Ecc. project Chapter 4

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Mark VH

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Chapter 4 is the latest installment of the Ecclesiastes project, where each song will represent one of the 12 chapters. Like an impressionist painting or a sketch, but with music. Some of y'all may remember the first 3. Once I'm done with all 12, I figure I'll go back and implement all the observations and such.

http://users2.ev1.net/~thevanhoevens/music/

the set-up:

500mhz, 256meg ram, win98, SBLive
N-Tracks and Fruityloops
SM58 thru Tascam MkII mic pre for vox
Guitar and Bass line out old Ibanez PT5 (analog tubescreamer circuit)
 
very nice stuff...

reminds me of some harder rock stuff from Petra...

I like it, and it sounds just about ready to go...
 
great tune!

I said this the last time, and I'll say it again....this reminds me of one of my favorite bands, 'King's X'... :)

If I had to nit pick, I would say that solo at 1:30 should have been a guitar solo or better keyboard sound.......or a guitar solo... I also didnt like the fake bongos at the beginning.. I would definitley lose those or replace with better sounding..

Great tune and top notch recording, and excellent vocals.

I love the change at @2:40 also..

Immediately up there with some of the best stuff I have heard here..

later
sam



www.nowhereradio.com/samij/singles
 
..couldnt get it...

....I tried to take a peek, but couldnt get in. If its anything like Kings X, i really look forward to hearing it... i'll try later, mike
 
Mark,

What processing are you doing with the voice? All 4 songs sound great! I am looking to get that FULL sound you have.

I am using Guitar Tracks 2.0 with Marshall MXL 63M condensor mic going into a cheapie Behringer mixer, then into the sound card on the motherboard of the computer......

Once I lay down the vocals, I try to add reverb, but it always sounds terrible...

Can you give me some tips?
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

Mikeman, the vox are as follows. I use an SM58 thru my old Tascam 4-track for the mic pre, then line into the SBlive card to be recorded in N-Tracks.

I make 3 takes of the lead vox all the way through, and select the best phrases to mix down to one track. Once it is a single wav file, I run it through the free Blue compressor plugin (or whatever) and through the free Endorphine dual-band compressor plugin. The Blue is for taming peaks and Endorhpine is an all-around magic bullet. Then I put some Freeverb on it. Get Endorphine at www.digitalfishphones.com

Backing vocals are done the same way, but the difference is that I double and pan each harmony part. It gives them kind of a phasing/chorusing effect the natural way.

And B.Sabbath, I will do as you say once the 12 are done.
 
Sounds great to me and concidering the gear it's excelent recording. I'm not to crazy about the song itself how the words and music flow together. But recording and mixing is very pleasant.

Nothing bad to say. I do agree on the bongos, though I didn't notice them at first listen :).

What did you use for drums and guitars? Also is there bass guitar there somewhere? I was trying to pick it out of the mix and couldn't hear it. May be it just very tight with the guitars and blends in. I'm on cheesy headphones right now also so that could be it.

cheers
 
Thanks Fed,

Guitar is just some generic Alvarez, but with a pair of Dimarzio Air Zones. It is run thru an old (10 yr?) Ibanez floor multifx unit called the PT5. It has the analog Tubescreamer circuit in it. I record 2 tracks and pan. Line out and in, no mic.

Drums are sequenced in FruityLoops.

Bass is tight to the guitar part, and it might be the phones as you said.

The vox and theme of the song sit better when understood in the context of the whole project. I am trying to be somewhat true to the themes and phrases of each chapter of Ecclesiastes. It is an adaptation of material that doesn't rhyme, and even within a chapter, the subject wanders. It's a challenge.
 
Well you got your reasons and inspiration. But I would keep the theme and loose the frases :) I thgink it would make better songs. MHO

Oh and bass content is there so I thought that there must be bass guitar. Just couldn't pick it it out. I think it does go into high register away from the guitars at some point and I heard that (can't find it now, hm?? oh well).

cheers
 
I just gotta comment...again... for the "shit" gear you are using (pardon me Mark), you are getting one hell of a sound. There it is folks....inexpensive equipment, killer sound.... way to go (I guess my Neve is for sale now:D )
 
Yeah... good tunes... Nothing wrong with the words, vocals, phrases etc, in my book.

I dig this one much..

I agree with mix, "inexpensive equipment, killer sound.."

great tune.
 
Ok I feel I got to clarify my comment about the flow and phrases thing...

I just think since you already locked into theme and meaning and on top of that you trying to fit actual phrases into it the song sounds kind of "squeezed". In other words it feels that you "squeez" it out of you as opposed to .... well other ways of writing a song :) .

As a result I though that the mood/feel of the song is kind of "stiff". This is all ofcourse MHO. I wonder if I felt the same if I didn't know about the theme.

It's great recording and very cool and serious effort.
And another testament to HR moto...
"if it sounds good, it is good" :)

cheers

PS. this probably didn't clarify my statment :D
 
Fed, I get it. Out of the 4 so far, this last one was the most reluctant to come together. Some chapters are more poetic or cohesive than others. Take a look at that chapter the way it was written. It's all over the map. Maybe I should have picked the most vivid phrase as a chorus, and write my own words as an interpretation/application of a theme. When the 12 are done, and I come back to tweak each of them, I may address some flow issues with chapter 4. Good call.
 
Nice! You got a great sound considering the gear involved. Some clever lyrics as well.
 
When I tried to write something from the scriptures I looked in different tranlations (OKJ, NKJ, NIV) to broaden the phrase selection. It still didn't work for me though :). I couldn't get rid of the "stiffness" and english is not my native language. I don't want to discourage you in your effort though. Keep at it dude. I just give up too easily. :)

I would say, again IMHO, you defenetly can take poetic lisense to make it flow better and as long as you keep to theme.

Even simple stuff like this, you have in first song:

Generations come and go
The sun rounds the Earth again
The waters flow into the sea
It all returns to where it began

could be, for better ryme:

Generations come and go
The sun rounds the Earth again
into the sea the waters flow
It all returns to where it began


And another thing... I know that you already on chapter four and all but, you could look at the whole Ecc and maybe find 12 themes that go throu the book (like, vanity all vanity , the joy comes from the Lord, what good is it to store up threasures on earth, and last one could be ofcourse "the meaning af all" :)) you already covered some ofcource. So the point is you wouldn't be locked into theme of poticular chapter knowing that you will or did cover it in another song.

Sorry I'm not trying to hijack your project just offering some thoughts.

cheers

PS. And oh... don't forget to ask you know Who for the inspiration. My wife swears by that method. It works miracles, if you know what I mean. :D
 
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