Now It's Too Late (this time it's not a crappy link)...

Well damn...nobody wants to listen to my stuff. I thought this thread was for feedback...neg or positive.

Don't make me whine...I WILL do it... :d
 
quick first thoughts...

couple of questions I have first off, then some quick first thoughts. I'm on a time crunch here, so i'll look at it more later.

- Questions -
1. is this all you?
2. song you wrote?
3. vocals all you?

- First thoughts -

Pro's
1. I love this. Reminds me of the type of R&B I used to listen to. It has that Tyrese "How you gonna act like that", but with better vocals.

2. harmonies are extremely tight. any digital editing / pitch correction / vocal splitter type thingy going on there?

3. I hear a vox/talk box going on? Did any of the Troutman family sit in for you ;)

Cons
1. What is that haunted house sound at the beginning? Comes in at second :03 and comes back throughout the song...this, to me, sounds horrible. Personally I like that 90's style concept you were going for, but for me it just has too much tremolo on it. I would like it more if it approached the tremolo more like a guitar player - straight at first, the a little towards the end of each phrasing or note. just my opinion.
2. guitar sounds fake. is it? I would love to hear a rich guitar arpeggio kinda thing like you went for, but either a real guitar or (if it is a keyboard guitar) a different sound.

that's just off the top of my head. Mix sounds tight. The vocals shine so well...excellent harmonies man.

thoughts/ideas/questions?

cholo

4.
 
If I wanted to be exceptionally nitpicky, I'd say it's slightly mid-heavy (500Hz-1K) but overall this is a really great production, in my opinion. Everything sounds in proportion, smooth and in its right place. Way to go!
 
Thanks for the reply and the compliments. All vocals, instruments (they're all MIDI), and engineering was done by me.

It's funny you mention Tyrese's "Act Like That". It was produced/written by the Underdogs, who I'm a big fan of (I've actually drawn a few comparisons and even a mistaken credit).

As for my song, I stacked each harmony note at least 4 times and used a little Auto-Tune to give it sort of a different feel. It's not as heavy as you might think though. I still had to sing the parts pretty dead on for each track.

And yea...I'm a big Troutman fan as well (my first favorite song that I can remember - I was about 2yrs old - was Computer Love). I performed the talkbox myself. It took about 100 takes to get it together but I made it work. That shit is REALLY hard to do.

The "haunted house" thing (lol)...well I guess that's up to the listener. Personally I thought it added a bit of unexpected to the expected. But I respect your opinion...it's definately not a sound that would please everybody.

The guitar: I'm a firm believer that when it comes to guitar, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REPLACEMENT for the real thing. That said, while I can pick and feel my way through a measure or two (one string only...lol), I am DEFINATELY not a guitar player. When I do MIDI guitar, I really don't try to make it sound realistic (in some cases I try to make it sound as unrealistic as possible). It's purpose is to take up a melodic space in the track. But again, that sort of thing varies from person to person.

Thanks again for the listen and critiques. As I said in another thread, I feel I'm pretty good at the engineering thing but with 9 years of experience, I still have VERY MUCH to learn. My sound is still not where I want it to be but I'm always making progress...
 
J.C. Scott said:
If I wanted to be exceptionally nitpicky, I'd say it's slightly mid-heavy (500Hz-1K) but overall this is a really great production, in my opinion. Everything sounds in proportion, smooth and in its right place. Way to go!
Click to expand...


Well I AM exceptionally nitpicky and I feel I should've made better use of my automation after the bridge. I think that's where the mid-range gets pretty cloudy and compressed-sounding. There's also some EQ errors I'd like to have back but I think it's good enough that only us engineer types will notice the bad stuff.
 
ok Trell...I listened to this in the studio this morning.


re: mix - i have nothing more to say about it. spot on!

re: the song - This is a great song. I've got it stuck in my head and my wife really likes it too. I love the bridge...but what stands out the most is the voice. Very strong, confident, controlled. Soulful. I dig it mang. Again, the harmonies are tight and I liked your method of stacking multiple times then touched with auto-tune... I'd buy this song.

If you get a chance, listen to my mix in my thread "Mixing Feedback needed..."

< sarcasm >Really the same exact same style as yours...just a little different feel, tempo, rhythm, voice. < /sarcasm >

cholo
 
elcholo said:
ok Trell...I listened to this in the studio this morning.


re: mix - i have nothing more to say about it. spot on!

re: the song - This is a great song. I've got it stuck in my head and my wife really likes it too. I love the bridge...but what stands out the most is the voice. Very strong, confident, controlled. Soulful. I dig it mang. Again, the harmonies are tight and I liked your method of stacking multiple times then touched with auto-tune... I'd buy this song.

If you get a chance, listen to my mix in my thread "Mixing Feedback needed..."

< sarcasm >Really the same exact same style as yours...just a little different feel, tempo, rhythm, voice. < /sarcasm >

cholo
Click to expand...

Thanks alot, man. I spent about a month on the whole thing. At least a week on the music, then about another week and a half writing/arranging...nearly a week recording (do it until it's right), and about a week mixing and touch up recording. Of course I did some pre-mixing throughout the entire process so that helped a lot.

I hope to check out your song before the weekend. As I said in your other thread, I can't get high speed at this particular location (pisses me off thinkin about it). I had no luck with your link or even my own. Myspace links are out of the question. I did get one guy's link at soundclick to play, however....well sort of. Only about 3 or 4 pauses during the song...
 
You're invited!

Doctor Trell:

You have a standing invitation to come to my house and sing into my microphone in my family room any time you want! Just let me know. I'll even disinfect my pop screen.

Those are some of the best vocal harmonies I've heard in a long time. The song is great. The bridge is especially cool.

But....

After the bridge, things get too "busy" for my taste. Also, I'd like to hear more bass at the bottom end.

I am very impressed, to say the least. This is great if you don't change a darn thing.

PM me with links to your other recordings, please.
 
Archiegood said:
Doctor Trell:

You have a standing invitation to come to my house and sing into my microphone in my family room any time you want! Just let me know. I'll even disinfect my pop screen.
Click to expand...

lol! Thanks alot. I actually don't consider myself a true vocalist (if I listed the people that I DO consider true vocalists, you'd see why). But I appreciate the compliments...

Archiegood said:
Those are some of the best vocal harmonies I've heard in a long time. The song is great. The bridge is especially cool.
Click to expand...

I pride myself on being able to arrange harmonies and I work very hard at it. U should hear me sitting there listening to the melody trying to figure out which note phrases WOULDN'T work. It's kinda comical...

Archiegood said:
But....

After the bridge, things get too "busy" for my taste. Also, I'd like to hear more bass at the bottom end.
Click to expand...

Yea...that's where the eq and automation mistakes I mentioned in an earlier post come in. My productions tend to climax quite a bit (for R&B) and EQ/Automation gets very tricky there. It's definately the hardest part of my mixing process and I'm finally learning how to do it right. As for the bottom, I agree but my room is just that...a room. I try not to do much guess work on frequencies I can't hear (in my case, the ultra lows).

Archiegood said:
I am very impressed, to say the least. This is great if you don't change a darn thing.

PM me with links to your other recordings, please.
Click to expand...

http://cdbaby.com/cd/coopdeville

Be warned. The version we had manufactured was the WRONG MASTER COPY. It's a looooooooooooong story on how that happened...lol

Anyway, we're stuck with it for the time being and the sound quality is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE but we're working on having the real mixes ready for the next group of units we order...
 
superspit said:
geeeeesh.....I really enjoyed this experience...I thankyou for posting it.
Cheers,
Spit.
Click to expand...

You're welcome and thank YOU! :D

Ok I decided I'm not gonna create a whole new thread for this so here...
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=749086 (check out "Teaser 1".

Listening to this track, you'll find out immediately why I don't master. I was wondering if this track would benifit from a little added bass but my objectivity is pretty much gone. I need a fresh engineering perspective. Please ignore the distortion (caused by the L2 I slapped on it)...lol.
 
Well damnit...I whined the last time nobody gave me a review so what makes u think I won't whine again? lol
 
trell - my suggestions.

mix - tight, again.
feel - smooth.

added bass? not sure in what context you mean...

if you mean add more bass volume wise - no, not more than just a tad maybe (for my taste)

I like the way it comes in at "well I'm sorry..." it leaves that first part open a little. I might like a little rhodes keys in there before the bass ramps up, or maybe some guitar...

tasty little number here sir. nice job again.

cholo
 
Thanks, cholo.

As for the bass, I meant frequency wise. More for the feel than the sound. I've decided to leave it be though since I've heard the tune waaaaay too many times to make that kind of adjustment.

And the bass-less start brought in by a ramp-up is a format I use pretty often. I think people who know me can tell when I composed the music by some of my tendacies, such as the one in question...

I should really stop obsessing over my mixes and leave them be sometimes...lol
 
One more thing on "Now it's too late"....I was listening again today (i like this song)

this is just a suggestion about the drums.

the 2 tom hits you have, 1 right before the snare hit, and the 2nd ON the snare hit. This bugs me - not sure why... I was thinking that instead of that 1st tom hit, you add the backbeat with the kick instead...

just a suggestion.

listening again!

cholo
 
elcholo said:
One more thing on "Now it's too late"....I was listening again today (i like this song)

this is just a suggestion about the drums.

the 2 tom hits you have, 1 right before the snare hit, and the 2nd ON the snare hit. This bugs me - not sure why... I was thinking that instead of that 1st tom hit, you add the backbeat with the kick instead...

just a suggestion.

listening again!

cholo
Click to expand...

Now THAT, sir, is something I'm not willing to compromise on (with all due respect...:D). That tom is instrumental in the groove I was trying to create and taking it out would change that.

Thanks for calling it out though. It's nice to get feedback on details like that, but unfortunely there's SOME details that everyone will never agree on.

Feel free to continue to pick it apart, tho. It's nice to hear a bit of truthful critiquing for a change...
 
I know the groove you are getting at there...as a drummer, I would have never played it that way with the tom though..hence the suggestion - and the irritation ;) but...different can be good.

cholo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top