My attempt to pay homage this rocking Yngwie tune. Contains musical excerpts from Alex Lifeson, Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne), Yngwie of course and me.  An exercise in producing this type of song as well as a study of Phrygian playing.

 As usual, no copyright or other infringement intended.

Little Savage - Yngwie Malmsteen Cover - Free Download

My cover/remix of the original super sweet motion picture soundtrack tune. As usual, this is my tribute to the original and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Phantasm - Cover / Remix - Free Download

Me jamming acoustically over a sketch of Everlong by Foo Fighters.This is a mix created so I could establish a nice "acoustic tune" template in my DAW. The rhythm part is not always true to the original, and I lose it a bit in the middle.

Everlong - Foo Fighters Cover/Jam

A ballad for my wonderful and beautiful wife. She is my strength and inspiration, and I am very lucky to have found (and held on to) her.

By my side

Blue Lit Moon Dad's Glad - Mix Practice

Full disclosure: This is not music that was recorded by me, and I am not a performer on any of the tracks. I mixed this for practice and am welcome to constructive mix advise/observations.

This is my mix of a tune from http://www.cambridge-mt.com. It's a great resource for tracks to practice mixing on.

This track is by a band called Blue Lit Moon and was featured in a Sound On Sound Mix Rescue article by Mike Senior. My understanding is that this is three guys recording in their thrown-together home studio type setup.

Mix Practice - Blue Lit Moon - Dad's Glad

My tribute to this awesome tune from King's X. Please feel free to comment and/or provide feedback on the song, the mix, or the band. 

If you would be interested in contributing vocals to this cover, PLEASE give me a heads up. Very interested in collaboration and would love to hear some brave soul belt this out.

As usual, this version is my homage to the original. No copyright or other infringement intended.


Goldilox - King's X Cover

My cover of this amazing track from Pantera. Thank you for keeping metal alive!

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

(Remixed on 05/08/2013)

Domination - Pantera Cover - Free Download

Dirge tune. Original, based on the sound of the tuning DADGCEb.

Dirge - Nathan Pitts Original - Free Download

Instrumental Cover of Alice In Chains "Nutshell" based on the acoustic performance on "MTV Unplugged". I remember when I first saw and heard that opening song, it struck me just how hurt and sick and sad Layne looked. I truly think that no band has ever - or probably ever will - convey true sorrow and resignation quite like those guys did.

Please feel free to comment. I am still trying to get the hang of recording, mixing and mastering so if you have any constructive criticisms, please let me know (hopefully in a constructive way). Thanks

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Nutshell - Alice In Chains Cover - Free Download

My cover of "The Real Thing" - warning, I am not a good singer (at all), but I chose to put some vocals on here so I can get better at mixing vocals.

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

The Real Thing - Faith No More Cover - Free Download

Great tune. My tribute to the bassingest song ever. (Can you tell I just got a new bass?)

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Big Bottom - Spinal Tap Cover - Free Download

My cover of this most awesome masterpiece. All guitars and Bass are me playing, drums are sequenced and triggered.

Thank you Steve Vai, I hope I did the song justice. 

Technical Detail:

Gear Used:
  Ibanez RG 3120 Prestige
  Line 6 AX2 212 Amplifier
  Digidesign Mbox
  MXL 990 Condenser Mic
  Ibanez Ergodyne EDB400 Bass

Amp recorded at moderately low volume (about 2 1/2).
Preamp gain on Mbox set to about 23 db.

Microphone about 2 inches away from grill cloth off-axis.

Amp Settings:
  Noise gate Threshold                 20/100
  Noise decay                                  23/100
  Hum Canceller                              8/100
  Compression                                1/5
  Overdrive - Bright Tone      Drive 4/10
   Wah Depth                                    8/10
   SLO 100 emulation with preamp settings
      55/100   Gain
      100/100 Bass
      100/100 Mid
        64/100  Treble

  Graphic EQ with setting to boost bass and mids and tame treble, 
  Presence (Post-EQ High boost) at 15/100.

  Dynamic Stereo Delay
      ~300ms with stereo repeat about 240ms later
      Level                                                  100/100

 "Dark Hall" reverb with settings
    Predelay                                                  8/100
    Decay                                                    87/100
    Dark tone
    Reverb Diffusion  (echo smear)       62/.100
    Reverb Level                                        76/100

  Reverb and Delay Mix (to dry)              45/100

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

For The Love Of God - Steve Vai Cover - Free Download

My tribute to Clean My Wounds, originally by Corrosion of Conformity. Really love the sound they get as a band.

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Clean My Wounds - Corrosion of Conformity Cover - Free Download

Cover of "Clean My Wounds" originally by Corrosion of Conformity. These guys were on the very short list of music that still actually rocked during the 90s. 

This track is my first official SoundCloud collaboration. Big thanks to deltafourn9ner for supplying the vocals on this track, they sound great!

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Clean My Wounds Cover - deltafourn9ner on vocals - Free Download

Cover of Metallica's killer track Damage Inc. Vocal credits on this version to deltafourn9ner. This song is one of the faster tracks from Metallica. Big thanks to Deltafourn9ner for a great vocal performance, Corey Amador for some excellent guidance on direction with EQ, and Goddess-thrash/nwobhm for pointing me at some additional EQ tutorials.

This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Damage Inc - Metallica Cover - deltafourn9ner on vocals - Free Download

Cover of Alice In Chains' Nutshell. Vocal credits to deltafourn9ner. This version is my tribute and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Nutshell - Alice In Chains Cover - deltafourn9ner on vocals - Free Download

An original work. Inspired by the "Progressive Rock" loops in Groove Monkey, which are the basis for most of the drum parts.

The Answer to That Question is "No" - Nathan Pitts Original - Free Download

My cover of this wicked uptempo monster, as a special request from my good friend Jeff Ratz. This version is my tribute, and no copyright or other infringement is intended.

Vocals are from deltafourn9ner, and I have to say I am impressed. Chuck Billy is not an easy vocalist to take on to say the least.

The rhythm guitars are both my Jackson RR1 with a Bill Lawrence L500XL in the bridge (flipped "upside down"). Solos are my Ibanez RG 3120 Prestige. Bass is my Ibanez EDB 400. Everything is plugged into a refurbished Line 6 Pod Studio GX interface.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Signal chains (for my guitar + interface + pickup + hands combination, YMMV)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Left Rhythm guitar:
&nbsp;&nbsp;Panned 80% Left
&nbsp;&nbsp;TSE808 - defaults with Drive at 20%
&nbsp;&nbsp;Poulin Legion - Red channel, rhythm tone, tone stack engaged, drive at 35.5%, Low at 75%, Mid at 31%, High at 51%, Contour and Presence at defaults, Stereo, High Quality
&nbsp;&nbsp;Poulin LeCab 2 - Pantera-Walk_IR.wav loaded twice, everything at defaults.
&nbsp;&nbsp;EasyQ - High Pass 12 dB/octave at 110.42, -1.7 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.25 octave Notch at 366.46 Hz.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2.89 Octave Dip at 811 Hz, -3 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.71 Octave Dip at 4381.6, -3.2 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.00 Octave Peak at 7056.6 Hz, 7.4 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;LowPass 12 dB/Octave at 7292.3 Hz, -1.9dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Global Gain 1.5 dB (makeup)

Right Rhythm Guitar:
&nbsp;&nbsp;Panned 80% right
&nbsp;&nbsp;Overloud TH2, Factory 010-00.4 with Mids at 4 and Varifire at 2
&nbsp;&nbsp;EasyQ - High Pass 12dB/Octave at 100 Hz, -1 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.25 Octave Dip at 492.59 Hz, -5.dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.66 Octave Peak at 1689.3 Hz, 2.3 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0.95 Octave Dip at 2425.1 Hz, -3.5 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.04 Octave Peak at 3538.8 Hz, 1.8 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Low Pass 12dB/Octave at 5793.7 Hz, -1.5 dB
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Global Gain 1.2 dB (Makeup)

Solo GTR1:
&nbsp;&nbsp;Overloud TH2 Factory 001-00.6 Defaults except pull Drive down to 6 and turn Varifire up to 8, added Crying Wah.

Solo GTR2:
&nbsp;&nbsp;Overloud TH2 Factory 002-06.7 Defaults except Phase disengaged, Crying Wah added

Bass:
&nbsp;&nbsp;POD Farm 2 "Metal Theater" community preset. Pull back the treble a bit (about 11:30, and put drive at about 1 o'clock.
Dual Tone second tone has Bass Overdrive only, drive at 2 o'clock, gain at 3:15, Treble at 2 o'clock, bass at 9:15
&nbsp;&nbsp;Easy Q - Enhance around 65 hz, cuts around 110, narrow boost around 175 Hz, moderately narrow (1.5 octave) notch at 500Hz, boost around 800, boost around 4.3 kHz, big boost around 8 kHz. ( will vary widely with bass, strings and bass knobs used in recording ).
&nbsp;&nbsp;Density mkII - Bass pindown preset, M/S, both drives at about 2:30, both makeups at about 12 o'clock

Bass sent to an Aux bus containing Voxengo Boogex set up for a tone range between 500 Hz and 5k, Mids up 3.7dB, Tone at 67.4%, Drive at 34.8 dB, Dynamics at 93.6% with pre- and post- EasyQ instances to cut out all of the lows and eliminate hiss. at the end of this bus chain is Floorfish set to further reduce hiss and string squeak. Dirty Boogex sound is down about 12dB from the (mostly) clean PODFarm sound.

For production, I used input from http://soundcloud.com/corey-amador  for my mix on http://soundcloud.com/nathanpitts/damage-inc-metallica-cover, my ears, and a lot of the techniques explained by "Johnny" or "Mojojo" starting at this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i00E-O0cafA&feature=youtu.be

In addition, I used stock plugins in Samplitude, the following VST Plugins which are freely available, as well as others tagged in the "Tags" for this track:

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/ - Poulin Legion v1.01, Poulin LeCab2 with 

Impulses used on this video (download link is there) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_sO5ghXkkA.

http://www.rs-met.com/freebies.html - EasyQ

http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/software.html - TSE 808 v1.1 (version 2.0 is current as of this writing)

http://www.voxengo.com/ - Voxengo Boogex for dirty bass crunch sound.

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5 - Floorfish noise gate

http://hem.bredband.net/tbtaudio/archive/newtbtvstplugins.htm - TLS Pocket Limiter

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Category_0_Freeware/  - Blue Cat Audio Triple EQ and FreqAnalyst

http://www.gvst.co.uk/ggain.htm - GGain Gain (or attenuation) VST with peak meter.

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/ - FerricTDS Tape Dynamic Simulator (saturation) on Bass and Guitar Busses and Density mkII compressor

Oh BTW, if you should choose to learn this song, pick everything except the solo with downstrokes almost exclusively. It's a really big part of getting the aggression to come through.

Practice What You Preach - deltafourn9ner on vocals - Testament Cover - Free Download

I am a guitarist, husband, and father homed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I love metal. Really enjoying the wide variety of talented individuals and groups here on Soundcloud. I hope you enjoy what you hear here, please feel free to comment.

NathanPitts

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