2 new tracks - would appreciate the feedback

[crEEk]

YOOHOO! 2 New Tracks

Well its been ages since I've added anything to my page at mp3.com, but I did upload two new tracks.

"The End & Everything After" is straight up rock and roll with a pretty wicked solo. "Living Color" is a true power trio effort - just acoustic guitar, bass & drums. I'd love to hear your comments good and bad. You can listen to them here: www.mp3.com/craigingram.

Well I think I'll browse around here and listen to some songs!

 

[MAC2]

Whoa!.....Good stuff crEEK! Really liked the vocal arrangements. One critical comment: The transition going into the guitar lead in "The End & Everything After" (around 2:24) seems abrupt and kinda interupts the established flow of the song. The timing wasn't real smooth.Both tunes are excellent quality recordings and good mixes.Have to go back to your site and listen to some of the other songs as well for the good guitar work!

 

[crEEk]

Hey MAC2. Thanks for taking the time to listen. I really appreciate your feedback. For the guitar solo I opted for that abrupt stop and slide intro. I can see where it might sound awkward. Every song on that page is a direct result of my first time recording so alot - no make that everything - was trial and error. I learned alot about arranging and producing that hopefully I can translate next time around.

Do you have any tunes posted? I'd be glad to take a listen.

--craig--

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Hey man, I listened to both songs. Nice arrangement & lyrics on both. I especially like the main guitar riff on Living color.

I think that both could use more low end though. I'm not hearing much bass.

Good job!

Slackmaster 2000

 

[gibs]

Great sounds/mixes...I agree with MAC2 about the 2:24 thing...and with Slack about the bottom....."Living Color" was the one I liked most....that acoustic guitar was spot on....gibs

 

[Helmut]

I liked the song, but what I liked the most was the guitar sound you got. Would you share this knowledge?!?

 

[crEEk]

Wow, gang thanks for the input. Slack, I agree with you about the bass. I've found recording bass to be a great mystery when it comes to "bringing it to life". Any tips on that would be HUGELY appreciated.

Glad you all liked "Living Color". That song was recorded very quickly - only a couple of takes I think. What you're hearing is a 1997 Taylor 410 on a single Shure mic (not sure about the model). I attribute that great sound more to the room than anything else. Nothing fancy, just a closed off room in the house, but it sounded stellar that day. I was surprised at how much punch we got out of this scaled down approach to the song. Nothing was layered up - just a single acoustic track, vocal, bass & drum.

I can't take credit for the mixing of those two songs. Jon-X (whereever he is) did a great job on that.

Now....clue me in on bass recording!!

 

[LI Slim]

Creek, I listened to Living Color and also thought it really really works. It has a great spirit to it and fits your voice perfectly. Really fine vocal. I thought the guitar sounded a trifle thin but that in the context of the mix it's probably better that way. Very nice mix.

BTW, I see that you posted it as a "Groove" tune. I agree that it fits there, but I'd like to know how we define Groove.

 

[crEEk]

Thanks for the input, LI Slim! You know it's funny that you brought that up. That whole Mp3.com categorization deal is wide open to interpretation if you ask me. As for groove, I have no idea how to define that type of music. As I was looking thru the sub-genres I ran across that one - never heard of it, but it seemed to fit the feel of the tune. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[jet-rocker]

I really dug the acoustic in Living Color. Kind of Dream Theaterish vocal sound (not style though.) Everything is really clean. Bass is a tad too quiet. Mixing job in both songs is superb.

-Jett Rocker

 

[GT]

Checked out Living Color,

Really nice, great play, lots of energy, and great song too.

Mix didn't sound like it needed more bass, sounded like it needed less treble.

Great work!!

 

[crEEk]

Thanks GT and jet-rocker!

Hmmm....Dream Theater. I never in a million years would have pegged my vocal as likening that comparison. Interesting.

 

[MAC2]

Hi crEEk........in answer to your question about posted tunes check out the thread "Blues With a Groove" in this forum or visit http://go.to/macbrothers (only short samples at the website at this time....click on the green lifesaver)

 

[crEEk]

Going there now, MAC2!

 

[MAC2]

Listened to the rest of the tunes at your site and liked them all. Really good songwriting. Good quality recording. Really enjoyed "San Francisco" and the vocal arrangement in "You". Any chance you'd consider mixing in a harmony part(s) to the vocal in "San Francisco" (I kept hearing one in my head on certain lines)? Hope you don't mind me askin', but what are you using to record your tracks?

 

[Ray J]

Nice tunes crEEk, I liked "Living Color" a little better. THe accoustic guitar sounded really good and the song was well put together arrangementwise. A few cool sounding chords reared their head every once in a while too.

Ray J

 

[crEEk]

MAC2, I checked out those samples. Nice sounding stuff. Thanks for checking out my other tunes. Glad you liked them. You asked about San Francisco. Believe or not a remix for that song is in the works, adding in a couple of things that I dropped at the last minute. I try not to overproduce things too much, although it's easy to get carried away layering vocal parts at times. So, I kept SF simple. The setup we used to record was varied. Basically though we would lay the foundation tracks using a Roland VS-880 and then trasfer them into Sound Forge for some editing and additional track work. The more involved songs became the more heavily we tried various software programs for the sound we wanted. The mics, as I indicated earlier were not very expensive and a pre-amp was not used. Now the studio is better equipped so future songs will only sound better. Those recordings are truly made-at-home. We do have excellent instruments - I can't say enough about those Roland Professional V-drums - AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! Every drum track was recorded using that. Just plug them in and they sound amazing. Everything else was trial and error. What kind of setup do you record with?

Hey Ray J, thanks for weighing in. Like I said, "Living Color" is one of the less produced tracks, but it came out great. Those chords were born out of noodling here and there for effect. Thanks for commenting!

 

[MAC2]

My partner, Buck62, has an AKAI DPS16, Envoice Mindprint mic-pre and a vocal booth along with some other odds and ends. The samples on the website however were made entirely on a Korg D8 and mixed on an old bookshelf stereo that he was gonna throw away. That entire project was our first ever attempt at songwriting/recording. We did have it mastered at a pro studio though. I don't know if you checked out "Doin' Nothin" (mp3.com/smartapple)but that was made with the new setup using the AKAI. I hope you don't stop layering those vocals....I thought they were one of the things that stood out about your stuff. I'll look forward to hearin' the pending remix of SF.BTW another friend of ours also uses Roland equipment and has gotten very good results also.

 

[crEEk]

You know Teddie? I've met him thru MP3.com and this board. Totally nice guy and really does some great stuff. I have, as a matter of fact heard that tune. Sounds like we work kind of similarly. I did the same thing - had my stuff professionally mastered. Kind of irons out the rough spots and evens things out. Sounds like you guys are stocking up on some nice equipment. I'd love to hear some full length stuff when you get a chance.

 

[Jon X]

About time you posted more stuff, crEEk... Living Color was always one of my favorites from when we recorded those songs cause it went so fast and it's so raw compared to everything else we did during those few days.

I think someone asked about the mics and stuff used to record, the mic used for everything is a Shure BG4.1, which was basically the best thing I could afford, and buy immediately at the local music store when all this was recorded. I used T-Racks to work with the final mix, and actually Living Color wasn't really touched by the mastering guy that much. crEEk already talked about everything else.

I agree that when I listen to all the songs now that crEEk and I recorded together that there's too much treble in most of them. MP3 encoding exaggerates it to some extent and makes it worse, but I still would like to get more warmth going on with almost every single one of those songs.

MAC2, you mentioned the timing problem in End and Everything After at the solo section and you are exactly right cause the acoustic for that song was recorded first as a scratch track with a different drum track and different drummer actually. The timing was different and really off in that transition where everything but the slide guitar drops out and I had to sorta pull the two parts together when I added the drum tracks later on and try to make it work. That was about the most difficult part I've ever tried to record and make it sound halfway decent and it still ended up jerky. Still makes me cringe when i hear it, but oh well. BTW, That Doin Nothin song rocks... I know Teddy did the vocals and his voice was superb as usual, but who was playing the guitar? Great stuff there.