Silly or Artistic?

BroKen_H

BroKen_H

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I'm trying something completely different. The song I'm working on goes from a battlefield into a battle song. Haven't worked out all the details yet, just the chord progressions. Got the first set down. Need to get the bridge, chorus, break, etc. on track, but the question is...

Will it sound ditzy to keep an explosion (at least the attack :) thereof) as kick and a rifle shot as snare (rimshot??? :laughings:) through the song?

Here's a sample.

Again, the link works but the song shows up unavailable...I just can't get this thing to work consistently.:(

Needs cymbals and hats yet. Maybe the "snare" is still a bit loud. Music is in throw down mode.

So I put this here instead of MP3 Clinic.
 
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Since we can't actually listen to it yet, I'm guessing that it's a toss-up between artistically silly and sillily artistic. I'm leaning toward the latter.

PS -- I think the reason that the song shows up as unavailable might be because the Homeland Insecurity Department (H.I.D.) is investigating it, or else the N.S.A. (No Song Available) is checking it out. Maybe you should rename it so the title and/or description doesn't include any Suspicious Words? For example, try replacing "battles" with "differences of opinion," and "explosion" with "splosion."
 
At soundcloud 'private' means only the person(s) that have access to that account can listen to it...
 
Interesting. I can post to a private clip on FB and people can hear it, but not here? Wonder if I can reroute my clips through FB??? :laughings:
 
I listened - if the current snare is supposed to sound like a rifle retort it doesn't.
 
That's good, because it isn't a snare, it's a carbine being fired. :D
I looked around for a while trying to find a rifle shot that sounded like a snare. The "snare" in the song comes right out of the battle scene at the beginning. The "kick" is a clipped piece of one of the explosions.
 
I kinda like this. It has a To Record Only Water For Ten Days feel to it. The kick doesn't sound like an explosion at all.
 
CrowsofFritz said:
I kinda like this. It has a To Record Only Water For Ten Days feel to it. The kick doesn't sound like an explosion at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks, man! That's the goal is to keep the explosion and gunshot and have them sound as much like kick and snare as possible.
Now I've just got to finish writing and recording...:)
 
The beat actually sounds way better with the gun sound effects in it I think. I say keep going with it, so we can have a more complete product to judge on.
 
I don't believe in "rules of thumb". However, here is a rule of thumb:

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to leave the gunshots in your song or take them out... ALWAYS LEAVE THEM IN.

Silly and artistic aren't mutually exclusive, you know. You may be surprised to hear that even I have been regarded as "silly" in the past by some ignorant folks, bless their hearts. And just the other day I found myself doodling on a notepad while on a boring conference call. So there you go.

Do something about that snare. Use recordings of .22 shots if you have to, but get rid of whatever that is.

I'll be interested to see what kind of lyrics you come up with for this battle song. Remember, the best battle songs make pacifists, commies, etc. very uncomfortable. So throw in a few lines about Vietnam and Obamacare.
 
I very much liked the song, though the tempo wasn't what I expected from initial explosions.
There are three songs which have awesome battlefield feel to it (I believe) using drums, not necessarily as gun sounds.

Eurovision 2013 winner song Emmelie De Forest, only teardrops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_WFFR09V8Q

Russian rock group Agata Kristi, Legion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSYb6KVN4MM (awesome video which probably uses some movie shots)

Famous Status Quo hit, You are in army now, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-u87agJunY

Guess, you can take some hints from these awesome battlefield songs.
 
I created an entire drum kit from Explosion (kick), Snare (machine gun) cymbals (swords hitting together). One another song I used a whip sound and chains to augment a set of drums and oars (droning) for the basic beat.

If there is a sound I want to use and can figure out how to get it into a song, I never ask the question.
 
I don't think that it's a bad idea but I do think that your shot sound sample is pretty weak.
I could send you some really fucking good gun sounds. I have a nice sample library that I looted from some video games.

pm me if you want them. They're all .ogg files so they're super tiny. You can convert them to .mp3s yourself afterwards.
 
I think having rifles and explosions for percussion might overstate things a little bit. You only need enough for the listener to make the connection. YMMV.
 
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