I'm probably going to regret posting this but need some input

nuke_diver

nuke_diver

Riding Solo
As I am trying to learn Reaper and start recording some I have been playing around with a song. I know this isn't very good and I'm never going to be a good guitarist at my age but it's fun learning how to do new things :grin:. My trouble here is that I really struggled to do the drums and the bass. The drums ended up being EZ drummer grooves because my own attempts were very limited in what I could do no fills etc. So I still need a lot of work there or is just "stealing these grooves better than I ever could be so that would be the best solution. What do you guys do?

The bass is me playing notes that I thought worked on a Midi keyboard. I'm not a keyboardist so that was difficult as you hear sometimes (I'd forget to move in time). I'm not sure how else to do this (a bass isn't an option right now) nor am I sure that what I did was even correct though it sounds ok to me but that's why I'm posting.

Finally what other things should I do recording wise...levels etc. My ears are really not very good so I don't hear things and automatically know what to do (or what the chord/key is either :().

Any help is most appreciated, I only play alone at home so this is my only outlet to learn what I'm doing wrong and how to improve :thu:

 
well, I can't offer much in the way of advice, but I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as you think it is.

if the EasyDrummer thing works for you, use it.
I don't see a problem there.
all my drums are done on softare as well (Acoustica Beatcraft).

the only thing I can suggest is adding more than one guitar track, to thicken up the sound.
 
That was pretty good.

I will mirror Peeker's advice and say that it just needs a bit more of "Dave's Horrible Sounds" :wink:

It almost sounds like a backing track as it is now. NOT that that's a bad thing. Not at all. It just feels like it needs a bit more.
But you've got the tools. So, keep going!
 
I've ended up buying midi drum packages - it's a whole bunch of intros, outros, fills, and loops arranged by bpm. It's not exactly ideal, but gives a lot of flexibility without making you do it note by note. I'm sure there are a hundred out there, but Groove Monkee has treated me well, and they have quick support if you have any questions.

Agree with the others - add another guitar track, but other than that you're off to a good start. My speakers at work don't do much in the bass department, so I couldn't really hear what was going on with the low end, but I've done "bass" before by fingering my Tele and running it through an octaver. Wasn't pretty, but it worked. :grin:
 
Not bad for a first attempt.
Some pointers:
If you're going to use the prepackaged grooves in EZdrummer, you need to vary them. Don't use the same one through the whole song; mix it up. Use one in the verse and another in the chorus with a couple different fills in between. Also, experiment with the "Humanize" function. It can make the drum performance feel less canned
As for the bass, you're playing it in the wrong register--it should be an octave lower. One thing you might try, if playing bass parts on the keyboard is too daunting, is to use an octave down effect on a clean (or cleanish) guitar. I believe you can use Reapitch (plug-in that is included with Reaper) to do this very thing.
 
Thanks guys

Yeah it's still a work in progress. I might do a lead...I like to do lyrics but that has only happened once in the last 5 years so I'm not betting on it :cry:

I thought the bass sounded too high but since I don't know what I'm doing I wasn't really sure. Just getting the notes more or less right was hard enough. What I did was play the 1,3,5 for the various chords I think...is that an ok way to approach base playing :shrug:

I looked at the midi that I had written and the midi from EZD and the EZD midi notes seem to be much much shorter than mine. If I'm writing midi notes myself do I want to use the finest grid possible in Reaper to do that? I did try to change up the verse/chorus but it was a pretty simple change (hihat vs ride I think) as I found some other grooves didn't sound quite right.
 
I've noticed the length of the MIDI notes as well. When I'm playing my kit, which triggers the samples in EZdrummer, the notes are much longer than those in the included beats. It doesn't matter at all. What matters is where the left line of the note is. I really don't have much experience writing the drum parts out, as I play them in real time and edit after the fact.
 
Thanks Micwalt that's good to know. I pretty much have to write out parts I don't know how to play the drums...I think I learned the start of Wipeout when I was 14 but that's about the extent of it and I bet it was all wrong too. I thought that the midi length mattered but if its all about the left edge I won't worry so much about the length
 
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