Your thoughts please

It's a good beginning. Your second guitar - the slower one - is out of step with the drums. The first guitar may be a hair out of step too.
 
After a few seconds the timing of things went bad. I'd suggest practice staying in time with that drum track. And then re-record.
 
It's all horribly out of time (especially the second guitar).... did you record the guitar live or is it a keyboard and sequenced? If it's live, I'd suggest you practice playing to a metronome or drum loop... maybe slow the temp of the piece down so it's more playable ... if it's a sequenced keyboard playing a guitar sample, check your DAW latency.
 
It's a good beginning. Your second guitar - the slower one - is out of step with the drums. The first guitar may be a hair out of step too.

Should it be slower or faster? Tbh I'm not noticing this "horribly out of time" everyone's talking about ahah. I think I played to the track, I'll play with a metronome.
 
Tbh I'm not noticing this "horribly out of time" everyone's talking about ahah. I think I played to the track, I'll play with a metronome.

Put the song aside for a few days, maybe up to a week or longer. Then come back and listen. To me the most importing thing you need to do right now is hear the timing problems.
 
This is going to sound tougher than it should maybe.......but it's crucial that you are able to pick out the timing issues in your song before you go any further. If you're not able to do that.......things will only get exponentially worse as you go. I assume the drumbeat in your tune was programmed right? That could serve as your metronome. You can do it........concentrate carefully and you'll hear the issues.
 
This is going to sound tougher than it should maybe.......but it's crucial that you are able to pick out the timing issues in your song before you go any further. If you're not able to do that.......things will only get exponentially worse as you go. I assume the drumbeat in your tune was programmed right? That could serve as your metronome. You can do it........concentrate carefully and you'll hear the issues.

Yep. Timing is gonna be your biggest roadblock here.
 
It won't make any difference what the tempo is ... fast or slow, it's still a waste of time if it ain't in time (to quote our drummer...)

Start from the ground up... play your drums and count to 4 or tap your foot to the rhythm ... you should be able to clap in lockstep with the kick and snare.

Next (while the drums are playing) play your guitar on the downstroke... 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 etc

Do this for a minute or two and record it and have a close listen to how the downstroke falls directly on top of the kick and snare ...1 (kick) - 2 - 3 (snare) - 4 - etc

I don't mean to be arrogant or anything but you're beaten before you start if you cant hear that it's out of time let alone play in time...

Start small and play slowly... record what you do, listen carefully and practice... you'll get there.
 
For me the thing that really spoils it is, as everyone is saying, the timing is pretty poor. I suspected at first it was sequenced, or entered a note at a time on a guitar sound - because the guitar plays dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum - with each note exactly the same length, with the same attack and overall exactly the same envelope. No different tones as the pick/finger nail hits the string at different angles and small differences in volume. Sometimes the two similar guitars play the same note, but at slightly different times - which sounds like a mistake by one of them. The voice is singing some very unpredictable notes. Harmony has quite a few 'rules' - that let the listener predict the next note that is coming, and this doesn't follow them. You can break the rules, once you know them in the first place. The result is the guitars and the vocal line creating very unusual chords. The combination of the guitars at the 50 sec-ish mark where one guitar suddenly changes the notes to ones that make you squirm really needs fixing - it just sounds like the guitarist was playing the wrong notes.

Sadly - I think the song is a non-starter I'm afraid. It's difficult to listen to and in places just sounds random. In your head, what chords were you actually creating, and what was the melody doing? Taking you on a musical journey, or just a loop that crosses over the loops the two guitars were playing, also quite independently?

When you say 'experimental' - I thought it would somehow evolve, but it's too random in so many areas.
 
For me the thing that really spoils it is, as everyone is saying, the timing is pretty poor. I suspected at first it was sequenced, or entered a note at a time on a guitar sound - because the guitar plays dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum - with each note exactly the same length, with the same attack and overall exactly the same envelope. No different tones as the pick/finger nail hits the string at different angles and small differences in volume. Sometimes the two similar guitars play the same note, but at slightly different times - which sounds like a mistake by one of them. The voice is singing some very unpredictable notes. Harmony has quite a few 'rules' - that let the listener predict the next note that is coming, and this doesn't follow them. You can break the rules, once you know them in the first place. The result is the guitars and the vocal line creating very unusual chords. The combination of the guitars at the 50 sec-ish mark where one guitar suddenly changes the notes to ones that make you squirm really needs fixing - it just sounds like the guitarist was playing the wrong notes.

Sadly - I think the song is a non-starter I'm afraid. It's difficult to listen to and in places just sounds random. In your head, what chords were you actually creating, and what was the melody doing? Taking you on a musical journey, or just a loop that crosses over the loops the two guitars were playing, also quite independently?

When you say 'experimental' - I thought it would somehow evolve, but it's too random in so many areas.

It was meant to be "creative" and experimental, C major is the key, everything being played is on key,so it's not completely random. I've just grown tired of the verse bridge chorus verse structure. It's just a snippet ahah, I need to finish it. The keys and drums are sampled, the guitar is played. But seriously how is the timing off? I've checked in the program and everything seems to be on the grid. Here's the audio with only the drums and guitar, if you listen to the drums you can hear kick, snare+kick four times.

Vocaroo | Voice message

Gridwise it's on time...
 
.. But seriously how is the timing off? I've checked in the program and everything seems to be on the grid. Here's the audio with only the drums and guitar, if you listen to the drums you can hear kick, snare+kick four times.

Gridwise it's on time...

Right at the :16 mark your guitar gets out of time with the drums.. seems to catch up for a second, then loses it again.
 
That's out of time. To fix it, you need to hear it first. Turn on the gridlines in your DAW. Zoom in on the waveform of that guitar part. You'll see that it starts in time. Then the eighth notes begin to get sloppy, then it all goes off the rails.

Are you tapping your foot while you record? If not, try it. It feels awkward at first if you're not used to doing it, but it WILL improve your timing if you stick to it. Try to keep your foot moving steady and in time with the metronome or drum loop. If you like to stand up and move around while you play, and a foot tap just won't work, try nodding your head to the beat, or boogie around with your body, dance. Main thing is to get your body moving to the beat.

You DO NOT have to have super chops to make good home recordings. You do need to play cleanly and in time. Stick with it. Or find a teacher and take a few lessons focusing on playing in time.
 
I'm a lost cause :mad:, I honestly can't see that it is off time, I'll try recording with a metronome, I can play with that. It's just weird because it starts and ends where it's supposed to, perhaps it's what in between.
 
Listening to your Menace, and Again.. there are no drums and your vocal keeps fairly good time with your guitar strumming. So it doesn't appear to be that you yourself can't keep time.

Ya know.. something that MIGHT explain why you hear it in time and we don't .. maybe.. perhaps there is a latency problem
somewhere. I don't know - it's a long shot.
 
Listening to your Menace, and Again.. there are no drums and your vocal keeps fairly good time with your guitar strumming. So it doesn't appear to be that you yourself can't keep time.

Ya know.. something that MIGHT explain why you hear it in time and we don't .. maybe.. perhaps there is a latency problem
somewhere. I don't know - it's a long shot.

Vocaroo | Voice message

Is it better?
 
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I'm afraid not. When the guitar comes in, it's in time for a few beats then drifts off again. When you begin to sing I think the vocal may be in time with the drums but the guitar being way off is just eating it up. Vocal could be off a little too, but I can't tell from here.

I don't believe you mentioned what DAW or equipment you're using.

I'm using Reaper as my DAW to record, so I found some info related to Reaper and this problem - you could just substitute your DAW's name for Reaper in this as it appears to be a common problem across platforms. You'll have to read your manuals to see how to make your adjustments.

Read this : How to deal with interface latency (delay/lag) - Cockos Incorporated Forums
 
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I'm afraid not. When the guitar comes in, it's in time for a few beats then drifts off again. When you begin to sing I think the vocal may be in time with the drums but the guitar being way off is just eating it up. Vocal could be off a little too, but I can't tell from here.

I don't believe you mentioned what DAW or equipment you're using.

I'm using Reaper as my DAW to record, so I found some info related to Reaper and this problem - you could just substitute your DAW's name for Reaper in this as it appears to be a common problem across platforms. You'll have to read your manuals to see how to make your adjustments.

Read this : How to deal with interface latency (delay/lag) - Cockos Incorporated Forums

I don't think it's a latency issue, I played with a metronome :/. Thanks anyways!

I use guitar rig though.
 
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