Words in a Box

Stratomaster

Active member
Here's another collaboration effort, just finished yesterday. A very simple tune using nylon string guitar and some string sounds from the ik multimedia miroslav collection. The lyrics were half written by a girl i met playing games online, we became good buddies over a period and she gave me part of the lyrics and i filled in some stanzas of my own. She hasn't heard the song and may never hear it, but i want to share it with someone. The singing as usual is not very good, i recorded the guitars and vocals with reverb rather than adding it later, there might be a bit too much bottom end boominess. Overall i'm pretty happy with it warts and all. If you're looking for excitement you might want to look elsewhere, it's a bit of a sleeper tune...:yawn:

Thanks for listening and any comments.

Strat


Words In A Box by NovaBasa | Nova Basa | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
Listening on phones, the reverb sounds pretty good here. The strings are a nice touch and give me an early 70's Moody Blues vibe. A little more work with the strings and this could take off.
 
Guitars sound great. I don't know if you were going for tight double tracking. If so, you need to tighten it up.

I thought the strings worked well. Sounded pretty decent too.

Vocal sound good. Maybe the oooo's could be double tracked. Harmony vocal would be nice.

The reverb worked well I thought. I'd still have done a song like this almost bone dry. But what you had wasn't bad.
 
It sounds pretty good. I like the song and playing. There are a couple of places where you have an extended stretch without vocals. Maybe add a lead instrument there to give the listening something to focus attention on?
 
Guitars sound great. I don't know if you were going for tight double tracking. If so, you need to tighten it up.

Sounds like they're slightly different arrangements. There's a few spots where they play their parts a beat or two apart to create a call-and-response effect.

This is pretty cool.

The vocals are maybe a touch dark when it's just them and guitar.

Pads are a good touch.
 
I can't believe no one's commented about the drums - they're very low in the mix :D This is very nice Strat. I'm not hearing any warts. I like the approach of recording with effects, burning them in and reducing options later. I've started doing that on some of my tracks. I wouldn't have any qualms about sharing with your friend, she'd likely be thrilled to hear her lyrics come to life
 
This is really nice, the nylon guitars sound lovely through headphones, and the pad/strings are just right, really melancholy and evocative. Good song, enjoyed this.
 
Thanks for listening everyone!

To answer some specific comments;

Spantini-The Moody Blues!-i hear that-if only i could sing like Justin! Thanks for your time.

TripleM-Thanks for your time and putting up with the reverb-As VHS mentioned the two guitars are played in slightly different positions, i didn't want them to be note for note exact but maybe sounding like two people playing. There's also the issue that my nylon string Cordoba has a very WIDE neck and man after a few takes the barre chords really hurt so i had to find alternative ways to play the part. The "woooo" section is literally to give my hand a rest as much as anything else!

Robus-there is a little guitar solo where the singing drops which also hints at the plucked string part that happens at the end-i was trying to fill some dead space with musical ideas, perhaps i could take it further, thanks for the comments : )

VomitHat-Yes you are correct about the guitars-i tried matching them perfectly at one point but the slight intonation differences and just sheer pain in my hand made me try what i wound up with. Thanks for listening.

BullsHit-Thanks for listening- The "warts" would be in the pitchiness and tone of the vocals.. yeah no drums to worry about on this-certainly makes mixing easier as well as recording the verb live...I use a lexicon mx400 and i do run the verb to a separate track so i can adjust later but just doing that saves me so much tinkering and experimenting..I also think the hardware verb sounds better than any plugin i have and i have some good ones. Thanks!

Jyemz-Thanks for the nice comment-i took some time to get the string parts right-redoing them as the ideas started to come together. Without the strings the song would have been pretty boring, introducing the different sections at different times was what made the whole mood thing work. Thanks!
 
very nice and i don't hear the boominess you talk about . if you like it it's all that matters. i would probably never record wet cause that's something you can always add later. easier to manipulate. good song and i thought it was sung pretty well.
 
Nice job, Strat. The reverb sounds nice and fitting. Not overdone to my ears. Nice playing, layering of the acoustics.

The strings sound fantastic, but I'd consider lowering them a tiny bit. Their effect will still be there, they'll still be totally heard, but it will make the acoustic and vocal much more intimate. I'd even cut a few db's of 1k-ish from them. Did you lo-pass them? I usually lo-pass strings pretty aggressively, they can get pretty hissy up top and it can go un-noticed, until you lo-pass and it really opens up top end of the mix without affecting the sound of the strings. Sounds great as is, sorry if I'm being pretty nit-picky, just giving you my initial thoughts. Nice work!
 
Back
Top