exhibit 1: one-man band with bad drum samples

Nice full sound. I liked those doubled clean guits that come up front at :36 and again 1:12 (some small syncing issues going on). Kind of an Alan Parsons feel to the song. I always liked Alan Parsons. I like this kind of stuff on Sunday morning with coffee and the newspaper.

Instrumentals are harder to arrange so the listener is presented with new things. This one got a little predictable.

I could hear a few VERY small pops in spots (e.g., :13, :38, 1:53). Very small though.

My thoughts.
 
Sounds pretty good.

Bass frequencies battle with synth frequencies. Little too much ultra low end in the bass and way too much lower mids in the synth pads.

The song needs something, but I don't know what. You need to add something the second run.

The arpeggiating 'guitar' sounds (don't know whether it's guitar or keyboard) are a tad loud.

And the keyboard pads at the end...fade them just a bit more quickly please :)
 
I am genuinely interested in learning how to make a better sounding song. I took some of the advices given, specifically I cut some of frequencies below 300hz for the bass track, and cut some of the frequencies below 500hz for the keyboard track. I believe it makes the song much less boomy. I hope it's an improvement.

DC
 
Hey digitCallous. Got a question for ya. Ya say ya did all the instruments your self on this track, How did that go?
Did you have to do many takes? with your limited number of tracks, are you chunking the takes you didn't like, or do you dump them to the computer? If you dump them to the computer, are you saving them to cut out the good bits??
Do you rehearse each part several times before you start putting them to disk??
 
It's hard to remember. But from what I recall, this is a more pleasing sound. Nice arrangement.

Still hearing the pops though.
 
Pedullist and TripleM, thanks for giving this multiple listens. I appreciate that.

I do have a question for TripleM. I've read many of your reviews of people's tunes and you often refer to hearing pops, including my tune. I have tried to listen for the pop you talk about but I do not hear them. Can you describe what it is you mean by pop so I can see if I can find them and deal with them. In the meantime, since I don't know how to find them to fix them, "But the pops do sound better!" will have to do.

thunderkyss, yes I did this by myself. The drums are from drum software, the keyboard, guitars, and bass are played by me. I record using a Fostex MR8 in conjunction with Ntrack on the PC. With this setup I essentially have unlimited tracks. I do dump my tracks onto the computer for manipulation, and sometimes I do cut out the good bits to use. There is nothing improvised on this tune, so, yes, the tracks were rehearsed before I record. If a take is obviously screwed up I chuck it; this song is easy enough to play that I don't think anything took more than 5 takes.

Thanks for all the input.

DC
 
You have all this dark sound coming through

The minor mix is wonderfully dark but you need something to contrast it against. A lead line to be the spark against the dark. Perhaps a solo flute running a counter melody over the top. It is a great backing piece, well done and a good sound but it sounds unfinished.

Good job.
 
digitcallous said:
I do have a question for TripleM. I've read many of your reviews of people's tunes and you often refer to hearing pops, including my tune. I have tried to listen for the pop you talk about but I do not hear them. Can you describe what it is you mean by pop so I can see if I can find them and deal with them.
Click to expand...

I'll do the best I can. I think I tend to hear them because I often listen on small headphones (which lack low end and therefore "hype" the high mids) and possibly my ears are a little more sensitive to that range. I don't know for sure. And also realize that the pops I'm hearing on this one are VERY faint compared to a lot of them I hear.

Do you record on a computer? And if so do you use punch-ins? If so, that helps me a lot because the pops I hear are exactly what happens on a punch-in when the wave forms don't line up. BTW - crossfading fixes that.

Otherwise I would describe what I hear is static, but static for only a fraction of a second. If static can be described as "500 pops per second", I'm hearing one pop.

Clear as mud right?

If you can listen to the MP3 on cheap headphones, try to hear them.
 
Nice feel to this tune

I didn't read the other posts until I was finished thinking about this - but I seem to concur with what a few others have said. You could really use a contrast somewhere - sort of like the idea you introduced with the almost classical sounding back and forth with those two almost atonal chords followed by the big major.

I really liked the guitar tone - very Alan Parsons sounding - cool delay. Can't help you with the synth stuff - call me keyboard klueless.

Overall I like the feel and I think you could take the listener somewhere they've never been. I'll bet the idea is locked up right inside your head like that unanswered question!!

Nice work here!!
~Milan
 
How did you phase this thread? Something like "Bad Drum Samples"

Man........you should try my Casio keyboard cira 1989. Ya.......thats what I thought. You ain't got nothin' on that baby!

I gotta go watch some House Party now......:D
 
Nice delay for the guitar.
Beautiful acoustic sound.

Really good improvement with that guitars at the final-part of the song!

The only thing I would change would be in the "interludium", the part without keyboards, I would give more presence for the bass. I mean, doing some kind of rare melody with it while the acoustic carries on with its work.

Good general feeling.
 
Only one thing else, how did you record the acoustic guitar?
a) Microphone
b) Signal Processing
c) ...

Thanx,
be lucky!
 
I always thought the arrangement was ok.

The idea of the new guitar part around 1:42 or so was fine. I thought it's entrance was a little rough. I might shoot for a better take.

I really like the transition at 2:16. Perfect introduction of something new at that point.

Just a suggestion, but do you want something added at :36? You build up to something, it'd be nice to have a new part at that point.
 
AJ, thanks for listening and the advice. The 'acoustic' guitar parts are actually played with a semi-hollow electric guitar. The acoustic sound is produced using the 'flat top' acoustic amp-sim on a J-Station.

TripleM, thanks for all the work you are doing for me on this. Now that I've slept on this I've come to the conclusion that the guitar part is a good idea, but the execution (and the melody) is not right. That whole guitar things was about a half an hour of work, so it's no big loss. I'll probably rework that in the next few days. At the :36 point, I did try to introduce something. That 'something' is to bring the arpeggiated guitar up from the background to the front. I was attempting to start out the song with the keyboard in the foreground, then at that point switch the focus to the guitar while the keyboard repeats its melody.

Keep those good suggestions coming.

DC
 
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