*for pop producers-any ideas......????quick!!!

L

LongWaveStudio

New member
hi guys,

im sitting in my studio right now, pulling my hair out over something.

here's the deal.

if some of you remember, i posted a track by one of my artists, Amy Phillips. a track called what i need. well, we're working on a new track, bit upbeat, very rhythmic kinda thing.

now everything is going great, except, the chorus is lacking something. .it just doesn't have the punch im after. usually, im good with this kinda thing, but i just cant hear what needs to be there on this one. ive just got a complete brain block. can any of you guys hear any particular instruments/lines/whatever in this. i was thinking very squelchy filter work, but then i didin't like the idea. i know you need the vocals to really understand the track, but musically, tell me what you think might sound cool in the chorus.

the chorus is at 1:07, plus all the other places with similar instrumentation.

here is the link.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/2/1252/album9.shtml

it's not "What I need", it's the other one!


THIS TRACK HAS NO VOCALS AND IS STILL VERRRRYY ROUGH. it's got a bit of noise here and there, simply cus all the channels are up and i haven't done any automation yet. its far from finished.

ive spent most of the afternoon programming and playing with drums on this track so any ideas on that would be great too. oh,ignore the cymbals,i had a gate on them by accident so they cut out quick

cheers, any ideas would be great, and make it quick if possible!!

btw,to people who responsed on the last amy track, ive got meetings with a few BIG record labels who are interested in amy. fingers crossed, eh?!

-Romesh
 
LongWaveStudio said:
hi guys,


it's not "What I need", it's the other one!



-Romesh
Click to expand...

it appears, "what i need" is the only track at your nowhere radio site...I checked under "discography"...and nothing else on any other albums, singles...etc.

I'll check back soon...maybe you're still in the process of u/ling
 
tap, tap, tap......

still not there yet....ah...computers!!;)

hopefully your fav. beverage is helping out during these difficult upload times.....
 
welll....while I'm waiting....listened to the tune that is there instead...
"what i need"
nice pno at the beginning (as far as the sound)
..well shoot, the entire production has a nice sound. I especially liked how the vocals dbl'd up(and more too, I hear..) to raise the vocal bar up a notch during the chorus, and back down again. the ac. gtr does have that synthetic texture to it, and I know it has to be sequenced....along with the drums...but they sound great.
the vocal quality is very good...The thing about this style is that the vocal melody is very mono tone, however....but don't give me Mariah Carey, pig callin' now!;)
It is much better around 2:40...and I like the EQ vocal panned off to the side.
Trying to find something to pick at, it comes at the very end, and the fade seems a tad hasty to me...like the last millisecond fades off the edge a bit too quick....hey...I gotta find some constructive critisism...eh?:)
You do very good audio/production work, and I'll always look forward to hearing more of your stuff.
 
wellll....I guess we'll check back tomorrow...(after the session is over and everyones left:( )
 
hi mate

thanks for listening to What I Need. i like that track a lot. currently, a lot of labels are interested in that track.

the acoustic guitar was purposely sequenced becuase i was after that sound used in like TLC's no scrubs and it's been in countless pop records. when i was listening to her singing it, i had that sound in mind.

the version you listened to was the rough mix i think. it was quite a while ago, i think i fixed that fade, a couple of people commented on the fade needing adjusting. you're right.



"wellll....I guess we'll check back tomorrow...(after the session is over and everyones left )"

it'd be great if you can reply asap, but it's only me in the studio at the moment so no one else is leaving. amy should be heading down tomorrow to check on what ive been doing. basically, amy is my project, so i do all the music writing/recording work, and she writes/sings. it's good cus i have a lot of flexibility.

hope you can hear something for the chorus!!
Romesh
 
LWS... go stereo.. skip the 'rythmic' hihat and go for a straight beat. try to put that 'second' snare in the beat on the.. uh.. original place to make a straighter beat. The bass could maybe walk up, instead of down, not nessesarily playing 1st tone in the chord (B, A, E)...

my 0.02SEK

<edit>
I'd very much like to hear your opinion on this tune if you have the time..
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=44150
</edit>
 
Bass drum is very nice. The groove is good, tho it sounds a bit like it's building up to something... I think that's the deal..
 
the bass drum seems to work pretty well in the track. it's all still at the planning stage. im literally programming/recording all the ideas down and im gonna look back on everything in a few days and check out what sounds good and what doesn't.

if this track doesn't work the way i want it to, it's going away for a while.

bear in mind you have no vocals on this mix.
 
idea 1)
this may be way out to lunch....but how about some "Tower of Power" horn section, horn punches??...of course synthesized;) (I'm hearing that because of the percussive clav in there...I think)

idea 2)
Or...a solo lead line that weaves around the vocals. now...I'm from the 80's recording camp, mind you... but even a "ELP, 'lucky man" kinda fat analog synth sound in the background. Billy Idol had it in one his tunes, and I liked it a lot.

idea 3)
is a simple smooth pad to lame an idea, and uncreative??

idea 4)
go with some additional percussion instruments...since this is such a rhythmic song.

idea 5)
all of the above or combinations...ha!! (that was too easy to suggest!):D

questions...will the verses be with just the bass/drum combo?
does the song start with the chorus...or just at 1:07, and the other places?

I like this synth gtr. Is it a roland patch, per chance? jv1080?

oh...and I like the verb on the snare too...right up my alley (phew..and I thought I was the only verb nut around here)
 
hiya mixmkr

thanks for listening and helpin!

i can hear horns, maybe some really jazzy chords or something.
is that kinda what you were thinking? or not?

i tried pads, tried strings, didn't come up with anyhting i liked. pads made it sound too relaxed really, where i want the rhyhm to ride the track kinda thing.

im starting to lean back onto filtered synthy stuff, whatever that may be:-0


yes, the verses are the parts with the bass/drum combo, the stuff with more instruments are the chorus's. there are exceptions with stuff that is happening towards the end.

im basaically building up loads of ideas and just seeing what works kinda thing. im gonna review everything in about 2 days time when my ears are "reset". that should tell me whether it's worth carrying on, or starting one of the next tracks.

i like the synth guitar too. it's a parker guitar patch off, the Korg Trinity. the thing i love at the moment is the bass drum. it really does it for me. there's actaully three bass drums on it.:-0

i like the verb on the snare too, it's from an mpx1 and put through an EQ with a lot of hi's cut. dont want it sounding too hi-fi.

cheers mate,
Romesh
 
LongWaveStudio said:
hiya mixmkr

thanks for listening and helpin!

i can hear horns, maybe some really jazzy chords or something.
is that kinda what you were thinking? or not?

actually...I was thinking about wide spread voicings...with just roots and 5ths...but I think the vocal melody line will dictate more of that.

i tried pads, tried strings, didn't come up with anyhting i liked. pads made it sound too relaxed really, where i want the rhyhm to ride the track kinda thing.

another thing you could do is play the thirds with octave strings...or chord tensions, rather than block chords...like I say, the singing will dictate that more....but like a D, C#, G#...along those lines..kinda a whole note thing still, however

im starting to lean back onto filtered synthy stuff, whatever that may be:-0
definately a sweeping filter sound would be cool..not a complete cycle, but half cycle...

yes, the verses are the parts with the bass/drum combo, the stuff with more instruments are the chorus's. there are exceptions with stuff that is happening towards the end.

I just wondered..cause I hear the same stuff in the beginning too...when the bass comes in...but I'm getting old fashioned sounding here now, probably!

im basaically building up loads of ideas and just seeing what works kinda thing. im gonna review everything in about 2 days time when my ears are "reset". that should tell me whether it's worth carrying on, or starting one of the next tracks.

i like the synth guitar too. it's a parker guitar patch off, the Korg Trinity. the thing i love at the moment is the bass drum. it really does it for me. there's actaully three bass drums on it.:-0

i like the verb on the snare too, it's from an mpx1 and put through an EQ with a lot of hi's cut. dont want it sounding too hi-fi.

cheers mate,
Romesh
Click to expand...

good luck, though...your raw tracks really spurt the ideas on this end...I need to "shoot the pond" and sit quietly on the couch behind you[in the control room, I presume] and see how it develops....It'd be a grand time..
 
Hey all,
and thanks Meshuggah for the compliment of notifying me of this thread.

First, the song sounds cool, I like the chords and the 80's kind of sound.

But there are a few things to consider in my opinion. First, the chords are the same all throughout the song. This can be a very effective thing, but it also could be the heart of the problem you're struggling with. It's impossible for me to tell without having heard the vocal line. But maybe just exchanging the Bm to D in the choruses would make a great deal of difference. If this makes it too sweet, Meshuggah's idea of changing the bass could be a good optios. It could play D-C#-E-B or D-E-A-B (the latter one may be cooler). Either way, I think it could be a good idea to change the bass tone when the chord goes from Esus4 to E, so you give the chorus a different metric feel from the one of the verses.

A classic way of making choruses lift is to widen the spectre of frequencies involved. The instruments sort of spread out, so the bass goes lower and the treble instruments go higher - and then move back towards the middle in the verses. Thinking along that line, maybe what the chorus needs is some high pitched very simple lines. It could be done by something violins-like or a single string guitar line (maybe something Cure-ish). It could be some really well sounding backing vocals. It should be fairly steady or moving upwards, and filling in the gaps left by the vocals. Maybe it could start from C# (gotta love m9), G#, or maybe going back and forth from B to C#. Whatever works with the vocal line, don't let anything get in the way of that. (I am now assuming it is good :D).

You could also pull forward the little rhythmic thing that plays on B throughout the chorus. That combined with changing the bass may be enough (and then you could save some of the other ideas for the following chorus/es - nothing wrong in putting in a little variation).

Hope this helps. It would be really intersting to hear the vocals on this.

Cheers
/Henrik
 
Hi,

Henrik, I will check your ideas out when Im back in the studio. I might experiment with some tube sounding guitars, a la madonna ray of light.


we'll see!

the vocals are very cool sounding, I will post an mp3 when I have finished everything.


see ya! cheers for listening guys,
Romesh
Long Wave Studio
 
hi guys,

well Ive changed the drum pattern, kinda. that snare which came on beat 3 is now as normal on beat 4. but there are a few little lines which go back to the previous pattern, to make some interest. it sounds really cool now. it was a pain to change the snare drum pattern cus there's 3 drum kits playing, so when i changed one, i had to change all of them. there are parts where i purposely left one kit playing the snare on beat 3 and the other playing the snare on beat 4. it created this really cool patern variation.

i think im going to leave the chorus alone. ive added a really quiet filter line to make it sound a little mechanical, i might bring it up a bit more. but after thinking about the chorus vocal line, i think the backing vocals are going to fill up a lot of space, so we'll see.

here's the new mp3 if anyone wants to hear.

thanks to everyone who helped!



-Romesh
 
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