Pro Tools – Learning a new DAW

As Will and I have mentioned before, we’ve used Cakewalk Sonar exclusively for our mixing and mastering needs. We’ve spent nearly as many hours working on mixes that had needed improvement as we have fine tuning our musical skills. Additionally, we’ve become modestly familiar with some of the other popular Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) out there and have concluded that Sonar has strengths that many of its competitors lack. What Will and I had not ever experienced was working with the granddaddy of them all – Pro Tools.

So how did we get to try our hands at this recording wonder tool? About a week or two ago our drummer Jason heard from a good buddy of his at Sweetwater that there was a special deal on Pro Tools that rarely comes up. The package was for Pro Tools V7.0, a Digi 002Rack, the Digi interface and plugins. Normally this mixing monstrosity would sell for a whopping $3k, but Jason (our drummer) had the opportunity to pick it up for about half that. Talk about a sweet deal. Unfortunately Jason, like most musicians was short some cash. Fortunately his dad agreed to help him pay for it even though his parents didn’t normally fund Jason’s music career. Both Jason and his dad realized the opportunity to really get some great recordings of Jason’s and his bands’ music.

Now I have to admit that when Jason brought the boxes down to Koos the first night I was impressed immediately with the Digi interface. I could imagine what that could mean for improving the ease of use for any DAW software. I was also equally taken in by the Digi 002 Rack which I had heard had exceptional preamps. What I was skeptical of was the software itself. How did ProTools stack up against Sonar? Admittedly I hang out in the Sonar forum and I’m a bit biased. I’ve heard complaints that ProTools can be difficult to use, unwielding, and after all who likes dongles? Well Friday night Jason and the rest of XONE really had the chance to fire this puppy up. And after setting up the band (barely even looked at the manual – which by the way is far more succinct and easy to use than Cakewalk’s), checking a few levels and getting familiar with the interface we were up and recording some amazing sounds. Will and I were absolutely floored by the recording quality of the 24 bit at 44.1 (we didn’t have enough ram to run at 88) and we gazed over the natural sound of it. Our recordings actually sounded like what we were playing in the room. And as far as interface, it was classically easy to use and some features definitely were better than Cakewalk, while others were pretty close. I’m sure that once we have more familiarity with it, the process will only get easier.

For the coup d’etat, we pulled in some of the ProTools plugins that Jason had received with the package. Let me tell you right now, that the standard reverb, delay, and compression floored the Sonitus (Cakewalk plugins) and even the Sony Sound Forge plugins were stomped. I still can’t get over how easy to use and natural sounding the compression is. Yes!! And the granddaddy of them all was when we threw on the bomb factory mastering compression to the final mix. I think I wet myself. It sounded better than any of the mastering compression tools Will and I have heard including the L2 (Waves) which we demoed.

Needless to say, if there were any doubt before about what DAW we were going to utilize for our next album all doubt has been removed. My only criticism of the unit at this point is that I hate dongles. Well, for sound like this I can live with the dongle!

The Vetta Crash XONE

Well, with our first live show back coming up on Sunday, XONE is just rolling along. So it probably seems strange, that I would decide now, to load the latest Vetta Operating System ver2.5 to my Vetta HD amplifier. What a blunder! My timing couldn't have been worse...

With our first XONE CD already duplicated and our second CD in the mixdown process right now, the Vetta won't be recording again until April. With that in mind, I took my perfectly setup Vetta HD (ver2.11) and upgraded it to the latest software OS (ver2.50). The newest OS has some great features in it. First of all, it adds a Presence control that I have really needed since we first tuned down to DGCFAD in 2005. I lost some Presence with that move, and the new Presence control alleviates the dampening of my overall sound that resulted. Secondly, the newest OS features the Dumble Overdrive Special model, the single best amp model I have ever heard in the Vetta. I really want to use that model for some of my clean tones, but it isn't available in OS ver2.11. So I took the plunge and upgraded. Big mistake!

Last night at rehearsal, I had to deal to deal with some major OS issues. First, the newest OS ver2.50 has a small problem with it. It has what the folks over at the ION Vetta Forum refer to as the "Delay Bug". Patches with the Delay engaged end up with a 100% mix setting when the patch is switched to, totally destroying the usefulness of the patch in a live environment. There is a workaround. You have to edit the delay mix by one click and then back and SAVE for your original setting for the effect to track correctly. Then you have to make sure that the Foot Control doesn't have either expression pedal on the FBV set to Delay Mix. If it is, then you have to change that to another variable. What a pain, eh!?! Well, let's face it, we didn't buy the Vetta cause we wanted anything simple!

Anyway, as we neared the end of the set I went to fix a patch for the Delay Bug, and the Vetta totally froze and went blank. I had a $2000 paperweight on my hands. Well, it was 11pm, so we called it a night, and I knew I had my Flextone III+ as a backup, complete with patches for every one of our songs, so I wasn't totally screwed for the show. As well, I always bring my laptop to rehearsal and its sole job in life is taking care of my Line 6 gear. I attempted to reload the Ver2.5 OS, but again it froze. So I reloaded the older ver2.11 OS and the Vetta came back to life immediately. I then reloaded all my custom patches for our songs and the Vetta was ready again to play the upcoming show. I even spent an hour just playing the Vetta with my tried and true patches. I'm sure I'll figure out what the problem is with ver2.50, but in the meantime, the Vetta OS ver2.11 is still the best tone I've ever had!!!

Writing XONE Lyrics to Tape

Writing lyrics for a new song is a daunting task. For XONE, our lyrics are the most important part of each song. Because we are a Prog Metal band, we push ourselves to have intelligent, intelligible lyrics that tell a story for every song we write. Each new XONE song requires a clear musical vision that has to be imparted to the listener 100%.


Admittedly, in XONE, we tend to write the music first and the lyrics second. I have done the opposite a few times just to test myself, but music first, lyrics second is the standard. We work hard to put each new song in as realistic a structure to allow for lyrics to be added quickly. The last thing you can afford to do, is have a bunch of finished music waiting around for the lyrics to "come".

Luckily, we record every single thing we play at rehearsal into a portable Fostex VF-160. This allows us to hear the development of our songs step by step. It also allows us to write lyrics much faster. The key is, getting a version of the song recorded that has all the parts set into stone essentially. We might add a few counts here or there as the lyrics dictate, but for the most part, we've established where the verses, bridges, and chorus' are in the song and how many counts we'll need to tell our story. Since Ted bogged about the XONE lyric writing method earlier, I've posted an example of the song structure for "Face This World".

Once we have the structure for a new song recorded, it is easy for either Ted or I to listen to this version in the car (or even in front of the computer) and fashion lyrical style and content. Last Monday, I was driving to school, listening to the music of our new song "Regret". All of a sudden the lyrical style of the song just jumped out of me, and knew how it essentially would be sung. Then Thursday, while I should have been writing our next blog, I had the song playing and the lyrics just came!! I dropped everything I was doing (which is what I have to do when I'm creative) and wrote the lyrics for "Regret". It took about 2 hours. Then I quickly laid down a Bass and Vocals version into Cakewalk Sonar using my Line 6 Toneport KB37 to make sure that I could remember later the intricate vocal inflection I had polished.

Viola!! We had finished the song. Now we just need to rehearse it, and copyright it from one of those rehearsal recordings. This how every song from our 21+ original song catalogue
has come to fruition. It’s a fun and interesting process.

"Face This World" is featured on our debut XONE CD available now.
"Regret" will be featured on our upcoming third XONE CD "Elements", currently in pre-production, and due in late 2007/early 2008.

The Meaning behind the Lyrics – Part 1 “Face This World”

As a progressive metal band, XONE has plenty of fans who are “prog heads”. These are guys and gals (o.k. mostly guys) who enjoy shredding guitar riffs and weird time signatures. And we love you folks for your technical questions about chord progressions and which strings we use.

Increasingly, however, XONE seems to appeal to less technical listeners as well. Someone who enjoys metal (or being introduced to it), but doesn’t necessarily know their Dorian from their Ionian. These folks are constantly asking us about one thing it seems – the lyrics. We hear comments, like “Dude play that song about Vietnam again”, (which would be Hero). Or, “I don’t really know who plays bass in the band, but I love the singing.”

So in order to educate our less geeky brothers and sisters about XONE (and because we just posted the lyrics), I’m going to discuss some of the things that were going through our minds as we were writing the lyrics. I will try to cover one song in each article, and for this article I will be discussing the first song that Will and I wrote collaboratively on – Face This World.


Back in the fall of 2003, XONE consisted of Will, myself (I joined in the Summer of 2003), and Kirk (our former drummer). I had talked with Will several times about adding both vocals and lyrics to our songs. At that time Will was doing rhythm and lead guitar, but we had not yet talked him into doing vocals. In fact, we felt confident that we would be able to audition a front man who would be able to deliver the technical lyrics that we felt would best fit with our music.

So, after discussing with Will what he felt would best fit the musical content of Face This World (which at that time was known by a working title – Pilate), I set to work listening to the music and trying to get a feel for what lyrical content might work best. After several incarnations and some long discussions with a good friend of mine (Mike), I decided that I wanted to focus on the topic of psychological solitude. In particular, when deep in philosophical discussion Mike and I both concurred that as the famous psychonaut Timothy Leary had stated, “You’re born alone, you trip alone, you die alone.” And from this statement, and while I listened to our song and contemporized further, I really began to see that even though you have family and friends, compatriots and co-workers, no one can bear the choices, joys, burdens, and sorrows you experience. In other words – you must face this world alone.

No some of you might be thinking that after such an “aha!” moment that the song would be written. Far from it. After that initial session and several subsequent sessions of listening to the music and attempting to explore the idea of facing this world alone, I had come up with a very rough sketch of the song that very vaguely resembles its final incarnation. In fact, it was rough and hardly high quality lyrical content at that point. But what I had come up with was a concept that I felt was compelling.

At that time certain pieces of the song really came together and worked:

We are all born in darkness
We face this world alone….

Enter the dark
Enter the mind….

In a haze where thoughts fade quickly
but neurons fire in time
Locked in a state of lucid dreaming
I look in my mind's eye….

But a lot of it did not. So I came back to Will at that point and said, hey I’ve got this concept that I really like. Can you take a look at what I’ve got here so far and let me know what you think? And so Will took the idea home and worked on it. The next week I asked him what he thought. He said that the idea really worked for him – he got it and that he thought he could add some things to really make it solid and make it work so it would no longer be poetry, but an actual song. So I told him to go for it and that I was looking forward to what he came up with.

A couple of weeks later, Will brought his version of Face this World to practice so I could have a look at what he’d come up with. I was immediately impressed with how he had built certain parts so that they had real flow – like a story, but I was skeptical if it could be sung and how it would work with the song. After stating this, he sung for me several of the parts and I was sold. From that point on, Will and I have often written our lyrics together in this format or by collaborating directly together. We’ve found that doing it this way really makes you clarify your ideas (so you can explain it to the other person) and helps give the song structure.

As you can probably tell from our process and the time and care we exert, Will and I feel very strongly about having quality, discernable, and meaningful lyrics. We try to write our lyrics in a way that is direct enough to convey a point, but multifaceted enough to cause the listener to reflect in a unique and responsive manner.

We’d definitely like to hear from you about how this song makes you feel. Please email me and let me know what you think Face This World means to you.

Email: xonebass@yahoo.com

XONE - Debut CD: The Lyrics

We've posted here,
the lyrics to XONE's self-titled, debut CD
in the order that they appear on the Disc.
Enjoy!!






1. Face This World
(Austin/Heming)

Verse 1:
There is a definite silence
Within the starless night
There is a sacred science
Where all our dreams take flight

We are all born in darkness
We face this world alone
It's the journey that defines us
We are the great unknown

Chorus:
Enter the dark
Enter the mind
You came to see
What you will find

Verse 2:
There is a deafening silence
Within the starless night
We use a ancient science
To make our dreams take flight

Although wisdom divides us
We face our minds alone
And debate our own impurity
Details of the seeds we've sewn

Chorus 2:
Enter the dark
Enter the mind
You might not see
so look a second time

Bridge

Verse 3:
There is a threatening violence
that is devoid of right
Laws of a sacred science
Plunged into darkest night

We put the past behind us
We face this world alone
We attack with impunity
and defy the great unknown



Chorus 3:
Enter the dark
Enter the mind
Take a good look at the inside

Enter the dark
Look into the mind
But you might not like what you will find

Bridge

Verse 4:
In a haze where thoughts fade quickly
but neurons fire in time
Locked in a state of lucid dreaming
I look in my mind's eye


Chorus 4:
(and) In the darkness of my mind
I'm left with nothing

And except for the pain within my soul
that comes from long ago
I am not suffering

And I know that the truth can hurt sometimes

Verse 5:
Yeah, you'll face this world alone
from the center of your XONE
You gotta face this world alone
And you're never going home!


Outro:
And I know that the truth can hurt sometimes...



2. Not Again
(Austin)

Intro

Reprise

Bridge

Verse 1:
Well babe I could tell you,
if only you'd listen,
about all these things that I know.

Cause you can't fake desire,
if you ain't got that fire,
that comes from way down below.

(So) I need you tell me,
about what's in question,
or what I've done to make you so cold.

Cause, I think you've been lyin',
and now you've stopped tryin',
so this time I'm telling you so.

Pre-Chorus:
"How the hell can you remember what I did one day 5 years ago?"

Chorus:
Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me here all alone.

Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me, leave me, leave me...

Verse 2:
Now, I'm sure that's there's someway,
that I can convince you,
in so many ways I have grown.


And I'll try to make your needs,
much more of my focus,
with me spending more time at home.

I'll do all of those things,
you say I'm not doin',
and hold you, so you won't feel alone.

So babe, now can you see,
I'll let you control me,
and I'll do all this to make you feel whole...

Pre-Chorus:
"What is it exactly that you want me to do for you?"
"Can I do that?"

Chorus:
Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me here all alone.

Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me, leave me, leave me...

Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me here on my own.

Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me, leave me, leave me...

Lead
"Wait, didn't you say that, the last time we did this?"
"Yeah, you did..."

Chorus:
Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me here all alone.


Don't go,
Don't go,
Don't leave me, leave me, leave me...

Don't go,
Don't go,
I can't believe you just left our home.

Don't go,
Don't go,
Why'd you leave me, leave me, leave me...

Outro:
Hey, this feels interesting,
you know, it's better than that,
I actually feel like myself again.
This really isn't all that bad,
so, you know what,
on second thought,
just go...



3. Passion
(Austin/Saffell)

Intro

Verse A-1:
My eyes grow weary
as I stare out the window
Remembering faces
that I never thought would go away...

Now I'm here all alone
and where did they all go?
Journeyed into the XONE
that I would never know...

Bridge

Chorus 1:
Renew me from within
Thicken patience growing thin
and bring purpose to my actions

From tragedy and pain
make me complete once again
and reanimate my Passion

Bridge

Verse B-1:
And it's not something that I control at all
I'm at it's mercy, found myself against a wall.
but I know someday that something has to break this hold,
I just hope that it is soon because I'm getting old.

Chorus 1:
So, renew me from within
Thicken patience growing thin
and bring purpose to my actions

From tragedy and pain
make me complete once again
to reanimate my Passion

renew me from within
Thicken patience growing thin
and bring purpose to my actions

refit me whole and sane,
Inspiration gleaned out of strain,
to re-animate the Passion.

Verse A-2:
Who gave up so long ago
to become what they opposed.
Tried to go against the flow
But failed along the way.

The drive is gone
cause something doused that fire.
I thought I gave it all I had
against the phantoms of my darkest hour.

Verse B-2:
And it's not something that I control at all
I'm at it's mercy, found myself against a wall.
but I know someday that something has to break this hold,
I just hope that it comes soon, because I'm getting old.


Interlude

Chorus/Re-Entry

Chorus 1:
Renew me from within
Thicken patience growing thin
and bring purpose to my actions

From tragedy and pain
make me complete once again
and reanimate my Passion


Verse B-3:
And it's not something that I thought I controlled at all,
I was at it's mercy, found myself against the wall.
but I knew someday that something had to break this hold,
I just hoped that it came soon, cause I'm still getting old.

Chorus 2:
renew me from within
Thicken patience growing thin
and bring purpose to my actions

refit me whole and sane,
Inspiration gleaned out of strain,
to re-animate the Passion.

Outro



4. Downtrodden
(Austin/Heming)

Verse 1:
Child is hungry, mouths to feed,
Can't bring home a decent living.
Cold and Ruthless in the streets,
Tag a wall, and make your image.

Bound and Broken, do you weep for me?
I'll take whatever you are giving.
Not sure what I want or need,
because this world owes me something.

Chorus:
Don't doubt me,
Don't naysay,
I don't want to hear how you've suffered.

Don't doubt me,
Do you hear me,
you can exchange one grief for another...

Don't doubt me,
Don't naysay,
I don't want to hear how you've suffered.

Don't doubt me,
Do you hear me,
you can exchange one life for another...


Lead


Verse 2:
Stark contrast in the night,
you may not even know we're living.
Everyday we have to fight,
There's no escape from the hell of the City.

Bound and Broken, do you weep for me?
gimme some of what you are giving.
Not sure what I want or need,
but I know this world owes me something...

Chorus:
Don't doubt me,
Don't naysay,
I don't want to hear how you've suffered.


Don't doubt me,
Do you hear me,
you can exchange one grief for another...

Don't doubt me,
Don't naysay,
I don't want to hear how you've suffered.

Don't doubt me,
Do you hear me,
you can exchange one lie for another...

Post Chorus:
At any cost,
at any price,
You don't know what it's like,
the grass is greener on the other side...



5. Greed
(Austin/Heming)

Verse 1:
My soul cries out,
Locked in pain.
Return to me,
what you have stolen.

And I should never,
have trusted in you,
cause now I'm left with,
what is broken.

You came to me,
with paths of glory,
now empty roads are all I see.

I couldn't breathe,
suffocating,
still choking on the mystery!

Chorus:
This is Greed.
This is Greed.
a bitter place,
without compassion.

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
Devouring me, constantly...

Verse 2:
I seek your touch,
I feel you warming,
Only if I've got the key

To want so much,
it's so alarming,
with what I've done to you and me.

I have no fear,
as you have shown me,
Seeing only, what I wish to see.

I'm in so deep,
I'm almost empty,
I'm leakin',
and I can't break free!

Chorus:
This is Greed.
This is Greed.
a bitter place,
without compassion.

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
Devouring me, constantly...

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
a bitter place,
without compassion.

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
I can hear it, calling me....

Bridge:
God of Money!
Destroying me,
Choking me,
Killing me slowly...

God of Money!
Won't leave me be,
I'm your slave,
And now you must beat me...


Verse 3:
How'd I go wrong?
You were so disarming,
Yeah, you swept me off my feet.



I took the bait,
and you were charming,
I let my guard down easily.

I let you in,
and you destroyed me,
then you were just on your way.

So I'm left here,
depressed and lonely,
One last time, I chance my fate...

Chorus:
This is Greed.
This is Greed.
a bitter place,
without compassion.

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
Devouring me, constantly...

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
a bitter place,
without compassion.

This is Greed.
This is Greed.
I can hear it, calling me....



6. Paradise
(Austin/Saffell/Heming)

(Intro)

Bridge 1:
Moving out into the Sunset,
push away from the concrete life.
Escape the depths of a daily struggle,
I want to see the stars at night.

Lucky that I get to do this,
not many get to feel this at all.
Impatient en route to landing
at long last my destination has called.

Verse 1: (enters on 3rd count)
I know exactly where I'm going,
It's been more than a long time.

Chorus:
And now I'm here,
I'm never going back,
You can't stop me...

...And I'll be off the beaten path
So you can't find me...


And now I'm never going back,
You don't know me...

...Live every moment to the last,
until the ending...

Verse 2: (Enters on 2nd count)
This is where I always should have been
Here's where time will wait for me again.
And I get this feeling now and then,
I want to throw it all into the wind.

Chorus 2:
And you're not here,
you're offa my back,
you can't touch me...

...I traveled off the map,
so you can't find me...

(And now I'm here), I'm never going back,
You don't know me...

spend every moment like the last,
until the ending...

Bridge:
The sun shimmers across the water
I stare lazily, hypnotized
Caressed by an endless sky of blue
If you could only look through my eyes.

Man, I could get used to this,
It's worth more than all that I own.
Forget about a life that's so demanding,
At long last, I finally feel like I'm home...


Verse:
Just like a feeling I get now and again
Fleeting glimpses of what could have been
It feels exactly like not knowing
Like I've been gone such a long time...

Chorus:
Cause now I'm here
I'm never going back
You can't make me….

….i've stolen off the map,
So you can't find me….

Yeah, now I'm here,
I'm never going back
You don't know me…

…now every moment is the last,
I can feel it ending…..

Outro:
Lifting off into the sunset
The jet begins its journey home
Smiling, I turn back for one last look
As I wave, it climbs into the great unknown

Wonder what they'll say about me?
Wonder if they miss me today?
but here I am in paradise,
So, what do I care anyway?



7. HERO
(Austin Heming)

Verse 1:
How can I forget, I cannot let go.
The past it haunts me, yet my life remains.
I see his eyes, the bullet's hammer blow.
A sick note, only his death refrain.

Chorus:
Hero,
Dying,
Inside,
Losing a part of me...

Verse 2:
Every night I dream awake, after all these years.
Fade away the grief and hate, try to calm my fears.
Raining blood I am the beast, seems that I'm still here.
All hell has been unleashed, hate becomes my fear.

Chorus:
Hero,
Dying,
Inside,
Losing a part of me...

Bridge:
Is it a dream,
or is it real?
I can't escape,
Paralyzed with fear...

Verse 3:
Terror
Bloodshed
Endless
Suffering

Horror
Merciless
Deadly
Total Destruction!

Terror
Bloodshed
Endless
Suffering

Horror
Merciless
Deadly
Self-Destruction!

Bridge:
Was it a dream,
or was it real?
I can't escape,
Paralyzed with fear...

Chorus:
Hero,
Dying,
Inside,
Losing a part of me...

Hero,
Dying,
Inside,
This is the end of me...



8. Beautiful One Day
(Austin/Heming)

Verse 1:
One Day is not enough,
to judge what you've seen.
You're in the middle, you're all caught up,
you don't know what to believe.

Remember when you were young,
and saw yourself as the Queen.
Your world wasn't hectic then,
you were still wild and free.

(Bridge)

Chorus 1:
Your energy is beautiful,
contagious as can be.
Why don't you just take a moment,
and taste some with me...

Verse 2:
One day is not enough,
and I know what you've seen.
It's what your reading, it's on your lips,
and it's on the TV.

Staring back from the magazine,
like a victim of an evil regime.
A world of purging behind the scenes,
how can this be healthy?

(Bridge)

Chorus 2:
Confidence is beautiful,
if only you could see.
Why don't you just wait a moment,
and no longer be deceived...




Verse 3:
One view is not enough,
and you're how you should be.
It's in your making, it's in your skin,
and the way that you speak.

I understand the way that you think,
and it makes sense to me.
Like the curve at the small of your back,
and the grace of your being.

Chorus 3:
Inside you are beautiful,
outside for all to see.
Why don't you just stop a moment,
and look at you like me...



All Songs Copyright - 2006.

The Story behind Regret – writing a Progressive Metal song

Have you ever wondered what type of process is required to create your favorite progressive metal tunes? An epic song such as the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 2112, The Odyssey, and other such lengthy movements are understandably intricate and even to the casual listener their complexity is discernable. Their music, story and scope are immense.

However, it is not just these epic wonder pieces that require precision and nuance. As Will mentioned in the last article, The Storytelling XONE, we have developed a great deal of interest in storytelling and often piano-driven progressive metal works such as “Closure” and “Words Mean Nothing” by Evergrey, “Space-Dye Vest” by Dream Theater, and others.

For XONE, our method is an array of soul searching procedures to evoke strong feelings in our music. From these rough concepts, we work tirelessly until we have taken a very vague idea, a mere concept and woven it into a complex tale that we feel captures the spirit of the feelings we wish to invoke.


For the song “Regret”, I’ve taken a small portion of dialogue that roughly portrays an element of this process:

“Man, what chord are you playing there?” I ask.

“Looks like a C#,” comes Will’s reply.

“O.k,” I say. “Let’s try it.” I pound out a C# major and Will play’s his C# derivative. It sounds like cats scratching a chalkboard.

“What the #*&$ type of C# is that?” I ask.

“Dude, it’s a C#. Here, listen.” he plays the chord again.

“So what notes are you playing in that chord?” I ask impatiently this time.

“Let’s see.” Will starts studying his fretboard. “C#, G, C#, E,” he states confidently.

I study my C# major chord on the piano. It looks similar but is not same as Will’s. My C# major chord consists of C#, G, C#, and F#. Changing the F# to an E makes the chord progression I-IV-V-I to I-III-V making it a diminished chord.

After several minutes of thought I pronounce, “Ah, so you’re playing an E not an F#, that makes the chord diminished.”

“If you say so,” Will replies. “Let’s play it.” We both strike the chord this time and it sounds better, but not perfect.

“Crap, I’m really having trouble with this fingering position,” I exclaim in frustration. “Hey, what can I say – I ain’t no Jordan Rudess. Let me try it with a different fingering.”

After several frustrating moments and several takes, I feel I’ve learned this part enough to begin the bridge transition from the 1st chorus into the 2nd verse. In this part I take a stripped down version of the original verse for the right hand melody and instead of hitting root chords I hit only root notes.

Moving into this part, my left hand slips down half a step and instead of hitting an F#, I hit an F, “#*&$!, I just can’t play this part right.” I curse.

I look up and Will is staring right at me, “No, that was awesome. Do it again.”

“Really? It sounded like shite to me.” I play the sequence again. Will’s right. It works. It’s wrong technically – it’s totally dissonant but it works.

“Do you hear that?” Will says excitedly. “Dude, you do sound like Jordan Rudess. That’s freakin’ awesome.”

Of course the irony of all this is that the first part that I had worked so hard on, to make sure our chords worked together, was eventually cut from the song entirely. But my screw up, a dissonant root note, is now a crucial part of the song.

And that brings me back to my original statement about XONE’s utilization of complex methods of song writing. In essence, their complexity is due not to some structurized artificial hierarchy, but rather a natural evolution. Writing a song is thus much more like making a new friend, writing a novel or experiencing life. It is unorganized, messy, and sometimes we wonder if we’ll ever finish it. The good news is that with a few brilliant mistakes, and a lot of hard work and passion great song writing is achievable. And ultimately we believe that is the true secret to writing memorable music.

The Storytelling XONE

As traced back through history, music has been a primary method of storytelling and historical chronicling. Before the modern age of music as a commodity, music served a purpose of keeping alive the great legends and stories of particular peoples. These songs would allow future generations to learn about the great events that shaped their particular community. Is that tradition still alive today?

It's hard to see the connection between the storytelling of old within today's music marketplace. Music seems to be more about making money than it is about tradition or story, especially in America. U.S. record companies are interested primarily in producing music that is very much like candy or gum. You chew on it for a while, and then the flavor goes away, so you spit it out and get a new piece. Storytelling is irrelevant to the moneymaking world of modern music.

Even Metal has seen this change as earlier, excellent, storyteller bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica have given way to bands like Mastodon, Hatebreed, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. The main difference between the old and the new metal is the clarity of vocals necessary to impart a storyline. Who the heck knows what these new bands are singing about? They could be giving us the formula to cold fusion and we wouldn't know it.

This is why a band like Evergrey is so important to XONE. They consistently deliver albums with fully intelligible lyrics/vocals with deep, thought-provoking subject matter. Their music is rich and full, but their vocals match. Many of these new bands will start playing, and I'm thinking: "That sounds really good", and then their singer starts in with his "Garf bark", and I no longer care about anything they are doing.

Not so with Evergrey. Whether it is a full-on chugging rhythm, or a slow vocal/piano song, a story will be told and it will be CLEAR. See, Evergrey still believes that storytelling is a MAJOR part of writing music, especially within the Metal genre. That personally means a lot to me. And it inspires XONE to continue to create music that delivers clear vocal lines that take the listener through some process of understanding a story or subject matter.

And even though the driving, chugging songs by Evergrey were the first thing to bring my ears to them, strangely enough, it is their singular vocal/piano songs that end up totally knocking me out by the end of a month with their latest CD. After experiencing this phenomenon on album after album by Evergrey, Ted and I decided to write one of these singular vocal/piano songs to continue our quest for storytelling in metal.

The new song is called REGRET, and it details something that we all can relate to: Living with the events from your past that you are not proud of. We all have dark sides, and inevitably, these dark sides compel us to impart a negative impact to someone or something in our lives. Living with that, and knowing you can never change those actions is an internal struggle of one's soul. They manifest themselves as REGRETS...

Metal with Meaning - The New Metal Masters

Do you remember listening to the apocalyptic accounts of historic battles fought? Do you remember when you could understand every word sung and when singers didn’t have to grunt? How about the psychological metal thriller lyrics that had you doubting your place in society? Or the meaning of life? Do you remember listening to Metal music with meaning?

I remember. The metal masters of yesteryear such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin and others inspired us with thought provoking lyrics that delved into the darkest recesses of human consciousness. Is it any wonder that we were affected?

This brings us right to the heart of the problem with popular metal music today – at least in the U.S. The lyrics can’t be understood. The popularity of the “death metal vocal” style typified by the rise of bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Dimmu Borgir and similar bands now deprives metal listeners of meaning. Yes, we have emotion, yes we have grunting. But we are without understanding. Even more strangely it has morphed into other sub-genres such as punk (understandably) seen with bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, and progressive metal (less understandably) with bands such as Opeth. Now, please understand me when I say that I don't "hate" death metal vocals. But when your band's lyrics consist of primarily or entirely death metal vocals lyrical quality disintegrates.

It is not rare to encounter this music; rather it has become the “norm” among modern metal bands to the point where it is cliché in the extreme. In fact, I feel that it is negatively impacting metal music to such a point where it has substantially decreased listenership.

In fact, it has had a profound affect on what we listen to as members of XONE. With no modern metal masters who can actually sing from the United States as we had in the past, we have focused our attention almost exclusively towards what is now being referred to as “European Metal” from places such as Sweden, Finland, Holland and Norway. These bands include Evergrey, Kamelot, Symphony X, Nightwish, and others. Interestingly, some members of these bands are not European at all (like all of the members of Kamelot except for Roy Kahn) and in one case (Symphony X) all of the members are from the United States. However, the primary reason that these bands have become influential to us as new metal masters is that they all focus on two things: 1) understandable, well sung, well written lyrics, 2) and a focus on musicianship.

When I hear Russell Allen of Symphony X, his vocals are clear and strong, his breathwork amazing. I’m reminded of the precision of Bruce Dickinson combined with the passion of James Hetfield. I know I am hearing a master, and I understand and can believe in the reality he is painting through his words.

All of these new masters of metal, Roy Kahn of Kamelot, Tom Englund of Evergrey, Tarja Turunen, and Russell Allen have the ability to captivate and stimulate like the masters of old by weaving tales and creating dreams. And although we don’t attempt to emulate anyone (old or new) XONE is subtly and undoubtedly affected by these new masters as much as the old and as we strive each day to perfect our music we hope to come just a little closer towards achieving Metal with Meaning.

The Live Vetta XONE

When the Line 6 Vetta first came out, I heard a lot of guys saying that it was great for recording, but was not so great for Live use. Well, after almost 4 years of usage, and many shows under its belt, I can fully attest to the fact that the Vetta more than holds its own in a Live band performance. In fact, the tones I've tweaked in my Vetta have simply blown people away in the Live environment.


The Vetta contains 32 banks of patches, with each bank containing 4 patches. I generally devote a single bank per song, although we do have one song where I utilize 3 banks of patches switched through on the fly. All the patches in the Vetta can be fully customized and in XONE, we live by the motto "No Factory Patches Allowed!". Every patch in my Vetta was created from the ground up by me. Each patch is tweaked for my particular rig: Ibanez RG1570>D’Addario EXL140 Strings>Vetta HD>Marshall 1960A 4x12.

With so many options available in the Vetta, it's really a lot of fun creating new patches for new songs. Every patch is tweaked at 105+ decibels, which is XONE's live and rehearsal volume level. With Line 6 products, patches must be tweaked at the volume they will be played at. A patch made at a bedroom level will not translate to gig volume, and vice versa.

Now as to whether or not the Vetta can really deliver live, I would say that my live Vetta tones have converted even my most Tube Snobby friends. In fact, the biggest tube snob I know, recently bought a POD XT Live and is LOVING it! You have to use your ears and not your brain when dealing with the Vetta or any of Line 6's excellent products. Just cause your brain says digital sounds harsh, doesn't mean that it does. You have to actually listen to the amp models and other variables within the Vetta before deciding on your opinion of them. Investment of time is the key.

An hour playing through the Vetta in a Guitar Center does not constitute understanding what the Vetta can do. A real investment of time (3-6 months) is necessary, unless you just play your guitar all day. I've found that once I got comfortable with Vetta's interface, I really began to go through and tweak at all the Vetta's models effectively. After a length of time getting used to the models, I then was able to really make my patches soar and sound rich and full. There’s a lot in there, so you gotta do your Vetta homework.

It's funny, I've had guys yell "That Marshall sounds awesome!" at me at shows cause I play through a Marshall 4x12. I always laugh, cause it ain't no Marshall.
It's a Vetta, and it's ALL DIGITAL...

The Vetta Vintage XONE

Man, I love this amp!!!!
Frankly, my Line 6 Vetta HD is everything to my sound. I utilize it like a painter uses his palette to combine colors to create a new work of art. There are just so many options within the Vetta that allow you to delve into new sonic territory almost every time you sit down with it. One element it is chock full of, is Vintage amp models.

From dry cleans to liquid cleans, from vintage saturation to full-on Hi-Gain, the Vetta delivers. Usually, I spend my Vetta tweaking time creating new Clean, Hi-Gain Rhythm, and Hi-Gain lead patches. Since XONE plays Prog Metal, a good liquid clean tone and a tight Hi-Gain Rhythm tone will usually fit the bill. It isn't that often that I really get to hear the Vetta show off its awesome Vintage tone abilities. Last night was a rare exception.

After XONE had finished our rehearsal, our friend Don came by the rehearsal room to test out his newly refurbished Charvel. The Charvel is a similar body style to the Les Paul and Don had a new Jeff Beck pickup installed in the Bridge position. We plugged it into the Vetta and started dialing up the great Vintage models. Now, Don is a real old school, classic rock aficionado. He saw Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton this very first time each performed in Los Angeles back in the sixties.

With Don, Jimi is God and Cream is King. And Peter Green is the Prince.

It was awesome to hear Don pull out all that KILLER Vintage vibe from the Vetta. We dialed up the Marshall JTM-45 for some "Brave Ulysses". We threw down some Marshall Jumpered Super Lead for "Voodoo Chile". We even brought out some Marshall Variac for leads. All were utilized with the Vetta Wah-Wah. Needless to say, I thought Jimi was right in the room with me. Don spent some time explaining how Clapton originally got that "weeping woman" sound from his Strat. It sounded just like Clapton, yet we weren't even using a Strat!

Needless to say, once again the Vetta delivered the EXACT tone we were looking for, and with relatively little work necessary to find it.

Stay Tuned for more about the Awesome XONE of Vetta...