Guitar Jam Tracks Part 4

Jamtrack Updates

01/29/2012 - On the guitar jam track front over the past couple months, I've been working with Chuss Loops. I found a nice moody, driving track in Em (go figure). I worked it over a bit, adding the minimized section in various areas, giving the song some room to breathe.

Then, I added some guitars with a rough mixdown:

Then I added 'A Story Of Light' in song format with a rough mixdown:
Story of Light - Vocals Only (no guitar)
Story of Light - vocals and guitar (first version)

Then I got more serious about playing with my TC Helicon Voicetone Correct and Create boxes:

Older Jamtrack Updates

08/15/10 - Had some free time to work with a few Guitar JamTracks over the last few days... There were several progressive jam tracks I wanted to work with so my understanding of layering guitar music will grow. I'm learning about where and when to cut, fade, apply effects, and best of all some mastering techniques to refine a good mix into a great one. I perceive the process of "Audio Mastering" to be simply achieving a complete tonal balance with open-airy space, well defined lows, clearly separated instrumentation, crisp highs with just enough 'shimmer' to reveal the definition of breath, cymbals, stick-noise, and harmonic tones from mid frequency instruments. um... did I just type all those words in that order?

Moody Rock Swing

So ... Moody Rock Swing Guitar Jam Track ... What could be better than that, musically anyway?

I've been studying lately through guitar layering by opening with a quick warmup exercise and then moving right into recording. I play the first time through the passage doing what I call "Key Discovery." It is relatively simple to find the key in most songs, so I just pop in and start playing until I find one, then another, then a pattern, etc. I stopped stressing over that a while ago.

The actual layering is improvised through a filter of emotion and each layer builds upon the prior track blindly because I'm not listening to any of the previously recorded tracks as I play. In that way is the progression of better and better performances of the guitar part able to be built. Then, through the mixing process I carefully keep (and refine) the best bits of each track.

Free mp3 download: MoodyRockSwing_mix_08-27-10 (w/layering)

Free Jam Track Download: Moody Rock Swing (raw jam track)

Tracktion Test

I purchased Mackie Tracktion 3 software a few months ago. In my initial review of this music creation software, I stated that all I wanted it to do was work as they intended it to. In working out a problem with Mike and my Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro 4, I dove back into the Tracktion application to see if I could figure out why it kept just going away...

It crashed on me one time and I lost my work, but I did manage to put together the next little thing. Got it saved and mixed to Cakewalk and mastered to this Free Jam Track Download: Tracktion Test 09-12-10a