8 bit rock and roll.
I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with the music of Anamanaguchi but recently, as a personal project I decided to try and emulate what they do as what they do is rather awesome. :D
So here is my attempt at some 8 bit garage rock.
https://soundcloud.com/crumpled_muppet/flashback-supernova
Let me know what you think if you are so inclined :P
So here is my attempt at some 8 bit garage rock.
https://soundcloud.com/crumpled_muppet/flashback-supernova
Let me know what you think if you are so inclined :P
Comments
They also fairly often use live drums as well to give it a bit more kick, but a lot of their songs do just have chiptune drumming, so it's mainly the live (or could be substituted with sampled) guitars that make the difference.
This pic of a live performance helps to visualize their setup: http://assets.thecreatorsproject.com/blog_article_images/images/000/015/470/Anablog_original.jpg
I was reading up and apparently all their drums are live recorded but then bit crushed among other things and that will definitely give it a different sound. I can play enough drums to record I don't have access to a full digital recording setup (which I kinda need for good drum recordings) ;/ ;/ ;/ so I'm just working with real samples for now, bitcrushed and effected. I want to try add a bit more dynamic to the drums in future tracks with more fill and a bit more velocity editting. I totally agree with the comment about the live drums having more of a kick though...
The aim overall was to emulate (great use of words :P haha) but also try and not be a carbon copy, hence I tried slight alterations with instrumentation. I wanted to try make more of the 8 bit stuff but then add my own version of the rock band stuff. I didn't use a real bass either cos I tried and it didn't sound as nice as the synth I was using. I really do wanna do something with the drums in the future and I definitely feel my use of guitars are a bit rudimentary compared to them but I also was trying to keep it simpler to start cos when I start adding too many layers and things is when I start to get noisy.
I appreciate the comments Gibbo...always great to have some outside opinions :D Thanks!
In terms of crit...
I like the bassline but it sounds pretty muffled to me which I *think* makes the rest of the track sound a little muffled to me. Maybe a little EQing/leveling could help with that, I would bring down the bottom end a little and bring out the mids/top end more.
I also kind of want more guitar :P it doesn't have the fullness that I was expecting between the 8bit and the bass which I think the guitar can help with. At the moment its super hard to even hear that its there. I feel like having a guitar that cuts in a little more will give it a bit more crunch and mids. Also if you aren't already, maybe double tracking the guitar could help without making it that much louder? But that's just my super biased opinion as a guitarist/guitar lover :) (I want that solo to soar!)
I also felt the bass could be more pronounced but it was one of those cases where I everything else I tried sounded worse so I left it for now...def something to think about from my side. I actually dropped the highs in my bass so the 8 bit stuff could sit in the mids/high range. I did that to try keep it from being muddy....but I should prob mess with EQ a bit more.
It seems everyone wants more guitar :P I am a guitarist myself and all my other recordings I have ever done have had tooo loud guitar :P haha, I kinda really enjoyed the way Ana had this really soft texture of guitar in the background but couldn't really make out what was going on...I'll try raise the levels the bit but esp with the solo I intentionally made it softer as it's not what I'm used to doing so I was experimenting with levels and such. I kinda really didn't want the guitar to stand out so hence I tried to keep it soft. Maybe the solo could soar a bit more I agree but I also like the understated sound. I'll experiment a bit :D
I'll def try double track the ryhthm guitar but it's kinda impossible for the solo ;/ that solo, as most of my solos are, are one take and not planned in advance...call it an improv ;/ so double track that lead will take me a bit of time, maybe I can duplicate and off centre and pan the recording a bit to get that effect?
Thanks again for the feedback dudes :D love it !
I get what you are saying about the guitar and I think you are correct to a point, but I still think it cuts through a little more in Ana while still being soft.