By-Tor and the Snow Dog

dwsabianguy

Senior Member

We're doing a Cygnus X-2 stream on December 20th where we play the epic tunes, and I've been wanting to learn this one for ages, so even though it's not twenty minutes we're adding it to the set. Which means I have to learn it! And it's easy enough to make a video, so here it is.

It's not the full SS Cygnus kit, but it's the dream team of gear that I own: Gretsch kick, Yamaha toms, Sonor snare, and cymbals that sound good. Including the 16" Meinl Sand Hats I picked up two weeks ago.
 
Nice playing Ryan! For the breaks did you incorporate a click mix** in your head set, or did you just play it enough to nail it eventually?

**Create a click track by keeping time with a wood block or just two drumsticks. Then, use a DAW to copy-n-paste over the breaks. Then use mix control in your audio interface to select the click track into your headphones.
 
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That was fantastic! You killed it, man.

I'm curious about how you mixed this also. I don't hear any of Neil's drums in the track, just yours. I've played along with enough Rush records to know how difficult a task that is. If you wouldn't mind sharing.

Incredible job!
 
great playing, and great sounds...you are lucky to have that whole set up!!!
 
Nice playing Ryan! For the breaks did you incorporate a click mix** in your head set, or did you just play it enough to nail it eventually?

**Create a click track by keeping time with a wood block or just two drumsticks. Then, use a DAW to copy-n-paste over the breaks. Then use mix control in your audio interface to select the click track into your headphones.

I made myself a count-in, but the original drums were still in the mix when I was playing. I muted the originals during those solos to reduce the slop a bit. The drums are still in the mix for the rest of the tune, and you can hear them peek out a little in a couple spots.

For mixing, I use a hard knee limiter to reduce the transients on the drums, and I'll also high-pass and low-pass the original recording to reduce extraneous cymbal sounds and bottom end from the kick that often just makes things muddy. I didn't do much high-pass filtering for this, but I think the LPF was set around 8kHz. When I'm playing to the track none of this is engaged.
 
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