I logged on here sometime in fall of 2013, maybe even late summer, to find the forum was changed around, and I could not log in. I found the instructions for sending an activation e mail to my e mail account, followed them, but no activation e mail ever showed up. I checked my spam folder too. I tried again every so often. This morning finally an activation e mail did arrive.
Most recently, in January 2014, I finished re-recording the bass and lead guitar in this instrumental space rock/post rock piece called Diaphanous. Stream Diaphanous (preproduction) by Sleep Distance | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
I used my Ibanez Gary Willis fretless bass that I got in 2012, which is getting me better fretless bass tones than the Hamer Cruise bass I was using before. I also got a new Tech 21 bass amp in summer 2013, and that has improved the fretless bass tones I am getting.
I got rid of a little needless repetition in the piece. It’s a judgement call between wanting to create an atmosphere for the listener by repeating something, and still keeping the song interesting by not having something repeat too many times. Sometimes 2 times is better than 4 times before adding another instrument or something.
I also changed the drums in the piece from the Battery drumset to EZ Drummer with the Rock Solid expansion set.
I also updated the drums in this ambient/post rock/metal piece called Am Ende Vom Sommer. SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds with Diaphanous, I used EZ Drummer (one of the metal drums expansions for this one) and ran snare, bass drum, overheads, toms, and room mic to separate tracks to process them separately. I used Waves Kramer or CLA signature plugins on the overheads, room mic and snare tracks, and IK Black 76 compressor on snare and bass drum. Nomad Factory MAGNETIC and Steven Slate VCC on all tracks.
As with Diaphonous, I shortened the song a little, shortening the fade out at the end.
Not sure if I posted this here last summer after I recorded it or not, but if not, here is a short ambient guitar piece I recorded, called Losing Them All to Time. Stream Losing Them All to Time by Sleep Distance | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
This piece was partly a demo piece to try out a new guitar pedal. I got a Strymon Orbit flanger last summer. I’d watched Strymon’s demo video on how to patch the Orbit into the send/return loop of their Timeline delay, and they were able to get sounds that reminded me a lot of Robin Guthrie’s guitar tones. I have a Seymour Duncan Deja Vu delay with a send/return, so I patched the Orbit flanger into that. Also on the chord swell guitar is my Pigtronix Philopher King pedal to get the volume swell on the attack, and the Morpheus Capo to add an octave above, for a more airy, synth strings kind of sound. the guitar ran through this pedal chain direct into the audio interface, and I added an amp (Roland Jazz Chorus I think ) in Amplitube 3.
The tribal drumming is from a World Grooves collection in Sampletank.
Also on the site, if you are interested in listening, are some cover songs (most acoustic, one with a full band) that I recorded over the summer. One has a guest female vocalist. There are cover renditions of “Personal Jesus” (one acoustic, one with band), “Matte Kudesai”, “Outside of This (Inside of That)”, all at Stream Sleep Distance music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud.
Also, over the 2013 winter holidays, I tweaked the drums and acoustic guitar on this heavy blues/rock piece:Stream Got My Ol' Guitar by RWzBlues | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
I used EZ Drummer’s Drumkit From Hell expansion on this one.
There is also a new acoustic cover song, recorded summer of 2013, at the RWzBlues soundcloud page:Stream RWzBlues music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
Thanks for listening, and it’s good to be back.