Anarchy, Anarchery. Where Are The Robbing Hoods?

[StephenM]

The Smiling Stiffs band here (thanks Zoltan)
pure fiction ok?  I met up with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and wrote this song while asking her if she would like to share some wedding cake with me in the tea room of the royalty's castle. 

this song is the typical "I don't like the way you people rule so we will take over and then we will make you eat out of garbage cans like you did us" type of stuff... the problem is, people who grab power are all the same...basically DICK's... this song tries to portray a world where the pawns rise up and take down the kings and queens in the chess match we live.

I tried for minimalist approach as in 1 guitar track (Harley Benton PRS copy on single coil).  1 Shecter bass track and playing the Alesis Nitro...the guitar and bass tones came from the BR1600 again and eq'd on Bandlab. 
mixing notes.  I would likely do a different "ride" cymbal sound on this.  My alesis kit is a stereo out so I cannot mix the drums separate.  I can adjust the volume and sound of each drum but once I select it, it is what I play in the stereo mix.  I liked the drums too much though to do over. 
I decided against a lead as I wanted to stay like a real 3 piece band. 

Hey Chrissy you wanna play?  That attitude, I'll show you mine today.  We'll pretend we like each other.  I'll feed you wedding cake.  Have tea with me, in the sitting room of the royalty.  We'll take over their castle.  It will only be a minor hassle.  They won't know what hit them.  When we route them in masses. 
Pretenders.  Russian defenders.  Old men wearing suspenders. 
Kicked off their unholy thrones, throw them out, leave them desolate and alone.  Let them eat from garbage cans.  The ruling class has failed man. 
Take down the kings and queens.  Soon the pawns will rise in victory.  Turn the weapons of their power on them.  We'll send them to the shower. 
Then you and I will rule the world.  We'll show our banner unfurled and we will be the dicks.  That the former royalty will now have to lick. 
Anarchy, anarchery, where are the robbing hoods?.  Anarchy, anarchery, where are the robbing hoo

[hardlock]

Cool song! Your vocal effects are great (how did you do them?) I've got the same problem with my Roland V-drum module only allowing separate adjustments of the individual tones but having a stereo mix output playback. One could always play each drum/tone as an individual track to mix as desired but I tried it once and it loses the live playability vibe. Your's sounds good to me as is.

[Pete C]

Another cracking song Stephen.. love the sentiment of overthrowing the leaders but the reality is that once you get rid of one bunch of elites, human nature is such that there is another bunch who want to have more power and money than everybody else. Politics aside, the 3 piece band sounds great and as always you've done a great job with the multiple vocals !

Pete

[StephenM]

Cool song! Your vocal effects are great (how did you do them?) I've got the same problem with my Roland V-drum module only allowing separate adjustments of the individual tones but having a stereo mix output playback. One could always play each drum/tone as an individual track to mix as desired but I tried it once and it loses the live playability vibe. Your's sounds good to me as is.

https://www.bandlab.com/join/wlx6rez

thanks for the good comments... Hardlock I will try to answer your question as well as I can.  Just above you will see a link to the song on Bandlab.  You can click there and go and look at all the tracks if you like.  Don't worry about messing something up as I already have a copy of all the tracks plus I will likely not do anything more with this. 
Band lab is free software, part of Cakewalk.  Cakewalk is a bit more complicated so I have been using this for months now.  It's gotten better and fairly straight forward.  In the effects section they offer some good presets one I like for vocals is called "Scotty Tone" which I modified a little of the eq and the delay/reverb then saved as my preset called the same.  I copied the lead vocal and used that setting along with "Auto Pitch" which is their version of auto tune.  I have been experimenting with it for a while to see how much to use etc.  Also I panned this track about 72% left. 
The right vocal track is panned about the same right and using a vocal preset called "70's Ballad" and has no autotune.  I am finding using the main vocals this way, and variations of this idea to be interesting and quite good.  Sometimes I use 3 of the same track in a similar fashion adjusting the panned voices lower volume than center...
The backing track is also heavy on the Auto Pitch and using the Scotty Tone preset.  It is centered.  There is one small section that I cut and paste a part into for more effect. 
I felt I finally got a mix here that I really like a lot.  Partly because it is not too many tracks maybe and also I think I am learning to do better.  This one I got the guitar down a little bit more.  Sometimes I try and love to much of one thing and then the overall mix suffers.  The cool thing is, there is always another chance tomorrow or another song...
As far as drums, Alesis now makes a brain that has 8 outputs.  It's about 800 bucks.  I think maybe I will get it next year?  I could go midi and use the midi outputs for each drums but I know nothing about midi so not sure I am digging that idea.

[hardlock]

not too many tracks

Got that problem myself. Less is more sometimes is seems. Will check out the link. Sounds like some fun stuff. I used Cakewalk back in the original days of MIDI music creation BTW.

[TPB]

yep kind of political asshats in office here comes the new guy gonna change things and they turn into the same asshat
Love the rocking attitude of the song well done brother
Tim

[Rene Asologuitar]

T**************

Hi Stephen,
I like the effects on the vocals, and the guitar is always great!!!
I am rocking and bopping, enjoying this song!!!
Love this.
Rene

[DarrenG / The Devil's Toupee]

Another really cool, original song with great lyrics, I like the idea about meeting Christie Hynde..they have a serious point mixed in with the zaniness too. Haha, love some of the lyrics.." old men wearing suspenders" .
Great guitars as always, I do love the vocal fx and the vocoder sound.

[Mike_S]

You have a great knack of mixing zaniness and all round crazy lines and ideas with some serious and profound observations. And that is not an easy thing, but it's natural to you. This is great, brings a big smile here. And as ever some cracking guitar in there too.

Mike