KVR Audio

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:18 am

Ballad of the Harper Agent

I wrote this song a couple years ago for FAWM, and finally got around to doing something with it. I added some electric guitar, keys, and redid the vocals. I was going for a kind of dirty, vintage 70s feel to the mix.

edit: I've uploaded a new mix!

Let me know what you think, and thanks for checking it out!

kit

Cockos REAPER, ReaDelay
Native Instruments Kontakt Player (Abbey Road 60s Drummer, The Gentleman, Komplete Elements), Supercharger, Guitar Rig Elements
Nomad Factory BT Analog Chorus, BT Stereo Width, BT Analog Phaser
Variety of Sound ThrillseekerVBL, epicVerb, BaxterEQ
TDR VOS SlickEQ, Kotelnikov
Overtone DSP PTH2A-CM
Klanghelm SDRR, MJUCjr
Acustica Audio REDEQ
Sonimus Britson Channel/Buss
Acon Digital Multiply
IK Multimedia SampleTron, SampleMoog, Philharmonik

lyrics
deep within the dungeon crawls a party of unlikely friends
within the caves and dwarven halls unknown monstrosities defend
seeking glory fortune and arcane mysteries untold
powerful as one they stand with weapons sharp and spirits bold

fireballs and vampire bats
acid spitting zombie rats
half orc cleric elves and gnomes
weapons made of magic stones
fighters charge into the fray
wizards cast from far away
dragons red and gold and blue
harper agent, tell me do you sing true?

piously the cleric prays to pelor god of light and sun
for blessings and his radiant rays to make the undead horde undone
a blessed touch to heal the wounds of allies pierced with goblin spears
the bard, she plays a lilting tune to wash away the party's fears

calmly does the fighter stand, concealing his inner rage
upon the frontline, sword in hand, smiling, ready to engage
in the shadows, cunning rogue gains advantage in the dark
silent, unseen, he tip-toes, brandishing his dagger sharp

wizard chanting words of power,sparks fly from his fingertips
to unleash in his final hour a "power word: kill" from his lips
fighter falls to deadly hex, rogue upon a spear impaled
cleric meets his maker nextbut bard escapes to tell the tale

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 4:11 am

I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but as a former D&D geek from my younger days, I'll be sure to check this out!

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:03 am

This was a very enjoyable piece of Prog, with lots of early '70s elements. I loved the Samplemoog lines near the beginning which have a Yes/Gentle Giant flavour. The rhythm section and the 'tron give the piece a Lizardesque vibe. The whole piece works very well. It's quite interesting, comparing the sound of this to the Hobgoblin stuff I recently "restored", as we appear to be approaching the process from opposite directions. You have a new piece which you were trying to "dirty-up" with various tools, and I had an already dirty cassette recording which I was trying to clean up and give a slightly more "modern" sound to with the Quad-Comp.
Hopefully we met somewhere in the middle.

Good work

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 1:00 am

Thanks for checking it out! You've got my influences pretty much nailed: I grew up on Yes, got waaaay into Gentle Giant in my early 20s, and Lizard is my favorite KC album. Unfortunately for me, all these great bands were in (what I consider to be) their prime before I was even born.

I've uploaded an entirely new mix, in which I have removed much of the overdone compression and saturation. I also just purchased Sonimus Britson today, and this is the first tune on which I've tried it. I must say, I've never been within a hundred feet of a Neve console but i absolutely LOVE the sound of Britson so far. When I started the mix over from scratch, I found that after I put Britson on it, that I was far less inclined to revert to radical tone shaping with comps, EQs, and saturation effects. Just setting up the gain staging with Britson alone made the mixing much more intuitive. Hopefully its an improvement on the first mix.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:37 am

It seems to have a more "mysterious" sound now, which certainly suits the music. If I'm not mistaken, it's a little quieter, maybe because you have removed some compression and saturation. Lower levels don't bother me, 'cos I have a volume control

I'll try to play this on my main system at the weekend, but I reckon it should sound great.

I saw Crimson two weeks ago on the UK tour. They have probably just reached their prime. Starless was unbelievable.

Good work

Prog-Rockish D&D Ballad