The Wagtunes Corner

[wagtunes]

1st track from my upcoming CD "In The Blink Of An Eye", my tribute to Blink 182. I've been told that they are not punk, so this will be my first Blink 182 project ever.

In The Blink Of An Eye

You're here you're gone
And I go on
You never cared
I never dared

I gave everything I had to you
Now there's nothing left for me to do

And now you're gone

In the blink of an eye
In the blink of an eye

You said I'm fat
Then left like that
I tried to cope
I was a dope

Repeat Pre Chorus and Chorus

Now I'm sittin' and thinkin'
Now I'm taken to drinkin'
Now I'm wondering what is left to do
With you

Now I'm cryin' and wheezin'
Now I'm itchin and sneezin'
Now I'm plotting to make you pay and pay
To your dying day

Instrumental Break

Repeat Verse 1, Pre Chorus and Chorus 2x

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -of-an-eye

[donkey tugger]

I always like a nice gap in a song..a few here..good!

Definitely better than your Queen tribute stuff for me (but then I don't like Queen to start off with..). A few production things to think about perchance...

In general terms most of the modern 'punk' (it's more pop-rock really, punk for me is nasty angry stuff like Discharge ) stuff is very 'in your face' in terms of short reverbs and relatively dry guitars and vocals.

Guitars could do with being more buzzy/trebly - possibly add a bit of emphasis in the 3-5k region. Similarly the bass sound is quite 'dead' - fine for other genres but for this kind of thing you want energy and twang.

Overall seems to be missing a bit of high end?

A good start..!

[wagtunes]

I always like a nice gap in a song..a few here..good!

Definitely better than your Queen tribute stuff for me (but then I don't like Queen to start off with..). A few production things to think about perchance...

In general terms most of the modern 'punk' (it's more pop-rock really, punk for me is nasty angry stuff like Discharge ) stuff is very 'in your face' in terms of short reverbs and relatively dry guitars and vocals.

Guitars could do with being more buzzy/trebly - possibly add a bit of emphasis in the 3-5k region. Similarly the bass sound is quite 'dead' - fine for other genres but for this kind of thing you want energy and twang.

Overall seems to be missing a bit of high end?

A good start..!

Well, I asked for help in the Production forum but got none, so I was on my own with this. Hopefully, I'll get better as I go along.

[Forgotten]

I agree with donks that this isn’t punk, and it needs something to make it more aggressive.

Not sure what you used for the guitar, but it definitely needs more lift on the top end. Typically punk bands would use the bridge pickup on a guitar with humbuckers, and play most of it with downstrokes only. Distortion would come from either turning the amp gain up to 10 or using something like a Boss DS-2. Usually there’s quite a lot of cut on the low end of rhythm guitars.

Bass often has the gain turned up on the amp until it starts to ‘growl’ when played with a pick, and to get both high and low sounds in that growl you should scoop some of the low mids.

Drums need to be beefed up too - preferably by redlining them through an analog preamp emulation, but saturation of any kind would work.

[wagtunes]

I agree with donks that this isn’t punk, and it needs something to make it more aggressive.

Not sure what you used for the guitar, but it definitely needs more lift on the top end. Typically punk bands would use the bridge pickup on a guitar with humbuckers, and play most of it with downstrokes only. Distortion would come from either turning the amp gain up to 10 or using something like a Boss DS-2. Usually there’s quite a lot of cut on the low end of rhythm guitars.

Bass often has the gain turned up on the amp until it starts to ‘growl’ when played with a pick, and to get both high and low sounds in that growl you should scoop some of the low mids.

Drums need to be beefed up too - preferably by redlining them through an analog preamp emulation, but saturation of any kind would work.

Then I guess Blink 182 isn't punk either.

[vurt]

nope. pop.

[wagtunes]

nope. pop.

Well, then I suggest everybody go back to the OP and read it. I'm doing Blink 182 for this CD.

[wagtunes]

And this out of Wiki for Blink's genres.

Pop punk, alternative rock, punk rock, skate punk

But I guess Wiki is wrong and a couple of guys here are right.

[wagtunes]

I changed the OP to reflect this is a Blink 182 project and not a punk project so people can stop giving me tips on how to make it sound more punk. Tips on how to make it sound more Blink 182 will be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Forgotten]

Some people might think it’s punk, but it doesn’t sound like it to me. There are lots of bands labeled as “punk” because it sells records to kids who buy all their clothes at Hop Topic, but there’s very little that connects them with CBGB’s bands, late 70s punk, D-Beat, Oi, Hardcore or anything else that falls in that period. Punk was well and truly dead by the mid-80s, but it hasn’t stopped marketing executives from using the label to sell to certain demographics.

[wagtunes]

Some people might think it’s punk, but it doesn’t sound like it to me. There are lots of bands labeled as “punk” because it sells records to kids who buy all their clothes at Hop Topic, but there’s very little that connects them with CBGB’s bands, late 70s punk, D-Beat, Oi, Hardcore or anything else that falls in that period. Punk was well and truly dead by the mid-80s, but it hasn’t stopped marketing executives from using the label to sell to certain demographics.

Well, I grew up with early punk and while Blink 182 certainly doesn't sound like what I grew up with, there is definitely a punk influence there. It's just softer than early punk without as much of an edge to it.

Anyway, the label is immaterial. I'm doing Blink 182 for this CD, whatever they are.

[wagtunes]

I agree with donks that this isn’t punk, and it needs something to make it more aggressive.

Not sure what you used for the guitar, but it definitely needs more lift on the top end. Typically punk bands would use the bridge pickup on a guitar with humbuckers, and play most of it with downstrokes only. Distortion would come from either turning the amp gain up to 10 or using something like a Boss DS-2. Usually there’s quite a lot of cut on the low end of rhythm guitars.

Bass often has the gain turned up on the amp until it starts to ‘growl’ when played with a pick, and to get both high and low sounds in that growl you should scoop some of the low mids.

Drums need to be beefed up too - preferably by redlining them through an analog preamp emulation, but saturation of any kind would work.

Let me address some of this.

I'm using all virtual stuff, even the guitar so there is no way to change the pickups. Of course I guess I could grab the Brian May pickup emulation and try to do something with that, but I'm probably only going to get so far with it.

I don't know what a Boss DS-2 is. Is there an emulation for one?

The drums shouldn't be hard to beef up but then I'm not sure if that will have me ending up with a Blink 182 sound. Their drums are not all that prominent.

I'm certainly open to experimentation but I don't want to stray too far from the theme.

As far as the high end on this track, yeah, it's a little weak. I tried to bring it up but given the instrumentation, there was only so far I was going to bring it up. Ultimately, the guitars just didn't have enough top end because I wanted them to be more bottom heavy to get that heavy guitar sound. In fact, I used an 8 string emulation and played mostly the bottom strings.

If I could get some feedback in the Production forum, it would have helped but none was forthcoming. So I did the best with what I had to work with, which was essentially listening to Blink 182's albums and taking it from there.

[sjm]

To me it sounds more like something with a punk influence than "punk punk". The drums are playing at half speed for a start

And +1 on the need for more fizz on the guitars if you want that punk sound.

Nice song though!

[wagtunes]

2nd track from my upcoming CD "In The Blink Of An eye"

I took some old Blink (before they went commercial) and mixed in some Wags insanity and this is what I came up with. I honestly don't even know what this is. So I welcome all the experts to give me its genre.

Crispy Critter

I hear you cook men and eat them alive
I don't know how anyone survives
I have thoughts but too scary to describe
If I tried surely I know I would die

Stand back
Stand back
Stand back

I must be free
No I can't see
Don't want to be
Your crispy critter
No
Please just let me go

You are a cannibal of the nth degree
I don't know what you'd ever see in me
I'm as skinny as skinny as can be
Please just leave me alone and set me free

Repeat Pre Chorus and Chorus

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/crispy-critter

[andrelafosse]

I think the tunes sound really good! The first one totally nails their songwriting style.

A big, big part of the sound of groups like this is tracking the rhythm guitar parts twice, playing the same exact part, and then panning one take hard left and the other take hard right. It creates this huge stereo image for the guitars, but also leaves plenty of room in the middle for the vocals.

The challenge here might be (MIGHT be) that one of the reasons this works is that no human is going to play something exactly the same way each time. So, the microscopic variations present in each take are what allow the doubling effect to happen. If you take the exact same take and pan it hard left and right, you're just going to get a mono signal.

I don't know if the guitar VI's your using allow for that, or if you could use a different VI/setting for the left and right takes, or whatever, but it might be worth a shot.

Nice work, either way!