[Beginner] A few songs

[CoiCrow]

I made a few songs and I would like some critique. I started recording about 1 year ago and this is what I get out of it. I'm using a set of behringer monitor's, a tascam us-122, a really old (25 years) philips microphone. I plug it all in and record it with Logic Express 7.1 (on a Mac).

I'm still lost with all the eq'ing and compressor settings so that will need a lot of work. I have one more song (well, acctually I have 30 more songs, but they are far from finished), but purevolume.com only accepts 4 so.

http://www.purevolume.com/dylanyoung

I play and sing everything myself. The drum's are programmed of are apple loops, cause I can't drum and don't have a drum set, or the mics. The guitars, bass, vocals are mine.

I'm not that much intressted if you like the song or not, but more looking for critiques on the recordings itself


Let it rip

 

[TelePaul]

Hey dude! First things first, Purevolume sucks. I've used it myself, but it's not the best site. www.soundclick.com gives you much more space and much better quality. I had some time on my hands so I gave all these a listen.

Never Ever There: You have a pretty cool contrast between vocals and drums...I'm not sure how much of this is showing up the limitations of your microphone against the studio quality drums, or how much is by desire. it works as a nice paradox. Did you mic the amp?? Kinda muddy overdrive, but overall I like this. One thing you could do is fade out the mix, just ends a little abruptly for me.

Born to Be: Great idea double-tracking these vocals, well done. It makes a huge difference to the sound. It's a very good job of capturing a full sound with the US 122, I use one myself and I know you can only do two tracks at a time. Bass is good in this too, not sure I like the guitar again! It might just be me. At 2:45, do you pan it extreme left and right?? It's a much nicer stereo image. But yeah, good idea with the vocals.

Medicine: Could you take the effects off one vocal track and leave it on the other. Nice lead guitar, it's much more distinguished than in the otehr trakcs, but I guess that's bcause it's more lead orientated right?? Oh and when the rhythm comes in at 1:45, it's much better than in the other songs. I think I like this one best, even if it's a little creepy!! Well done though.

Maybe you could tell us what guitar and amp your using? My one quibble would be the guitar sound, but I'm not even that familiar with your style of music ( I shun bands like Muse and Incubus!). I'd say keep using those apple loops, they're lending alot to your mix, so good job!

 

[CoiCrow]

First of all; Thanks a lot for your critique! I was surfing and posting around on the sputnikforums, but the crits you'll get there are more like: Dude you suck! or Dude you rock! and that's it. So I'm very happy with the more argumented critique here.

I will put my music on soundclick. I have an account there, but when I put my music there I want to add the lyrics there too. My lyrics are neatly organized in a desk drawer, on small bits of paper, so I'll have to work it out.

I don't seem able to get the guitar sound that I want. There are two reasons for that (I guess):
1. For the acoustic guitar I don't have a suitable mic or the room. Sometimes the picking sounds awesom but when I go into strumming mode it's just a big blur of potatoes in a blender.
2. The electric guitar goes into the Hi-z input of the us-122. In logic express there is an amp simulator. And the sound I get from that isn't that good. Mostly a little bit dry and flat. I really want Logic Pro, but it's to exprensieve (and not cracked for the mac). Logic Pro has a very nice amp simulator. I know that real amp's are better, but I don't have a nice amp, so I'm screwed either way

I'm busy saving money for better equipment, but it alway's takes to long, haha. I'm now using my stuff to make songs, and save my ideas. Hopefully make a demo and get real studio time. But for now, that's just a 'dream'. I just like recording my ideas

It's funny that you mention Muse and Incubus (others also added Placebo), cause when I started recording I didn't listen to those bands. I'm really into Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton etc. I just can't make that kind of music.. it just doesn't come out that way. My music is my music. I never really thought: "A! I'm going to make a nice Neil Young like song". I've tried , but they alway's sucked. So I just watch a movie, play a little bit guitar, get an idea and start recording. Adding this, removing that, modifing the... and so on.

Well, again, thanks a lot!

 

[TelePaul]

I'm busy saving money for better equipment, but it alway's takes to long, haha. I'm now using my stuff to make songs, and save my ideas. Hopefully make a demo and get real studio time. But for now, that's just a 'dream'. I just like recording my ideas

That's cool. The nice thing about home recording is that you can ugrade as you go.

It's funny that you mention Muse and Incubus (others also added Placebo), cause when I started recording I didn't listen to those bands. I'm really into Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton etc. I just can't make that kind of music.. it just doesn't come out that way. My music is my music. I never really thought: "A! I'm going to make a nice Neil Young like song". I've tried , but they alway's sucked. So I just watch a movie, play a little bit guitar, get an idea and start recording. Adding this, removing that, modifing the... and so on.

Well, again, thanks a lot!

Funnya ya should say that, Neil Young is my favourite artist. And he has songs belonging to many genres.

 

[rayc]

I don't like the distorted guitar tone. Sound like a cheap iternal effect.
Apart from that the effect of the mic on the vocal (I assume) is interesting.
A good song fairly well performed.
Follow the other advice re upload site & recording software though.

 

[TelePaul]

theres some decent freebies plug-ins.