"Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

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"Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby carlaz » Sun Nov 07, 2021 3:35 pm

This is a short (well, it would be shorter if doom metal wasn't kind of slow!) partial (intro > verse > chorus > verse >chorus) demo for a doom-metal song:


It started as an experiment to approach the guitar tones of Garry "Gaz" Jennings (ex-Cathedral), though I eventually decided these are best approximated by a dimed (and somewhat boosted) JCM800.

All the guitars use the Brit 8000 model boosted with the Overdrive stomp (level up, drive down, tone in the middle) with the matching cab (with a Dynamic 57 right up on and in the middle of one speaker, and a Condenser 87 right up and slightly off-center from another speaker). There are separate rhythm tracks left and right, but using the same settings. The lead guitar adds the Wah 47 (which is probably not authentic for Cathedral, but I just like that wah!) partially because 1) I wanted to test the set-up in Logic Pro that I needed to record MIDI to control parameters in AmpliTube, and partially because 2) it's Cathedral-ish doom metal and there ought to be some wah. 8-) All the guitar chains within AmpliTube end with the EQ-81 rack unit, though it's not set to do anything besides a little high- and low passing; it mostly just sits there and adds some color. 8-)

The bass signal is a little more complicated, but essentially it is sort of split into upper and lower frequencies that are then processed differently. The upper frequencies go through AmpliTube 5's MiniPlex 20 and the 4x12 Brit 30 cab (with the Ribbon 121 and Condenser 87) for some dirt and grind. The lower frequencies are mostly DI, processed in AmpliTube relatively lightly with some of the rack compressors -- but then smashed outside of AmpliTube with a 3rd-party limiter plugin. (If there were some generic high-/low-pass filters and a relatively transparent limiter built in to AmpliTube, I could probably basically do all the split-bass processing within AmpliTube. Perhaps some day!)

There are a few other plugins in the mix: a number of 3rd-party plugins but also some T-Racks stuff on the stereo mixbus. (I use the EQual plugin in a few places; I've kind of been digging it, lately. I think the guitars get some EQP-1A, and the mix bus chain certainly ends with Stealth Limiter.) with The drums are mostly from Logic's "Drummer" feature, augmented with a few additional samples. The church bells are from some 3rd-party EXS24/Sampler instrument for Logic, and the rain and thunder .... well, it's been raining and thundering a lot recently where I live! :lol: (That also kind of inspired the track).

So, it's a kind of fun, plodding but crunching doom-metal piece. 8-) It needs some appropriately off-the-wall lyrics and probably either a psychedelically-tinged breakdown or galloping Sabbathy fast section (or both!) carrying on from where the current demo ends. Have to think about it! :mrgreen:
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Re: "Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby CrazySchmidt » Thu Nov 11, 2021 10:31 am

Well, ... let me start by just saying FUK YEAH!!! :D :? 8-)
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Re: "Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby carlaz » Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:31 pm

Actually, I just realized that my actual favorite AmpliTube Wah is the Wah 46 -- I did, however, use the Wah 47 here since it seemed perhaps one of the more "generic" wahs, and though I really am a little hazy on exactly what gear Gaz Jennings uses/used (other than his known association with JCM800s), he does not seem to have exotic and complicated tastes. :D There are a few videos on YouTube where one can catch a fleeting glimpse of his pedals, and though I can't tell what's there (though, of course, there's some kind of wah), I can tell there's not really that much there! :lol:

Oh, and I should add that all the guitars on the linked recording are my old, early '90s Gibson LP with Bareknuckle Crawler pickups and tuned down to B. The bass is my mid-'70s Rickenbacker 4001 retrofitted with more recent Rickenbacker HB1 humbucking pickups, and also tuned down to B. (The strings were getting pretty floppy down there! But if Scott Reeder could play a Rick in Kyuss with medium-light strings tuned down to B, then I reckon I can give it a go as well! :lol: )
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Re: "Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby mklankin@hotmail.com » Fri Nov 19, 2021 1:58 am

Hey Carlaz,

Excellent, excellent tune. Clearly a track with a backstory that’s personal to you and it shows. Super heavy guitar sounds (including that bass!) and the song is put together fantastically.

Love it….and thanks for sharing the backstory and the approach to recording it!
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Re: "Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby carlaz » Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:51 pm

And thanks, mklankin and CrazySchmidt, for the kind words. :D I'm still trying to figure out what else I want to do with the piece -- though I have to go back and tune everything down to B whenever I play around with ideas. Maybe I'll do a bridge in E or A just so I don't have to retune! :lol:
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Re: "Wizard on the Mountain" (AT5 doom-metal demo)

Postby CrazySchmidt » Sun Nov 21, 2021 4:20 am

carlaz wrote:Maybe I'll do a bridge in E or A just so I don't have to retune! :lol:


LOL, I hear ya man!! :D :lol:
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