You seem to be fairly confident, a relative newcome to the board, so I'm going to be very, very hard on you. I want you to step back and get some perspective on where you are.
95% of my posts are in the MP3 Clinic.
Summerdays :
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Shoegazer.
The intro guitar is very hot in the mids, it's almost 'gnashing' ... and this sets the tone for the rest of the song.
So what comes later is a little frusterating, almost confusing, with production it could be very original.
The doubling of this single guitar intro is not precise, and this can be very distracting with such a hot 'single' sound.
At 00:15, that percussion instrument sounds like someone banging on a metal fencepost ... it's cool.
At 00:18, do I hear a string buzzing madly on a bass fret ?
If that's a percussion instrument, make something of it, mix it much, much louder, stun us.
Has a retro feel now. The drums sound to 'Tom-Tom', they are in a box a bit, perhaps over-verbed and rolled off to harshly, there's no snap, they are too dull. Almost an American Bandstand kit sound circa late 50's early 60's. The cymbals need to be a bit louder.
I hear a very camp almost tacky guitar ostinato, not original.
This sounds like you are 'acting' and trying to be something you are not, something you might not want to be.
The lead vocal is mixed out front, we can certainly understand every word of the lyric ... but it is sung very 'limp'. There's very little energy in the lead vocal ... Is the singer drunk ? ... or really, really stoned ? It just sounds like 'glassy eyed' singing, totally glazed.
The guitars on left and right are NOT precisely played, they need to be compressed further. Not enough bottom end on the guitars.
At 01:05, the lead guitar stereo left is to far left, needs to come in about 12-18%. I don't like the part on the right. The center guitar is ok, gotz a euro sound, but you are being very demanding on the listener.
When you begin a lead panned far left, and then demand the listener come to center with a guitar sound that is very different, it just sounds ... contrived.
The drum fill at 01:35 sucks. Ya'll are too stoned. The performance is just mush, it's lifeless.
The chorus vocals are pretty good, but select one as the lead vocal. The singer has a lot of presence in his upper mids and this accounts for a lot of the 'apparent' volume in his vocal track. When you double the track, that 'uppper mids' volume increases dramatically and makes him sound very, very nasal and harsh.
Those upper mids in his vocal accumulate as gain that is not balanced with how the rest of his vocal increases in volume with the doubling.
Try EQ'ing one of the tracks by rolling his top end off, or 'smoothing' the vocal with a filter, let that one lead. Mix the other track 9-12db lower, let it be the natural or 'dry' track. You will be please with what you hear.
HAPPY 214 :
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Ok, so you are retro. Very retro intro. 60's euro folk. EMO ! This is melodic punk. I just wrote a tune that charted strongly in the Alt. Punk category at SoundClick.com ... 'She Cant Say'. I like melodic punk. The drums need to be more upfront, the vocals are almost too loud. Not enough mids on the guitars this time and they are overcompressed.
At 02:02 that's a nice buildup, but the guitars need more mids, gotta 'jam' us there, not 'whoompf' us. The solo is lame and not played with strong skills, devolves into noodling and then finally becomes some sort of rythm riff, it's too 'improvy'.
The strongest part of this song is the vocal.
AT 02:48 you are 'gaining sibilance' once again with the cumulative upper mids in the vocals. On a nice loud system, those peaks might 'bite' the ears and be uncomfortable.
I think the drums could be louder, and I'm going to take a guess here that the lead singer is mixing this tune ?
At 03:44 that's NICE bg vocal, you took some time with that part and it shows. The lead guitar is too busy, and it's messy.
The stuff at the end sucks. Cut this song to 3:25 and you have a decent tune. Nice overtones fade.
STANDUP :
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very good, you give us a short intro, and bang right into the hook and the song ... boom hit us with the chorus, this is MUCH better songwriting. I think the singer could be singing with a LOT more energy, take this song up a full minor third, make this singer WORK this lyric and melody loud with close mic proximity.
The second chorus is just sung very, very lame. Like totally limp. You got to rock this tune man, you got to rock it hard.
The guitar riff at 01:28, I'm grooving, but it just lasts two bars too long ... gotta keep the tune driving, use the chorus to take this song out, just keep singing it until you hit 2:30 ... it's a sing along.
This is your best tune.
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You need a producer.
