Bad Dog - Original Song:

Inspector #20

Ambassador of Tone
Fallen Star
Country flag
Ok,

So as some of you know, I spent the past 2-1/2 years playing in a cover band called 'Bad Dog.' The band broke up due to internal conflict between members, arguments over which PA system to buy and a general breakdown in inter-personal relationships. This was a bitter pill for me to swallow because not only was I the driving force behind keeping the band running (doing musical CPR almost everyday) and refereeing the internal issues, I lost 2-1/2 years of hard work and over $1,000/week in income.

Back in 2020, (December 15, 2020 to be exact) I arrived for rehearsal early one afternoon and was thinking of creating a song using the band name in the title. I came up with this little riff at rehearsal and took the concept home with me. I fired up my DAW and just played the guitar and came up with the chorus hook.

I struggle to play and sing (lead) at the same time (although backing vocals give me zero issues) but I just opened up a channel and played the riff and sang along to it at the same time. The result was really just a very rough draft and the mechanism through which the vocals were created. The vocals are really kind of mindless I suppose, but the song was really created just to be a 'calling card' for the band and to be used as a backing track in a promo video, so while there is a general theme, it's not an example of stellar songwriting, so please keep that in mind as you listen.

For some reason, when I was creating this song, I imagined Bon Scott singing it, so I drew on my voice acting skills and sang it with a kind of Bon Scott flair.

Then, I went back and decided to re-do the guitar parts and make some changes that would allow the guitar work to compliment the vocal lines. Rather than use a click track (which I find annoying) I just recorded this to a foot stomp. It's hovering around 123 bpm with the metronome in my head.

I also composed a very basic and short solo. My concept with solos is that I always want the solo to leave the listener wishing it was longer, not wishing it was shorter.
 
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Last night, my drummer and I were working on projects for hire and he said, "Why don't we record Bad Dog?" So, we threw it down in a rushed take and I forgot to turn my cellphone off and a couple of notifications chime in during one part of the song. I just wanted to share it with you guys for fun....

Disregard the title of the track below as "final." It's nowhere near where I want it yet.

Now...we are going to retrack the drums because the ride is too "splashy." The drummer wants to change the drums EQ as well.

I'm not happy with the rhythm guitars. Too robotic. Muddy...we gonna try a totally clean track and maybe play it a little looser.

More work is needed here...

I just basically ad-libbed the entire song as we rolled the tape.


My colleague and drummer extraordinare listening to a playback last night in the office of his winery.

My Fender Rumble 40 is seen in the foreground.

20220213_165108.jpg

A pair of Peavey PVM-328's giving us right and left channel audio.

20220213_165733.jpg

This has been a really fun little project.

I'll post updates as thos song continues to evolve....

- Rob
 
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Last night, my drummer and I were working on projects for hire and he said, "Why don't we record Bad Dog?" So, we threw it down in a rushed take and I forgot to turn my cellphone off and a couple of notifications chime in during one part of the song. I just wanted to share it with you guys for fun....

Disregard the title of the track below as "final." It's nowhere near where I want it yet.

Now...we are going to retrack the drums because the ride is too "splashy." The drummer wants to change the drums EQ as well.

I'm not happy with the rhythm guitars. Too robotic. Muddy...we gonna try a totally clean track and maybe play it a little looser.

More work is needed here...

I just basically ad-libbed the entire song as we rolled the tape.


My colleague and drummer extraordinare listening to a playback last night in the office of his winery.

My Fender Rumble 40 is seen in the foreground.

View attachment 80397

A pair of Peavey PVM-328's giving us right and left channel audio.

View attachment 80398

This has been a really fun little project.

I'll post updates as thos song continues to evolve....
Pretty good man yu'll get it hammered out im sure , the vocals remind me of classic Paul Stanley with a touch of Bon Scott.
 
Ok,

So in an effort to address the muddy rhythm guitars, I took a different approach. using my 2021 Gibson Les Paul through my 1993 Marshall Bi-Chorus 200 (direct-out) I played one guitar track, totally clean, panned left, one guitar track slightly overdriven panned right and one guitar track with fairly high gain panned center, but played only during the chorus sections.

This track is all 3 guitars played simultaneously and it only purpose is to see if this concept will work. these tracks are not solid enough to use in the finished recording, but if you compare it to the rhythm guitars in the recording posted above, it will give you an idea of the effort put into this to "clean up" the rhythm guitar tracks.


I'd appreciate your opinions!!!!

- Rob
 
Last night, my drummer and I were working on projects for hire and he said, "Why don't we record Bad Dog?" So, we threw it down in a rushed take and I forgot to turn my cellphone off and a couple of notifications chime in during one part of the song. I just wanted to share it with you guys for fun....

Disregard the title of the track below as "final." It's nowhere near where I want it yet.

Now...we are going to retrack the drums because the ride is too "splashy." The drummer wants to change the drums EQ as well.

I'm not happy with the rhythm guitars. Too robotic. Muddy...we gonna try a totally clean track and maybe play it a little looser.

More work is needed here...

I just basically ad-libbed the entire song as we rolled the tape.


My colleague and drummer extraordinare listening to a playback last night in the office of his winery.

My Fender Rumble 40 is seen in the foreground.

View attachment 80397

A pair of Peavey PVM-328's giving us right and left channel audio.

View attachment 80398

This has been a really fun little project.

I'll post updates as thos song continues to evolve....

- Rob
Very cool piece Rob, I am digging your vocals on this.
Thanks for sharing


Mitch
 
Ok,

So in an effort to address the muddy rhythm guitars, I took a different approach. using my 2021 Gibson Les Paul through my 1993 Marshall Bi-Chorus 200 (direct-out) I played one guitar track, totally clean, panned left, one guitar track slightly overdriven panned right and one guitar track with fairly high gain panned center, but played only during the chorus sections.

This track is all 3 guitars played simultaneously and it only purpose is to see if this concept will work. these tracks are not solid enough to use in the finished recording, but if you compare it to the rhythm guitars in the recording posted above, it will give you an idea of the effort put into this to "clean up" the rhythm guitar tracks.


I'd appreciate your opinions!!!!

- Rob
I would seriously see if AC/DC wanted to buy that riff. That's "hit" material.

Good job!

Ask for a mil!

:)
 
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