Stefan Wenger - Orbit (Progressive Metal)

  • Stefan, my man!


    You know, I've still got all your clips on my iTunes / music-clip portable drive that serves as my home stereo system via a laptop, interface and old studio monitors.


    I'm telling you this 'cause the 1TB drive is 999GB full, and every time I want to add an album to iTunes I have to sacrifice clips. I've trimmed everything down to the bone, but yours have never been in danger of being removed. You're in high-class company too - all my favourite asian EDM and rock clips, western prog metal, rock and fusion and also all my favourite live gigs (Carlton, Lukather, Greg Howe, Japanese fusion, Toto, Liquid Tension Experiment and so on).


    Now that I've blown all that smoke up your ass... this latest song sux man... only kidding! Yes, it's different, but IMHO it continues on with the progression you started last year (or the year before?) towards using more of that textural "U2-style" delay, for want of a better description. More-complex but without getting too-busy.


    You've managed to hold back on the complexity (you'd remember our discussion), and I'm sure this would have made it much easier to mix. I've a feeling it might almost have "mixed itself".


    If you're able to remix the song easily, it might be an idea to try reducing the 'verb mix and decay time on the rhythm-delay parts. The delay is already pushing the guitar deeper into the stereo field and IMHO the 'verb doesn't therefore need to be as-wet or lengthy as it is now. See how you go if you can do it. IMHO it'll bring the song into focus more by reducing "muddiness" and help the lead stand out better too.


    Anyway, well done again, brother. Something's gonna have to be erased from that drive to make room for this. :/

  • Thank you very much for the nice words. The fact that my music always has its place on the hard disk really flatters me!! :)

    I really took the "hold back on complexity" topic to heart. Sometimes it may still be a bit too much in some parts, but I give my best ;)

    Thanks for the constructive criticism with the delay. I'll give it a try.

    Again, I really can't thank you enough. As I said, your comments always make me very happy.

    Cheers Stefan

  • You're too kind, Brother Stefan! <3


    Keep up the great work, man, and I'm honoured that you've tried to "hold back on complexity"! :saint:


    PS:

    It's something I also struggled with back in the day when I last recorded. I just kept adding parts, probably because I found it so easy to create things that worked / fitted the song, but in the end, especially looking back now that I'm older, I way-overdid things. As writers, we have to learn to not be too-precious about our parts. We must be willing to remove some altogether, and shorten intros and so on. :/

  • After a break, I released another song last weekend.

    In style maybe a bit different than my previous songs, or what do you think?

    Stefan, great tune, well composed and well recorded. Very creative. I like the dynamics in the song and the lot of fine details. Rythmic delay guitars have always attracted me so much throughout my whole life :)



    As writers, we have to learn to not be too-precious about our parts. We must be willing to remove some altogether, and shorten intros and so on. :/

    So true but so hard to achieve. Indeed that's my experience as well and indeed the feedback from third parties is quite valuable regarding this point. They don't feel the sweat and pain it cost you to make a particular part or intro or solo or whatever. They just see what it does to the tune overall. Can be tough but mostly it helps to focus on the key aspects of the song.

  • Stefan, great tune, well composed and well recorded. Very creative. I like the dynamics in the song and the lot of fine details. Rythmic delay guitars have always attracted me so much throughout my whole life :)



    So true but so hard to achieve. Indeed that's my experience as well and indeed the feedback from third parties is quite valuable regarding this point. They don't feel the sweat and pain it cost you to make a particular part or intro or solo or whatever. They just see what it does to the tune overall. Can be tough but mostly it helps to focus on the key aspects of the song.

    Thanks a lot man! Your comment made my day :) such nice words :)

  • Thanks a lot!! :)
    Yes It is very hard to achieve. But you are right, less is more sometimes ;)