Shameless self Promotion of what happens when recording at home

[atomictoyz]

For those parties interested in just plain listening to something...go visit my little piece of the
internet music world... Email or post your comments :0) NO Profanity!

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/314/...d_whitney.html





Peace,
Dennis

[atomictoyz]

IM just wondering why I havent gotten any comments or anything from this forum, is it so bad that it makes you shudder or whats the deal here? It scares me when I post something where almost everyone has an opinion and its gets real quiet. "Pin dropping" Listen to anything but creation and apocalypse as your first ones might be less uh... I mean more musical..yeah thats it!

[DavidK]

Dont worry Dennis, sometimes people take a while to check out my stuff.

Lets see here: Well, interesting concept. I dont know if you consider yourself a "Christian" musician, but if so, it is an interesting take on God music. I listened to about 5 tunes, including Captivity, Creation, Curse, Prelude. There are some good ideas, decent "feel", etc. Reminds me of Tubular Bells meets Rush meets Phillip Glass (Classical minimalist composer) meets the Wall. I think you have something with that mix of styles.

My problems with it ( If you are posting here I guess you are askin :

1:Some stuff is WAY too long. The wind stuff in one tune ( I think creation) is so long that I thought at first it might be a mistake, we are talkin about a minute and a half Dennis. You could cut that down to 30 seconds and have the same effect.

2:The special effects are a bit much. I find it ironic that I am writing that, because I do the same stuff!! The one tune, Captivity? was the first I randomly clicked on, and it is a bit too much.

3. For me,a classical player and composer, your " Rock Opera"-esque CD might be served better as a Tone Poem . What that means is I think the "songs" could be better served as one piece of music, kinda like Tubular Bells side one (Since you look much younger than this 36 year-old, that is the Music to the Exorcist, done just like you do your stuff, the first one man multi track recording, if you didnt know).

Anyhoo, I strongly suggest checking out Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield if you dont know it. Oldfield pulls off what you are attempting to do: He morphs different sections together without the listener being aware of it. It is very smooth and well planned, whereas in Creation, you have a long storm, and no segue to the next part.

My final thought: I didnt feel that you made a " Master Plan" before you assembled the music. This music, in Classical terms, is called Program Music . Vivaldi's "the Four Seasons is the first example of program music.Vivaldi is painting a picture with music.
the Concerto "Summer" is very happy, the Concerto "winter" is very icy and chilling,etc.
Perhaps on your next endeavor, map out a concise plan of how you will turn each biblical or non-biblical event into a musical picture.

I enjoyed your Music, Dennis, you have some good ideas, look forward to hearing more in the future. Cheers, Dave

[atomictoyz]

Thanks DavidK for your comments.
Im a Christian, but I don't sing or write vocal music very well and Guitar is the only way I can express my musical gift if you will.

Yes some stuff is way too long.

I have this tendency to work on something that might be used as an intro to something else and it just gets out of hand. I have a musical education but have this nagging habit of abandoning common sense or over doing one part too much and another left incomplete. I agree that I need to have a plan for the outcome to be more controlled. Most of the 5 tunes you clicked on are just chunks of ideas or experiments with keys. I only have 3 or 4 songs on the CD that really appeal to myself. The 2 that took more thought were "From out of Egypt" and "Casting Lots", even though "Revelation" was the first track I went with a stereo drum machine turned out ok. This is my first effort using an 8 track at home and I had to learn how to fumble about with bass guitar and keyboards. Ive never had to do it all by myself before and it was quite a learning process and hopefully with people like yourself pointing out things to improve on I can learn more. When I first started song writing I would do chord charts, notation and other things to construct something, Ive gotten lazy and usually find a progression, use the drum machine as a click and overdub on the fly what ever melody it drives. Most of that laziness is because of limited time to do things and lack of money for decent equipment. Would you believe it was all done in time fragments of 45 minutes to maybe an hour at the most.
If you could listen to tunes I listed about and critique those for me since those are typically the music that I work with 90 percent of the time I would be super happy. Im going to if I can find Mike Oldfield's CD and learn how he arranged his music.

Thanks again:0)
Peace,
Dennis.....
P.S. Im almost 38, thanks for the compliment ;0)

[DavidK]

Hi Dennis, yes, I checked out the other tunes. I think Out of Egypt is your strongest, although I am not a fan of drum Machines.
Casting Lots has a nice feel to it.

You will really enjoy Tubular bells, your stuff really reminds me of it. He was a real pioneer in multi-track recording-you'll see.

Yup, those songs are stronger indeed, nice job. Cheers, Dave

[Scriabin]

i like casting lots myself...it has the pink floyd's wall vibe too it in some parts. maybe if you could hire Roger waters to mimic the roman soldiers casting lots for Christ's robe you be on track
i like the concept album idea, which is what i have always enjoyed creating as compared to a straight rock album. Rush's 2112 was a great example of it.
good work and i'd like to hear some vocals

[atomictoyz]

Thanks for comments:0)

Im not a big fan of drum machines either, I actually played drums from grade school thru high school, I didn't start learning guitar until 1986 or so, I don't have room for drums anymore (2 kids) so Im stuck with them for now (the drum machine that is).

My family and some friends want me to do some vocal oriented music, if I do I think the genre will change a little since Im very limited, and lack in the talent bucket. After I get my micro studio back together I have some songs in my head I think Ill try out. I can post them probalby around Christmas.

Thanks Again & Peace,
Dennis

[zagrad]

I listened to Creation. Like DavidK said, the wind is way too long indeed I skipped it a minute or so thinking that I would here music again and I still heard the wind....

I like the feeling and the idea of the track very much... And I really had to laugh when the drum came in, very off-beat.. I didn't laugh about you.... But I did because I always have the same problem
So I really understand it..... But now I want to ask you what you did record at first? The drums or the guitar.... hearing the track I think you started with the guitar so I suggest starting with the drums.... Now this could be very hard sometimes.... I always have to know exactly how long every part of my track is and then I can start with the drums... (well I have to do them on computer)
If you cannot hold the ritm of the drums without the guitar playing and you cannot hold the ritm of the guitar without the drums playing (which is my problem always) I suggest you get a ritmbox...

But I think the track is very good and I will sure listen more of it

greetings

[atomictoyz]

Ha ha ha, Its funny now that you mention it Zagrad!
Creation was the first experiment in digital cut and paste on Sound Forge 4.5 an my pc. I had layered like 8 tracks of just noise from different special effect cd's, I added thunder and all sorts of things to make it sound like chaos. Well the samples were 8 bit and need to be resampled to 16, this changed the pitch, so I pitch changed this and that which really messed with the hissing I didn't hear when it was 8 bit. I tried throwing it into ProTools free to see if I could clean it up, it kept crashing. So I took that mess and had 2 seperate pieces of music on my MD8 and tried to crossfade everything to mimic the universe changing from ramdom chaos to controlled unity. Hah! I have had this drum machine
that I traded for back in my band days when I needed something to help in writing on my 4 track analog machine. This drum machine is the Boss Dr-220A, a digital drum machine with some serious problems, battery leakage once upon a time corroded somethings, and so here I am trying to manually trigger this thing real time and the triggers were sticking and the power kept going out on it. When I listen to Creation
I usually skip to the clean guitar part just because I cannot stand things being out of time. I had problems with my guitar as well. Its a relatively new guitar for me and the action is similat to high power transmission lines, Im still procrastinating on getting a set up. Since the action is so high compared to my other dismantled guitars, my fingers stick to the strings and moving around from position to position always, well at least most of the time, make this pop and scrape sound. Uuuhgg.
Well a few months ago I bought an alesis SR-16, and it programmable so I will be less frustrated and hopefully on time from now on. Another contributor to some of my timing is not being able to hear anything, My workspace is only 100 inches by 104 inches, not much room when it filled to the teeth plus a marshall half stack sitting next to me, I just can't hear over the Amp whe ndoing overdubs. Last week I guuted my lil studio and Im building an isolation cabinet for the speaker cabinet.

Thanks for your input :0)

Peace,
Dennis

[zagrad]

Damn I thought my recordings were hard to make... You win

[atomictoyz]

For those people who frequent the MP3 Mixing Clinic. Why are there so many people going to the forum, viewing an entry but not commenting on it? With mine specifically, was there something that was offensive (even though its instrumental)? Was the file size too much? Or was the Genre not something your interested in? Maybe this should be a poll?


Look alive people!

Peace,
Dennis

[Queue]

Dennis,
In response to your question about hits vs. replies. I think you'd do better if you pointed out one particular song:

"I just re-worked ___thus and such___, please give it a listen."

Another thing is to try to point out to the reviewer what they are reviewing. Some people are just mixing, some are doing it all (like you). Tell us what you did, and ask us what you'd like us to comment on.

"These are my songs, I composed, performed, recorded, and mixed them, comments on any and all facets are welcome."

Some people just plain hate mp3.com, and won't listen to anything there. If you mirror your stuff over at NowhereRadio.com that might address their issues.

Queue

btw - I liked your stuff. I'm suprised I get to be the first to say it sounds like Joe Satriani. Very nice. (Even on the crap PC speakers at work).

[atomictoyz]

Thanks for the tips Queue,
Ill try to remember to try the mirror at Nowhere radio, I need some advice I guess on what songs to post there, I know people have different tastes in musical style as well as the mixing styles. I have my favorites being a guitarist primarily, but some people don't like guitars for the most part. So far the ones that people like most are" From Out of Egypt"," Casting Lots"," March of Frogs" and' Revelation", I think those are the ones Ill put at Nowhere radio. Should I repost after I get that done or wait a few months and put newer songs out?

Thanks again Queue :0).. The Satriani comparison made me blush ;0)

Peace,
Dennis

[zagrad]

Queue had a good point there..... I hate mp3.com too... The main problem for me is that mp3.com keeps on asking my damn info....

And you should post on vitaminic.com too... And I think you should not post the songs which people like the most, but the songs YOU like the most and want to have reviewed...

greetz

[Queue]

Should I repost after I get that done or wait a few months and put newer songs out?

Try not to overload... A small steady flow is better IMO. Post 'em as they come... You may feel that breaks apart the cohesive theme or context that DavidK was talking about, but you could always just remind the reviewers to keep that in mind.

Queue

ps - remember, I'm not the king of the forum here... far from it... these are my opinions and suggestions, you can decide to adhere to or ignore anything I say...

[TheStickman]

I REALLY liked "The Curse". Wonderful tones and excellent, moody playing. I'm an old fart and I LIKE long songs as long as the playing is heartfelt. Curious about what you did the drums with? drum machine?

keep rockin!