Written by: Dennis Huszar and F.B. Herr
The original band recording by Jimmy The Door, 1981:
All parts played live by 6 young guys in a pro studio.
Our 2016 recording, which I revisited in February 2025:
This is how three of us re-recorded it in Presonus Studio One back in 2016. I opened it up again this February and made a few new edits to my guitar and bass parts.
A new recording that I did from scratch, April 2025:
Just for fun, I decided to try a new recording of this song, starting again from scratch. Here’s what I used:
- For the synth sound, I used a preset called Breaking Glass from Arturia’s Analog Lab 4, which I think sounds fairly close to the original. This is a MIDI track.
- The piano sound is also from Analog Lab 4. I recorded a MIDI piano track, and then duplicated it and used different presets from AL4 on each: American Grand Solo on the main track and American Small Studio on the duplicate. It results in a lighter piano sound than the original, so maybe it still needs a better piano VST, or a better combination of piano sounds, but this one’s grown on me now; I kinda like it.
- The accordion is also a duplicate set of MIDI tracks: one uses Analog Lab 4’s Accordion (DX7) preset, and the other uses the “Accordian” preset from Presonus’ Presence synth.
- For the drums, I used & tweaked a kit and patterns from the Retro Pop Sync preset in ujam’s PHAT Virtual Drummer.
- The voices at the end are from Spitfire Audio’s Originals Epic Choir. It’s two MIDI tracks: the main one is Sopranos & Altos, and there’s a quieter one with Tenors & Bass.
- The mandolin is an actual one; I rented a cheap mandolin for a month from Long & McQuade. I should’ve rented an expensive one! I tried one when I returned the cheapo rental, and it turns out they sound a lot better. Oh well.
Another new version from scratch, this time using strings instead of the synth, May 2025:
I like this one the best so far.
I really love the original synth sound, but I started worrying that maybe it dates the song a bit, giving it kind of an 80’s sound. I have no idea; after this many years, I’ve lost perspective on what percentage of my attachment to the original sound is nostalgia. Anyway, just for fun I thought I’d see how actual strings (well, from a sample library) would sound instead. Tried it and they actually sound pretty great, to my peasant ears anyway.
So, mostly all the same instruments as on the April version, except:
- For the strings, instead of the Breaking Glass synth from Analog Lab, I used Originals Epic Strings from Spitfire Audio. Doubled this track and used a different octave on each.
- Found a way to make the piano sound more substantial: for the duplicate piano track, I replaced American Small Studio with Originals Mrs. Mills Piano from Spitfire. It adds a nice quality to the other American Grand Solo track.
- I switched the drums sound over to Originals Abe Laboriel Jr Drums from Spitfire.
- I also replayed a lot of the live bass, rhythm guitar, and mandolin parts, so I think this latest version is tighter than my April attempt. I think it’s a better mix too.
Ok, I think I’m pretty much done messing with this one by myself now. Would love to collaborate on it again one day if possible.
Decided to simplify the song name to just Glacial Drift. We originally called it Glacial Drift (Stony Earth), but who’s got that kind of time these days? 😀