Weird. The quotes all came out in a different order than they were posted, and it only gave me 5 out of the 6, so I'll respond to Greg's separately.
New mic working great with your voice man. I hear what Greg is missing from your usual. New monitors definitely take a bit to get used to.
Great stuff Rami!
Thanx man. Yeah, loving the new mic. The monitors are the hardest thing to get used to out of everything that's new.
Hey Rami:
Here's what I really dug --- vocals. Great - not much to say about them beyond that. Love that 70's throwback vocal style and sound. Great harmonies and use of doubling. Anthemic but personal. See Bands like "The Trews" for similar sounds/songs in this vein. Great stuff.
About the guitar: Guitar 1 was a bit thin tonally for me -- when the second guitar came in it added depth but was too sonically similar. What was missing for me was true guitar interplay and sonic distinction. Happened to be listening to lots of Aerosmith today and thinking about them, and thinking about AC/DC and Mark Ford and Rich w/ the Crowes -- what I think you'd benefit from here performance wise is using two completely different guitars/amps with different but complimentary sonics -- I like what you're playing but I'm missing some of the seasoning that my ear is craving here. I want more sizzle and hickory - different timbres -- what I'm hearing is too similar.
When the first lead break comes in I'd like to hear that pop out more - much more bite - drive that tube amp and have more sparkle on the tone - more pierce. It's a dramatic moment but tonally slightly underwhelming. You could dig in harder with the pick but I think this is more just needed better punch from the amp. Wanted to hear a biting Boogie tone here.
Coming off that first lead break back into the song there's a drop in the volume of guitar one (expected) but it also replays the licks you just played in the break which kind of takes away from the break itself -- it sucks the drama out of the break -- especially by the time it returns in the second break. Get rid of this repetition of those during the verse - save it just for the two breaks as it's own unique part. Instead this would be a good time to build a few subtle things into guitar one so that its part becomes a little more sophisticated and you can get into more interplay instead of just doubling the guitar parts between 1 and 2.... Make this a more dramatic verse than the first that way.
At 2:00 minutes I didn't like the breakdown -- I thought the song dropped into the hole here. The articulation was wrong - the groove disappeared and the parts you were playing were idiosyncratic in a way that didn't elevate the song. It was completely arbitrary. On my 4th & 5th listen I liked the rest of the song even more - it had me grooving hard - it was infectious -- but then I hated the breakdown even more as well because you killed my groove buzz. Definitely NOT the break for this song. Another test -- Get in your living room and air-guitar to this track and rock out --- then watch and feel what happens to your body when the break comes. Get what I'm saying?
Lead solo -- I still want more punch - I need a bit more piercing tone here -- again maybe an amp issue though the Epi SG might be your issue too.
Bass - I liked the bass but wanted more bite from it too -- more growl in the performance.
This song has some great elements -- there's a few more things I'd suggest or comment on if you are interested - but if I was producing this I would be offering feedback as above.
I listened to this on my vintage 70's stereo system at a real nice volume - Sansui w/ 70's Altec Lansig speakers (model 3 series 2)
Thanx man. That's way too detailed for me to respond to everything. I will say, though, that the first 2 guitars are supposed to be the same part, doubled. So, there's nothing weird there. It's not a "second" guitar part. It's one guitar part doubled, I just started it with one track coming out of the right side alone. One's an SG, the other's a Strat. So those 2 tracks are actually "Guitar 1". The "lead" or "riff" track is "Guitar 2", really. You did get me thinking about that "riff" track, though. It might be a good idea to have it in the breaks, but to change it in the verses, rather than just keep it going in the verses. I'll look into possibly changing that. I also need to still get to know my amp settings better, too. So some of those tracks that lack bite might get re-done at some point. I know I can get pretty much whatever sound I need from my set up, so it's definitely not the equipment's fault. Thanx for all that.
As for the rest of that, most of it comes down to personal taste and opinion.
Definitely NOT the break for this song
"Definitely" is a strong word when we're talking about taste, but I get it. It's not for you.
Groovy song. Listened to it 4 times. Love the vocals. Not sure if I like the middle slowdown or not--- creates tension while waiting for the groove to start back up but holds interest for me. Like the lead guitar tone at 3:12 towards the end of the song. Great work!
Thanx J. That middle part is what it is.
The bass sounds good in my headphones, I'm listening intently to the kick - sounds great.
I don't have the ears for anything else.
The change is unexpected and what you play there is cool and the move back works for me.
Cool stuff.
Great. Thanx a lot Ray.
Very good sir. I like the turnaround in the middle. How are you micing the drums? they sound really well balanced. Kick and bass gel well.
Thanx buddy. I mic my drums with 4 mics: 2 X AKG C1000 overheads, snare and kik.
