Invasion From Mars

To be honest, I can't get past the lofi sound. You would do your music a real favor by improving the fidelity of your recordings. There are reasons we abandoned four track cassette when a better medium came along. Mix-wise, the midrange on those synths is totally out of control--especially that windy synth pad on the right and the lead synth in the center. When they come it, it's like standing in front of a train whistle.
 
yeah, I see what Robus is coming from. You have a couple of volume spikes that need taming with eq or reduction in volume...or both. You could also use some compression on them.
Anyway, that being said...
I think the tune is totally cool!
It reminds me of those old SciFi shows of the 50's and 60s. Oh yeah, and "The Munsters" theme!
It doesn't really call for HiFi (in my opinion)....LoFi is way cool. With a little tweaking it will be fantastic.
good job man!
 
@ Robus
The portastudio is a choice here, i could record it on my computer, i have a semi-decent interface, but i prefer the workflow and sound from the portastudio for my music. A taste thing i guess ... not too many people are on my wavelength in that regard.
You're right about the mid-range, though; it's a bit harsh/resonant on some notes. It's a result of the instruments themself (my old italian organ really sounds that way :e) and overloading the spring reverb, i guess. Hard to fix now, though ... maybe i could cut around 1khz on the whole track.

@ jimistone
Yeah, the volume spikes are hard to fix now. The track involved much ping-pong'ing and one submix to a stereo cassette recorder and back to the portastudio. The lead melody is already on the submix.
But thanks! Glad you like it. "Cheesy/trashy" 50's/60's space-age novelty music/sci-fi show music is what i was going for.
 
Please do not, DO NOT, do not even consider abandoning your sound and style because of the opinions of a few that only hear through their own bias and filter. Most of us that do know how to record cut our teeth with 4-track cassettes. They're probably not familiar with this kind of stuff. I am though, and it's pretty cool. Could you mix it a little better? Sure. But you nailed the 60s sci-fi B movie sound, and it's pretty fucking awesome. Having a pristine clean digital recording of this would be ridiculous and it would lose all of it's personality. You just need to tweak it here and there. The high mids are a little grating with the sound effects and keys, but it's not that bad, and most stuff like this from the 60s has pretty much the same character. There are organs and theramins on old sci-fi stuff that will rip your face off. Anyway, I like it, and if it were my mix I wouldn't change too much.

Welcome back and please post more stuff like this.
 
Woah! Greg's not dead!

Yeah, the lo-fi thing probably works for this sort of song. (The munsters comparison does seem apt)
The big things that stick out to me as needing some help are the panning and the eq.
That piano (?) on the left throughout is just so dark. And the hard-panning is distracting too. (I like to say that if anything is important - such as drums or the main rhythm piano - it should be audible in both channels.)
 
Yes, he actually is dead as far as the MP3 Clinic is concerned. He has been following me around the forum disagreeing with whatever I say since he returned from his ban. He doesn't really care one way or the other about the OP's song.
 
Yes, he actually is dead as far as the MP3 Clinic is concerned. He has been following me around the forum disagreeing with whatever I say since he returned from his ban. He doesn't really care one way or the other about the OP's song.

I would disagree that he doesn't care about the song. Greg's well into old surfy stuff. I think he did the Munster's theme one time, if I remember correctly.
 
Panning is biggest problem to me. The things that are far outside could be pushed inside a little more - the piano on the left, for example. not a big jump, just a little more tuck over there. have to say i agree that the tape quality is the whole idea behind this recording and it would lose its novelty without it.
 
I would disagree that he doesn't care about the song. Greg's well into old surfy stuff. I think he did the Munster's theme one time, if I remember correctly.

He did indeed, twice if I recall correctly. I have the 2nd version as my ringtone. :laughings:

I like the tune Dr.SR. The lofi quality of it gives it a real nice late 50's/early 60's vibe. Just a shame about that lead melody being so loud,. Can that not be fixed or is that committed to tape?

Great tune though. :thumbs up:
 
He did indeed, twice if I recall correctly. I have the 2nd version as my ringtone. :laughings:
:

Lol. I've actually been playing it live in various styles an versions for about 20 years. It's always a fun one. I think I've posted 3 or 4 versions in here. I'm flattered you'd use it for a ringtone. Thanks. :D
 
Please do not, DO NOT, do not even consider abandoning your sound and style because of the opinions of a few that only hear through their own bias and filter. Most of us that do know how to record cut our teeth with 4-track cassettes. They're probably not familiar with this kind of stuff. I am though, and it's pretty cool. Could you mix it a little better? Sure. But you nailed the 60s sci-fi B movie sound, and it's pretty fucking awesome. Having a pristine clean digital recording of this would be ridiculous and it would lose all of it's personality. You just need to tweak it here and there. The high mids are a little grating with the sound effects and keys, but it's not that bad, and most stuff like this from the 60s has pretty much the same character. There are organs and theramins on old sci-fi stuff that will rip your face off. Anyway, I like it, and if it were my mix I wouldn't change too much.

Welcome back and please post more stuff like this.

Hey,
thanks!
No, i would never consider to change my style/sound because it's not "mainstream" enough or whatever.
Some old sci-fi stuff is indeed sound very brutal soundwise :e Link Wray too ...
 
Woah! Greg's not dead!

Yeah, the lo-fi thing probably works for this sort of song. (The munsters comparison does seem apt)
The big things that stick out to me as needing some help are the panning and the eq.
That piano (?) on the left throughout is just so dark. And the hard-panning is distracting too. (I like to say that if anything is important - such as drums or the main rhythm piano - it should be audible in both channels.)

Hey,
thanks for your comment.
The Problem with a 4-track is, you can't really do much when it comes to panning. If i pan the drums, bass, lead melody (the percussion is on the same track) and the rhythm-guitar to the center (it's not a piano :e it's acoustic guitar with magnetic pickup through an old japanese amp that distorts in a funny way when reverb level is all the way up), i have nothing really left to pan except for the synth and the reverb-return.
 
He did indeed, twice if I recall correctly. I have the 2nd version as my ringtone. :laughings:

I like the tune Dr.SR. The lofi quality of it gives it a real nice late 50's/early 60's vibe. Just a shame about that lead melody being so loud,. Can that not be fixed or is that committed to tape?

Great tune though. :thumbs up:

Thank you.
Yeah, the lead melody is part of a sub-mix that went to a 2-track recorder and back to the 4-track for 2 additional overdubs.
 
Panning is biggest problem to me. The things that are far outside could be pushed inside a little more - the piano on the left, for example. not a big jump, just a little more tuck over there. have to say i agree that the tape quality is the whole idea behind this recording and it would lose its novelty without it.

Hey,
thanks for your comment.
Yeah, i could narrow the stereo soundfield a bit, i guess.
 
hey I love it. Not much more to say except that I really dig the depth and width of everything. It sounds straight from the old sci-fi stuff and is really cool.
 
I like this a lot Dr. Reverb!

I even like the way it's panned. I can picture the drum kit in mom's living room, over on the right where it will fit, with the rest of us lunatics spread across the room. When I do 4-track cassette I try to think the bounces through from the start so I'll end up with what I want, however, lots of times with this medium I'll end up with something peculiar and much better than my original concept. Stuck with it and happy about it after all.

Not much can be added regarding the mix, panning or even the individual instrument's volume, you got what you got and it's very cool. There's certainly enough signal going on in this to outweigh any tape hiss or BG noise. Pretty far out man!
 
I like this a lot Dr. Reverb!

I even like the way it's panned. I can picture the drum kit in mom's living room, over on the right where it will fit, with the rest of us lunatics spread across the room. When I do 4-track cassette I try to think the bounces through from the start so I'll end up with what I want, however, lots of times with this medium I'll end up with something peculiar and much better than my original concept. Stuck with it and happy about it after all.

Not much can be added regarding the mix, panning or even the individual instrument's volume, you got what you got and it's very cool. There's certainly enough signal going on in this to outweigh any tape hiss or BG noise. Pretty far out man!

Thanks.
Yeah, that's how it went :e
 
Kind of had a nice charm to it. Kind of late 50's, early 60's Monster Mash feel to it. Not high fidelity or even close. But it had a fun character.

THere is one guitar in there, playing a melody line, that is kind of loud and harsh. I'd do something about that.
 
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