First post in the clinic...here we go

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BrettMckinney

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Ok, the first song to leave my hard drive.
I thought i might start putting some stuff up for you guys to check out... as your insights are invaluable to people that gets sugar-coated blubber from friends and family.

Soo...without further ado, here is the first song i ever recorded- http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=2911/singles
Its called 'See different'.

I'll set the scenario so you can see where i was then...

It all started on a rainy gloomy day, i was hungover and decided to ditch class(2001) and my radio woke me up in disgust. 'Push the little daisies' came swiftly to my ears and they nicely told my arms to smash the radio. The first thing that came to my head was..damn,..any little shit can get on the radio these days! WHy aren't i? I can sing about daisies! ANway...i took my ditching school opportunity to go and buy my first mic..a Shure BG2.1(i was on a budget) a pair of Koss headphones..cost more than the mic!
I had high dreams of lovely ladies and alcohol...and computers. So i sat down at my puter with my lovely SB LIve!, plugged the mic in the mic-in jack put the booster on and recorded a 3 min riff just to muck around with. I then got onto some midi and bass tracks..and finally made up some vocals. The finished product..See Different.

SO yes,..this is very aged and done by a very inexperienced muso. Oh the first time i ever sang too. Whats this song got going for it you might ask?

1. Possibly the worst midi drums your likely to hear :)
2. OUt of time is not in this songs vocab
3. The start of my love for home recording!

To conclude..i will say that i am very aware of all the songs shortcomings and my future posts will be material that came with more knowledge. Vocals being the biggest. OVer the years vocals is prob the biggest part i've worked on. I wouldnt change this song at all..nor re-record it! Its the reason i'm hear now!

Ps. I dont have a name for myself..coz you just cant incorporate Brett into something cool..so wimp juice is a temp.
 
Decent song!

It sounds like maybe you are trying to make too many things in the mix "full" sounding.

This reminds me of the type of stuff Slackmaster2K does. Good job.

Ed
 
Decent music. I liked it, although I would have have liked to hear some kind of change-up in the song some where. A bridge or something.

I liked the guitar fills. Good tone on them.

The vocals are a bit overpowering and slightly muddy. Only slightly though. I think some well placed EQ cuts would improve things considerably.

Yeah those midi drums are not what this song needs. The sounded techno. You need some good samples.

Nice job.
 
First song you ever recorded??!!!!!!:eek: :confused: :eek: :eek:


WOW........uhhhhhhhhh ok?:D damn nice first recording, if you ask me! and a very cool tune!

in agreement with the above comment's........But DAMN! nice!


Thank's man

Peace

Rick








nice story to.......:D
 
Thanks guys. Yeah the vocals are very muddy..i sang the whole way through twice and it just has some reverb from Soundblaster EAX on it. It cracks me up when i think back of what i used to do!
The midi drums is a pissa, i was listening to some everlast and dug his kind of acoustic blues with techno samples so i went with it as i had no other sounds. I might try doing some eq'ing on the vox, definately could improve it i think.

"Decent music. I liked it, although I would have have liked to hear some kind of change-up in the song some where. A bridge or something"
...yeah only the one little bridge..like i said though, it was just a muck around riff to play with, so i didnt think too far ahead unfortunately.

The guitar fills are my favorite, from memory i recorded 2 lots of solo bits and went through and edited out what i didnt like or what didnt fit,time wise. But they dont sound too bad i think for the first time i mic'd up an amp..not too much noise.

Glad you fella's didnt think it was too shabby!
 
I actually like the drums :D

The only thing I would change is taking the effects off the vocals, I think they'd sound good without it.

If this is really your first recording, then I hate you :D

My first recording consisted of me and a buddy of mine making funny noises into a microphone over a rap drum beat. It was called "Wooooooooo". Be proud :)

travis
 
Haha..sweet, love to hear that. Dont actually know if i can take the effect off the vocals..i think somehow i recorded them with the verb on..hmm, have to check it out. Hey you should hear the drums with a sub!

Wanna know the funniest bit? I was using soundfonts through my sblive and i dont have a midi keyboard, sooo..i found a program that was a picture of a piano..and keys on the keyboard corresponded to the notes. So here i am with my fingers on the keyboard hitting away at drums..my friends laughed their heads off. DId the same thing with the piano on it..and the cello.

Glad you think its ok..my recordings are much better now but still nowhere as good as some others here..they make you wanna spend more money on gear!
 
good song...the guitar on the left might be too far left ....the vocals are muddy and get even muddier when the kick is playing...
however, great work...thanks
 
Thank Sen..yeah, pity about the muddy vocals. First time mixing so didnt really know what i was doing! Trust me..hasnt happened again :)

Guitar on the left..yep very left indeed. Coz i did 2 separate takes of guitar fills i kinda liked having one left and one right, buy wouldnt be bad more inwards i guess.
 
BrettMckinney said:
Thank Sen..yeah, pity about the muddy vocals. First time mixing so didnt really know what i was doing
Click to expand...

no, no your mixing is not too bad...i'm not much better trust me :)
 
Actually, i just went back and had a look at it( i still had the tracks for it) and noticed a lot of wierd stuff i did. I put the solo g's to about 50% and they did sit alot better..also just playing around with the vocals a bit..they are pretty deep and make it hard to sit nice with kick. MIght have a play. Funny how you can record songs and a couple years later come back to it..and go, its not finished YET!
 
I think this really cool. Vocals sound fine to me except for distortion in a couple spots. The build up at the end maybe could have come sooner to prevent it from feeling stagnant. Great acoustic sound, but might be a little out of tune when you play chords high up the neck. But the acoustic sound is nice and sparkly, yet still natural sounding. Nice electric playing and tone.

Personal preference - I'd rather hear a $50 set of real bongos than the midi drums. This is a very "earthy" sound that ideally could use a kit. I know that kits and places to play them are hard to come by and in this case cheap hand drums would be a worthy second choice.
 
Okay, your first one here is faultless, so when are you gonna put something here that's less than perfect? :D Really like the sound you got on the acoustic.

Small stuff:

Levels sound good to me, although the piano gets a tiny bit lost when the electrics play - what does it sound like with the piano panned wide and the guitar fills in the center? As for EQ, vocals sound a bit dark to my ears - maybe that's just cuz the melody is low down.

I love that shambling rhythm and guitars. Not sure about the guitar outro that goes all over the place - it reminds me a bit of a kite on a string swinging back and forth across the sky - maybe a bit distracting. How about just a single slow pan right across from one side to the other? Dunno, maybe I'm just used to things keeping their pan positions.

Nice one.
 
fprod south-- Thanks man..yeah it does kinda seem to drag out a bit..but in the background its alright?! Guitar out of tune..yep dont doubt that! You'd be the first one to pick it though! And drums..yes yes the drums...ppl either like it or hate it on this one. Me, i've heard it that many times im not fussed, but i when i was doing it i dreamed of a nice jazz kit..pity i could only find a kit named...wait for it...'Stomper'. haha.

dobro--Is that a dare? Smart ass. Well just for that i will put something else up! Piano's panned...will def try it..i think they became a bit distracting when they were heard constantly..i'll check though. The guitar outro..yeah, when i got the build up bit i kind of just wanted it to go nuts..and all over the place so i wacked out my slide and did the solo bit..and thought that a wild pan would bring some chaos to it. Does it work?..dont know :)

Now i was thinking, as this was the first song i ever recorded..should i now post the 2nd? OR should i avoid the sequel pending failure and just post a newy? Hmm..i'll have a think.
 
Good Guitars.The instraments seem out of place like in the wrong part of the spectrum or something,I don't really like the hard L/R panning on the lead.Take that crap FX off the vox too.Reminds me of Violent Femmes.Ditch the casio drum sounds.GREAT EFFORT FOR A 1ST POST!...it's different!
 
I did play around with the panning on the guitars and it does sit much nicer. The vocals are just doubled(sang twice through) and is recorded with a big reverb on. I do have it pure though so i might have a listen. I'll repost it if i can improve it!
 
This song has huge potential. I liked it a lot.

I'm at work listening from a laptop with headphones so take this with a grain of salt.

Acoustic sounded very nice. Electric sounded nice as well. I like the way the piano and electric sit back, giving this song a nice laid back feel.

I liked the string addition too (What's your synth?) , but might it might be too formal for this song. As an alternative to the strings, you might try an organ instead.

The vocals are distorting as far as I can tell .... to the point of being distracting. I don't necessarily think the vocals are muddy. If you get rid of the distortion, I think the vocals would be fine.

Additionally, I don't think the midi-kick your using works. I personally feel midi-drums can work in many situations. This song needs as much of a natural feel as possible and the kick your using sounds very synthesized.

Nice effort.

BPOCO
 
THanks, i really didnt think anyone would like it..but since you guys seem to think it has some potential i might invest some time into cleaning it up. You've inspired me! It is one of my favorites as it was my first, but also coz it is soo laid back..the rest of my tunes are much more upbeat.
 
Definately has an Everlast vibe, but I like this better.:cool:

Blows away my first recording, but I was much younger and nobody had much experience with those new cassette things. I did have that cool Panasonic mic with the on/off switch though.:eek:

:D
 
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