interest. Some photos of my B2 being played live pop up in this photoset, although it appears I don’t play for Claytown Troupe any more.

Also, if you’re into rock music, and if you came via Blackmachine’s site you probably are, feel free to check out and maybe even subscribe to my podcast, Bucket of Rocks. It’s rocktabulous.

Cheers,
–c.