6 New Songs. Any comments/criticism are/is appreciated

[elenore19]

www.myspace.com/freakerswithspeakers

6 new songs that I'm in the process of posting.
"The Author" (I've put this one up here before and got tons of feedback on it, this is a redone version that hopefully you will all approve of)
"Corporate Theft"
"Do or Die"
"Mutiny"
"Barbeara"
"The Everything"

Thanks for the help.
[size=+3]ANY C&C is Strongly encouraged![/size]
EDIT: Everything is Now uploaded.

 

[zed32]

i'm gonna check these out one at a time and write while listening.

the first song, i'm noticing that piano is panned way too hard. it's distracting. maybe shove it over to the left just a bit, even 5% more. it just sounds way out of balance with the guitars. vox are kinda flat in a lot of places. the whistle solo needs to come down, too loud. the vox are a little loud too. you can't hear the kick for most of the song until he starts hitting it hard. all the drums are too quiet in the beginning. toward the end of the song when everything else starts getting louder it sounds a lot better. i dunno if maybe you intended for it to build up to that or not. needs more guitar on the right side!! just sounds so out of balance.

 

[RAMI]

vox are kinda flat in a lot of places.

the whistle solo needs to come down, too loud.

you can't hear the kick for most of the song until he starts hitting it hard.

all the drums are too quiet in the beginning.

I just edited Zed's post to the things I totally agree with.

Besides that, there's something very box-y and dull sounding going on with the drums. Sounds like really really old skins or something.

That piano loop ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SONG can get a little annoying. It's a beautiful loop you copied there, but more isn't always better. It loses it's effect by being in there all the time.

It's an interesting sound, though, and a pretty good song. Just a little repetitive in the arrangement. And tell your drummer to CHANGE HIS HEADS before the next recording.

 

[RAMI]

....OOps....Double post. Sorry.

 

[elenore19]

i'm gonna check these out one at a time and write while listening.

the first song, i'm noticing that piano is panned way too hard. it's distracting. maybe shove it over to the left just a bit, even 5% more. it just sounds way out of balance with the guitars. vox are kinda flat in a lot of places. the whistle solo needs to come down, too loud. the vox are a little loud too. you can't hear the kick for most of the song until he starts hitting it hard. all the drums are too quiet in the beginning. toward the end of the song when everything else starts getting louder it sounds a lot better. i dunno if maybe you intended for it to build up to that or not. needs more guitar on the right side!! just sounds so out of balance.

I'll mess around with the panning and such. I wonder if listening to it in headphones might help me realize what you're talking about. Whistle will be brought down. I'll mess around with the loudness of the drums and such as well.
Thanks for the input, greatly appreciated!

I just edited Zed's post to the things I totally agree with.

Besides that, there's something very box-y and dull sounding going on with the drums. Sounds like really really old skins or something.

That piano loop ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SONG can get a little annoying. It's a beautiful loop you copied there, but more isn't always better. It loses it's effect by being in there all the time.

It's an interesting sound, though, and a pretty good song. Just a little repetitive in the arrangement. And tell your drummer to CHANGE HIS HEADS before the next recording.

Alright, describe "boxy." The drums were recorded with a shit drumset to put it bluntly. I put the thing together and payed about 150 bucks for it total with what was on this recording. Are you talking anything in particular? eg. Snare or toms or something? Or just in general? I've replaced the bass drum head and re-tuned all the toms and such and have them sounding a lot better since these recordings.
The piano does in fact change. But I know what you mean it being basically the same the whole song. I never really thought about it. If I pan it in the guitar a little better maybe it'll help out the repetitiveness.

Thanks for the input!

 

[RAMI]

Alright, describe "boxy." The drums were recorded with a shit drumset to put it bluntly.

OK, I should have said "shitty". No, not at all, I'm just joking.

By "box-y", I mean they sound dull and have no crack or "life" to them. That's usually from either: old heads, or too much compression...or both. If it's just compression, you can fix it by not compressing so much, or giving it more attack. If it's old heads, all the processing in the world won't help you. It's the old saying: "Get it right at the source". You can't fix things like that in the mix. It's a very cool drum part, by the way. It would sound huge with a better sound.

 

[elenore19]

OK, I should have said "shitty". No, not at all, I'm just joking.

By "box-y", I mean they sound dull and have no crack or "life" to them. That's usually from either: old heads, or too much compression...or both. If it's just compression, you can fix it by not compressing so much, or giving it more attack. If it's old heads, all the processing in the world won't help you. It's the old saying: "Get it right at the source". You can't fix things like that in the mix. It's a very cool drum part, by the way. It would sound huge with a better sound.

Alright, yeah. I definitely compressed the hell out of them. I'll mess around for a while, I really wish I could just re-record the song. But sadly I'm off to school in like 5 days and there's no way of convincing my drummer to get into town anytime soon.

Thanks for the input though. I'm relatively new to the whole compression factor, and the fact that I'm not using that great of one probably doesn't help. but yeah, I'll definitely work on my compression usage.
Thanks again!

 

[Supercreep]

I like The Everything.

 

[elenore19]

I like The Everything.

Thanks.
It definitely needs to be re-recorded sometime. I'm not a drummer, and I did the beginning drum beat. Definite timing issues here and there. But I dig the minor the major change for the chorus, pretty proud of that.

Thanks!

 

[elenore19]

*Bump*

So does anyone have any criticism for the other 5 tracks? (other than the author)

Thanks!

 

[acattoir]

Alright, yeah. I definitely compressed the hell out of them. I'll mess around for a while, I really wish I could just re-record the song. But sadly I'm off to school in like 5 days and there's no way of convincing my drummer to get into town anytime soon.

Thanks for the input though. I'm relatively new to the whole compression factor, and the fact that I'm not using that great of one probably doesn't help. but yeah, I'll definitely work on my compression usage.
Thanks again!

Here is my little moto for compression on individual instruments or voices: In general, compress for sound or tone and not for gain control.

Yes you can smooth radical volume differences but often at the expense of the tone. So better to control dynamics at the source if you can. Often it sounds better to just ride the faders than to overuse comp.

I'm listening to all the tunes but don't have any comments as yet.
ac

 

[wilko]

Ijujst listened to The Author. I loved the song but there is something squiffy with the mix and that is as about as technical as I get! Great song though..

 

[elenore19]

Here is my little moto for compression on individual instruments or voices: In general, compress for sound or tone and not for gain control.

Yes you can smooth radical volume differences but often at the expense of the tone. So better to control dynamics at the source if you can. Often it sounds better to just ride the faders than to overuse comp.

I'm listening to all the tunes but don't have any comments as yet.
ac

Thanks for the input. I'll definitely be trying new things next time when it comes to the drums. Also with compression. Thanks for the input.
Let me know what you think of the songs. I think most of them the drums are pretty much the same on all of them.

Ijujst listened to The Author. I loved the song but there is something squiffy with the mix and that is as about as technical as I get! Great song though..

Thanks man!

Was the "squiffyness" maybe because of the piano and guitar being so panned out. (guitar left and piano right).
Or maybe because the drums were weak and boxy?
Those are two things that I've heard so far...And it makes sense to me. I kept the panned guitar and piano. I like how that feels when the chorus then comes in and the piano is in the center and guitar on both left and right.

As far as the drums go. I used too much compression. My drummer isn't as consistent as a pro by any means, so I needed to. But rather I should have just be riding the faders and also had him re-do it over and over to get it perfect.



Thanks again for the compliment! Means a lot! You should listen to the rest of them, they have a different feel to them.


-Elliot

 

[loudsongs]

I listened to all of the tracks and I really like all your songs, they have a lot of originality. I was sorta reminded of FireHose. You might not be old enough to know, but that's a big compliment.

What's your monitoring situation? It sounds like you're monitoring through computer speakers.

The big problem with the drums is just that there are no high frequencies. As a matter of fact, there aren't many low freqs either. Same with the guitars. The midrange is balanced pretty well, which is what bad speakers are good for.




Scott
Not an audio engineer

 

[elenore19]

I listened to all of the tracks and I really like all your songs, they have a lot of originality. I was sorta reminded of FireHose. You might not be old enough to know, but that's a big compliment.

What's your monitoring situation? It sounds like you're monitoring through computer speakers.

The big problem with the drums is just that there are no high frequencies. As a matter of fact, there aren't many low freqs either. Same with the guitars. The midrange is balanced pretty well, which is what bad speakers are good for.




Scott
Not an audio engineer

Thanks! Means a lot! You're right, I guess I'm not old enough to know of FireHose.

I'm using m-audio LX4's. With the sub.
They are pretty shitty, and monitors are probably my next investment for my studio.
I'll definitely work on my eq'ing out. I'll also try and purchase some new monitors.

Thanks again man! Means a lot!


-Elliot

 

[loudsongs]

Don't ditch the monitors just yet, they ought to be good enough to get you in the ballpark on most anything.

Reference mixes-
Most everybody, even many pros, keeps reference mixes handy. This is a CD or tape or ipod with 5-10 songs that you really like the engineering on, that you would really like your record to sound like.

Make sure you can cue this up through the same monitors that your are mixing on, at the same volume, easily, so you can check your mix against the ones that are on your "ideal mixes" cd.

Listen to the drums, what do the references have that yours doesn't? EQ, Reverb - how is it used on the references, try to duplicate that, or at least get close, etc.

Learn to listen to the details and figure out how to copy them. Once you can copy a mix closely, you have the knowledge you need to explore ideas on your own.



Scott
Not an audio engineer

 

[elenore19]

Don't ditch the monitors just yet, they ought to be good enough to get you in the ballpark on most anything.

Reference mixes-
Most everybody, even many pros, keeps reference mixes handy. This is a CD or tape or ipod with 5-10 songs that you really like the engineering on, that you would really like your record to sound like.

Make sure you can cue this up through the same monitors that your are mixing on, at the same volume, easily, so you can check your mix against the ones that are on your "ideal mixes" cd.

Listen to the drums, what do the references have that yours doesn't? EQ, Reverb - how is it used on the references, try to duplicate that, or at least get close, etc.

Learn to listen to the details and figure out how to copy them. Once you can copy a mix closely, you have the knowledge you need to explore ideas on your own.



Scott
Not an audio engineer

Alright, definitely will try that out. I wish I wasn't at school right now (8 hours away from my "studio") so I could work on these new things.

But I could still mix here, but it'd be through my headphones, and I've heard that that is just a bad idea. So yeah..

 

[antichef]

I listened to all of the tracks and I really like all your songs, they have a lot of originality. I was sorta reminded of FireHose. You might not be old enough to know, but that's a big compliment.

I like the songs, too and I hear the Firehose, and that is a **huge** compliment (if nothing else, this was the smartest band name ever, because it came with instant signs in just about every public building in the USA).

I don't have much to add as far as constructive criticism, so I won't repeat stuff - keep at it!

 

[elenore19]

I like the songs, too and I hear the Firehose, and that is a **huge** compliment (if nothing else, this was the smartest band name ever, because it came with instant signs in just about every public building in the USA).

I don't have much to add as far as constructive criticism, so I won't repeat stuff - keep at it!

Thanks!

 

[Anfontan]

The Author has some extreme panning, the guitar blows the piano away volume wise when it comes in. I think narrowing the panning would help a lot-nice and interesting song, keep at it it's coming along well-

Corporate theft-more drums needed-

Do or Die needs the drums up quite a bit, can't hear much of the kick at all-

Mutiny has a nice sound and good drums-sounding good-the short harmony guitar part is quite nice on there-

Barbeara-drums thin sounding with the loud guitars

The everything cool harmonies-some timing issues-once those are ironed out it'll be a good tune!