New song....

written in a day... recorded the following day.

The band, is mostly BB/RT with a pair of tracks by me as a grunge undercurrent. Inspiration pulled from a few rock bands.

Nits you hear, comments, recommendations are welcome. Note: the vox are down intentionally as this is stadium, anthem rock.

LESSON TO LEARN

Thanks I'll post the tracks later if anyone is interested.

Cool song Herb!! Great rock vibe. The solo guitar works perfectly (that a RT or you?). Nice job with the vocals. You certainly channeled your "inner rock dude" on this! Great job!! Take care. Greg

the leads are RT but I had considered replacing parts of it.

This is a great rocker for sure. Personally I would like to have the vocals more upfront as they are hard to hear with that excellent rockin' backing track. YMMV

Thanks Mario. The vox are down that way intentionally. Rock tends to bury the vox in the mix a bit.

Let me introduce the band

On Bass, we have Craig Young (995) holding down the bottom line
On drums, we have some dude we picked up off the streets of LA.... he has that heavy LA rock style that we needed and he worked that session for a McDonalds happy meal.
On rhythm guitars we have Eric Borash (999) and Mark Matejka (996)
Laying down the lead guitars are three of the finest session players anywhere.... Brent Mason (2628), also Dave Cleveland (1530) and shredding it in fine fashion is Darin Favorite (393).
On the B3 Hammond Organ is Gene Rabbai (671)

and last, but certainly not least, is Kill Branch Creek studio's own Guitarhacker, aka Herb Hartley playing some of the grungiest solid rhythm tracks on planet earth. Also playing the intro and shredding it right there towards the end.

3 vox tracks.... all recorded uniquely. No melodyne was used on any of it..... we're hiding it all behind that massive wall of guitars.

And that....as they say, is the rest of the story.

I had a bit of a listen to Lesson To Learn as well as several other songs on your site. They were all really good. I see you call yourself "unsigned". Well I for one don't see how. Brilliant is what I think of your music.

My thoughts

Tony

I'll start with the obvious: excellent track.

You're already addressed the fact that the vocal is "buried", but I'll suggest that there's a magical sweet spot for tracks like this, and you're not quite there. (If you suggest that I'm wrong, that's fine).

The only other nit is that the rocking solo that comes in twice is a bit harsh, given that everything else is sort of soaked in reverby goodness.

And those are minor nits. Fun listen!

Cool to see you "stretching" a bit.

A fairly solid Rock write. Some "meat" there. And there is a "catchiness" to it that works well.

A rock vocal should be "in the mix", yes, but this is a bit too far down - the solos are loud, so the low vocal seems "out of balance" in comparison.

Interesting to hear you "shred" - but I prefer your more melodic leads (which you do really well) - and I think they would have worked well here. (The opening solos and fills and the short solo at the end are all quite nice).

A good energy to the vocal - particularly towards the end...

Well that woke me up! Sounds to me like you really had fun with this - that energy comes through with the untamed vocal and grungy backing. Not sure about the mix balance - I`d have to turn it up very loud to judge...or catch your stadium tour!


Robert

Powerful mix. Great write. The vocals were a little lost in the mix.
Excellent. Rob

What a great sound and suits you really well Herb, especially when you cut loose at the end. Cool harmonies and guitar too. One of my favs of yours.

I think the vox volume is a little too low for this style. A little more volume and a little more verb on the vocal to set it back is more what I'm used to hearing and expected.

Hey.... I appreciate all the feedback... good advice coming in.


per the advice, I raised the vox and recorded a new guitar track.... deleted the other lead guitars so it's just me and Brent handling the lead.... I start and my lead fades into his.... I handle all the guitar from the last section.... the shredding part which is slightly more tame than the previous.

There's still 4 layered rhythm guitars.... 2 PG and 2 me. Levels are a tad lower on the guitar leads....


edit: after listening, the vox sounded slightly compressed so I reworked some levels and removed some plugs to try to clean it up a bit to allow it to set in the mix better.

thoughts?

This is a really cool, but what I am seeing on your channel is "Missing You" not "Lesson to Learn"--is that right?

Good song either way. Really enjoyed it.

try it again... the upload glitched.

Definitely stadium rock.

I thought of Bon Jovi, just before I passed out.



You're a rocker.

Just had another listen. Vocal balance is much better, and the guitar solo fits in perfectly. Everything seems like it's in the right place, and nothing sticks out.

But... Now there seems to be a lot of high-frequency ringing in the mix, which is a bit fatiguing. Maybe it's just me, because you can't please everyone, can you?

Hi, Herb !:))


I liked your rocker Herb !
Very solid in every aspect !

Cheers
Dani

Herb, this is definitely a nice drivin' rock tune with a lot of good stuff going on! Guitar parts are really great with some super chord changes! I have a feeling you aren't done with this yet, But it's still really good to me! Thanks, Torrey

What a tune! I love the energy behind this one. It instantly makes me think of a classic rock tune from the late 70's/early 80's. I almost get a Guns n Roses vibe here too. Great vocals, great guitar work and a great groove.

Great work, and thanks so much for sharing

This is actually written to be a replacement tune in a film for the Guns and Roses tune Sweet Child in Time. Nice call! Apparently G&R is asking too much for the licensing rights.

Nice one Herb. Got the anthem feel for sure. We can envision the band...so tiny on stage but blown up on the three giant monitors with the lights flashing wildly.

It works. I started listening to Rock with Elvis when I was a kid and still listen to many styles of rock. And I'm yet to understand why vocals became more and more buried as years went by. But I get it...it's what those music supervisors expect.

Lot's of folks branching out around here of late.

Enjoyed it.

J&B

Good to hear you rocking Herb. It helps to stretch it out once in a while. Good one. I liked it, Tom

Just want to thank everyone for the comments..... Yeah, I like to rock and rock hard at times. I was a heavy metal fan before it was called heavy metal.....

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, ZZ Top, Led Zep, The Who, and more...... it's where I cut my guitar playing teeth, so to speak.

It is 70's rock for sure. Great sound, vocal is placed well in the mix. Everything sounds good.