I am WATYF... hear me drum... ;o)

WATYF

WATYF

...happier than you.
Seeing how I don't know anybody here anymore (ya bunch of newbies. :p) most of you will have no idea what I'm talking aboot,... but a long time ago, in a BBS far, far away, I mentioned that the youth band I'm in would be releasing an album. Well... fifty thousand years later, it's finally on its way... and I have some samples I want you folks to check out.


Since it's not "my" band, and since the CD is basically a fund-raiser for the youth group, I can't just go and give away all the songs, but I have posted samples of each track on the band website. They're all about a minute long, so you can get an idea of the song and the recording quality.


The entire ablum was tracked/mixed/mastered in my brother's basement on a digi001. (except the drums, which were tracked elsewhere)



I know the rules, so I'm not asking for a blanket review of an entire album... the two songs that we consider the "singles" are "Completely Yours" and "Clay"... so check those out if you check any of it out.


And anyone who thinks I'm trying to spam the board to sell my CD can kiss my psuedo-Canadian arse. ;) :p The CD hasn't been reproduced yet, and we have no method on the website yet for you to order it, so you couldn't buy it even if you wanted to. If you're still interested (for some odd reason) after you listen to the stuff, then you can PM me or click on the "email" link on the website, and I'll let you know when the CD is available.


Any input, as always, is appreciated. This is a little different then most of my submissions because... well... I'm not singing... and... uh... I'm not playing guitar (although I did some acoustic work on the last track)... and... uh... I didn't really have much of a say in the production... so most of it even I don't like. But anywhey... have a blast. :D



Throwing Away



WATYF
 
Please review some of the others first, you newbie egomaniac!








:D



Where's the song? I only got a page telling me my browser was lame.
 
LOL.... sorry... that means you don't have Java installed.


Sorry... the link I gave you was to the homepage of the website. I'll change it so it links directly to the Music page... that way you don't have to worry about figuring it out on your own... I know how easily confused you Norwegians get... ;)


:D


WATYF
 
So you really do play drums. LOL. I listened to Clay. Sounds pretty good to me...all :37. LOL. I would have liked to have heard a full verse into a full chorus and I think anyone who is checking a song out (especially to buy ;) ) would want that IMO. :)

Bass sounded nice. Drums sounded well recorded and played. :) Guitars a little undefined to me, but I am not great at this kind of detail. Good singer. Vocals lacked some dynamics to me, maybe overcompression and overuse of FX.

All in all, very nice! The use of effects and tones seemed to fit the style. Good luck with CD!!!

PS - I like your voice better despite the fact that you always criticize yourself. Your voice has a very nice character to me.
 
Hey man.....where the heck ya' been ?!?!?

Listened to Clay......sounds good........nice drumming , vox, everything...very nice sound.
Also listened to For a Moment......once again, a very good sound, particularly the vox. What kind of mics and pres please.

Will listen to some more later but the download from that site is slow, slow SLOW!

So are you gonna be around aboot here again?
 
skids: Actually the Clay clip should have been 1:03 and it included a full verse/chorus. Let me know if you're having trouble getting it all and I'll check it out when I get home. I agree aboot the overuse of FX... that's one of my gripes aboat the production.. but oh well. :) And thanks for the voice comments, I do appreciate it. I know everyone here keeps saying that, but I just can't get past disliking it... maybe it's a subconscious thing... I dunno.

Lt: Dude... I got married... that's where I've been. :D I've had zero free time for 6 months. :p I haven't recorded ONE new song since April. :eek: I really should get back into it, though. I just have to find the time and get my schedule in order.

As for Mics/Pres... Vocals were usually done on a U87 into an Avalon VT737. Acosutics were done mostly using direct (as you can tell :p)... but I tracked some gits for the last track and I made them mic it. :D I think I used my Oktava MC12 and a TLM103. I don't know how they tracked the elecs cause I wasn't around for that part. And drums... geez... I dunno all of it... I'm pretty sure they were mostly Sennheiser. The guy who did the drum tracking was partial to 421's.

Yes... the download is a little slow... it's from my own personal server. :D (which basically means you're downloading it straight off my home PC.) If a couple people hit it at once, that would cause a bit of a problem. :p

I'm trying to come back around every once in a while to see what's up in the Clinic, but I never really get time to stop and check out a bunch of tunes and comment. Sorry about that all.




I'd like someone to check out Completely Yours, though. It's a cheesy pop song, but I think it's the most "commercial" song on the album.

Oh yeah,... and all you anti-autotuners will love it... (I'll just leave it at that. :) )

Thanks for the input guys.


WATYF
 
I won't nit-pick on a finished product. I'm just gonna listen.

"Completely Yours" - absolutely commercial potential, in my opinion. I'd buy it - in fact I think I will. I like the drums a lot (and I don't get along well with drummers)

"Hallelujah" - again - very nice production with beautiful vocals

"Clay" - these are "youth?" I mean, how old are these "youth?" This is mature souding stuff. Lovin' it!

"Lift Me Up" - this is a nice, too - this project gets an A+

You said ... so most of it even I don't like. Why not?
Wanna hear my first CD?

Who did the writing? I like it. Thanks for sharing!!
~Milan
 
I listened to Completely Yours, very good job. You mixed this, right? The drums sound great, as do the vocals.

Great work.
 
MC Git: Thanks for all the reviews. Yeah.. I said I didn't "like" some of it. I was speaking specifically about little production stuff that I wasn't too hip on. (i.e. too much reverb, an effect I didn't like, a guitar part, etc.) Since I was involved in the whole process, I was there from the "inception" of each song, and there's a number of things, production-wise, that I would have done differently, but most of that is based on taste. I prolly shouldn't have even mentioned that, because most of the production "issues" can't be heard in the clips on the website. Regardless of production, though, the songs are fine. I think there's plenty of decent tunes on the album.

And yeah.. the audience is youth (high-school age). That's the type of stuff they listen to these days... "church" music ain't quite what it used to be. :p

As for the writing... well, that was done, almost entirely, by my sis (my bro's wife). She deserves a lot of credit for that too... when the project first started, we only had a few original songs to put on an album, so we had to write most of 'em right on the spot... the youth pastor (also the male vocalist on the album) wrote a bunch of "songs" (basically chord progressions) and gave 'em to her and she wrote all the lyrics in the span of just a couple weeks (maybe less). She's actually a pretty good lyricist. Most of my lyrics use repetitive themes, but she comes up with different imagery for each tune. I particularly like the imagery on Clay.

Fatt: Actually, I didn't mix this. My brother and his friend (who's an AE) did the mix work. Thanks for the comments. I'll let them know you liked it.


WATYF
 
Sounds good to my ears. I'm at work so I'm wearing cheapy cans, but I'm sure it will sound great on my Mackies at home. :)

Like you I probably would have done a few things differently, but that's the way it goes.

What most people don't know is that you guys sound every bit as good live. (I've only seen you once but I was quite impressed).
 
Ok I had a quick listen on cans.

"who I am" Really like the drum sounds on that one. Sweet. Not too sure about the panning about everywhere but the overall production sounds great man :) Sounds like a good tune. The non flashy groovin drumin is top notch too.

"Clay" I like the dynamics of the tune, perhaps a bit too much processing on the vox? Again nice production and nice tune.

"Completely yours" Reminds me of something but I can't think what. Especially the opeing line. This is just me but I don't like the spash cymbal sound. But I don't like splash cymbals in general :P Anyway good tune and mix.

I actually prefer "Who I am" to the other 2. I'll take a listen to the rest when I get a chance.

Good stuff :)

Ian..........
 
ed2: Good to see you again, man. Thanks for the listen. You actually caught me off guard for a second. I hadn't looked at your username when you mentioned seeing us live and I did a double-take. :eek: I forgot that there was someone on this BBS who I've met in person. :) Our live "show" ain't what it used to be, though. We've switched guitarists and bass players and male vocalists since you saw us. Half the people on the album don't even play in the band any more. :D I appreciate the comments. Shoot me a PM sometime and let me know what you're up to.

Ian: Thanks for the comments. I agree about the panning on Who I Am and the Vox processing on Clay... but... :p if you don't like splash cymbals then this is not the album for you. I'm a splash psycho. :D (if you could hear the full versions, you would agree. :p) As for "Who I Am"... you're not the first person to say that... our current guitarist says he likes Who I Am the best. I think it's a good tune too. I also like the guitar work on Where You Are... I don't know how much of it you can hear in the samples though.



WATYF
 
WATYF

I checked out "Completely Yours".

Sounds like a great tune with a lot of commercial potential. There was a ton-o-verb on the drum kit and it was a little distracting compared to the drier vox but, it was well performed as was everything on the track.

My only gripe would be the auto-tune effects on the vocal in that one spot. I think ever since Cher popularized the effect and then everyone and their uncle started using it, it got real tiering for me as a listener. But, to each their own.;)

Nice stuff! :)
 
LOL... you picked up the main thing I noticed when I listened to it. The first thing I said when I heard that mix was... "what's with the all the big-gigantic-john-bonham-in-an-airplane-hanger reverb on the drums???" (or something to that effect. :p) But alas... my lowly drummer protests were cast off like so much rubbish.. :(


:D

As for the autotune... it's actually pretty funny. That's the main reason we kept it. My sis is a good singer... she doesn't need autotune by any stretch, and she really didn't like it when they first started trying it out on her vocal tracks... so they were goofing around with the mix one day, and they put that effect on there, and we all started laughing... so then, every time someone would come over to hear the mix we'd play that part for 'em, just cause it was so funny... and then we just got used to it. :D


Anyway... thanks for the feedback man.


WATYF
 
listened to completely yours. is it me or has the mp3 encoding completely removed the high end from this? there is no sizzle to the cymbals.

anyway, it's a good song with commercial appeal. well played all around, especially the drums. hate the cher thing.

there you go. i'm going to bed.
 
Hey watyf,
I checked out clay. Nice man. No nits from the computer here at work. Let us know when the CD goes out.
g
 
I listened to Clay. Sounded nice. Singer has a good voice.

What was that on the left at :18? Some kind of slapping on the guitar. I'm on phones, and I swear it sounds like it's coming from 5 feet away directly 90 degrees to the left. Never heard anything like that before. It sounds cool. Not sure it contributes to the song, but it was a cool, if unintentional, "effect."

There's a clip at :28. Smaller one at about :54.

The highhat (I think) has a little clicking sound to it during the verses that, while it wasn't a big deal, I probably would rather not be there. Probably a personal preference.

But generally a very nice sound. Trip...
 
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I think it all sounded great. I am a sucker for the reverb you put on your snare. so...did you record the drums at your church?

the singer is very good too.


no Taylor:(



You're gonna have a great CD...the clips were really a tease.
 
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