Kids making music

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FBstdminime

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Hey, I'm 16 and I'm using this song to get into college. It's from my band, and was recorded and mixed in my living room. It would be so helpful if you guys could suggest improvements that I could make to the track, etc.


Thanks in advance,
Julie

the link is here
 
Angelfire doesnt allow direct linking.You need to post a link to your anglefire homepage or wherever the link to the song is actually located.

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FBstdminime said:
I'm using this song to get into college.

I don't understand. Is this in lieu of an entrance essay?

Are you going to try and sell it in order to make money for tuition?

Are you trying to brown-nose the admissions people by recording the school fight song?
 
I'd say this is a pretty nice effort for a 16 year old. Is that you singing? I would have guessed it was someone older than 16.

Songwriting-wise... I'm not sure what the intro was for. It didn't seem to add anything to the song - and it was very different from the rest of the song. And it was a tad long. The outro was fairly disjoint as well.

The drums are really loud. They scared me when they kicked in. The vocals are tough to hear. Actually everything except the drums are tough to hear.
 
ok

First of all, it's not me singing. You're right about the age. She's 17.

About the drums - my brother is a wiener drummer (he's 15) and he wanted the drums to be heard.
Thanks for your criticism.

Julie
 
I still say you could get some extra brownie points if you threw the fight song somewhere in there.

I think it's an excellent composition and arrangement. The intro, in particular, has some very interesting things going on with the various guitars, tasty chords, etc.

I do think there are a lot of flaws in it from a production standpoint that don't do the song justice. Here's just a few:

* Bass guitar is very good, but gets lost, especially during the chorus. Ditto for the kick drum.

* Too much crash cymbal on the drum tracks -- makes it a little hard on the ears at times. Move the mics to a safer distance away from the crash, or tape the bottoms of them with a small strip or two of duct tape.

* Vocals are too quiet, and tucked too far back. I would have tried recorded them in a dead space, with minimum reverb at mixdown.

The production, as a whole also suffers from just a general lack of bottom, and the recording space doesn't sound very good from an accoustic standpoint. You'd be better off going for a dryer space.

The arrangement and performance are both excellent, though, in my humble opinion. Too bad you're in Philly -- if you were anywhere near Chicago, I'd kill to record someone with your talent.
 
I guess it all depends who is applying for the school. From this mix, I would have guessed the drummer cuz it's the loudest. If the singer is applying, by all means, turn it UP.

Good song

AL
 
actually i'm the bass player (and i must admit i wish it sounded better).
 
TripleM said:
The drums are really loud. They scared me when they kicked in.

LOL :D

Can't listen yet as you've exceeded yer bandwidth.will try again later......
 
FBstdminime said:
actually i'm the bass player (and i must admit i wish it sounded better).

You need to quit being so modest. You play really well. Now, without getting carried away, bring yourself up! a bit. :D
 
yeah the bass playing struck me as pretty good..

your brother is a good sounding drummer in my opinion...

and i like the sound you got out of the drums - from a tracking perspective...but, they need to be tamed in the mix.

weak link musically i would say would be the electric guitar...other than that the performances are excellent.

i think if chessrock produced this it could be almost radio ready...

it kind of has the same vibe as that new christina aguilera "beautiful" song...kind of a post-pop soul-rock kinda thing.
 
noooooooo not christina aguilera!!!

and the answer to your question is drexel (don't wanna leave the city, as I have deep connections to my music school).

oh yeah, and about the guitar... it is definitely the worst compared to our other songs... and this song is the first one that we wrote together (in June), before we had "chemistry." IMO we have way better songs... this is the only one with lyrics and a definite melody so it was the one i tracked. I guess you can call this the "pop song" (as much I hate to say it).
 
I liked the song. I thought the vocals should be louder and the drums turned down a bit, but other than that it sounds good.
 
Couldn't help it, had to pipe up knowing the combined age of this band is probably younger than my guitar...

Drums are definately overpowering the mix, need to be pushed back, and possibly re-recorded, they're clipping more often than not. Kick disappears, snare sounds like it's getting soft in the middle from a few hard hits. Cymbals, are way too loud and up front.

Lead vox sound good from what I can hear, maybe a bit more soft verb, definately volume issues there, until the drums are softened, hard to tell how much though.

Bass has got an interesting tone, I'd drop the eq on it a bit, and definately turn it up. Until there was the odd 'silent' part, I could hardly hear it. We wanna hear you! We wanna hear all of you!

The 'intro' section overall is quieter than the rest of the mix, sounds like it was recorded at a different time, with different mic positions, etc.. In short, it doesn't quite fit the song, sounds almost as if some other song ended on the AM radio and you switched over to an FM station, while turning up the volume...

The guitar disappears as well, can hardly comment on tone, as honestly I can't seperate it enough. Again, when the drums are dropped lower, it'll be easier to tell.

Dynamically, tone wise, overall okay, except for them cymbals, over 4 listens, my head swoons every time he hits that crash.

Decent track for the age, a little work, and a lot of polish may get the job done.

W.
 
This will be very cool when you get the drums out of the way. The intro/outro work with the song in the same way King Crimson pulled some stuff off on "Starless and Bible Black".

Back when I auditioned for music school I had to play classical music. What is this world coming to?!!!

You might be interested in this
http://danielworley.com/Music.cfm

I don't know the guy, but I understand he is the first person at University of Michigan Music School that used a rock music recording for his disertation.

Good luck!
 
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That sucks!Sorry...
 
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