M87 - 'NGC 2170'

[Svartmetall]

Finally got this little bugger finished (it's taken a week to record & mix); certainly one of the densest, trickiest pieces I've written so far.

I know I always say this, but especially with something like this I'd really, really like to know what people think of the actual music herein (especially you musician types out there); this piece feels genuinely close to symphonic to me in terms of size and complexity so not only am I rather proud of it, I'm very curious to see what people make of it.

[jawn galliano]

i need to give it another proper listen but i had this on yesterday evening while reading from alan moore's illuminations. i really like it! interested to hear more about your writing/recording process. are these sounds that you've already kind of worked out in advance with a specific purpose in mind, and then plug your composition into it? or do you find yourself dialing in a sound and then just kinda working it into shape?

also on a more practical and nakedly self-interested note, how the hell do you make recordings that don't sound like mud

[Svartmetall]

Thanks

Basically, once I see a picture of an astronomical thingy that really grabs me, I'll sit down and write a piece around what the picture made me feel (I invented my own method of notation for the purposes of writing the M87 material; I can't really read & write normal music, and the M87 stuff is basically me as frustrated modern classical composer as I'm a huge fan of modern classical music) and then when it comes time to record it I'll sit there with the score and track it part by part till it's done. So everything you hear is played in real time on guitar and bass; this piece was in 13 parts, in the end, and being 25 minutes long it took the best part of a week to get recorded and mixed as some of the passages are pretty complex - around 8:50 there's a minute or so of really dense writing that drove me nuts trying to get it done cleanly.

This is my recording setup as it currently stands (sadly the flash has completely washed out the purple glow from the Xmas tree, it looks really cool IRL); that's actually the 'NGC 2170' score on the music stand, I've just added a nifty little strip lamp that curls over the top of the monitor and illuminates the score perfectly for legibility whilst recording. The black cabinet on the right is one of my Racks Of Doom, it's full of outboard FX units, preamps, compressors etc.



As for sound quality - meh, I'm still pretty new to using a PC-based setup (I use PreSonus Studio One Artist as a DAW) but I've worked hard over the last few months at getting a big sound for the M87 material, and it's mainly about careful EQ-ing and balancing of sounds; Studio 1 has a nice parametric EQ plugin that I use a lot both for removing things like mains hum and also for emphasising certain frequenices on submixes etc to make sure everything's as clear as I can make it. I'm sure a proper engineer/producer could do a better job, but I'm fairly happy with the sound I'm getting atm and will just keep on working on it.

BTW the pics on the YouTube vids are of the specific astronomical thingies that the accompanying piece is about, so you can see how stunning NGC 2170 is while listening

[vO)))id]

you've got some nice guitars dude
I also really enjoyed this track - the build up is great.

did you ever check out Cryo Chamber?

[Svartmetall]

Yeah, thanks for the tip, there's some pretty good stuff on there; SO much music out there these days, it's easy to miss things (I'm trying to grow my YT channel but it's painfully, painfully slow)

I have WAY too many guitars (fortysomething IIRC) but I'll see if I can get some pics taken to show you the collection...