"Ritmo Ole" is an instrumental New Flamenco song. It is basically comprised of a 3 chord progression laced with a improvised melody. For the most part, I used the C# minor scale for the lead.
I recorded this entire song in my small home studio using a Digi 001 for my preamps along with ACID as the Recording sequencer. For the drums and percussions I used pre-recorded one-shot sound files which I sequenced in ACID. The Bass was recorded live using the SansAmp Bass DI which I seriously recommend for all of you Home Recording guys. And finally, the guitar was recorded thru a Behringer Tube Ultragain Pro which helped me get an nice pure and natural sound.
One of the most important things for me to achieve with my music is a thick sounding rhythm. So when it comes to the rhythm guitars I like to double with two separately recorded tracks. Then I pan them equally to the left and right. I usually pan between 10 and 15 percent. This give the song a nice thick sound. I use the same technique with my melodies. For instance, in the Intro and outro melody I have one melody track slightly paned to the left and then on the next measure I use a separately recorded track slightly paned to right. But with the 2nd melody played an octave higher to give it a more melodic feel. Another technique I used to thicken the Choirs is the use of Strings. I used the software program Fruityloops to sequence a string section for the Choirs to give it more coloration.
With this style of music I try not to go too crazy with the effects. I used SoundForge to edit my files and I stick to using EQ and Reverb. Other then that I try to go with as much natural sound from the instrument as possible. I hope some of this info is useful for any of you. Thanks for reading and I wish you the best of luck with all of your musical endeavors.
