Crap or OK?

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intomusic

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Hiya,

Since coming on this site to ask for interface advice over a month ago, I've been learning loads! So I'm trying to get a LITTLE bit more professional in my recordings.
I know they're not the best recordings but are there any awful bits that make them horrible to listen to? Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated!
My set up - Acoustic guitar, C-1 Behringer mic, GarageBand 3 on MacBook and my E-MU 0404 USB interface. I'm doing my monitoring using a pair of £15 Stagg headphones.

the bumblebee bats @ soundclick

the bumblebee bats @ MySpace

cheers

intomusic
 
Id invest in some more gear because it sounds like you can write a song....good stuff :)
 
Hey. That's great considering what you're working with.

I just listened to most of 'Got a Symphony Inside my head'. Only comment would be I find the drums to be pretty low in the mix.
 
Thanks very much guys! Much appreciated.
Well that's a relief - sometimes it's difficult to know if the product of hours of headphone madness sounds kinda OK or not. I get so into it, I completely lose all objectivity...
Drums need to be louder in the 1st track - check. They do sound a tad quiet,eh. Thanks.
Need new equipment - bugger. Run out of money! :eek:

intomusic
 
Better when your dead is what I checked out.

Sounds great. I love the repeating lyric. If you have a good lyric, you can get away with that. The harpsichord vibe is very cool. Shows you don't need alot to sound great.
 
Thanks Ksounds for the kind words :)
That song really annoyed me because I couldn't think of a verse melody. So I ended up just having those lines repeat throughout. That's cool you liked it.


inspired to write more,
intomusic
 
Listening to "symphony". Sounds pretty good. Drums need to be louder. Guitar sounds kind of squashed. Too much compression maybe? Accompaniment vocals coming in late are too loud. Not bad at all overall though.
 
Oh....and buy or make a pop-filter. You're "P" sounds are pretty overwhelming in some spots.
 
Greg_L said:
Listening to "symphony". Sounds pretty good. Drums need to be louder. Guitar sounds kind of squashed. Too much compression maybe? Accompaniment vocals coming in late are too loud. Not bad at all overall though.
Click to expand...

Ah! Thanks Greg! I'd never even heard of compression until coming on this site :confused: I use the pre-sets on GarageBand 3 (and set in to multiband compression - gentle) for the final mix so I guess I should just take the compression bar down a bit manually. Cheers.

As for the drums, I'll bring them up. And the second vocals take them down. I kinda thought that was the case too.

Aha, a pop filter I shall make with some tights and a clothes hanger :)

Thanks very much for the honesty, Greg!

intomusic
 
Listening to "Everything's Broken" now.

The guitar sounds good. The drums are at a pretty good level. Although those sound more like rock drums; they could stand to be mellower.

The vocals could use some (more?) reverb. They sound a little unnatural, especially compared to the guitar.

I'd also lose the synth brass section. It doesn't fit this style of music. I liked the melody it added, but the tone was all wrong. (If you could replace that part with a real instrument, that would be optimal.)
 
Thanks Vomit...er, I'd best call you Steve :)

I was worried about the vocal for that song especially, so thanks for commenting on that. Depending on what I listen to it on, it does sound a bit unnatural,eh. My voice is a little weak so I add reverb, yeah, but also add one version slightly out of sync to give it a fuller sound. I might stop doing that form now on...

With regards to the trumpets, I love 'em! But everyone says lose 'em. :o

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the track though!

intomusic
 
Hey,

You were nice enough to leave a comment on my tune and I failed to realize you had some posted...sorry to be so late :o:).

I listened to all 3...and I really liked them!

I agree with some of the prior comments...I think the horn(s) on everything's broken are a bit too lo-budget sounding...I think I know what you're going for, but that same part could sound so much cooler if played with at least a somewhat more horn-like sound. Or perhaps a different instrument entirely?

While I liked the sound of the acoustic on got a symphony inside my head (my fav of the 3), it felt just a bit rhythmically stunted...like you were just a hair behind the beat at times...maybe just me.

I really liked the lyrics, your vocals and the way you recorded them. All very simple, accessible tunes but unique enough to be new sounding. Nice job :D.
 
Oh, Heatmiser, that's OK, I didn't do it for the karma or anything - I like listening to people's stuff and yours was cool;)

Thanks very much though. I thought my tune had disappeared for good:p

Great feedback. Yeah, I've been listening to my Symphony Inside my Head track a bit recently (man, I'm obsessed with my own stuff:o) and feel the same way. The rhythm lags a bit in places, especially at the start. I need to watch out for that.
As for the horns in Everything's Broken, yeah, I hear where you're coming from. They sound like a keyboard version of something trying to sound like a trumpet!
Thanks for the kind words with regards to the vocals too - I'm never sure if they sound OK or not. Cheers! If one person thinks the quality is OK, then it can't be that bad,eh.

I haven't got the patience to go back and re-do these 3 but all the feedback is great for my next outings and to get a feel for how to make a good enough quality recording.

So thanks again Heatmiser and everyone else too:cool:

intomusic
 
Sounds like you are very good with your voice and your guitar....BUT like someone said somewhere above me, you should try to invest in better gear because (please don't be offended) is making the songs sound like shit.:eek:

Your voice and guitar is excellent in all the songs. "Got a symphony inside my head" is good, but I kept waiting for the chorus to come. The music doesn't match up with the lyrics for the chorus. What I'm saying is that there should be some kind of musical change for the chorus along with the lyrical change.

"Better When You're Dead" had a bad hip-hop feel to it because of the drums.

"Everything's broken had a bad horn section.

Just my opinion. Again, I'm not trying to offend you, I just want to be honest.
 
I just wanted to add that if you had a real drum kit, I know your sound would be amazing.
 
Alex0203, thanks for the honest advice! Not offended at all.

Does it really sound like shit? Oh, bugger. But not too shit, right? ;) I guess you didn't hear what I used to sound like with my previous recordings:eek:

Thanks for listening to all of them though.

intomusic
 
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