Threshold: Updates from the studio...

[GuitarHero]

Hope you kicked butt!  BTW, hoping we can do some more recording sometime soon and kick some musical butt! 

[Aswepe]

Hope you kicked butt!  BTW, hoping we can do some more recording sometime soon and kick some musical butt! 

What he said.

[GuitarHero]

 

[GuitarHero]

Wow Tim, havent heard from ya in a while, doing ok out there?  Tell me you locked yourself away somewhere to write cool parts for our music!  Been working on the new song a little more, hope we can butt heads soon and see what you think of my ideas!

[GuitarHero]

   Wow, chat traffic has been kinda dead around here lately!   I'm 3:35 minutes on the new song idea, it has several spots to fill with piano, or other instrumentation to complete these sections, and plenty of keyboard background effects! (cant spell ombionce!)    Anyway's you get the idea!  Listened to Systematic Breakdown again last night  ... wow, it's really making me happy about writing another alblum!  Tim and I are planning to do more work on Systematic in the weekend after next, hopefully close to completing the basic backbone of the entire song!  I'll be sure to have him post it,  and hopefully introduce some new song ideas shortly!  One of us will keep the loop going, unfortunatly, i'm not so good with the postings!

[Brian Dobbs]

   Wow, chat traffic has been kinda dead around here lately!  

Yeah, I'm going to send out a message to our current members soon, asking everyone to try and promote this forum.  After all, the idea behind this forum is, the more members we have, the more feedback everyone gets.  In other words, if you want feedback on your music, then you should give feedback to others.  I'll send something soon.  I'm just happy Threshold is a consistent presence on this forum.  I love you guys!  Haha

[GuitarHero]

Right on!  I guess I havn't been the best at exploring what everyone has to offer myself, but what little I have seen, we do have quite the "good family" of mucisians here, and I think we are a good complement to each others different styles in music!  By the way Brian... "we love you too man!"     You've got a great set up for everyone here!

[Brian Dobbs]

hey do you guys have anything new to share?  i have a threshold itch.  :-)

[phyziczteacher]

You know...they have creams for that 

Actually, I didn't realize that I haven't put up the latest improvements to Systematic Breakdown. I was hoping Jeremy and I would be able to get together this past weekend, but couldn't, so there aren't any new guitar parts with the new changes...and let me tell you...there are some major changes. I listened to the last update and forgot how much we have done since then.

The song structure is now done. Jeremy and I decided to end with the reprise of the clear part after this awesome climax written by our keyboardist (Lauren) and me. Pay particular attention to the following:

at :51, Lauren played the 5/4 riff and the harmony to replace what Jeremy had played (remember it took us almost 2 hours to get something down half-way decent, and she played it perfectly in one take).

at 2:32, I put some vocal parts behind the guitar and piano.

at 3:11, I cleaned up that crescendo section I mentioned in the last update, and added a piano part (with a harmony). So, that section builds very nicely to the first break with the violins.

The climactic section beginning at 4:48 truly became an epic piece of music. I can't wait to hear what Jeremy will put with it. Dave, I think you will flip over this section. Lauren took my ideas and came up with her first piece of written music on her own.

I can't wait to hear what you guys think. I've been playing with the song on my ipod (mixed down without drums) and have been coming up with some awesome drum parts I can't wait to lay down!

Anyway, here you go!

http://www.imacphysics.org/systembreakdown.mp3

Rock on!

[Aswepe]

Listening now Tim...

Still like the insistence of the guitars after the ethereal intro pad. The guitars starting at 1:15 work very well - very emotional. Probably said this before - the piano coming in at 1:44 to mirror the bass adds a subtle little touch of depth - pay attention here boys & girls cuz you'll miss it if you don't.

Tim, the vocal pad starting at 2:32 along with the piano stabs - magnificent. I missed it the first time through man. The chord at 2:39 took me completely by surprise - Wow.

I like the section starting at 3:37 (your violins) especially when the piano takes over. Then at 4:00 a key change - sweet - especially the harmony stuff here. Jeremy's guitars under the piano is something you have to pay attention to as the piano is the lead instrument here, so don't start slacking now boys & girls!

The accents throught the section beginning at 4:48 work very well & build nicely to what follows. That's a nice little interlude guys. Then its back to the "main theme" - it works. A nice piece of composition from all involved. Kudos.

Obviously not finished. Waiting for the Final Post of this one.

[Brian Dobbs]

awesome, i'll listen after work today.  thanks for the update PT.

[Brian Dobbs]

This is awesome.  I love to see stuff like this progress.  I also can't wait to hear this with live drums.  It's going to rock.  I really dig the unison stuff in this song.

[GuitarHero]

Just threw down some killer guitar tracks Tim, Hope everyone likes it!  may need to go back and do some polishing, but the overall effect, I thought was pleasing!

[Brian Dobbs]

about how many songs do you guys hope to have completed for your next recording?

[GuitarHero]

I think if Tim and I could afford it, and more time was free, we would probably make a double cd album!
Most likely we will put another 8 and hopefully as many as 12 songs on this one!  Can't really give that answer yet, Tim and I havn't descused it.

[Brian Dobbs]

sweet deal.  besides systematic breakdown, how many other songs do you currently have in production?

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Brian,

As of now, we don't have anything else that we are working on together, but plan to get together this weekend and start creating a new song. Unfortunately, jobs get in the way of our progress   

[Brian Dobbs]

Hey Brian,

As of now, we don't have anything else that we are working on together, but plan to get together this weekend and start creating a new song. Unfortunately, jobs get in the way of our progress  

totally know where you're coming from.

[Meridian1928]

Oh man, that's infuriating when latency messes up a good performance, isn't it?  I love the pics of the home studio, very nice set up. 

[phyziczteacher]

Hey guys, we have some news to finally report!

Jeremy and I got together last Saturday for 8 hours and got a lot accomplished. First, I put the guitar parts he played at the climactic section of Systematic Breakdown into the song; however, it wasn't until yesterday that I noticed that something wasn't quite right with the guitar sound (They sound like they are in a tunnel), so we'll have to actually re-record those (along with some of the stuff we recorded Saturday). But, the parts are in place except for one, because he wanted to perfect the last unison section.

I'm going to hold off on posting the song until we have those fixed and in place, but that does pretty much finish up that song (except for the drums of course). I am so proud of what we created, and can't wait to record the drum tracks. I decided the best course of action for that is to go into an actual studio (my sound guy for the other band has one) and record the drums professionally, because we can't afford what we would need in order to record them ourselves and avoid having to throw all of the drums on one track like Portal. So, I am playing with SB with my ipod practicing and coming up with drum parts now, and as soon as I'm happy with what I've written and can play it all the way through, I'll go into the studio, which will probably be in May or June.

We began working on the next song and have a good 3 minutes worth written and have a good idea of the direction we are going to take it. It is tentatively titled Night Terror, and it is very eerie and dark...nothing like the majestic feel of Systematic Breakdown (which by the way is also a working title and will probably change once we get all of the tunes finished (BTW Brian, we're not sure how many tunes we'll have on this CD, but will probably be between 8 and 12) and we get a feel for what the concept of the album will be and how the song fits in the story. I'm leaning towards a Dreams and Nightmares concept, but that is a working idea.

Anyway, I'm excited to get our keyboardist working on the parts and will post what we have of Night Terror once more of the parts are finished. There is an awesome Dream Theateresque section of the song that is very cool, and I can't wait to hear the keys put to Jeremy's guitars.

Anyway, that is the latest as of March 30th! Sorry I don't have anything new for you to listen to, but you guys understand.

Rock on!

[Brian Dobbs]

alright, now that's what I'm talking about.

You guys have made a lot of progress.  I can tell you've put a lot of work into all of this as well.  It's nice to see others who put as much thought into their music as we do in ours.

[GuitarHero]

Actually Brian, I just hit notes, and Tim likes it! ... Nah, i'm joking!      It was nice to find the time to put our talents back to work last Saturday,  I love to see the birth of takeing different direction on this new song.  I get board with the same ol, I'm sure when we get through with this next song, we will probably have changed paths again!  We are pretty good with changing our minds for the better... at least usually!  All in good time and fun.

[seotci]

hhaa, it sounds like its gonna do a techno thing in the begining.  Cool intro so far, I can dig it.   Some cool ideas in there for sure.   I cant say it sounds like anything in paticular, so youv'e got an original sound as far as I can tell.   I like the violins!  Interesting stuff you've got there!  Theres nothing really repetitive, so it moves along nicely.   Right on!   

[phyziczteacher]

Thanks seotci. I'm glad you like it. You can definitely hear influences, but I am proud of the fact we have our "own" sound, which I happen to love!

For instance, if you listen to our first CD (Portal) you can hear our sound with a consistent influence from bands like Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Rush and the like.

Now that we have an actual pianist on board, she brings in new influences, particularly her favorite movie composer Hans Zimmer. During the climactic section near the end, you can definitely hear his influence in the composition.

Rock on!

[GuitarHero]

Hey Seotci, thank you for taking the time to listen, and giving your input!  I cant wait untill our new stuff is finished, it has a lot of the same techniques, yet we are able to expand on our ideas more now.  Much as Tim has mentioned above!

By the way Tim, I haven't been able to fix the recording yet, I did record a little more new stuff and it turned out good, once again, I can' t wait to see what you think...  That and, this weekend would be great to practice!

[Brian Dobbs]

hey you guys should post a new group shot of all of you.

[phyziczteacher]

Good idea Brian. Our Keyboardist, Lauren, will be joining us this weekend most likely, so that would be a great opportunity for a photo op!

[GuitarHero]

I'll have to make sure to get the perfect wordrobe out for our photo opp.   ... Hah!     Hey, even better, I could light the farm feild behind my house on fire for a good background in the pics... ok, maybe not!  Your right though, Brian, we probably do need to update a little more often with the photos, it's like reading a book without pictures, for me.  Kinda boring, if you don't have something to look at with it!  Thanks for the advice, maybe it will spark some funny topics! 

[Brian Dobbs]

any new photos?  :-)

[GuitarHero]

Hey Brian, sorry to say no new photos!  I had the camera all ready to go too!  I'll let Tim explain in further detail, because he's good at that.        We did, however, get quite a bit of work completed on our music.   Love to stay and chat, but I need to go to work, later!