gulp...here goes!

T

thnmnt

New member
howdy all,

i just uploaded 3 songs to http://www.mp3.com/stageandscreen i'd love to know what you all think - so .... let me have it...(did i just say that?!)

background and gear if anyone's interested.
-pIII 256mb
-echo gina
-gibson es-335
-mexican fender p-bass
-pod
-alvarez acoustic
-alesis sr-16 / fruity loops
-roland pc200mkII controller
-gigasampler LE (analog samples from worrasplace.com)
-vaz 1.7 (love this!)
-cool edit pro
-ev mic (sm58 clone)
- 2 band members sharing all the duties.


thanks for your ears.

thnmnt
 
I listened to "Fill the Space"

Well, I'm not sure what to think.

One one hand I didn't like several things. First, those drums samples are horrible. A more natural drum sound would help a LOT...especially on the snare and crash. Also, it seems that the bass end is very lacking...hard to hear. Finally, I found the "distorted" synth part to be quite annoying....when it cuts out at the very end there is almost a sense of *whew, glad that part's over*. You know, a real guitar through a fuzztone or similar fx box (your POD probably has something) would work VERY well for that part; not being so harsh.

But on the otherhand, I did like the vocals very much. Are you singing? Does that mean we have a female amongst us? Cripes we'd better tone it down :) Anyway, I really enjoyed the vocal line, which was very clear and well-defined. Did you use two vocal tracks?

The more natural piano that you had panned hard left worked well.

And those cool "voices" in the background that start at around 0:50 are GREAT. Really made me feel weird.

I noticed that your MP3.COM page lists 4 members, but you say "2 members sharing all the duties" in your post. How many of you are there? How long have you been together/recording? You seem to have a pretty fresh style that might be kind of nice around here.

Slackmaster 2000
 
thanks for listening slack! well, i'm smiling to myself as i write this because so many of the things you don't like people have said they did etc... blah blah.... so the drums, yeah - i picked em cause they sounded so crappy (toylike almost, to go along with the kids in the playground) and i love that terrible crash cymbal at the end! no accounting for taste huh? the natural piano panned left was a guitar (2 electric and 1 acoustic total)i'm interested in your not liking the dist synth sound though, i thought it was cool...hmmm...i'll need a 2nd opinion. ;) i come from a pretty electronica background (my other project is http://www.mp3.com/zerogravity for a comparison)

i totally agree with you about the bottom end - i think i overcompensated for high end and neglected the bottom end because of my crap computer speakers (and subwoofer! danger)

the voices are kids in the school yard across the street.

the other 2 members of the band are the dog (d) and the cat (Lcat) who are omnipresent.

the vocals are cpck not me but she played guitar and did some mixing. (yes it's two vocal tracks) anyway, thanks so much for listening.
 
I'll ditto most of Slacks comments, I have a HR-16 so I know those drum samples ain't the greatest. I like my distorition a little more identifiable. when I first listened to Fill the Space I thought I had a little tear in my speaker. That might be what you were going for but I found it annoying. Loved the vocals. Keep em comming!

Layth
 
Yipes, sorry that I thought the guitars were piano. I listened to the song about 6 times and *thought* it sounded guitar-like to some extent...but settled on keyboards. I guess that when I hear one midi instrument, I hear EVERYTHING as be synthesized :)

Anyway, if you like the distorted part and the drums then more power to ya! It is YOUR music after all! I'm just not sure what kids and bad drums have to do with one another :)

I'll have to check out some more of your stuff.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I thought everything sounded pretty cool...VERY nice voice, I'm jealous.

ametth


oh yeah, fix that low end.
 
thanks guys - i just played it for some people at work who both agreed with you guys on the crappy drum sound...hmm, and there i was thinking i was being clever!! well, they are midi so i can just try swapping out the samples...i'll give it a whirl.

(i'll tell cpck you like the vocals!)
 
This is one of the better(withstanding the drums) songs-Fill the Space-I've heard on this BBS. I too suffer from unimaginative drum track syndrome. It takes bookoo time to try and make fake drums sound real and the end result typically sounds fake despite one's best efforts. I think I am partial to female voices. I like the lyrics alot as well; they are simple without coming across as cheese-ridden.

dmc

dmc
 
As for: "Fill the Space":
I didn't think the drums were that cheesy.
Certainly worked for a drum machine part.
And I have to disagree with Slack on that sawtoothy synth tone. I liked it!
The peanut gallery here is thinking in unison as they subvocalize,
"Consider the source"..... :)
The playground voices fit in nicely.
And the vocals were great.
I liked the darker sound you got on "Fool" and "Dixie Thriller" better but the composition was better on "Fill the Space".
TCP sez: "Give Lcat my regards."
 
I didn't want to like any of these songs because I thought they would be super hard core techno electonica whatever..."Fill the Space"...caught myself humming along dammit...I really like "Fool"...if I had my way, I'd throw some heavier drums in right after "..what kind of place is this..." I think that would give some very cool drama at just the right place...otherwise, the drums weren't all that bad at all, particularly after reading your post above about them being toy-like...the shaker sounds worked particularly well on "Dixie Thriller"...the riff in "Dixie Thriller" brought to mind an old Lou Rawls tune called, I think "Use me" of "Use me Up" or something? Sounded familiar anyway...I enjoyed hearing all three songs...vocals are excellent and I liked the lyrics..but hell, what do I know...like to hear more...gibs
 
I really like this song (fill the space). From a mix standpoint I think it's great. Songwriting.. excellent. The drums work, a little repetitive though, real drums would really make this song.

Good stuff.

Emeric



[This message has been edited by Emeric (edited 02-26-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Emeric (edited 02-26-2000).]
 
Nice tune thnmnt...I really like your voice, has a very enticing quality about it. I have to agree with Slack on the "distorted" synth part...at the end when the synth stops the song sounds much more "open". The best part about the song is It's melodic and the chord changes are pleasing...keep it up!!

Garger
 
I listed to "Fill In the Space" and I liked it. I didn't have a problem with the synth part, nor did I have a problem with the drums. I think I probably would have made them sound a little crappier! More abused sounding. Oh, I didn't like the cymbal at the end.

I like the mix a lot though. Great job!
 
I listened to that first song. It's pretty cool. I like the drum samples (someone said they sucked..but thats the quality i liked :).
Cool
_Nilbog
 
thanks so much to everyone who has given us feedback on the songs - i really took what everyone said very seriously since i'm the company of such great players and engineers. this board has been really helpful to me for the past 3 months as i lurked around and sucked up information! nothing like getting your hands dirty though. we have some more songs in the pipeline and i'll be applying some of the knowledge and criticisms as i go along. hopefully i'll have some to share soon. thanks again everyone.

thnmnt
 
I love those vocals :) ... very soothing! Fool and Dixie Thriller flowed much better than Fill the Space. I have to agree with Slack, the "distorted" synth part does not fit the song well. Maybe a synth with more of a sine wave form would work better... try to capture the smoothness the other songs have. On all the mixes the drums need more beef, a little reverb might do the trick... with some more low end to the bass.

[This message has been edited by Fishmed (edited 02-29-2000).]
 
Listened to the first one - gee, that's good.

Something else - that chord change at the end of the cycle's magic. It's so satisfying playing something like that, isn't it?

Finally, I like the way you pulled sound out at the end - it's a release of tension that creates space and concentrates attention. Ahh, go on - you know I'm right.

[This message has been edited by dobro (edited 03-03-2000).]
 
Listened to the second one. Tell you what. Portishead satisfies because we're all like that. But Bjork satisfies because we want to be like that.

Watch this: pull the guitar back a bit, and take some or most of the reverb off the vocal. (The rationale for the guitar suggestion: it's too loud :)) (The rationale for the vocal suggestion: "What kind of fool am I?" is a moment of honesty that doesn't require the distance that loads of reverb supplies. Bare trees tell the truth.)

[This message has been edited by dobro (edited 03-03-2000).]
 
Heard "Fill This Space"
Agree with the synth comments...Song sounded much clearer without it...Really liked the vocals, too!, I think it is a good job done from only 2 people.
 
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