First song here... please have a listen

L

lucid

New member
This is my first time here, as the title should have told you by now :)

This is basically a song that has no typical song structure really. For me it's a lose yourself while stoned type of song.

The vocals are scratch and i can't have my sister redo them for a while because my headphones are at a shop. I'll add acoustic guitars too as soon as the 'phones come back. bass line is a possibility. But that will come later on. I am also going to try and find a real snare drum and record it and scrap the sampled one. I don't like it very much.

This was basically recorded with an SM57 and ECM8000s through my behringer (yes, i know) board to a delta 44 and into samplitude. Monitored through HR824s.

My ears are dead with this song. I wish i could hear it with a fresh, unadulterated pair. So this is where you guys come in. Thanks...

http://www.nowhereradio.com/luciddub/singles
 
Lucid,
I'd love to listen, but the file is so big I'd be here til next week downloading it. Can you hook me up with a lo-fi stream?


bd
 
Tell me that the buzzing noise was made by you, and not your recording equipment. :)

Okay, it's in tune, it's in time, it's got structure, and the sound's okay. Success. I'd like the voice to come up as the music gets louder - it sounds buried in the sound. It would be nice if the guitar that comes in at 3.35 had a bit more definition too - I think it can sound more upfront. As you continue with making and recording music, you might experiment with aiming at making the sound of each track as clear as the clearest sound in this mix, which is the drums, and I know you don't like the drums, but I'll tell you - your canned drums are better than my canned drums easily. :)

Good one. Let's have another.
 
bdbdbuck... it's a long song. but how would i do the lofi stream thingy?

dobro:
yes, that buzzing noise is by me and not the equipment. delay and guitar...

voice to come up. wow. never thought of that. now i feel like an idiot! makes sense. cheers for that one!

about the guitar at 3:35. another great piece of advice. thanks so much man! more upfront and more definition. any possible tips on achieving this?

actually i like the drums. just not the snare. i think i need a snare sound with more power and thwak. if i can say that :) a piccolo snare would go well i would think. now to hunt one down :D
But like you said, getting everything as clear as the drums. Any suggestions as to what could be done?

thanks so much. i really appreciate this!
 
Listening...

Cool feel, errie, ominous...

Good, strong drum sounds and patterns.

In my opinion this has what a lot of music is missing, a unique emotion and character.

Some quiet vocal adlibbing or samples would sound killer in here. I'm hearing Vincent Price in there...

Nice first tune!
 
As far as the length, yeah it's pretty big. But you've encoded it a 128kbps, which is pretty common. It's just probably going to be difficult for some people I guess.

The song has quite a long intro and some time at the end with near silence. You might think about shortening it by reducing the time spent in those things. Perhaps there are sections throughout the song that don't need repeating as many times as they are. These are only suggestions - it's your song.

I suppose I would describe this as "mood music" more than anything else. Except for the vocals, it reminded me of the Doors. The vocals are a bit far back. Some suggestions for bringing them forward (other than just simply raising them), would be to double or triple track them. That will give them a little more body. Another thing that would accent them is to put on harmony parts.

My thoughts. Trip.
 
Good ambience first of all...rubbing guitar string?...I throw that kind of shit behind almost all of my tunes for some reason (child of cassette tapes I guess). Really nice mood.

The guitar though....it's like being poked with a pin...the tone is pretty edgy and it doesn't seem to be in the same place at all (is it direct?). A little inconsistant volume wise and intonation is a problem here and there (maybe just finger pressure). You might consider a fatter, rounder, fuller (blah blah) sound.

The canned drums are just like BLAM BLAM BLAM IN YOUR FREAKING FACE and I personally thought they killed what was left of the mood I was getting from the piece. Too much kick. Maybe some creative use of samples would better suit this piece, or at least some dynamics.

I love the vocals that follow the guitar line. They're kind of "weak", but that's exactly what I find interesting about them. I wouldn't change them a bit!

2:56 is freaking really nice! This whole section to the end really rescues the recording and everything finally seems to be in the same place. The drums though seem overcompressed or something...wooshy cymbals (which could just be a bad MP3 encoder).

Nice first post!!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Thats a pretty big "mood". I can totally see a stoned mind keep going and going on this groove.

Some boom on the bass end, don't know if it was intentional. It is hard to tell with a spaced out tune like this. I hear some white noise but, think that could be a "too fuckin' picky" thing to harp on.

Cool ass feel!! If you've the desire, I'd toy with it a bit but, the more you intentional bend the mood, the bigger the risk of loosing it. You almost have to get the tec end perfect in the tracking

Peace,

Theron.
 
Nice tune, very hypnotic, there was a portion where it was peaking and distorted during playback. otherwise Id be pretty happy with it if it was my tune!
 
Wassup lucid-dreams! It's me, Mr.Q!!!

1st, who ever gave this 1 star is a playa-hatin' @ss-hole!!!

2nd,good structuring and spaciousness! Drum machine provided ample percussive representation! Vocs need a bit more gain but
is more than sufficient! Filter that buzz some!
Would luv to hear a bass added to this quality creation of yours!!
Excellent,1st time effort and with some tweaks & beaks here and there, this jammie is on point!

Good effort lucid-dreams!!!
 
thank you all so much! this is exactly what i need; a fresh pair of ears!

jake: i thought about samples and/or addlibbing before. but i couldn't find any cool samples and i never quite got down to doing the adlibbing. Thanks for the suggestion.

TripleM: Thanks for the suggestions. These vocals are scratch though. I can't wait do redo them with my DMP3 :D and if only I had a nice vocal mic instead of an SM57. Will take the double or triple tracking into account, cheers...


Slack: yeah, gotta have the rubbing guitar string! but i am no child of cassettes. haha. Yeah the first (clean) guitar is kind of harsh sometimes. No, it isn't direct. I need to get a hold of a nice amp and redo that bit maybe. volume is probably inconsistant due to my non-existant fingerpicking skills. Yeah the kick is something that sounds different everywhere. it sounds nice on my mackies but a little too much on some systems. will bring it down.
"Maybe some creative use of samples would better suit this piece, or at least some dynamics." --> what exactly do you mean?

One of the main things i don't like about the vocals is that my sister trailed off on some of the bits. i never intended them to be main or upfront. i wanted them to be another instrument. so because of this i am taking weak as a good thing :)

no compression on the drums. i wish i had a drum set to play on this track. too bad, samples will have to do for now.

Theron: yeah there is some erronious boom. i definatly need to redo the clean guitar bits. white noise? damn you must be good or i am deaf! where is this white noise? i want to hear this :D

wfaraoni: yes there is a bit where the right channel peaks at +1.5dB... havn't had the time to fix that yet though. but i will!

The Doc, aka Mr. Q: first of all, why the name change buddy? haha. Filter what buzz exactly. It may have been intentional. (i am weird like that. but where is this buzz because again, i may be deaf to this since i have heard it so much).
Bass is an option. I can borrow one. Just that writing a bassline with my non-bass skills could possibly hurt the song. but i can try! if you have anything to offer i'd be very appreciative!

Toki: thanks a lot man. was what i was hoping to achieve!

thanks again guys!
 
Very music soundtrack like....you know, the part of the movie where the protaganist is discovering that life is darker than he always thought it was...

Vocals were very cool. Reminded me of "Careful With that Axe Eugene". Ditto what Slackmaster said. Don't touch them, they're great.

Wasn't crazy about the guitar tone that kicked in around 3:00 until it started doing the octave lines.

Good stuff.
 
thanks frprod. i will probably redo the guitar at 3:00 and get it thicker and meatier.

you think i should double track the vocals. as in, do them again and keep the originals as well?

cheers...

anyone else?
 
Slackmaster2K said:
They're kind of "weak", but that's exactly what I find interesting about them. I wouldn't change them a bit!
Click to expand...

This is what I meant when I said "ditto Slackmaster". The vocals are buried but in a beautiful way. All early Pink Floyd (post Syd - pre Darkside) had weak buried vocals. Keep 'em how they are.

I enjoyed listening again. Way better than the 2 stars you got. This time I noticed the toms sticking out a bit too much.
 
this is a cool song! my ears are shot today so I can't offer any usable mixing advice other than when it kicks into the heavy part @ 3:00, it gets too distorted (in a bad way).. The guitar sound becomes too much.. sounds close to clipping.. nice tune!
 
fprod: thanks for the suggestion. do you think rerecording some of the parts would hinder it though? because the notes sometimes trail off...

which toms were sticking out too much? the tom rolls or the tribally-tom stuff near the end?

BSabbath: i have never been too happy with the distortion sound until i start doing the octaves. i will redo it soon. need to get a bigger, phatter, sound that isn't so harsh and 'shrill' even. I think it gets that way because of all the open strings. i am now on the hunt for a big muff (no, people, the pedal :D ). But i would really appreciate any more mixing advice that you could offer!
 
lucid said:
fprod: thanks for the suggestion. do you think rerecording some of the parts would hinder it though? because the notes sometimes trail off...


which toms were sticking out too much? the tom rolls or the tribally-tom stuff near the end?
Click to expand...

I think the vocals are fine how they are. But you can always try tracking more and just don't use the new parts if they don't work. Have fun with it!

The tribally stuff sounds fine. I'd pan those center - but just a preference thing. It's the tom rolls that stick out too much to me.


Let's hear some more tunes!
 
thanks fprod. i will try centering the tribally toms. will take the rolls into account. cheers...

M.Brane... this is strange. I got the same. I checked mya ccount and the song is there. I checked the links section, and that link also leads to what you got... maybe it's a problem that will blow over soon. hopefully. please try again sooN!
 
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