First post Reggae

S

sammydix

New member
Well, my first post. A few who have commented on Kindafishy's Insolence and Wine or Cold Soul tunes may recognize the voice here. I'm the singer of all his and my songs.
Here's a Reggae-ish "solo" song I did with a couple of Reaper forum members with:
Me on delayed guitar/vocals
Stratman on lead guitar
and Rich43 on rhythm guitas, bass, and keys.

https://app.box.com/s/sk6up2cpfcr2qjizuf5tocjf61zy1k8o

All crits more than welcome, thx.
Sam
 
It sounds pretty good to me, I feel like there are spots where the kick is pumping and overtaking the vocal. I dig the lead guitar tone, it's got a lot of edge. I'd like to hear some of that edginess in some of the rhythm tracks, as they are pretty dry, almost sounding like they are DI.
 
To be honest that drum intro in the beginning sounds super fake. At first I thought "oh this is going to sound bad" but once everything kicked in, it sounded good. So you may want reconsider that intro. Cool song, vocals are buried a little and when the harmonies come in it sounds like the vocals actually get more quite.
 
There was a weird crash sound on the right side around 0:29 and 3:18 that were noticeably loud, I heard the same sound a few other times but not as noticeably bad, so probably reducing the velocities on it (assume it's a MIDI drum track) would fix it, but if you can change the cymbal sound, that might fix it too.
On the reverb, think you need to put just a little of the same 'room' on the guitars, organ, vocal and drums, they sound dry and not quite in the same place.
Overall, a good song and good vocals and lead guitar. Kind of weird the way the lead guitar fades out before everything else ends, might want to retrack that so it ends correctly.
 
Bruthish said:
To be honest that drum intro in the beginning sounds super fake. At first I thought "oh this is going to sound bad" but once everything kicked in, it sounded good. So you may want reconsider that intro. Cool song, vocals are buried a little and when the harmonies come in it sounds like the vocals actually get more quite.
Click to expand...

hey, thaks Bru. I'll def rethink the intro. I think perhaps the vocs could come up just a bit overall, and will prob remove the first backings.
 
mjbphotos said:
There was a weird crash sound on the right side around 0:29 and 3:18 that were noticeably loud, I heard the same sound a few other times but not as noticeably bad, so probably reducing the velocities on it (assume it's a MIDI drum track) would fix it, but if you can change the cymbal sound, that might fix it too.
On the reverb, think you need to put just a little of the same 'room' on the guitars, organ, vocal and drums, they sound dry and not quite in the same place.
Overall, a good song and good vocals and lead guitar. Kind of weird the way the lead guitar fades out before everything else ends, might want to retrack that so it ends correctly.
Click to expand...

hadn't noticed that with the crashes, but I'll relisten and it'll prob stick out like a green thumb when I do. thx for bringing that up. I placed a room verb over the whole thing and removed it, looks like I should have gone with first instincts.
the ending was odd because this was done by different musicians at different times (I played the rhythm guitars on on the first version and someone else from Reaper did the bass), and the original song faded and that got burned in on the lead (i never figured to revisit it at the time).

when I got the newer stems, he played a definitive ending. so I sort of weirdly combined them both. I'll try fading the new instruments to match and see how that sounds.
thanks much MJ.
 
Good song. Is it an original?
I agree with the other poster about the intro drums. The snare just sounds really weird, and the toms are out of tune. But the rest of the song sounds great to me.
I like the vocal delivery. I really like the alternating echoes at 3:20 or so.
 
Jessica_X said:
Good song. Is it an original?
I agree with the other poster about the intro drums. The snare just sounds really weird, and the toms are out of tune. But the rest of the song sounds great to me.
I like the vocal delivery. I really like the alternating echoes at 3:20 or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jessica, yes, I wrote this. Frankly, it's the first and only reggae song I've tried so far. I like to challenge myself by writing in different styles than I would normally (mostly rock). Helps keep the songwriting muse sharpened, I believe. Helps me sing in different styles too.
 
The drum intro is the weakest part. I know it's almost obligatory but you'd be better off redoing it with some authority or cutting it completely.
Parts of the 2.29 guitar solo seem totally out of place to my ears - things Jr Marvin wouldn't countenance.
I'm not 100% sold on the main bass line but reggae bass is probably the hardest part to get right.
Cool song and performance - the mix is a pretty good reggae template.
 
You're not going to get too many comments here that will help you improve this mix, cuz it's pretty much where it needs to be, and this forum's got a modest level of talent. Those comments about the drum intro? They're basically saying 'get a real drummer'. I mean, maybe you don't have access to a real drummer. Fair enough. But if you wanna raise the bar...
 
rayc said:
The drum intro is the weakest part. I know it's almost obligatory but you'd be better off redoing it with some authority or cutting it completely.
Parts of the 2.29 guitar solo seem totally out of place to my ears - things Jr Marvin wouldn't countenance.
I'm not 100% sold on the main bass line but reggae bass is probably the hardest part to get right.
Cool song and performance - the mix is a pretty good reggae template.
Click to expand...

Most likely CUT IT! haha!
I'm not sure what you mean specifically by "out of place."
thanks much Ray.
 
dobro said:
You're not going to get too many comments here that will help you improve this mix, cuz it's pretty much where it needs to be, and this forum's got a modest level of talent. Those comments about the drum intro? They're basically saying 'get a real drummer'. I mean, maybe you don't have access to a real drummer. Fair enough. But if you wanna raise the bar...
Click to expand...

As far as the forum talent, I've most definitely noticed, so your comment is very encouraging. Also, that makes me take any critical replies to heart and learn from it. So glad I joined. (Thanks for the head's up Kinda!)

As far as a real drummer, I have a few tunes with some, and if collaborations happen here, hopefully I can make a request in the future and have an all HR band going on.

thanks for giving a listen, Dobro.
 
Hi, Sammy - mix sounds good, no major crits. It's not really reggae, though, is it? It's Steely Dan's "Haitian Divorce" re-imagined. :D. There's nothing wrong with that, it's an ace tune and you made a decent fist of it. Very well done. :)
 
Well, BP, I tried to get as close as I could, not being a regular reggae songwriter. I guess you can say "reggae flavored," like your Steely example-(love that song btw). I certainly could be compared to worse!
Thanks man!
 
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