Lament in D Minor-And now for something compleatly different-hint it's actually a song

More Frank in the style than Zep I would say with the choppy break format, but it is different.
 
What did you use to create it, what instruments?

I like this better than some of your other new ones so it's a very nice song.

Fun. Definitely a big ol' early 70's throwback. It took me a while to catch on to the peculiar rhythm sections, but now its catchy.
 
I think you are doing the thing where you hard pan an delayed echo of your guitar off to the left side (my left, anyway) and I'm not sure it wouldn't be better a tad tighter - the echo comes in later and offbeat. This could be exactly the effect you are going for . . . hey, it's still fun.
 
cheers,
-Tom

bapu
What's with that white noise all over the track?
 
Disconcerting to say the least.

Hey Bapu. I can assure you there is no white noise...sound effects. That's what they are.

Ben.

Your guitar sounds so much like the one on Red Rose Speedway it is almost freaky.

Ok here is a rough account of my decision making when making the track, it will help hopefully in regards to timing and sound's people are mentioning.
 
Making Lament in D Minor
Acoustic Rhythm Tracks: The first acoustic rhythm track was created in Notion 4-this was because I did not have access to a microphone or quiet area to record.  I also wanted to figure out how to write my rhythm guitar style or how to sequence it.  This would allow me to create an approximation of my rhythm guitar style and be able to create a bed on which to build future tracks.  In future with a pick-up in my acoustic guitar I would lay a “real” acoustic over the top.
I had to learn how to write ghost notes and palm mutes, which created some issues and may have led to the odd time signatures…I’m not sure.  I don’t really count my pieces out when I am writing, instead I “paint” the piece in and work out time as I record.
When using Notion 4, sometimes the software seems to not play what I write.  This is probably because I am not writing the musical sub-divisions correctly.  Again though are we aiming for perfect or funky…I am trying to make the machine sing.  A common complaint from music afficandos is the mechanical nature of sequenced music.  By making mistakes, perhaps I am combating this.
Another trick I tried was swing control in Notion 4, here I was trying to replicate the push and pull feel of a real guitarist.  This created some of the above issues too.  Because some of the guitar track was not written in the correct sub-division, the swing control created random effects.  But again…funky or correct.
Once I had created the guitar track in Notion, I exported into Sonar.  Here I had to create the same time signatures and tempo changes.  Sonar for some reason did not like 158 Bpm and instead I had to put the composition into half-time.  Again this perhaps created some of the timing variations, particularly when using time based effects. 
I also imported the midi version of the guitar part into Sonar, here I could see how the track was being pushed and pulled…none of the guitar notes actually started on the beat…they were in front of the beat or behind…much like a normal musician!
I started to experiment with layering the acoustic guitar.  The first thing I did was clone the Notion 4, acoustic and used Guitar Rig 4’s Wha, to add some extra chop to the chop’s.  This was placed underneath the original.  I also added convolution reverb to both tracks, using a pre-set which approximated the sound of the body of an acoustic guitar.  This added weight.  I also added double tracking effect to first acoustic sound, with Waves doubler.
I then used the Dim Pro modelling VST, to add another acoustic sound.  Here was one of the first issues, firstly the dim pro does not respond to ghost or palm mutes, and because of the pushing and the pulling of the original track, I had to work outr the pulse of the tune.  I possibly made a couple of errors after a couple of 10 hour days…it was the middle of the night when I completed these tracks.
The next thing I realized was I needed to add some sort of guitar fret noise, to simulate moving up and down the fret board as I changed chords.  I drew theses in Notion, and cut them up in Sonar.  You can hear these slightly psychedelic sounds, where you would normally hear fret noise.  I believe they disguise the sequenced nature of the acoustic somewhat.  In the future a real guitar would be a better option.
In the end I used approximately 4-6 “simulated” acoustic guitars to create the acoustic sound of the track-it was not perfect but it was funky.  I also added the electric wha part at this point knowing that it would cover the sound somewhat and create further illusion and doubt as to what was going on within the rhythm track.
For the first time since doing some upgrades to my computer system, I was able to play the electric guitar part with the wha at the same time.  Recently I had purchased a USB 3 SSD hard drive, which game me enough throughput, and I had turned off core parking in Windows 8, with an i7 Haswell chip and 16 gig of ram I was able to get the audio interface down to 128 latency…effectively there was no latency.  This project was also recorded at 32 Bit FP.  Just in case of any overs.  Insurance and testing the limits of the system.
I also added the 7/4 and 12/8 electric lead lines in the first change too.
Next I recorded the first layers of vocals, using nothing more than a Peavey 80 dollar microphone.  All the vocals were double tracked and the main vocal had a double tracking effect from Waves, effectively triple and quadruple tracking the vocals.
Next I layered the bass, here I used a free 303 clone, which was played in using the yourock guitar.  I was reasonably happy, so I did not alter the timing very much.  I did change the velocity so the track corresponded with the accents I had created in Notion 4.  I used a harmonic enhancer and Guitar Rig 4 Bass Amp to give it beef.  Although I buried in the mix somewhat.
At this point I added, the kick’s and conga’s/bongos.  The kik was from Session Drummer 3 and appropriately enough Bonozo’s dry kit.  I played the kick in using a keyboard.  Here I discovered that there was a lead note I should have been following all along, in regards to the Notion acoustic.  I spent many hours aligning the kick and the bass.  I also went through each kick note and changed the velocity to correspond with the accents and the relative loudness of each section of the track.  Session drummer 3 however doesn’t have the greatest velocity range and so it is perhaps as noticeable as it should and or could be.
The conga/bongo lines were also played in, and I did not touch the timing on these notes.  However again I did change the velocity to correspond with accents.  But the quality of the instrument which was a Roland clone sound module is probably holding the sound back slightly.  I’ve used backwards reverb to create the attack.  Because I was tired I probably should have worked on this sound further, there is some crunch on the backwards verb, and possibly I should have made it tighter.
Next I added some percussive parts, these are the cowbell and guiro, again backwards verb was used.  I should have been more precise but after 5 and half days of nothing else, you make mistakes.  Here you can hear a little crunch, and the timing could have been tighter.
Once I decided that all the drums were in place, even though there were a couple of errors…ones that I decided to keep…to try and trick the listener or to create an illusion, I added a second kick, snare and cyms to the main drums.  This was an 808 clone sound, I wanted the drums to have a modern and old school feel.  All the drums were bussed and mixed together, the drums were then fed into a Lexicon verb and heavily compressed to create a room sound.
Next all the lead guitar parts were layered, I used various Guitar Rig 4 amp’s and effects to create the many sounds and textures.  These include harmonizers Wha, Chorus, Delay, Marshal Amps, and Jazz Amps.
Next I added another layer of vocals, just to fill the track out.  More double tracking, was employed.
The track was almost complete, from the beginning I had decided to use the sound map I recoded from Noarlunga Platform as an introduction, I decided to speed up the initial sound of a man arguing with his girlfriend, to make it fit 8 bars, I also cut it up slightly and layered bit’s on top of each other.  This was so I could make the train arrive as the music started.
Next I placed the train leaving at the end of the track, giving the track symmetry.   I also wanted to add hiss and industrial noise to the second part of the track…giving it an industrial feel or adding to the industrial feel.  I then realized I could use the phrase “next stop” and please “mind the gap” which I had recorded on various train trips in 2014 to just add the final layer to the cake.  In the end these little samples…along with the timing create a feeling of being on a train ride.
I had mixed and mastered the track as I worked, each track used Sonars console emulator…last on the tracks, and each buss had tape and console emulation first.  These were used as tone shapers.
All in all I used almost 50 tracks within sonar to create this composition-, there are mistakes.  But do you cut the mistakes out, or do you leave them in…a legacy of the work and as a part of the work.  I choose the latter.  I also developed an ear infection at the very end…which I am still suffering and this created an issue in mastering.