Grey Islands mp3s for download and criticism/suggestions.

  • Thread starter Thread starter somery
  • Start date Start date
S

somery

New member


hey everyone =] i'm new to the forums and was hoping i could get some feedback on a few songs of mine. the song above is one of my newest, and the one i'd like evaluated the most. there are 5 others available at http://members.cox.net/greyislands though, which are also fair game.

first of all, i wanna point out that i don't actually have a drumkit (this is probably plainly obvious upon listening to the songs.) i have a horribly abused snare drum with a hole in it and two cymbals. i do the kick drum with my cheapo casio keyboard on the percussion setting..... =[] anyway, i kinda just wanted to explain that.

any comments about the mix would be greatly appreciated seeing as how the only people who've really heard the songs are my friends..... i'm desperate for some knowledgeable advice!

well, thanks in advance for the feedback. =]

-som
 
would love to help you out som but that download is taking like 45 minutes, you should go nowhere radio .com and get a free page and upload songs there that way we can stream them. ill try again later and see if its any better. by the way welcome to home record.com and im sure youll enjoy it here, if you do get an account at nowhere im sure youll also get more responses because its easier to just stream it. thanks
god bless tim pate
 
the guitars have some crackle to them.. I think they're overpowering.. The vocals are waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too low.. I would lower the rhythms and raise the vocals.. the snare does sound dead, but at least it's real.. :)
 
thanks for the suggestions you guys =]

flash2ace: thanks for the advice about nowhereradio.com. i've set up an account already, and you can listen to "erode" and the rest at...

http://www.nowhereradio.com/greyislands/singles

i hope that link works.... heh. i can't seem to correctly copy the link to just *one* song. any help?

b.sabbath: yeah, even my friends (who are normally too nice when it comes to commenting on my songs) think the vocals are kind of low. i'll play around with them a bit....

thanks again, guys! anyone else?

-som
 
sorry i didnt respond sooner somery, well i listened and i like the song(erode was th eone i heard) i liked the song overall it was written well, it sounds kinda like the guitars were clipping a hair.
and the voxs do need to comeup a bit. your writing style is very cool though i dig this style. its hard for me to critic anything b.sabbath has done because he catches everything and he is always honest about critics, i think pretty much once he comments you wont get many more because you pretty much gott some of the best ears on the board. thanks for sharing this with us and if you want more people to listen what i would do is just go wright down the list of postings here and comment on everyone. it works for me, it realy does. nice song.
 
I like the song. Nice tone on the clean guitar but sounds like you're pegging the meters. The vocals are too low - but mostly the guitar is overpowering. Not a bad job on the drums, considering what you have. I really like that guitar groove you got going on. Any bass in there?
 
ahh - comments!!

flash2ace:

thanks for the advice about going down the list of postings and commenting on them all. i've commented on a few songs here and there, but your way sounds like it will work better.

ahh, that's good to know about b.sabbath... i'm not too trusting of my ears (slowly growing deaf) so it's good to know there are people here with such finely-tuned ones. =]

thanks for the praise as well!

DimChandeliers:

there's some bass in there, but it's actually just my guitar with the amp turned to maximum bass and eq'd later for more bass. i think a trip to the pawn shop for a *real* bass is in order as soon as i get some cash, cuz i'm sure that would help distinguish the bass tone from the rest of the guitars.


...i've listened to it over and over again, and you guys are definitely all correct about the low vocals and clippy guitar. i'll try to polish it up a bit and if i like the results, post it here again.

thanks again for all the comments, criticism and praise! you have no idea how helpful it is to me! (actually you probably do) =]

-som
 
Pretty cool song. I liked the little guitar riff - the little clean thing on the right side.

You're clipping throughout though - guitars, drums, etc.

The vocals were a little pitchy. Particularly early on. They get covered up a bit here and there.

The distorted guitar, to my ear, needs a little more "meat" to it. It's all midrange. It's a cool part thougth.

My thoughts anyway.
 
TripleM said:
Pretty cool song. I liked the little guitar riff - the little clean thing on the right side.

You're clipping throughout though - guitars, drums, etc.

The vocals were a little pitchy. Particularly early on. They get covered up a bit here and there.

The distorted guitar, to my ear, needs a little more "meat" to it. It's all midrange. It's a cool part thougth.

My thoughts anyway.
Click to expand...

hey, TripleM, thanks for the comments and suggestions....

could you clarify about the vocals being pitchy and how i could correct that? i used some compression in CEP for them and i'm definitely no expert with compression.

yeah, i've gotten lots of comments about the clipping. what's the best way to avoid it in your opinion... and is there any way to remove it once it's already recorded, or should i record it again?

once again, thanks! =]
 
By pitchy I meant off key. Now maybe it's a non-standard melody line and that's how it's intended to be. But to me there were some notes that didn't seem right. The first line of the song has notes that seem to bobble, or waver, in pitch. The sequence from :16-:18 seems pitchy as well. There may be other spots. Retracking, or AutoTune (let's please don't discuss this in detail again :)) are solutions for that.

As far as avoiding clipping... First off you shouldn't record at a level hot enough so that you've recorded distortion. That kind of sounds like what you did here. If that's the case, you'll need to retrack. If distortion is recorded, there's not much you can do. You can pull back the levels, but you won't have a clean track, you'll just have quieter distortion.

Clipping can also be created additively. This means that although no tracks clip by themselves, the resulting mixdown clips. You can deal with this a little easier by using compression on individual track and simply pulling back the levels on the hotter tracks.

Again, cool song.
 
TripleM... thanks a lot, man! Your advice about not recording too hot is definitely gonna save me some time and trouble in the future. I'm pretty new to recording/mixing, so even though it seems like basic stuff, your comments about these things are invaluable.

As far as the pitchy quality of the vocals... I think that's just my inexperience as a vocalist coming through. I still hate hearing my voice on tape (or computer) too. Do you ever get over that?

Again, thanks for the comments, and I'm glad you liked the song despite the faults. =]

-som
 
hi som, id like to add or share if i may one of the things that someone here told me about singing that realy helped(i forgott who told me). when your done singing turn the base and the drums off(mute them)and listen to just the vox and the guitar and see if the vox sound outta tune from the guitar, sometimes i even record the vox with just the guitar going it realy helps me alot. and also when doing backing vox just mute everything but the vox and listen to them to see if they are in tune with eachother this is also a good way to adjust volumes for them.
i truly have never gotten over the sound of my own voice sounding weird to me and probably never will. in fact i dont like the sound of my voice much at all and i think this limits my singing very much because i dont cut loose as much. one thing when your begging singing and its very important is do some vocal warm ups just sing some scales, you say you have a keyboard what you should do is learn some of the major scales on the piano and try and sing along with them as you play them, dont strain to get the notes out because this will hurt your vocal chords if you find yourself struggling to reach the higher notes go back down a key to the lower scale, not only will this improve your singing it will also improve your piano playing at the same time.so many people damage there vocal chords while singing and some of the damage is pemanent. so always be careful and warm them up first i was told by a very talented muisician on this board to treat my vocals like a guitar solo, if it aint in key then fix it.im trying to take this attitude that when i lay a track down if it aint perfect then just redo it wright then till it is, if its just a small segment then use the punch in record feature in sonar. never leave less than perfection alone and always fix your mistakes because no matter how good the recorded audio is tracked if theres mistakes it will never sound wright. anyway im going on to much here and ive just had to much coffee lol. god bless and i wish you luck with your future recordings, if i can answer any questions feel free to email me flash2ace@yahoo.com and if i dont know i can point you in the wright direction to someone who does. see ya flash
 
You've got some cool ideas. Your playing and arrangements are pretty good.

You need to work on the vocals and the recording skills though.;)

The main thing you need vocally is confidence. This comes from learning how to sing properly and not trying to sound like anyone else.

Recording-wise you just need to pay better attention to your levels. Remember when you record with digital if it's in the red your dead. That actually is also true for a lot of cheap analog gear as well.

I know from experience!:D
 
wow, guys, thanks for the great tips! this forum is turning out to be even more helpful than i thought it would be....

flash2ace: good advice about singing along to just the guitar line. i think that will help me to at least stay more in tune. since i'm doing all this by myself, i sing out of necessity more than anything else... and i know it's gonna take a lot of practice before i get anywhere near the level of vocal professionalism i'd like. it's also good to know that other people out there who have been doing this longer than i have still experience the same feeling when hearing their own voice as i do. i guess all there is to do is keep on making music and getting better and better at it. time to practice those scales!

M.Brane: you're definitely right about the confidence thing. i have no confidence whatsoever when it comes to my vocals... heh. i guess that'll just take time. i'm definitely gonna work on getting the levels right next time too. i think recording my instruments too hot comes from being used to playing loud enough for everyone to hear... not playing at the right level for mic recording.

once again, i can't thank you enough for all your help, guys. i'm gonna go ahead and record the whole thing again and i'll post it here when i'm done.... =]

-som
 
Do you get over the weirdness of hearing your own recorded voice? I did, and I think most people do.

I think flash gave you a couple of good pointers, such as turning off a bunch of tracks that are causing problems during overdubs. He mentioned leaving only guitar parts. Good idea. It brought to mind a tough spot I was in where I did just the opposite and it helped. I had to hold a note in a low harmony part over a weird chord progression. Every time that chord changed, my voice went with it. I must have tried at least 5 takes and I couldn't stop doing it. So for that short section of the song I did a punch-in and turned off everything except the drums. It allowed me to stay in time and get the section right.

There are bunches of possibilities.
 
TripleM: Good example about that type of recording technique. I think my voice has a tendency to wanna follow the music instead of being where it should sometimes. Good to know I'll eventually get over hating my voice on tape, though. At least I hope I will..... =[]

Thanks again!! =]

-som
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top