...All Went Wrong - new alternative tune, feedback puhlease?

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
hey guys, i wanted a loose, open feel to this (as if it were played live, which of course it isn't). so, i laid off the filters (to some extent) and heavy vocal delays. also, i kept a lot of breaths in the mix since i thought it added to the live feel. i went with the first master version i finished since i was very satisfied with it, although it surely could be improved in some areas. had some problems controlling exaggerated frequencies in the loudest vocal parts, but i think i tamed it decent enough. please let me know how the final thing came out? meant to be an alternative-punky-pop tune and heavy on the melody. thanks!

https://soundcloud.com/andrushkiwt/all-went-wrong
 
Nice song. Very catchy melody. Good singing. Very cool guitar and bass breakdown--solo I suppose, but there wasn't much soloing there. I though the preamble went on a bit too long. I'm hearing some awkward timing issues here and there, like instruments aren't locked in with the drums as tight as they might be.
 
Robus said:
I'm hearing some awkward timing issues here and there, like instruments aren't locked in with the drums as tight as they might be.
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i've realized that i've been recording the guitars and bass before I make the final drum parts. so, i'll often move kick hits in quarter note segments. i forget to go back and record the bass with emphasis on those particular, new kick hits. that might be giving the impression... also, i record guitars almost immediately after spending 15 minutes settling on a tempo. the previous tempos might be malingering in my head during tracking. i'll keep a better eye (or ear) out for that in the future, although i'm not TOO concerned about it. but i definitely don't want it to be an issue with the majority of listeners.
 
As usual, another awesome vocal performance; I always really dig your voice. Aside from the few timing issues that Robus mentioned, it was a little on the darker side overall to me, but everything sounded nicely balanced. Nice tune, thanks for sharing!
 
A bit too much noodling at the beginning. The vocal sounds good. Guitars don't sound too bad. Maybe a little less gain and a bit more treble dialed might improve the tone just a bit.

The drums are a bit of weak point. Not enough power to them. This kind of song needs a big thumping rhythm. The drums (and the bass) aren't doing that.
 
TripleM said:
A bit too much noodling at the beginning. The vocal sounds good. Guitars don't sound too bad. Maybe a little less gain and a bit more treble dialed might improve the tone just a bit.

The drums are a bit of weak point. Not enough power to them. This kind of song needs a big thumping rhythm. The drums (and the bass) aren't doing that.
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This was the first track where I actually increased the treble on the amp sim, ha. Figures. Thanks man
 
I'm just not hearing any major timing issues, at least nothing to distract from the song. Some musician friends couldn't pick them out either. Could you give me a time marker if you get a chance? I'd appreciate it. There are a lot of ghost notes on the snare - perhaps they're coming across somehow as the 2 and 4 hits?

Also, I've noticed a small problem with using superior drummer for those who like to use combinations of preset grooves and your own compositions. The presets are played by a live drummer and have a particular feel to them, and they include minor (very minor) slightly off beats hits. You can See this by zooming in on the track box. You'll notice the hit placement is ever so slightly off the "note" (piano layout) which corresponds to time. However, when you write your own parts, I haven't figured out how to mimic this. Therefore, every self placed hit, on any piece, is exactly on time. So, if you have a combination of preset notes and self placed notes (which happens a lot for me since I manipulate the grooves to fit the songs, even something small like a kick hit or two), it may sound ever so slightly off. But again, in the context of a band playing, it isn't anything someone can point out as blanatly bad.

Let me know if you think maybe that's it?
 
I listened again. I'm noticing it mainly on the fills. Some of them sound unsettled to me. It could be the ghost notes. Take an example, around 1:28 when you come out of that breakdown and back into your verse. It sounds like you have a sixteenth ghost note right after the 1 on the measure with the fill. The fill feels awkward to me. Maybe that ghost note is throwing me off the pulse. I'm not sure; it's a subtle thing. It could be too that the drum track is just kind of busy. Just doesn't sound quite as solid as I'd like.
 
I liked the begining a lot! The guitar experimentation and all...I think it works great, haha.

The song is very cool and so is the mix. Where did you record those drums?
 
Robus said:
I listened again. I'm noticing it mainly on the fills. Some of them sound unsettled to me. It could be the ghost notes. Take an example, around 1:28 when you come out of that breakdown and back into your verse. It sounds like you have a sixteenth ghost note right after the 1 on the measure with the fill. The fill feels awkward to me. Maybe that ghost note is throwing me off the pulse. I'm not sure; it's a subtle thing. It could be too that the drum track is just kind of busy. Just doesn't sound quite as solid as I'd like.
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Thank you Robus. It sounds like it's the editing I'm doing within the preset. I can usually find something that matches really close to what I want, but I need to edit a few things within that beat. When I do that, my insets are exact and the preset hits are slightly off as they were played by the session drummer. I bet that's it.
 
CMolena said:
I liked the begining a lot! The guitar experimentation and all...I think it works great, haha.

The song is very cool and so is the mix. Where did you record those drums?
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thanks Molena, I always liked when bands would start recording before they were tracking and you'd hear random things in the room...always thought that was cool, so that was me pretending, lol. Plus, i'm a huge Nirvana fan and they did things like that a lot at the beginnings and ends of tunes.

The drums are Superior Drummer 2, though I used a different snare and hat than I usually do. Did they sound ok to you?
 
andrushkiwt said:
thanks Molena, I always liked when bands would start recording before they were tracking and you'd hear random things in the room...always thought that was cool, so that was me pretending, lol. Plus, i'm a huge Nirvana fan and they did things like that a lot at the beginnings and ends of tunes.

The drums are Superior Drummer 2, though I used a different snare and hat than I usually do. Did they sound ok to you?
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They sound really good. So good that I thought it was real drums! And I'm usually against virtual drums...

I think you programmed and mixed the drums in a way that it actually sounds a little bit human...and that is a great thing my friend.
 
CMolena said:
They sound really good. So good that I thought it was real drums! And I'm usually against virtual drums...

I think you programmed and mixed the drums in a way that it actually sounds a little bit human...and that is a great thing my friend.
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thanks man, i really appreciate that. i'm opting for more patterns that have nuances in them and particular feels - as opposed to the beats that are dead on and robotic like. I don't know if all/most of the drum programs out there do this, but SD uses a live drummer not just for individual note hits, but for hundreds of short beats. That's a big difference because the feel between each hit is different than if you were to plot out each hit individually in perfect time. this way, it mimics live playing more accurately, since it kinda-sorta is that. i've been doing this since a friend (who is a phenomenal drummer) criticized the perfectness of earlier drum patterns I was working with. glad you mentioned that. Thanks!
 
Nice song!

I'd tone down the noodling at the beginning and the end, but that's my only complaint on first listen.
 
I think it sounds pretty good. I can't offer you much advice because pop like this makes me cringe. Don't take that as an insult though everyone has different tastes in music. I think you're real close to getting THAT sound you're going for. I think it's just slightly lacking that surgically polished production that you hear on music like this. It's pretty good for a home recording though. Almost there. :thumbs up:
 
FoulPhil said:
I think it sounds pretty good. I can't offer you much advice because pop like this makes me cringe. Don't take that as an insult though everyone has different tastes in music. I think you're real close to getting THAT sound you're going for. I think it's just slightly lacking that surgically polished production that you hear on music like this. It's pretty good for a home recording though. Almost there. :thumbs up:
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no worries at all! i definitely went heavy with the pop melody intentionally. if you have any words of advice or suggestions on getting it over that edge you mentioned, i'd love to hear it. thanks a lot for the feedback!
 
andrushkiwt said:
no worries at all! i definitely went heavy with the pop melody intentionally. if you have any words of advice or suggestions on getting it over that edge you mentioned, i'd love to hear it. thanks a lot for the feedback!
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I don't have any idea. You have to keep in mind most of those albums are recorded in "million" dollar studios with perfectly acoustical treated rooms as well as master in a "mastering" room. And just 1 of the guitar amps they use among many probably costs more than every instrument and pieces of recording gear that I own. Shit probably their guitar is worth more than everything I own LOL. On top of that they have trained professionals, recording engineers, mixing engineers, a producer and also a mastering engineer(s).

The only thing I think you could do is really give it every thing you've got. In every aspect of the whole recording process. Maybe like a mad scientist and the performance of a lifetime LOL. I'm too lazy for all that shit you know?
 
FoulPhil said:
I'm too lazy for all that shit you know?
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i hear ya, except for when i get nice comments...then i feel like i really should put the time into it. only been at it for a year, little more. i read a lot about mixing while i'm at work. Sound On Sound has good articles, and I look for interviews with pro mixers who worked on famous albums. yeah, most of that gear i'll probably never touch in my life, but when they talk about compressor settings for this and that, or reverb tricks, or bass settings, I try to remember what they did and listen for it. i think it's coming together nicely, but if I actually had those pieces of equipment in front of me, I wouldn't even know what to do with them, lol. I'm used to plug-ins...so that would be a whole new perspective to learn.
 
Fantastic sound, man. I really dig this, it sounds like a whole new level from the last few songs I've heard from you, not that those were even lacking in anything really. I really don't have any comments on the mix, I'm useless there, except that the staging in the intro could be shortened I think. I don't have a long attention span lol
 
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