By request from Mr. Dobro, and apologies to Mr.QQ, here are some crappy demos of mine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shaky Tee
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Shaky Tee

Between being and nothing
I've written and, well, tried to, record some songs while we out traveling. I've been having nothing but a frustrating time trying to record off my laptop, as I detailed in this forum earlier, so it's been difficult for me to feel motivated about doing any positive recording.

Anyway, I've put together a REALLY ROUGH demo of one of the songs I did. You can find it, as well as a further description of it, on my real name site at AL.com:

www.artistlaunch.com/helens

It's the first song on the top. I'm not really done with it, I just really need some ideas, so go ahead and lay it on me, folks.
 
Hey Shakey,

I tried but the song "can't be found" :(

I missed the conversation about laptop recording, too. That's what I do and I'm really happy with it. Where can I find that thread?

Take care,
Chris
 
Hey Chris!

I just did a search, and I can't find that thread either. There weres some interesting threads going on, when I went to page two of my search...

https://homerecording.com/bbs/searc...by=lastpost&sortorder=descending&pagenumber=2

My frustration has been that even after all the tweaking I did (I even went to Tascam's PC optimization Guide for advice), I STILL was having problems with clicks, pops and drop outs on my recordings utilizing my external sound card (Aardvark USB3 - boy, am I kicking myself for going along with USB for a sound module). I ended up having to purchase an external hard drive (a 7200 RPM Firewire drive, along with a cardbus PCMCIA card) in order to remedy the situation, along with some FURTHER tweaking. At this point, I seem to have resolved the pop and click issue, but this kinda defeats the purpose, tho'. What am I gonna do when hubby and I are out in the desert, unplugged from everything?

As for the song itself, it should be available later today. I'll email Artistlaunch.com and see what's up. I uploaded this thing at about 9:00 PM last night (PST), so they probably haven't gotten around to putting the thing online yet.
 
He he he

To say that it being a master production is an overstatement is the understatement of the year. :D

Anyway, I just heard from AL.com. The problem's been fixed. Head on in there and beat it to a pulp.
 
Listened to Time of My Life. Ouch! Pretty raw...

Musically, I found the beginning rhythmically disjointed between the piano and drums - intentional?

Lyrically, it's gonna be really hard to make the word 'party' work in 'guilty party'. How about: "I was still the guilty one, see?" or something that fits the rhythm of the song more easily?

"They thought the guilty one's me"

I like your singing. Was that you playing piano? I liked it too.
 
Hey Dobro!!

Thanks for the feedback. That song's about 2 years old, and the version that's up was one that was remixed for me by one of my internet acquaintances, by the name of Galmin. WAY kewl dude!

I guess I should be clearer. The song I want reviewed is the Trailer Trash Demo called Daydream. It's the REALLY BAD one. :)
 
I had already downloaded Empty Experience, so I'm gonna review that one :P

There is some freaky stuff goin on there. Haunting vocals for sure... What I'm guessing is Jinny's voice really creeped me out in spots. A really good thing for this track. Whatever that is that sounds like a fast heartbeat at the end was cool too. I usually don't like this ambient type of thing, but this one I liked.

Ok, so I downloaded Daydream while I was typing...

I wouldn't say really bad. Is that a xylophone? Gives the song a neat sound. The vocal doesn't sit in the mix right to me. Maybe some reverb would help, as the chorus part with the reverb sounds more in line with the rest of the track. I like the effect of changing it up there though. I think a more lush vocal sound would pull the song together more. I really like the sound of the vocals in the other song, and would like to hear something similar in tone to that here. Very drum machine sounding percussion other than the xylophone thing. I don't think I like the parts where everything drops out as the Daydream vocal carries on, then comes back in. Happens a few times, and everytime it catches me off guard.
 
Hi Jon

Thanks for your feedback.

Empty Experience was recorded at somebody's house. The producer Rick had Jinny and I sing into a couple of mics, and he spliced them and diced them into what it is today. That and adding reverb and doing the magic that he does on it.

As for Daydream, yep, that's a vibraphone. I'm going to rerecord the vocals, and while I did put some reverb on all of them, it doesn't sound like it was enough, so I agree on adding a more lush sound. I did a chorus thing on the backing vocals (or tried to, anyway; I was using Cool Edit 2000 to apply the effects, and CE2000 didn't have a chorus effect, so I used wider stereo instead). Personally I think it ended up making them more dorky sounding.

The dropouts were the result of the program on my Palm Pilot. I'm not sure why it does it. I'll have to look into it.
 
Okay, I listened to the 'top' song on the site.

It's really good. Change the way you sing 'daydream' the first two times - trust me - the glissando doesn't work. Cut the vocal 1.0 dB. Keep the rest of the arrangement (that xylophone sound is MAGIC). Dump or replace the high 'daydreams' toward the end of the song - they're slightly out of tune. Keep the overall sound - it's good.

"When the women cast off their embroidered faces"

This line is *excellent*. It isn't the only good line, either. :)

You must be overdubbing on this one, right? Okay - when you get the song set up finally and you're laying on the vocal, don't let the music carry the vocal. Don't allow your singing to be carried along by the music, especially that backup vocal. Get in there and punch in that vocal, RIGHT AND TIGHT on the rhythm! I know what you're doing, cuz I do it myself. HIT that beat with the vocal! You see, the vocal rhythm and the xylophone rhythm don't exactly match, and in this song, they gotta do that.

Gee, I like this song. It's a great song. Make it work.

Of course, I might be wrong. I'm barely containing my anger and lust, after all. :D I've never been a photojournalist - yeah, that's my problem, I'm sure of it. :D

Daydream's a part of it, I'm sure, but I think more of it is that they're dazed, and scared, and conditioned to accept pain.
 
I really felt this! Light & airy and by no means crappy!! I agree
with dobro-ther's assesment of the back-ground vocs; slightly rushed ahead of the tempo during chorus. Keys!!?? Superb!
Synth samples used (vibes, organ-bass,strings and 1 of the most
cleanest kits I've heard) fit in perfect like a glove! Home-gurl,slap a lil 'verb in there during the chorus!!
Overall,"Daydreams" is beautiful & sexy! Your lead,melodic vocs
conjure up images of a cross-between Billie H./Debra Laws with a smattering of Teena Marie! I truly enjoyed this NEO-SOUL/Folk-Feel/soft-Jazz! As a matter of fact, I burned this to c/d so I can personally try and add some of my own musical influence for fun!

Yeah baby, U got it goin' on!!! "DayDreams" is Smooth and Creamy like buttah'!
(and not Parkay!!)
 
Gee, I really left this hanging, didn't I?

Call this coitus interruptus :eek

Dobro and Mr.QQ, you sure do know how to make a girl feel good.

My voice has been kinda thrashed the last few months, due to colds and allergies. It also needs a lot of work, anyway, so I'm trying to make sure I can stay on pitch more often.

Dobro, I'm a musical dufus, what's a glissando?

In the meantime, I've copied and pasted all of this info for use. Mr. QQ, if you want to jam with this, feel free to do so. :)

I've finished up the last verse, and I'm doing some remix work on this. I hope to be finished with it in the next week or so.

I really do appreciate it guys, tho it takes me a while to say so :D.
 
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