..A new collaboration..

Khompewtur

Khompewtur

*Retired*
Hello All,

This was a 3-way collaboration between myself, Tom and Shaun that we just finished yesterday. It was a pleasure working with these guys they are two very talented and productive individuals. Please let me know what you think.


The song is "The Cold City"


The Cold City
 
Khompewtur,

Beautiful rage Rock there, gentlemen!

The guitar work was outstanding in the sense of building the tension and drama as the layers added on and sound got denser and more frantic! Very nice construction!

The Vocals by Sluice were nothing short of Grammy winning status. He is an animal, waiting to pounce and rip your soul out from your body and then toss it back to you for fun. Very, very solid work there from him.

The backing vocals as well, just seemed to add to the wonderful horror and pain that the song emotes so well.

Mix-wise, there's little to complain about but, I found a couple of minor nit-picks just to keep you guys on your toes.

As the layer build up in the mix, things start to get a little muddy in spots and it would probably take more listens to really pin point where it is. Maybe in the bass or in some of the guitar layers? I am not sure.

In the vocals, there could be just a little bit more definition in the top end or upper mids. As I listen to Sluice sing, I want to hear every drop of his pain and I was leaning my head inward a bit to do that. ( picture in your mind an ageing dude, going, slowly deaf, trying to understand what all you young'ins is shoutin' bout! )

Beyond that, the only thing I would have liked to hear in the composition would be even more unadulterated rage fits that make me want to kill something but, I don't know how to express that in words that you could easily translate into the music? Does any of this make sense to you??

Great job, guys!

Cheers! :)
 
This is so damn good! First off, for a collaboration, this is one of the best I have ever heard.

Sluice - Your vocals on this really bring it to life. You can feel every word. Very nice job!

Khomp and Shaun -- Very nice work with the instrumentation. This entire thing just rocks!

Mixwise sounds real good over here. I did notice some things sounded a bit distorted in the mid-range, but I'm not sure if it was my end or not. I did download and I'll put it on a CD to see if it sounds that way on a (much) better system.

As far as the production and the song, this one is excellent!

:D
 
Oh you posted it...cool.


The Ghost of FM said:
In the vocals, there could be just a little bit more definition in the top end or upper mids. As I listen to Sluice sing, I want to hear every drop of his pain and I was leaning my head inward a bit to do that.
Click to expand...

Alright, did you guys talk about this off line already? LOL. That's my fault...I asked Evan to cut the mids back on the lead vocal. There was some 2K stuff he boosted that was bugging me at loud volumes. But maybe I'm just hypersensitive to that range.

So Khompy I guess if you want to put the high mid boosts back into my tracks feel free. I'll keep this version for myself. :)

While I'm here I'll just "publicly" say thanks to Khompy for inviting me to do the vocals for this. He sent me an email with a link to a wave file and simply wrote: "Feel like singing?" So I sent him back 8 tracks of vocals...one lead track of my venting, a few tracks of my ghost choir, and a few tracks just to make the lead track feel a little less alone in the world. Fitting them all into Khompy and Analytical Man's existing arrangement was the trick! I hope he's happy with it.

Hey Analytical Man- Cool to collab with ya man. Though I didn't actually realize it was you until today! Cheers man.
 
Hmmmm.....I'm getting lyrics, not a MP3....and when I try to download it...it shows as a HTML Document.
What stupid thing have I done? :rolleyes:
 
Khomphy, SLuiCe & A.Man,

10 listens here ..........Solid production, albiet slight clipping & pinned to the ceiling @ times.

Drew various emotions from this cat..........across the spectrum. I felt tense, lonely, pissed, cold, empty, irritated, relieved, content, satisfied, hopeful & powerful @ times.

Compositionally doesn't work for me however, some transitional problems: The 5/4 video game like ostinato is hip and links well .....in fact the whole thing holds together well until MP3
time 3:32 where the dovetail doesn't work harmonically, then falls short again @ 3:48 with effect that ends to early ......I would have shut the door @ 3:50 with the guitar. The interlude entrance @ 3:51 is a little weak but builds nicely back into the bridge @ 4:19. ( which kicks ass btw :cool: ) [quite cunning ] ;) I'd have preferred ending with this kicking as opposed to the fade out!

Playing & vocals are well executed and emotive.........vox effects well used and accompany the lyrics effectively.

Lots of work went into this.....other than the transitions, very sweet!

Kudos to all of you!
 
Thank you gidge..........

I like the fade in.........is the Bowie singing?.......neat guitar parts......dripping with anger..........sounds kinda muffled to me......maybe my old ears can't hear the highs but the seem missing in action........I like the song a lot....I'd like to hear more percussion....not just louder but more of it.......I really like that guitar part a lot....oooooh, a new section......well this is a bit brighter.....I like how the guitar part maintains a continuity even when the feel changes like that..........man Tom, I love your singing................

Very cool guys........I'm not sure the mix is finished yet though, but it's very cool.....I'd like to hear this again with more drums and a clearer mix........I really like the tune a lot. :)
 
WOW ! Trent Reznor ... yer a pussy ... listen to this shit !

At 01:16 ... this is like 'The Beast' voice, I had to listen a bunch of times just to understand how he did this. It's his low-throaty-baritone with the cleaner tenor on top. Totally cool.

Ya know ... this is like modern Broadway !

Lyrics are cool.

02:27 ! ... I'm waiting for them to hit themselves in the head with a board !

03:07 ... ghost chorus, sounds like Sluice spinning on a Leslie ?

I have to listen to this 15 times just so I can stop and feel all the parts of my body to make sure I'm still on this planet ...

I can't analyze something like this ...

SHUT UP and let me listen again ! and again ! and again !

---------------------------------------
Album : not applicable, this be a single. Sorry to roon your precious categorization system
---------------------------------------

oh hell, on second thought.

I agree, put the mids back in ... yeah ... where ?
A quicker fade ... awwww shut up !
 
Ok, hearing it from more than one source (Bob and Ghost) I've gone back to boosting Tom's vox about 2db in the 2.5k range with a pretty broad Q.

This brought out a lot of the expressiveness in his vocals for me, but for some it may make it seem overly bright.

I have a feeling that those of us with scorched hearing (this will probably be many of us since we're lifelong musicians) will feel this new boost is right on while those whose hearing remains unscathed will feel it a bit bright.

I dropped -1db on the lows of the instrument track.

Regrettably I'd like to have more power of adjustment over the whole instrumentation but all i have left is a single mixed .wav of the instruments. During my changeover from CW to Sonar i did "Clean Audio Disk" from within Cakewalk and it ZAPPED all my Sonar audio .wav's because it didn't recognize the associated project file extensions! Aaaargh!

Segueing (sp?) the interlude break proved difficult. We all felt the seaming of that section could be improved and perhaps in the future a new addition or something to ease the transition. As for the f/x at 3:48 vs. 3:50 i tried them both. In fact i probably tried 3:46, 3:46:05:031, etc.. you get the picture. I wanted it so that 2 guitar notes ring out after the effect, somehow ending with the guits sounded odd to me.



So I've updated the mp3 to this thread, to any who listen after this point, just thought you might want to know what has been adjusted.


Thanks very much to everyone who has responded so far (even Cyan, although i found that a little meanspirited). Your feedback has been helpful and is appreciated.
 
Listening on cans fellas.....too early for monitors....

The dynamics of the tune and the Zappa like vox harmony was super good.
The verb on the harmony at the very end of the tune is excellent with the fade...
The instruments seem balanced and well placed in the mix.
Tom's vox rocks...very cool..
The song structure seems a little weird musically to me though.
at 3:48 you change up big time...and it just doesn't seem to fit but, when you go back into the groove...it seems to make sense....it seems to me that this section of the tune might be better served as the intro...not the Bridge...

Good job fellas...Monitors tonight for sure.
Joe
 
Khompewtur said:
Regrettably.......I did "Clean Audio Disk" from within Cakewalk and it ZAPPED all my Sonar audio .wav's because it didn't recognize the associated project file extensions! Aaaargh!
Click to expand...
:eek: OOPS!!!:D
 
well, now thats uplifting

Nice collaboration. Except for possibly the transition, everything sounds awesome. 3:30 to 3:48 could be cut making the transition shorter and more to the point.

Excellent piece, really well executed.
 
Pretty cool song. The main vocals didn't seem to sit right with everything else on my monitors. :confused:

I like the way the lyrics are strung along the progression...

I'm listening for my fourth time through...

Flat-9 has some valid points.

The 2:27 break is my favorite part. Yeah maybe ending it at 3:48...

NIce job guys!
 
That scrubby intro sound that grows big is wonderful. This is pretty interesting. The demon vocals are hair-raising. You're doing stuff that I haven't heard on this board before, inventive stuff, stuff that people are gonna hafta take a while to catch up to. For example, it's gonna take me a couple of more listenings to really know if that interlude 'randomness' works. Even if it turns out that it doesn't work, I'd really like you people to keep working this approach you got turning here in more songs - this is really, really interesting. If it turns out that it *does* work, you've got something new here. You know, Miles Davis was at a party one time and a woman asked him what he did. He said: "I changed music a few times." I'd like that to happen.

Timing issues on the vocal?
 
Undeniably excellent production

This is like 21st Century Gregorian Chant - and then it peeks into the Rennaissance and then heads back. Very dark and truly provocative. The lyrics are fantastic!!!!! I love 'em! Wish I could write like that. Terrific singing - terrific musicianship - excellent composition.

My only critique is that I'd like more drums. Monster drums at that. But you guys are really approaching an alternative to "alternative" so I mention the drums only at the risk of being labeled an old fart!

Once again the bar goes up another notch - excellent TEAMwork!!
Milan
 
damn!!!! I LOVE THIS SHIT! VERY VERY well done guys, the vox and everything seems to work real well together! Kudos, everyone else touched on things that I would have commented on. Later
 
COOL!

This is quite good. I can't really take any of the credit. It was all Sluice, and Khompy. All i did was the mellow guitar break at the end. I really love the chanting, Sluice that kicked ass!
 
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