Jason Burns Music

Was messing around with getting the lead tone I want, this is a sample, 7 minutes of crazy mellow jammage.

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Tone by Guitar Rig 4

This is a little random jam, showing off the new Ibanez JEM77BFP that I aquired this week. Enjoy it!

Interesting story behind the guitar. I had wanted an Ibanez Jem guitar as long as I can remember, never could part with the money for one. Earlier this month, I finally got one, a brand new beautiful white JEM7VWH. Less than three weeks later, I come across a too good to be true deal. Someone selling this 1991 JEM77BFP Blue Floral Print Jem guitar, in perfect condition, for $600, $2,200 less than they are selling for on Ebay right now.

Obviously I bought it right away, and I clearly love the guitar.

Today I got the guitar I have coveted for years, an Ibanez Jem JEM7V, the same guitar the legendary Steve Vai plays. The day wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t post a sample of me playing it. This is two guitar tracks, a bass track and some drums, a simple background guitar looped with me playing some improv leads over it. It’s all one take and just for fun, hope you enjoy it.

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Check out Saitara Software’s site for AC-7 Pro, and of course download it for yourself from iTunes.

Additional information for the nerds:

Footage captured with a Kodak Zi8 camera, audio captured with a Rode Video Mic, edited in Final Cut Express. Ass kicking intro riff played and recorded by me.

I thought I would put this up as I usually do to solicit feedback while I am working out ideas, arrangements, etc. What do ya think?

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Some production notes:

Drums: Toontrack EZ-Drummer w/ Drumkit from Hell

Guitars: Ibanez RG 6 and 7 string, Ibanez Acoustic Electric, Ibanez 5-string bass

Guitar Tones: Guitar Rig 4

Ok, so I got the T-Racks 3 plugins today, and finally finished the master on this. I had been waiting to re-record the vocals, but with a couple nice compressors and an EQ, it actually settled in quite well. I feel finished with it, what do you think?

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I still don’t have all of my mics in yet, the rest should be in tomorrow, but without anyone to help me run the board from the upstairs to downstairs, I set some basic levels, recorded a sample, and played with the sound a bit in Logic Studio. So far my levels aren’t nearly hot enough, and my Ride and HiHat aren’t mic’d. I am surprised at how much thump I am getting out of the Shure Beta52 without the Yamaha Subkick in yet.

The basic drum/cymbal mic rundown is as follows (* for the mics that will be here tomorrow, not recorded in this sample)

18×22″ Tama SuperStar Custom Bass Drum – Shure Beta52, front head, just inside the port, Yamaha Subkick*

Tama 14×5.5″ Snare Drum – Shure SM57 on top and bottom

Tama SuperStar Custom Hyperdrive Toms 10″, 12″, 14″ Floor and 16″ Floor – Sennheiser e604 on each

Sabian 16 and 18″ AAX Crash Cymbals, 20″ Sabian AAX Ride, Sabian B8 10″ Splash and 18″ China – Rode NT5 Matched Pair for overheads, AKG C430* on Ride and HiHat

Drums are coming in from the basement in on XLR Snake into a Behringer MX9000 Mixer, with 8 Subs (Bass, Snare, TomL, TomR, HH, Ride, OHL, OHR) into an M-Audio Profire 2626 audio interface.

There has been no EQ applied at the mixer and the levels aren’t even close to optimal, I had to squeeze it a bunch to get it semi loud so the MP3 sounded ok.

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The rest of the mics are in and I have been spending some time getting position right and levels, it’s getting there!

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This is a biggie folks, this is the first time I have ever posted anything with ME singing in it. The words are almost finished and this is the first take at the vocals so I am sure it will get re-recorded a dozen times before I say it’s done, but it’s starting to take shape.

I have updated the track and consider it a pretty solid mix. Some thoughts on the song itself. Coming from a pretty traditional Republican background, and having been in the military myself, it’s probably a pretty odd sentiment to put into a song. It’s not really where I intended to go with it. The original title was Zero and was loosely based on a quote about the only efficient human population being zero. When I started actually trying to write some lyrics for it, the first line kept going through my head and it just took me somewhere else entirely. The first heavy guitar riff came first, I added the clean intro second and really was going for that huge plucky sound from Metallica’s Wherever I May Roam. Then I started breaking it up a bit, added some break pieces, the solo bed, a basic arrangement.

It had a few parts pretty long, so once I had some vocals in I started to chop out a bit, make the arrangement more concise. I added the haunting “You’ll die for honor” parts last, trimmed the arrangement a bit more, about 10 measures total were cut out, and then took it into Soundtrack Pro to add a little mastering touches to it.

I consider it pretty close to finished and all of the positive feedback I have gotten has really inspired me to try more with me singing. Thanks for all of the compliments!

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A few people have asked for a copy of the MP3, so here it is. Download

Some recording notes:

• Logic Studio 8 on an 8-Core Mac Pro
• Guitars direct into M-Audio ProFire 2626
• Guitars: Ibanez RG, Ibanez Soundgear Bass and Schecter Omen 6
• Rode NT-1a Mic direct into M-Audio ProFire 2626
• Guitar Tones by Guitar Rig 3, custom preset
• Drums partially played on Roland TD3 kit, partially sequenced, sounds by ToonTrack EZ-Drummer with DrumKit from Hell
• 5 Tracks of Guitar, 1 Track of Bass, 3 Tracks of vocals and 1 Synth Track
• Mixed on Yamaha HSM-80 Monitors

This is the first little mix of this idea, still writing lyrics and thinking about arrangements and layering, just thought I would get some feedback.

Details: Recorded with Logic Studio 8, Guitars and Bass played by me through Guitar Rig 3, Drums by EZ-Drummer with Drumkit From Hell

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This one is quite upbeat and light. It has the mood of some Disney music. That is if the Disney movie was Snow White and the 7 Circles of Hell or maybe Beauty and The Beast Who Burned For Eternity. Cheerful!

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