Night and Day Difference

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dreamsound2

New member
Hi guys,

Some of you might remember that I posted a pre-production here three weeks ago of a song called 'Bye Bye' and a lot of you gave me a lot of criticism and feedback. So here is the old version (makes me cringe to listen to it now) :



I decided to apply your criticism/feedback and decided to completely re-do the whole song (I'm extremely stubborn) . I had a session drummer (instead of myself, I'm obviously no drummer) to record the drums in a really nice recording room. Added tons of new guitars, re-recorded the acoustics with different mics, practiced the hell out of the harmonies and the key I was playing in before recording. I also recorded everything 'dry' - no compression, no reverb, no delays. I ended up changing all the lyrics. Finally, I got a pro mix/master engineer to mix/master the final project.

Keep in mind everything except the drums was recorded at home.

Here's the new version:



Enjoy!
 
I think it sounds really great. Nice job. I guess that was some kind of learning experience for ya, huh? Looks like your stubbornness paid off--you stubbornly wanted it to sound good, so you started over! Some folks would stubbornly keep doing it the old way hoping for different results.

Congrats!

(BTW--obviously, there are lots of improvements in the second mix but the one thing that made the most difference to me was the drums. Good drums are so often the line in the sand between amateur sounding stuff and pro sounding stuff.)
 
First off, the second is better. Second, is this the punch line? That you're actually really good? I am actually starting to believe the whole Andy Kaufman type theory people were having. But, if this is really the result of you taking the advise of others, and working hard (since I haven't seen you post in a while) then congratulations. This is really very good. Though may I ask why it is on another singers website? In any case, good.

-Adam.
 
Adam, I am hoping in a couple of years I can get pretty good but right now I'm just learning. Singing is something I started earlier this year and I really want to pursue it. So yes, the punch line is that if you work harder and apply the criticism people gives you (instead of getting mad about it) you can get better results.

I used Adam Lambert's site because that's an online community I created before anyone knew him and it blew up when he got on American Idol :) Anyways, that's the only site I'm running right now, but I need to get my own domain soon.

Whitestrat, I agree with you 100%. Drums are the base for everything. When I tracked this song at home I made sure the instruments blended with the drums. On the first version I did just the opposite.
 
Sounds damn good and the drum sound is killer. Pretty good singing and harmonies. Nice work!

Joey :):):):)
 
The only problem I heard with the original is the cymbals kill my ears. Other than that I get the same feel from both.
 
timodell7 said:
That takes all the fun out of it.
Click to expand...

Trust me, for the longest time I use to advertise that. After a while playing every instrument, songwriting, producing recording and mixing really started to wear me out.

I have a bunch of songs that I never finished because of that. By the time I started mixing the song I got sick of listening to the same song over and over so much. I also have a hard time mixing my own songs, I end up going back and forth and I always end up back-tracking to the original mix :rolleyes:
 
dreamsound2 said:
Adam, I am hoping in a couple of years I can get pretty good but right now I'm just learning. Singing is something I started earlier this year and I really want to pursue it. So yes, the punch line is that if you work harder and apply the criticism people gives you (instead of getting mad about it) you can get better results.

I used Adam Lambert's site because that's an online community I created before anyone knew him and it blew up when he got on American Idol :) Anyways, that's the only site I'm running right now, but I need to get my own domain soon.

Whitestrat, I agree with you 100%. Drums are the base for everything. When I tracked this song at home I made sure the instruments blended with the drums. On the first version I did just the opposite.
Click to expand...
Hey, I'm very sorry. I didn't read well. I though that Jordan posted this song because I saw his name in the recent post list thing. I sounded like a jerk, so I'm really sorry. It really was a great song.

-Adam.
 
What a big difference. Thanks for posting. Next time I've finished a track and I'm debating whether or not to take it to the pros I'll have to have another listen. Nice track!
 
I remember a version you posted that sounded alot like Staind. I like this vocal melody much better. It sounds more like your own style.

Dude, this sounds good. Are you going to do a whole album like this?

Love the drums. Guitars are great too. Vocals sound great, especially when compared to the first link you posted.

Yeah, the engineer did a great job with the mix. But, I would be interested to hear what you could do with the it. I mean, you got a slammin' drum track to work with. I would at least try and see if I could get close to your professional mix. Best way to learn. Then again, I can't say that part of the process is always fun. You may not even want to be an engineer. I don't. It can be frustrating as all hell and there are many times I wish someone else would do it for me. But there is no one else. That's why I like the clinic.
 
ksounds said:
I remember a version you posted that sounded alot like Staind. I like this vocal melody much better. It sounds more like your own style.

Dude, this sounds good. Are you going to do a whole album like this?

Love the drums. Guitars are great too. Vocals sound great, especially when compared to the first link you posted.

Yeah, the engineer did a great job with the mix. But, I would be interested to hear what you could do with the it. I mean, you got a slammin' drum track to work with. I would at least try and see if I could get close to your professional mix. Best way to learn. Then again, I can't say that part of the process is always fun. You may not even want to be an engineer. I don't. It can be frustrating as all hell and there are many times I wish someone else would do it for me. But there is no one else. That's why I like the clinic.
Click to expand...

Like you, I don't want to be an engineer but a songwriter/musician, that's a really important point ksounds.

You know, it took me years to finally come up with: a) Develop a style I'm comfortable with and b) A formula that I'm comfortable with to produce an album. So yes, I'm currently working on doing a whole album like this and have some more upbeat rock tracks on the way I think and really hope you are going to like and cant wait to post here :D

Sorry to repeat myself here but see, for years my problem was that I was trying to track, mix, master, sing, play drums, guitars, bass and synth all on my own. This was really limiting my songwriting and overall technique (I was singing out of key, guitars weren't synched well, drums were good but not perfectly with the metronome, etc). It was way too much work for me (works for some people!).

When I finally accepted and 'gave up' playing drums, mixing, etc. and limited myself to singing, playing guitar and tracking it finally clicked. So now, before I even go into tracking, I'm actually learning the songs, the lyrics and practicing different things with it like playing it in different keys, playing it in front of people and such. Spending more time on the melody. This is what is making all the difference in the world and again hopefully you will like the new songs I'm working on that are a lot better than this one IMHO. Now, only once a song is fully ready I will go into tracking instead of tracking while songwriting like before. I rather have 2 good quality songs than 10 songs I'll forget about next year.

I'm posting this because maybe it will help someone who is going through the same trials and tribulations I went through trying to do everything themselves...

Once I finish this album I will be looking for a band full-time and go from there.. so that's my plan so far.
 
really, the second cut is excellent to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed it without wanting to pick it apart.

after years of trying to play everything myself, I decided to concentrate my efforts on just playing drums.
I built a nice (900 sq/ft) studio in the hopes of evetually developing enough buisness around providing folks good drum trcks to make it all pay for itself at a minimum.

good luck to you.
 
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