Second "attempt"

The board is running ragged right now.Most people cant even get in much less post so I doubt you'll get very many replies until somebody lays hands on this thing and heals it!

This is nice tune by the way.I really liked the Chorus build up around 2:45.It has a hook to it.It sounds like it's just in the beginnig Demo stage(thats where most of my stuff stays).

I heard some original demos of the Cars greatest hits awhile back and they were Horrible!So you never can tell where a song is gonna end up with a little tinkering and advice on changing the structure of a song.

Keep at it!:D
 
Thanks Kramer, it's been hard to post anything today i'll agree.

I would have hoped I was beyond the demo stage but it's all relative huh ? I must have mixed this song about 20 times now, I don't think I can face it again. At least not for a while !

I've got a friend coming over for a jam tonight ... hopefully starting something fresh. Thats what excites me about this collaboration talk... you get very stale working by yourself.

Glad you like the buildup. I've never really recorded electric before so I don't really know what to do with it.

Just Learning like everyone else.
 
I think by "demo" he meant it sounds a little dry. Your first one was a lot more "lively" sounding and "in your face".. Try bringing the acoustic out a little more and brightening up the mix overall...

I understand aboot not wanting to "face" it again.. I'm sick of the stuff I've been mixing lately too. :p

WATYF
 
This is realy cool dude,

I actualy like that it's dry like this. You hit the notes very good, intonation is good almost everywhere. So no need to hide behind reverb. It has a small venue feel to it. really cool IMHO.

The el gtr tone needs work but acc is great. Realy like bass kicks in with el gtr. And the fact that drums are later in the song is awesome touch.

something is wrong with a snare it needs some ring to it IMHO.

good song

cheers
 
Thanks Fed I don't have any problem with the "dry" sound - that's the way I like it so I think it's going to stay that way.... glad someone else likes it too!! Funny thing is I started this latest mix on the headphones and it ended up with much more reverb than the other song I posted.

Snare sound: well I use a Roland TD-8 for all my drum sounds so technically anything is possible. Silly thing is I hardly ever sit down and tinker with all the sounds... I tend to just pick a kit and go. Call me an idiot but I actually record the drums as a wav not a midi file ... too lazy to plug an extra midi cable in ! Actually it's more to do with the physical location of the kit..... but I really should be more diciplined and record the midi signals too so at least I have the option to change my snare sound easily without having to re-record the entire drum track !!

Any ideas for the electric guitar ?
 
dres said:
I must have mixed this song about 20 times now, I don't think I can face it again. At least not for a while !
Click to expand...
That's not really that many times. An awful lot of the tunes we all love were take number 105 and such. Listen to the Beatle's Anthology albums. Everything we've been used to hearing by the Beatles was the 70th or 98th take. And if they recorded them that many times.......imagine how many times they mixed them. I like to work on a tune for a while and then not listen to it at all for about a week and then do a new mix from scratch. That's usually when I'll start to get it right.
Nice song BTW. I thought the instruments could have come up a bit in the beginning. The vox was a little too dominant. But not so much it was objectionable. I just thought it was covering the instruments a little bit too much.
 
Thanks Lt. Bob .... I think the idea of resting a song between mixes is really important. In fact this song had a couple of "rests"... I wrestled with the balance of the vocals for ages (well it seemed like a long time !).. being the songwriter and singer there's a lot of ego pushing the vocal fader up ! It's pritty hard to be objective which is why a clinic like this is so important.

In all seriousness I really don't think I could do 100 takes without losing my sanity....... I'm sure getting paid to do it makes a difference though !

I personally have a tendancy to move on when I reach 90% - my wife on the other hand is a perfectionist. She takes forever to do her quilting projects but boy are they good. I get the bug to finish something so that it's *done* - that's my weakness.

I'm currently 1/2 way through a PhD and it's a big shock to learn that quantity means very little - quality is everything in scientific reseach too.
 
dres said:
Any ideas for the electric guitar ?
Click to expand...

well what are you using and what do you have? I think the arrangement idea for the song is great. I hear somewhat more distorted and sustained guitar where it's with accoustic and then kick it in where the drums come in. You git the right idea at about 2:42 but the tone stinks. Actualy i didn't like the clean tone ether but the arrangement idea is great IMHO.

oh ye, listen to the snare closely it is beeing masked by something. First two hits are loud but the third is weak or beeing canceled by something. It's like that throughout. Something to check into.

cheers

did I mentioned arrangemen idea is great... :D
 
Hey I really liked this song. You put down some good words here and there. So much Christian rock seems to be not much more than singing slogans IMO. While you did a bit of that, there was also some thought in what you were trying to say. If any type of music should be doing that, it should be Christian Rock (again IMO).

Nice catch melody. I like the acoustic intro complimented by the electric brought in in the second verse. I might suggest double tracking the lead vocal and the acoustic for a little fuller sound.

The "full band" doesn't come in until about the 2 minute mark even though there were opportunities earlier. I thought that was a bit late to make the change up.

Good song.
 
Lt. Bob is spot on with his comment about "20 times." That's what I said when I read your post....only 20? And then I saw his and laughed. Man, mixing is AN INTEGRAL PART of the process, and, in my opinion, should be given the same attention as writing it.

As for you song, it's very nice. And it's not a bad sound at all. And as far as whether it's beyond demo quality, that is really relative to what your target is. For example, if you're about to go in to record an album with Dave Mathews' record label, it's demo quality. But I think you did a great job. You're just not done ;-)

There's some nice strumming in this. Someone knew about dynamics and accents. I think the levels are good. It could use some EQ experimentation, and perhaps a teaspoon of reverb.
I'm trying to hear if there's anything I really don't like about that electric, whether it belongs, but it's not annoying. It sounds good in fact. But I'm not sure the stereo placement is ideal...maybe see if there's a better spot open left to right.

Nice song!
 
Once again the comments are really encouraging... thanks guys ! I'm really a newbie in all this and be assured I'm learning heaps. It's a really good question to ask what your target is .... for me I'm under no illusions of grandure.... I realised many years ago that music is *not* the way to make money.... it's truely a part time hobby. I enjoy doing it so the satisfaction comes from the process of recording, playing and preserving a little bit of me for years to come. And learning learning learning.

I have friends who have managed to get radio play but it's really temporary and leaves you thinking - "so what". Probably the best thing I could do is write church music for congregations - saving our own church money on copyright etc - but it's quite tuff to restrict myself like that. I do really enjoy live performance and am always seeking to capture that on my recordings. Now I'm really rambling.

Electric guitar: My friend Peter played that. Fender something into a Fender valve amp. The raw tone actually sounded good to me. I added lots of reverb to make it sound distant and somehow now the tone is a bit wrong now. Probably needs a different reverb ?

Snare: I've noticed this disappearing snare too ! sometimes the range on the TD-8's triggering is a little too wide and can result in overly dynamic snare levels - I need to tweak this before my next song.

To be honest I'm not intending to touch this song for a while but I'm pushing on with 2 new projects .. something different... hopefully funky... stay tuned.
 
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