60's surf rock (think green fender strat)

[erik_ande_85]

hello everybody!

I'm working on a surf song a´la 60's and would like some help on the sound.

How was it in the 60's? super mega massive reverb or just a lot of reverb?

Maybe i used to much reverb? Can you do that in surf music?

you can streem it from here:
http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/Errx/

[Greg_L]

Pretty cool idea, but it lacks continuity. The whole thing seems disjointed. Like it's two different songs being played simultaneously. Do you have reverb on the bass? If so, get rid of that. Theres a lot of low-end resonance and mud. The drum fills seem kind of out of place. The horn part doesn't seem to jive with the guitar. The guitar reverb sounds reasonably appropriate. Look for a spring-type reverb for a pretty authentic sound.

This may seem overly critical, but I don't mean it to be. I LOVE surf music and want it to sound good. I've done a few surf songs myself. I like what I think is your general idea, but something just seems off.

[SnakeDog5050]

Kicking verb on the guitar IMO Some good ideas and cool parts in there. There's something about that synth/horn sound though... I like the idea of having it, but think it could sound better and/or fit better in the tune. If you're really playing this one on the surfboard as the picture suggests though, no nitpicks then

[chrisharris]

I don't know jack shit about surf-billy music, so listen to Greg. I just wanted to say that it was a good listen.

[heatmiser]

I think this song kind of has an identity crisis going on stylistically. the snyth, especially at the very end seems more elp than surf. but the guitar is pretty tight and i definitely enjoyed listening to this.

the verb sounds more like digital hall reverb than '60's tube amp to my ears, but i don't know what is available to you as far as guitar sounds go.

keep in mind i make no claim of being a surf music expert, but i would second the notion of heeding greg's advice, as this is one of his specialities.

[dreamer7]

Hi Erik,
I'll admit that I'm no expert on Surf music either, but I have heard plenty in my time. I think this is a good tune and the guitar sound is really good to my ears. The one thing that doesn't work at all for me is the fake horn sound, as it really does sound fake. If it was real horns it'd be great (sort of Hawaii Five-O), but if you can't get a better horn sound on your synth, then you'll just ruin the track. How about losing the horns, but trying what is now the horn part on a second guitar instead, with a completely different sound to the guitar that's already there – it might work and you'll keep the general vibe, which works well.

It's obviously a work in progress and it's going somewhere good if you get the right feel to it.
dreamer7

[Ben Logan]

Erik,

Good tune. I like the interplay between the guitar and the synth parts. Some nice counter-melody.

A few of the snare drum rolls sound a little machine-gun-like to my ears. That's hard to avoid sometimes. Maybe work a bit with the velocities / humanization on your drum machine. Or is it a real drummer?

[erik_ande_85]

thanks guys for your comments!

I agree Greg that i should arange the structure, all the ideas just flew right out of me when i recorded so it got a little messy

dreamer7:

Yeah the trumpet sounds a little fake, but i ain't got much options, maybe i could try what you said about playing it on the guitar, but that might ruin the hawaii 5-0 feeling (that was my main guideline when i was recording BTW).