This is part 1 of my series on the recording of my new black metal band's first album. The band is called Bellower. I aim to chronicle the entire process of recording the album and hopefully post our first finalized tracks here on Steemit. Here is our logo currently. I designed this and modeled it after Goetic demonic sigils.
It all begins with writing the music and for that I need only a few things: My laptop, my writing software, and my guitar.
There are two ways I write the riffs that will become a song. I might hear it in my head and rush to write it down or I'll mess around with the guitar until I hear something I like. A song usually starts with a riff which I build off of. Occasionally I'll be able to combine older riffs that I forgot about or riffs I had put on hold and this can greatly expedite the writing process. A song might take a day or two or a month or two. You can't force inspiration...DO NOT FORCE INSPIRATION!
The software I use to write the music is called Guitar Pro. I use tablature to write the music and to share it with my band mates. In my opinion tablature is the superior method for guitar and bass...especially for metal guitar. With this software I can "tab" out all my parts and play them back. I can add drums, backing guitars, bass, synth...anything! Here is a picture of the tablature in Guitar Pro for the song I am going to preview for you here:
Tablature is very simple in concept. There is a line for each string of your instrument and each number corresponds to a fret...and it is that simple. When I am done writing the song and this file is complete I can send the tab or audio export to the other members of the band for review and input.
Below is a link to what this file sounds like. This is what my bandmates hear when I send them a new song. Please keep in my that this is basically a MIDI file with some simple soundbanks. The drums are just a placeholder for the feeling I wanted to achieve and they sound extremely crude; and so do the guitars. There are even a few parts where I did not put in any drums. It can be difficult to imagine what the final product will sound like when listening to these sounds...especially considering this is supposed to be crushingly heavy black metal. Also the drums in the beginning are supposed to be a blast beat so brace yourself for MIDI blastbeats =P
https://soundcloud.com/louis-motamedi/bellower-untitled-track
There will be 6 songs on our first album and they are all written. The next step in the process is getting to the practice space and working out details of the songs as we play them, and then play them live. For the next installment of this I will go over my equipment and show you what this song sounds like in the practice space with vocals.
Thanks for looking and keep it heavy! \m/ \m/
Here's a post with music from my old band: https://steemit.com/music/@big-lou/original-music-my-blackened-metal-style
A review of 10 of my favorite metal albums: https://steemit.com/dtube/@big-lou/9474prhr
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