1 year later, its done!!! prog rock/metal/jazz/ambient/whatever!

jamtheguitarman

jamtheguitarman

New member
1 year later and my 2nd song, entitled "Produced Fusion" is actually complete. i work slow :cool:

Its kinda what i said in the title, although its mainly prog rock/metal.

8 minutes in duration so its only half the length of my first one.

as far as the mix goes, wait for it, YOU CAN HEAR THE KICK DRUM OMGMOMGOMG :D

Its mixed a whole lot better than my first one, everything is pretty audible this time.
suprisingly, my first mixdown sounded great on all my music systems and headphnes (apart from those annoying earphone things :p ) . i cant believe how good it sounds on my dell laptop speakers. :eek:

Anyway, i stuck with that first mix and this is it, except of course its compressed into a pidly mp3 file :rolleyes:

Any feedback on anything, song, playing, recording, mixing, whatever, is much appreciated.

Thanks for listening. :)

You want "Produced Fusion"

http://www.audiostreet.net/artist.aspx?artistid=31381
 
dude...you are quite the player..

loved the tune...very YES!! influenced it would seem at parts.

I'd say overall the mix is pretty decent...I wish you had a real drummer though.

as far as the mix goes:
the drums seem a little lo-fi
the kick sample is a little too much inside the drum...a little beater heavy
guitars are digital i assume? the tone isn't my fave, but it works for what you are doing.

all in all very impressive...so in 8 more years, you will have a full length.. :D
 
thxs for the reply.

as far as the mix goes:
the drums seem a little lo-fi
the kick sample is a little too much inside the drum...a little beater heavy
guitars are digital i assume? the tone isn't my fave, but it works for what you are doing.
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i agree with you on the kick sound. i was just happy i managed to get it too stand out in teh mix though, so as soon as i did that i just left it. its better than none at all like my first song :)



Your right on the guitars as well,(you have good ears!)
Line 6 flextone 3 mic'ed for the rythm sound, which i recorded twice with entirely different amp settings.
The lead sounds are actually DI'ed using the xlr outs on the back with AIR microphone modelling technology thing. I managed to get a much better tone than i had managed fiddiling around with the mic and amp, very suprisingly. It also means i can record all night with the amps volume at 0 :D

The tone isnt ideal, but im pretty pleased with it considering my experiance and gear.
I am really pleased with how the track sounds mix wise, a load better than my first one anyway.


I should be able to get more material out faster now with my schedule. That way you wont all forget about me after a years worth of no work :)
 
Honestly, it's well arranged and all but kinda boring. Simple chord progressions that serve as a bed for good leads ain't enough for me. As it is, I could see this as background music for an NFL commercial or the "top of the eights" at The Weather Channel.

Your guitar playing is excellent. Do it justice, dammit!
 
I must have missed this the first time around.

I agree with the others, good playing and a decent mix. Personally, I think the song could be about half as long and be alot more interesting.
No offense, it's great for what it is, it just doesn't hold my interest. I'd like to hear your style presented in a more concentrated and focused form, with more intricate and varied riffing....but then, maybe I'm trying to imagine it being something different than what you're after.
 
thanks for all the comments.

Maybe invest in EZ Drummer?
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I have DKFH superior, i think EZ drummer is a less customizable tweakable realistic version is it not?


getting a great drum sound with it will take a bit more experience i imagine, its definatly a giant improvement over my 1st song mix though.


ironically, this song hasn't been as well liked as my first but i still like it when i listen to it. whereas im really sick of my first song and never enjoyed listening to it after it was finnished particularly.
 
Very clean playing and nice mix. It could sure use some different time signatures, and perhaps some odd ones, too. The drums are active, but you could be playing some longer phrases.. It begins to feel a little relentless.

It needs some dynamics, man! And I don't mean compression.
 
First off, I agree with a previous post and wish it was a live drum set. That being said, I think the panning of the cymbols is a bit annoying and the snare sound is bad. I had trouble not focusing on the snare during the intro.

When the lead guitar kicks in, it needs to be up higher: have more of a presence. Same with the synth lead. And when the 'chorus' kicks in, it needs to be brought up, too. It was already said, but dynamics help tell the musical story.

I disagree with the chord progression comment previously made: it's about the emotional response, not how many time signatures or key changes you can put into a specified time frame. The playing is absolutely solid, just showcase it more by bringing up the levels.
 
Showdown said:
I disagree with the chord progression comment previously made: it's about the emotional response, not how many time signatures or key changes you can put into a specified time frame..
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And I wouldn't disagree with you. Both changes in time signature and key changes are good ways of getting across that "emotional response" you're talking about - especially when a drum machine doesn't allow any elasticity in time. Volume is hardly the sole conveyance of emotion in music.

YMMV
 
Supercreep said:
Both changes in time signature and key changes are good ways of getting across that "emotional response" you're talking about - especially when a drum machine doesn't allow any elasticity in time. Volume is hardly the sole conveyance of emotion in music.
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I'd like to see a level increase for the lead voice: guitar, synth, or chorused.

However, to drive your point home:

It was once said by Billy Ocean (perhaps a horrible example but yet commercially successful and shouldn't be ignored) that he simply copied the Barry Manilow method of creating a hit song: during the middle chorus, after most listeners become bored with the song, a key change is a simple way of increasing the intensity and feel of the song.

Sick, but a key change of a 3rd does evoke an emotional response. And who are we to argue the logic of The Great Manilow?
 
I agree with the other folk on most points.
The kick drum & snare to some degree sound like someoone is beating on the foil seal of a Milo can. VERY tinny.
Key cahnges can be a difficult thing to navigate when writing as it needs a very conscious decision or an extremely unconscious one but it does do the up one notch thing really well.
All that aside this is played really nwell & the recording's pretty flash - some of the synths don't sound quite synth enough nor near enough to a sample.
Go forth & pay for a drummer if you can't con one. This piece deserves it.
 
It could sure use some different time signatures, and perhaps some odd ones, too.
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yeah, i usually include quite a few weird time signatures in most things, i just didn't go there with this for some reason.



The dynamics point you've all made is a very good one. Although i think its hard to achieve with this type of song in the way you've mentioned, something to work on for sure though.


i also should have made the drums a little softer in the quieter bits, definantly something to remember for the next mix.

I'd like to see a level increase for the lead voice: guitar, synth, or chorused.
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This im inclined not to agree with, even though a few people mention it.
I really don't like it when the lead voices stick way out on top, i prefer a tighter volume mix with the the leads blending in with the rest of the mix. Of course they obviously need to stick out a little to be audible, but not too much IMO.



The subject of key changes. The guitar solo/harmony/chorus is in C minor and the the rest of the song is in A minor. I think throwing another key change in would sound a bit forced and out of place perhaps.

especially the old poppy Westlife key change thing :p

some of the synths don't sound quite synth enough nor near enough to a sample.
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not really sure what you mean here. Spectrasonics Atmosphere was used for all synths.

I'd like to hear your style presented in a more concentrated and focused form, with more intricate and varied riffing....but then, maybe I'm trying to imagine it being something different than what you're after.
Click to expand...

well yeah, how the song turned out is really what i was after for this song. :) A simpler song structure in general. A more Satriani type song than a Vai type song if you get my drift, not that either of those two guitarists are the style im after.


Stuff to come in the futre will be way different for sure, the next piece is prog metal fused with orchestra, and its very very long :D

then i want to write an ambient song, a jazz fusion song and a symphony.

so don't expect this again!


thanks for listening and taking hte time to comment, appreciated.
 
Another way to introduce some dynamics would be to put in some spaces where every instrument lays out and only one or two instruments are playing. I could even see this having vocals in some places. If you had sections with just vocals and maybe a synth pad I think it would give my ears a rest and cut down on the 'relentless' vibe someone mentioned earlier.
 
S H I T ! ! T H I S I S G O O D ! !

Dunno... I thought the drum sound was nicely ragged-ass in the middle of all that "produced" sound!...

Damn I wish I had the patience to work shit that far... ...mine is composed and tracked in 3-5 hours. :o


Yer playing is good, really nice, and so is the SONG. Kinda remainded me of Liquid tension project..
The mix is well good enough.

I really am digging the shit out of this!! ...and this is coing from a black/deathmetalist. really nice playing. do more.
 
crankypants said:
Another way to introduce some dynamics would be to put in some spaces where every instrument lays out and only one or two instruments are playing. I could even see this having vocals in some places. If you had sections with just vocals and maybe a synth pad I think it would give my ears a rest and cut down on the 'relentless' vibe someone mentioned earlier.
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lol, you wouldnt be saying that if you heard my singing!

And as ive found with my band, its bloody impossible to find a good singer interested in this kind of music.




thanks for the comments Jouni.
 
please send me the tracks without drums, i will record drums for you, this is my kind of music tooo. aww this pisses me off soo bad to hear this awesome prog tracks with shitty ass drums...
 
Send Joey the track with all drums/percussion panned L & all the rest of the instruments R. That way he can focus on the task - unless he wants otherwise.
 
rayc said:
Send Joey the track with all drums/percussion panned L & all the rest of the instruments R. That way he can focus on the task - unless he wants otherwise.
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that would be nice, but i would need both so i could mix the drums in with it...
 
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