12 Songs For Your Utter Enjoyment or Disgust.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Warhead
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Warhead

Warhead

Jai guru deva om
This past weekend, my long time friend "Big" Dave Irick and I recorded our second collection of 12 quickies, covers and goofs. We called our first collection "66Sick", meaning he did 6 and I did 6, and it's sick. This is "66Sicker".

This is a collection of Ben Folds, Beatles, Pink Floyd, George Winston, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Elton John tunes totally hacked out in mostly single pass takes. Very few overdubs were done, and those were only vocals. Our goal in these weekend sessions is to record 12 songs in one day...and jokingly call our effort "2 Dawg Day". The 666 reference is also a joke in case you didn't know... ;)

Dave is in his 30's like me, but started playing piano as an adult less than 18 months ago. He normally plays acoustic guitar and sings folksy type stuff, and he's picking up on piano pretty quick for 18 months. He knows and I know many of the takes are sloppy, and I'm not looking for critique! :) I thought some of you may enjoy the clips, and figure many of you do similar goofy stuff like this.

You can hear Dave cracking his knuckles, our voices crack, there's no automation going on, a live sounding reverb and that's it...shits and giggles!!!

Big Dave - Eddie Walker This Is Your Life (Ben Folds)
Dave on vocals and piano, me on drums.
Big Dave - The Luckiest (Ben Folds)
Dave on vocals and piano, me on drums.
Big Dave - Don't Let The Son Go Down On Me (Elton)
Dave on vocals and piano, me on drums.
Big Dave - Brick (Ben Folds)
Dave on vocals and piano, me on drums.
Big Dave - Still Fighting It (Ben Folds)
Dave on vocals and piano, me on drums.
Big Dave - George Winston Mix
Dave, hack job...little experience but big heart.
Warren - Run Like Hell (Floyd)
Me, piano then drums and vocals.
Warren - Comfortably Numb (Floyd)
Me, piano then drums and vocals.
Warren - John 3:16 (Andrew Lloyd Weber from Jesus Christ Superstar)
Me, Alesis QS8 keys.
Warren - Beatles Mix
Me, piano then drums.
Warren - Untitled #1 (idea of mine)
Me, piano then drums.
Warren - Untitled #2 (idea again)
Me.

I would love any suggestions on the last tunes by the way!

Warren

PS: We have 20 copies pressed, they're free, and I still have 5 left so our popularity must be waning...
 
and I'm not looking for critique!

In the clinic, we critique. It is what the forum is about.

Am I wrong or, is this spam?:mad:
 
Hey borehead, you suck!

Sorry I know you didn't want a critique, but I couldn't resist.
 
OK then critique away. Just wanted to share.

SPAM is a meat by-product. And yes, this stuff does suck. :)

Warren
 
Did you already listen to Sabbath's 25 songs? Man you're fast! :eek:

So what did you think? Doesn't he sound a lot like Ozzy?:confused:

If you put your balls that far out there someone is bound to bust them.

Come on, 25 songs? Be real.

But fuck it since I gave you some shit I'll listen to one. I'll pick run like hell beacuse I can't stand Ben Folds...
 
Rats, I was saying my stuff sucked pretty much 'cause you did. I wasn't talking about B Sabbath's stuff!

I will comment about his songs.

Warren
 
Holy crap, B Sabbath...the drums sound slightly fake (mostly the ride and the snare a little) but the guitars are freakin' fatter than...holy bejeezus. I'm listening to Unwell right now, will come back for more later.

Vocals are interesting also...don't know about sounding just like Ozzy Rats. The vocal distortion is SWEET too.

Warren
 
I followed the link but it didn't work. It was a 4kb file, can't imagine that containing much.:confused:
 
I followed the link for Comfortably Numb too but I only got a few seconds then it started chopping up. I don't do streams!:mad:

I heard a bit of it though. That song would be hard to pull off. I saw a band called Centaur here in detroit a few months back do a really good version of that song, something I didn't think could be done by anyone but PF/ Waters.
 
OK run like hell. I really like the original version so this is tough. Man with that piano it sounds like something more like Chariots of Fire.:rolleyes: The singing would be a lot better if it was up higher in the mix. Hearing some timing issues and flubs on the piano. Kind of boring in general. Not a good choice of a song for drums and piano I'd say.

Now on to Comfortably Numb. Hmm. Seems like all I can download is 10 seconds of it. Tried several times. On your web page it lists the song at 3.47 MB, but all I can download is 203 kb. :confused: Not sure if the 10 seconds I got is acurate, but the timing issues are atrocious if it's real.

I don't know what your purpose of posting these songs here is as it's very obvious that these songs were rushed, have mistakes, aren't well orchestrated, and not mixed well. It also seems like you don't care to improve them since you clearly stated that you don't want any critique. Maybe you just want your stuff heard, which is perfectly reasonable. We all want our stuff heard and I'm with you on that. We also want our stuff to hopefully be appreciated.

It sounds like you have some talent, you and your buddy. My suggestion would be to focus one one song and make it sound as good as you can. There are a lot of reasons for this. 12 songs recorded half assed will never have any effect on a listener that can compare with one well recorded strong song. It sounds like you and your buddy were having some fun though, which is good as well. If I were you I just wouldn't expect too much return posting them all here in the clinic, as there is a lot of really good talent here that takes the time to record as good a quality as they can. If you get a little backlash from posting 12 songs at once I wouldn't be surprised either. It can come off a bit arrogant for one to post that many songs and expect the clinicians to listen to them all like they have nothing better to do, especially when you state that you don't care for their opinions and you didn't even try to make them good recordings.

Just my two cents. Look forward to hearing some good recordings from you guys. Welcome to the clinic.:cool:
 
Rats, you hit the nail on the head. I had posted this on another forum that I frequent more than here, and it took a while to get all the links set, etc. It was simple to post it here, and my intentions were just to let people hear it if they cared. There was no sign on the door stating specifically that you could only post here for critique, but that's certainly the vibe I'm getting. You learn something new everyday, I'll know better next time. :)

I don't know why you can't get but 10 seconds, but the beginnings of the songs are the worst for timing issues. It's hard to play piano with feel and then overdub drums with feel and nail everything spot on. Pink Floyd and Roger Waters are a hard act to follow, those songs are mostly just me, again it was just for fun and something slightly different for some.

It's not that I didn't want critique, anyone is welcome to say good or bad. It's just that I know it's a static mix with mostly single pass takes and very little punch-ins etc. I just thought it would get a little old to read comments on what everybody already knows.

Glad you enjoyed some of it! I've brought mixes in here for critique in the past with good results, you guys do a good job posting comments around here and I appreciate it.

Warren
 
Warhead

I checked out the first untitled piece called; (Idea of mine).

There is some very tasteful piano and live drums here. I like what is there so far and seems like a good foundation to add some lyrics to.

The song is kind of short so you could use it as an intro to a longer piece.

I am hearing a lot of Elton John influence in the composition and it has the makings of a 70's style classic rock tune, complete with full orchestration including whaling guitars, live strings, (SV, are you listening?) and a lot of voices, like a choir maybe supporting a killer lead vocal. All of this, just thoughts that come to mind....?

Welcome aboard!:cool:
 
What I'm seeing in this thread is a very enthusiastic newcomer to the board, and I appreciate folks coming to this board, this board is getting a really big reputation in the homerecording cottage industry ...

Maybe it should be called homerecording.com or somethin ...

I believe, when a poster comes on board and asks for feedback on one song, that can appear to be a much more genuine solicitation for advice. And that advice can then be applied to that song, or that mix, and can be re-mixed according to feedback and critique, and re-posted.

When a newcomer makes multiple offerings in one of their first posts, the board members will have difficulty in believing that there is some FOCUS, that there is some REAL opportunity to

'develop a meaningful thread that enriches the experience and goals of the topic'

When we see 15 songs posted in one thread, it is almost a sure certainty, (and I can be very, very wrong about most of the things in my life :D , I reserve that right) ... I think is has been proven to be very likely that no meaningful discussion will occur, usually a flame develops.

A poster with 15 songs in their belt ... what do they need this board for ?

Oh yeah, to learn about mixing issues ... and then apply them to the NEXT mix ...

If you have 100 SONGS, post them one at a time, and develop the thread on that ONE song, and you better damn be sure, if 25 posters ALL say they 'can't hear the fu$king vox at all' you better be damn sure and have the vox up front in the next mix ... yeah ? am I wrong ... :D

Oh yeah, I only have dial-up here, so I'd have to hack the properties of the streaming object from the playlist in WMP, and then paste that into ... blah blah

Please, 15 songs that only stream ... you can't do critical analysis and relistening from a stream in many cases even with some of the broadband solutions.
 
OH Yeah? Are You tooolkin to me. Huh??? Well then. That's
what I thought. Besides you spelt "fussing" wrong. You spelt it
Fu$king.

Just kidding....this thread is making my ulcer throb.

Just thought I'd lighten it up a bit

Also, to this website...The talent on here is incredible, almost intimidating....nevertheless....I will survive and post another.

DustyJack
 
Untitled_1.mp3
--------------------

Yes, Elton John !

I'm hearing strains of 'Don't let the sunshine ... blah blah blah'

I like the tom run, that was mixed nice.

IMHO, in an instrumental ... the drum brass here is bit to loud, the cymbal specfically. Give us a loud hit on the cymbal at the change of section, but then bring it down to an accompanying level.

The piano is the star here, carrying both the harmony and the inferred melodic line. The piano is also a percussive element, so the cymbal challenges all of this for some of the time.

When you put vocals into this, you will have to turn the drum brass down. The tom run was nice, but a bit to loud.

Elton John would have words with this drummer ;) , give a listen to Elton's mixes and I think this idea will flower.
 
Ghost of FM, I actually hear a strong aggressive male vocal and some heavy power chord guitar mixed low. Strings and big backups could be a real option here though. I hardly know any Elton John songs and never listen to him, other than a few of his 70's / 80's hits. I've always been a Metallica meets the Beatles meets Led Zep meets Pink Floyd meets Ozzy kind of guy. I could see him playing something similar to this I suppose. Thanks for the comments.

studioviols, you're right about the cymbals being loud. I played it like that to fill in what I knew would be just piano and drums for now but it wouldn't survive like that in an actual mix! I hope I don't end up with anything near Elton John mix-wise but appreciate your suggestions. If it sounded like anything, I was thinking Beatles-esque "Abbey Road" era.

Thanks guys, those last 2 songs were the ones I'm needing input on.

Warren
 
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