Bub's Rap

Well ... those of you who have heard my music know this is a far cry from what I normally do. When I joined the forums it was around Halloween, being a horror movie fan, I picked the user name Bub who is a zombie from my favorite horror/zombie movie. My old avatar was a picture of him. Anyway, we got to makin' up some rap lyrics in the Coffee House (See post #19) a few months ago and as a joke I started working on this song and it grew a life of it's own. I guess you would classify it as rock/rap/comedy/horror? If there's an award given out this year for stepping out of your comfort zone musically, I win! :)

This is my first project in X1. I started it as soon as I got X1 in December and the project got corrupted so I ditched it until X1a, still no go, then X1b came out and I was able to finish it.

Production Notes:
12/10 ~ 03/11
39 Tracks
48kHz 24bit
Sonar X1 x64 (Original Release, Patch a, and Patch b)
Fender Stratocaster
Squier Precision Bass
Dimension Pro
Cakewalk Sound Center
Reaktor 5 Prism (Free synth from Native Instruments - quite awesome for free.)
Session Drummer 3 (Some drums were done live using an Alesis SR-16 as a drum trigger/pad.)
Stock X1 samples (Shaker, some of the backing drums tracks.)
Guitar Rig Pro 4 (Used extensively on guitar and vocal tracks.)
Pro Channel on misc. tracks and all buses.
Sonitus EQ
Sonitus Multi Compressor
Cakewalk Chorus
PX-64 Percussion Strip (Used on every drum output in Session Drummer 3.)
V-vocal (Sorry. You can't do rap without it.)

This entire song was done with stock Sonar X1 plug-in's and free synth's from Native Instruments. I created some loops and used some stock loops that came with X1.

As always good/bad input is welcome. If for some reason any of it is offensive to anyone please let me know and I'll remove it. There's no swearing or sexual content but some lyrics are graphic.

Bub's Rap - Dedicated to the folks in the Coffee House. <---- UPDATE: Fixed vocal level. <---- UPDATE: 05-15-2011 -- Fixed broken link.

Bub

Hi Bub,

Very cool!  Vocal could come up a little, I think, to make the lyrics easier to understand.

I like the tone you're getting on the bass.  The guitars sound great as well.  I haven't had
any luck with Guitar Rig...I must be doing something wrong 'cause it sounds good when
other people use it

geeare1


Hi Bub,

Very cool!  Vocal could come up a little, I think, to make the lyrics easier to understand.

I like the tone you're getting on the bass.  The guitars sound great as well.  I haven't had
any luck with Guitar Rig...I must be doing something wrong 'cause it sounds good when
other people use it

Thanks! I didn't raise the vocals, but I rolled off the low end some so they weren't as muddy. They seem to sit in their own space in the mix now and are clearer.

Guitar Rig is a little tricky to use sometimes. I don't use 99.9% of the presets. I usually create my own amp, or edit a couple of existing ones then do a lot of post EQing with Sonitus.

@SlowMarchingBand: Thanks for the input! I know what you mean about the break, but no matter what I put in it just didn't sound right to me. :)

@Bapu: Thanks! I have at least 2 days in to tweaking that bass part. It's two bass parts, one through Guitar Rig and another dry with certain frequencies cut/boosted, then I threw the Channel Tool on the bus to narrow it because it was too big in the mix. The whole song is formed around the bass line. I started with it and one simple guitar part. I went through about 20 guitar riffs before I came up with this one. The bass is looped in some places but I made the loops.

Added bonus points for also working as a Joan Jett "I Love Rock & Roll" backing track!!  Rock on, Bub!

 Well done on this, I like the old school Beastie Boys feel to it. Nice work on all instruments and synths. Rap was nicely done and I think the effects are appropriate for the genre, but I think still need to come up in volume just a smidgen. A nice combination of electronic and organic in this I really enjoyed.

Hey Bub. Christmas tunes, Willie Nelson and now this. What's next... Polka? Not really the biggest rap fan but I do like it when it's rocked up like this and you did an ace job with all the performances. Nice clear bass too. Sounds really good kranked up. Great job on this tune!

@ Wookie:

@ Yorolpal: Joan Jett! My God you're right! :) Glad you liked it. :)

@ chuckebaby: Don't let my musical ability cloud the fact that I'm still a tool. :) HEHE! Thanks for the kind words. I listened to the music you've posted, you don't need any pointers man! Excellent work!

@ohgrant: I swear on my mothers grave I've never heard a Beastie Boys song all the way through. The only one I've ever heard was a few seconds of one about Brooklyn or something like that? Thanks for compliments. :)

@CLEAN: Thanks! It was a lot of fun doing it (after X1b was released).

@rhynosynth: Ok ... you asked for it. Polka Medley from my old band demo done in 1990. My mother laughed till she had tears rolling down her face when she heard this. We did the demo but couldn't remember the word to some of the songs so we made them up. It was two of us around 1 mic. We never did fix the recording but did the correct words live. Ya had to do this stuff when you're a wedding band. :) We also did Summer Wind by Sinatra. I should post that some time, it came out awesome. Thanks for the kind words about Bub's Rap. :)

@rockinrobby: Thanks for the compliment. It's not meant to be taken too seriously, at least the lyrics. :)

Hmmm ... why haven't I heard from, "the lovely ladies"?

Bub. I don't know what to say. I'm dying here. Unbelievable. You made my night. Thank You.

Hmmm ... why haven't I heard from, "the lovely ladies"?

Oh, did you mean us?
 
I only been able to listen on crappy laptop speakers so far, so it sounds much like everything else does on crappy laptop speakers  
 
I'll be able to get a listen in the studio tonight.  I know I won't be disapointed.

I listened last night, but apparently forgot to comment.

Karyn


Is that an honourable mention by Beagle?

I'm not quite sure what to make of it, so I will take it as a compliment and move on. :)

HAHA!  Still no real comment, eh?

The mix is pretty good, Bub - I'm just not one who can really critique "rap" 

Not sure where the lovely ladies are, but I'm here finally.  This is great!  :)  Sounds like a lot of fun to play actually. 

Link won't work for me?

Bub,
Dude this is really cool.   I enjoyed every minute of this.  Grinning ear to ear on this one.  This really took some thought I'm sure.  Every aspect of this was well done.  I love the effect on the VOX and the guitar parts were very tasty.  Great job on the mix, I'm listening on crappy speakers too and it translated very well.
 
Nice job!