My first song!! Also need your help!

[Dominik Gräber]

Hey guys! I am super excited because I finally recorded my very first instrumental. It's called "The Descend of the Golden Dragon". This is by no means perfect but I am pretty proud of this being my first song and my first experience with some more complex recording. So I would love to hear your opinions on this.

However, the song is not finished, it's guitars only right now and still needs drums. But I have never recorded MIDI drums. I do have ideas for it but I'm in no state to make them real. So I wanted to ask around if somebody here would be interested in laying some drums down for me? This song won't be something commercial obviously, it's just for me.
Once the track has drums I thought about maybe adding some bass notes, but not sure if the track needs it, so we'll see how it goes.


Some general information about this. Tempo should be 150Bpm and I mainly used the A Hirajoshi Scale as well as some A minor pentatonics. I recorded everything with my Schecter with Syn pickups, through my Boss Katana 100 MkII and with Reaper and I used the Plasma Pedal and Digitech Drop Pedal for some effects. The lessons on the school and my man @Chris Johnston really helped me learning and understanding everything I needed to make this happen. Also Chris gave me some great Feedback in the writing process and helped my with some effects on the track!

Edit: Cover to the Youtube videos is made by me as well

 

[Kim]

Hey man this is great, I really like all the variations you did. I like the slow build up and what you do around 2.40, another build up. You can really be proud of this! Nice cover too

 

[Chris Johnston]

Great work man! And the cover is sick

 

[Ed Seith]

Dominik, there's some really crazy stuff here. You certainly didn't write a simple pop ditty and went for it all. I really like a lot of what you've done here. Be proud!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Thank you guys so much!

 

[Manvir B]

Sees dragon. Matt Heafy has joined the chat. Awesome stuff

 

[Christian Schulze]

Well done Dominik...this is really your first????? Fuck!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Sees dragon. Matt Heafy has joined the chat. Awesome stuff

Not too far from the truth, this will eventually be the backing track to the Making of Vid for his strap

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Well done Dominik...this is really your first????? Fuck!

I fooled around before, wrote some riffs and licks but this is the first serious and full length song I did

 

[Andrew Milner]

Sounds really cool even without drums. Gives an eerie vibe, kind of like when you're in a castle and a damn Cyberdemon is just around the corner and you don't know it yet.

As for drums, I may be able to help you out. What DAW did you use? Reaper, Cubase, anything else?

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Sounds really cool even without drums. Gives an eerie vibe, kind of like when you're in a castle and a damn Cyberdemon is just around the corner and you don't know it yet.

As for drums, I may be able to help you out. What DAW did you use? Reaper, Cubase, anything else?

Thank you! I used Reaper

 

[Andrew Milner]

Thank you! I used Reaper

That's a blessing to hear. So long as you give me the BPM you have used for the song and the bar number in Reaper where you want the drums to start, I think I may be able to help you out quite a bit.

Or I could just go wild, see how I can fit something on there based on how I feel the song .

 

[Dominik Gräber]

That's a blessing to hear. So long as you give me the BPM you have used for the song and the bar number in Reaper where you want the drums to start, I think I may be able to help you out quite a bit.

Or I could just go wild, see how I can fit something on there based on how I feel the song .

Tempo is 150 Bpm, as already said in the text. Where do I see the bars? I would probably want drums starting at the heavy rhythm, at around 2:40. That would be so cool if you could help me out!

 

[Andrew Milner]

Tempo is 150 Bpm, as already said in the text. Where do I see the bars? I would probably want drums starting at the heavy rhythm, at around 2:40. That would be so cool if you could help me out!

Huh, I saw it now, must've missed it. As for the bar, it should be seen at the top of Reaper:

 

[AGA]

Well done Dom! I love volume swells!
Good shit on the heavy part around 2:50! My main feedback would be EQ, there are a lot of low-mids muddying up your mix, especially on the intro. Also, if you layer another rhythm guitar on the part around 3:35 and hard pan it to the other side and put your lead on the center it will make a bigger sounding mix.
Cool filter at 5:15 it's a good transition to the outro.

Composition wise, there are a lot of cool ideas here, my favourite lead was the one that started at 3:35. I would create a motif melody so that you have something that ties the whole composition together. I like that that you went back to the beginning theme at the end, it's a good close.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Well done Dom! I love volume swells!
Good shit on the heavy part around 2:50! My main feedback would be EQ, there are a lot of low-mids muddying up your mix, especially on the intro. Also, if you layer another rhythm guitar on the part around 3:35 and hard pan it to the other side and put your lead on the center it will make a bigger sounding mix.
Cool filter at 5:15 it's a good transition to the outro.

Composition wise, there are a lot of cool ideas here, my favourite lead was the one that started at 3:35. I would create a motif melody so that you have something that ties the whole composition together. I like that that you went back to the beginning theme at the end, it's a good close.

Thank you a lot! Not really savvy in mixing things, so I kinda don't know how to improve here. Do you mean like two panned rhythm guitars and the high lead melody in the centre? The Filter you mentioned is my wah pedal by the way!

You are right, a motif that's found in every part would have been cool. Although I kinda have one. The long scale run actually occures during the distorted part and twice clean, leading to the outro. I call it the dragon lick as it represents the dragons flight in my head. Also the lead section at 3:35 is actually based around the distorted solo that comes in during the clean intro

 

[Lucas Weiman]

Kinda slow intro for me, but I really liked your lick that starts around 3:35. Then the harmonies you eventually started adding made it really cool too.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Kinda slow intro for me, but I really liked your lick that starts around 3:35. Then the harmonies you eventually started adding made it really cool too.

Thank you! I thought about shortening it, but the Song Has the perfect length for me and when listening closely the Intro is ever evolving and Not repeating itself, so it's fine for me

 

[Lucas Weiman]

Thank you! I thought about shortening it, but the Song Has the perfect length for me and when listening closely the Intro is ever evolving and Not repeating itself, so it's fine for me

I feel like thats the most important thing, make sure you love it. And never stop adding in nuances to make things stand out.

 

[carlosmqr]

Wow thats really cool Dominik, well done man!!