"MBuster" Is A TOTAL wuss...

[chrisharris]

...for not posting this tune. So yeah, even though I haven't been here much for awhile, I'LL post 2 songs in one week. BRILLIANT idea!!

www.nowhereradio.com/honestmango/singles
The song is called

"NO"
(about 3/4 of the way down the page...sorry for the clutter)



Now, lemme' see if I can remember how this went. First, Mark sent me a file of an instrumental tune that was about 35 minutes long. Then I hacked out most of the "filler.."...you know, stuff where mark was playing, and then I wrote some words and sang them and played some "wah wah" on the way out, lol. Yup, that's about how it went.

 

[HevyD47Ca]

Mbuster & C Harris

You proved to be a potent combo, I assume this is part of the HRC4 challenge? Whatever the reasons it sounds very honest and REAL. Some real emotion here on this one, singing and playing!

I heard and I LIKED!
Way to go gentlemen.

 

[chrisharris]

Re: Mbuster & C Harris

I assume this is part of the HRC4 challenge?

Holy crap...I forgot all about that thing - LMAO!!



No, this was actually voluntary; at least on my part. Thanks a lot for the listen, man. Mark and I have both been taking a crack at mixing various parts, all via mp3's, so we're kinda' deaf to how it sounds anymore. Need some clinician opinions before we start mailing CD's cross country for nothing.

 

[Khompewtur]

Those chords and the route the song takes at :58 (i guess the choruses) totally surprised me. I really liked the choices used their. You guys did a really good job of picking an original arrangement for your chorus.

That delay on the dry guit sounds nice and crispy. The vocals on the chorus are nice and edgy.

Another great job, it's too bad this can't be your HRC#4 submission. How could u forget!!

 

[studioviols]

good timing with the delay in the beginning.

Opening vocals sit down in the mix as though they are the stuff in the middle of the flower and I can understand every word ... this is extremely effective.

Now the vocal is on top, like you turned the flower inside out. Nice work.

At 1:02 it's a clean machine.

This is a hell of a mix, very complicated stuff you are doing well here.

'crawling up her back' , I mean gawd ... you ARE a bug there, crawling across the stereo field ... are you outside MY WIDOW !!! AAAaaaahhhhhhjhggghhh

Dem hoes if'a fawkin mess ain' dey bra ...

At 2:57 this chorus simply sounds totally top o' da pop !

At 3:32, whatever type of guitar or entrance that is there, it's not sitting quite right in the mix, it's as if the doors are swinging nicely and somebody puts a stop in it, i dunno ... it seems to be in front of the singer, above his feet about knee level, and it's ... 'distracting' ...

Just a nitpick and you know it.

Great song, great chorus ... mucho popola good stuff.

 

[chrisharris]

... it's too bad this can't be your HRC#4 submission. How could u forget!!

Thanks, man. Actually, I didn't forget. The plan was to pen a tune one line at a time...I never got the first line from him, lol. Still waiting. It'll happen, it just may be 2045 when it does. - Thanks again for the listen.

 

[chrisharris]

At 3:32, whatever type of guitar or entrance that is there, it's not sitting quite right in the mix, it's as if the doors are swinging nicely and somebody puts a stop in it, i dunno ...

Exactly. That'd be my mess. I really shouldn't try to record and mix guitars AFTER vocals...always gets me in trouble. Thanks for the careful listen.

 

[chrisharris]

There Aren't Enough Songs About Rape

'crawling up her back' , I mean gawd ... you ARE a bug there, crawling across the stereo field ...

Thanks for noticing that, by the way. That was actually what I was hoping to hit.

Now would probably be a good time self-indulgently post the lyrics and give some context. I knew this girl in college, very cool person, and she just totally dropped off the face of the earth after her sophomore year. I finally caught up with her about 5 years ago, and we got to talking, and eventually she let me know that the reason she dropped out of school was because she was raped by somebody she "knew." So the idea is kind of a narration to the rapist, I guess.

Anyway, words:

NO
©2003 – MarkBuster/ChrisHarris

She’s quiet on the outside,
But she rages in her skin,
Nobody’s getting inside,
No one ever will again.
It’s not the kind of thing she talks about, (can’t let it out)
Just resurrects it when she says it out loud, (can’t let it out)
Maybe she’ll be better…but I seriously doubt

Because in just one night,
You broke her life
And you can’t take that away…
No you can’t make that okay,
In just one night…You put out the light,
And you cannot ever…no you cannot ever make it right.

Did you fear she'd talk about it
Anxiety attack
Did you ever even hear her shout it,
When you were crawling up her back
It’s not the kind of thing she talks about (can’t let it out)
She will protect it; won’t ever let it out, (can’t let it out)
Maybe she'll forget it…but I seriously doubt.

NO NO – do you hear her now
NO NO – SOS
NO NO – She’s a fucking mess.

She never did complain – so you got away with it,
But she couldn’t stand the pain and I will never let you forget…

In just one night…

Outro
How do you look in the mirror, tell yourself you didn’t hear her,
Maybe you can hear her tonight…
Nothing you can do to fix it now, are you proud, take a bow
Carry this around for the rest of your life…

 

[Khompewtur]

Ok im off to bed. I'm bumping this cuz chris was nice enough to try find the links in my thread twice. Plus i had to get like 3 days of reviews out of my system and everybody's gotta hear this.

 

[studioviols]

Re: There Aren't Enough Songs About Rape

So the idea is kind of a narration to the rapist, I guess.

<shudder> that's some good songwriting, whew.

 

[Bulls Hit]

Great song.
The only thing that didn't do it for me was the chorus. Loved the way the bridges build up in intensity and the guitar sound there, but the chorus seemed too derivitave to my ears - like I've heard that progression many times before.
Cool vocals, great intensity and emotion there

 

[muzeman]

Hey Chris,nice tune!

Great vocals there.
The chord changes,melody and lyrics are a perfect fit.
Flows well,I especially like the chord changes.

Nice guitar tones,Mark did a great job on the instrumentation.
One fine collab guys!

Good to hear you posting some music Chris,guess I'm not the only one going through a dry spell.
Must be a summer thing.

Pete

 

[joro2]

Well golly gee-whiz Mr. Harris sir......

I am a newbie therefore unqualified to state a coherent educated opinion on the mix.....


I really like what you did with the bass line man and the writing is superior...so is the recording....

You guys got a great tune here....real commercial radio stuff....


very cool,
joro2 (aka banned ass-clown )

 

[mbuster]

Now, lemme' see if I can remember how this went. First, Mark sent me a file of an instrumental tune that was about 35 minutes long. Then I hacked out most of the "filler.."...you know, stuff where mark was playing, and then I wrote some words and sang them and played some "wah wah" on the way out, lol. Yup, that's about how it went[/B]

What is this, the abridged version of the abridged version of the Cliff's Notes?

 

[chrisharris]

I am a newbie therefore unqualified to state a coherent educated opinion on the mix.....I really like what you did with the bass line man
joro2 (aka banned ass-clown )

Well, since you're new, I wont deride you for thanking me for Mark's bassline. See, if it were my bass, it'd have more of a "floppy" sound to it, lmao.

Khomp - Thanks: will try again later. Loved the cow msg.

mbuster - yeah, my half took me about :15 minutes total, I think. Of course, I'm adding together the writing and the recording and mixing time. I'd have to be retarded to need more time than that.. All kidding aside for 2 seconds, I could never record a song like this without this board and freaks like you, man. Lots of people would have gotten bent out of shape if somebody just hacked out the verses, lol... I LOVE YOU, MAN!!! *sniff**sniff* (I'll fix the enveloping on the outro, and I'm still hating the vocal sound in most of the choruses, so those are getting redone, lmao - then we'll swap waves...could you repost the name of that .wav upload thing? - I'll do that before I get buried - another month or so, then I'm recording the "dance version"). Hey, did you see the new guy's comment on your bass? SOMEBODY HEARD IT!!!

Muzeman - Hey Pete - nice of you to listen. Yeah, I recorded a few tunes, but nothing that I thought was different enough to bug you guys with. Of course, whenever I get Jaimee to record, I'm posting it...I don't care, lol. I'm just posting it. Thanks again, man.

Bulls Hit - Thanks for the listen and the comments. And yeah, agreed on the choruses - I'm about as original as Wal Mart when it comes to melodies, lmao.

studioviols - The woman that I wrote this for/about heard it and felt like we did the topic justice for her situation, which is what I was hoping for...man, I LOVE the internet.

IS THE KICK TOO LOUD? - Thanks again guys. I can't say enough how cool it was to work with mbuster on this. Huge sweeping distorted melodies are something mark has a gift for... I love stealing other peoples' gifts.

 

[sloop]

Listening now

I here some static that is distracting, it almost sounds like it coming from the vocal processor.

Nicely constructed piece. Good contrast in the piece. Except for the static the vocals are clear, playing is excellent.

Nicely done.

 

[skids]

Originally posted by chrisharris IS THE KICK TOO LOUD? [/B]

I think the level might be good. It drives the song, but maybe some verb draw your attention away from it and soften it...or you could just lower the level some.

Hey this was cool. How come eveyone's mixes sound better than mine?

Cool song. Great collab. I thoght it was a very cool mix. Good use of effects and the stereo field. My only complaint is the use of effects may have hurt the body of the vocal. Just me trying to find something.

Listening again. Cool song. Good movement and changes. Great work both of you.

I don't like the vocal sound 2:37.

Great work guys!

 

[SLuiCe]

Sounds real good guys. I lost a lot of the words and vocal in the effects. Given the subject matter, this should probably be improved on.

Damn, I was hoping this would be auto-tune free. LOL. Well, the natural vocals sound really good to me. The AT stuff is probably there for effect, but you already know my take on that. Good work nonetheless.

Mark, the guitar work is very very good. The arrangement is good and has good radio potential. Good tone too.

Nice job both of you.

 

[chrisharris]

Damn, I was hoping this would be auto-tune free.

lmao - Yeah, I put that in there specifically for the clinic...and then, just in case somebody missed it, I put a big delay on it too. (you showed excellent restraint, Tom, and yes...it was for effect). In mark's words, "it's kind of a running joke now." - But seriously, I hear you on the vocal FX, and it's something I worried about when I did 'em. I specifically asked the producer (i.e., Mbuster) to rein me in, but he said he liked 'em. I need some time away from this tune (and posts like yours) to get some perspective. And some of it was just plain hard to sing for me, so I kinda' went for a "feel vs. diction" thing. I like the lo fi intro, so that's staying...but otherwise, I'm gonna' take a run at a totally clean vocal mix w/o the delays and just let mark pick what he wants.

skids - Much appreciate the careful listen. That spot at 2:37 is probably the Antares, and it looks like 3 votes in a row for "too many vocal FX." A lot of it was defensive on my part - I was screaming my balls off to hit the high A's in that chorus. Again...thanks for the opinions.

sloop - thanks a lot for the listen. Your post actually has me concerned. Just curious if you downloaded it or were streaming it. The reason I ask is b/c I've streamed some stuff before that breaks up on some level and creates a kind of static sound that's not in the file. I was definitely NOT going for "static" as an effect, lol. The only things I used to track the vocals were the mic and the preamp, but that's not to say that I couldn't have screwed something up later. - Anyway, if you could just let me know if you streamed it or d/l'd, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Pedullist]

lmao - Yeah, I put that in there specifically for the clinic...and then, just in case somebody missed it, I put a big delay on it too. (you showed excellent restraint, Tom, and yes...it was for effect).

Ah, a missed opportunity!

FLAMEWAR! FLAMEWAR! FLAMEWAR!

LOL



Excuse me.

Back to the song.

I 100% agree with SLuiCester.