My First Attempt - Comments welcome

[alibish]

Mark - thank you for your thoughts.

If you think the current guitar sound is loud and harsh, you should have heard the first mix!

Voices? What voices?

Actually, they fade in over the intro, and the break in the middle, and the outro. Maybe they're mixed a bit too low?

Thanks again for your positive comments - this whole thread has cheered me up no end!

Alastair

 

[StevenLindsey]

thanks for removing the block. 2nd mix - very nice. Very nice song indeed. I would still like to hear more of the acoustic. But I am more of an acoustic kind of guy. Keep working man. Let us know when the CD is complete.

 

[WATYF]

Dude... for a first attempt, this is purdy darn good.. Although, I only listened to the "2nd mix" so I don't know if it was previously more "rough".

I think all the guitars sit very well in the mix. The effect on the primary elec. guitar grated on me a bit after a while, but that's just personal preference. Over-all I think this is a great mix to start off with..

One "anal" thing to note... you do have a couple cymbal hits with no accompanying bass beat.. (they're stand alone cymbal hits, like at 3:49, so you can really "notice" that there's no bass beat to go with em.) Sorry... I'm a drummer, so I get all picky aboot that stuff.. Of course, you may have intended to place them without a bass beat, in which case it's just at matter of preference, but I tend to like to hear a "diamond" cymbal hit with a bass beat.

The vocals were a tiny bit muddy at parts.. can't put my finger on it (whether it's the level or the EQ or whatever) but it wasn't bad by any means.

Great stuff overall, though. If this is your "starting point", I can only imagine what your stuff will sound like when you get "experienced".

WATYF

 

[alibish]

Steven - thanks again. My next one will be a bit more acoustic!

WATYF - thank you very much for listening, and for your comments.

The lead guitar in the first mix was even more abrasive. I've toned it down a bit for this mix, but maybe not enough?

I don't know anything about drumming (as I'm sure you can tell from my drum tracks! ) so I'm really interested to hear what a real drummer thinks. I had deliberately left out the kick drum on a couple of cymbal hits, but it was mainly because I felt that the kick usually *starts* a bar (=measure) rather than marks the *end* of a section.

Do you think a real drummer would be more likely to play a kick along with the cymbal, even when it's the end of a section like that? That's a very useful bit of info, because I really don't have a clue about drums. Thank you.

I know what you mean about the vocals - they sound a wee bit "boxy" to me in some places. It's not obvious enough for me to know how to fix it, but I think it might have something to do with the boxy room I do my music in.

Thanks for listening

Alastair

 

[WATYF]

Do you think a real drummer would be more likely to play a kick along with the cymbal, even when it's the end of a section like that? That's a very useful bit of info, because I really don't have a clue about drums. Thank you.

Oh yeah.. definitely... when you close out a measure and come down on the "1" with a cymbal hit (as you do a few times in this song) that's called a "diamond" (don't ask me why.. I haven't a clue.. ) and it's pretty much universal that you have an accompanying bass beat with the cymbal hit whenever you do that. There are certain cymbal hits that don't require bass beats (splashes, "ghost" hits, Eastern music, etc.) but for the most part.. especially in pop/rock music, you always want to accompany a crash hit with a bass beat.

WATYF

 

[alibish]

WATYF - I tried out your suggestion, and I agree - it sounds better.

The new version is on Nowhere Radio.

Thanks again.

Alastair

 

[macle]

Hey Alastair, great song. Sounds real, if you know what I mean, like a song that you feel you know, just flows. I think your vocal is what makes it happen, very cool. I really like the Ray Davies-ness. Also, the way you blended into the other bits. I think maybe you could not have a crash and kick at all, just an abrupt switch (maybe). The kick seems a little boomy to me in general. But, the song and your singing make it.

Macle

 

[alibish]

Hi Macle

We've got a nice wee mutual appreciation society going here

I really appreciate your comments about my singing - it's the thing I'm least confident about, so it really means a lot to me.

I started thinking that maybe the kick was a bit loud the last time I listened back to the track. I'll maybe try and tame it with a bit of EQ. What I really need, though, is a real live drummer...

Thanks for listening

Alastair

 

[macle]

Hi Macle

We've got a nice wee mutual appreciation society going here

Alastair

Yes, we do!

I can totally relate to the singing and confidence thing, I have that bigtime, and it's no fun. But I really think your voice is great, not just saying that.

And I agree that a real drummer on your song would be excellent.

Macle

 

[petelait]

Excellent song!

I don't know if you know him,man you sound exactly like Ray Davies,ie The Kinks.
Even the accent,cool.
He was a great guitar player too!

Really fine songwriting and production.
The mix was tops!

I listened to it 4 times already,I think I'll just let it play all night!
Really enjoyable!


Best to you,
Pete

 

[alibish]

Pete - thank you so much for your kind words.

I must buy some Kinks stuff - I only know a few of the singles. I'm intrigued that folk think I sound like Ray Davies. I'm pretty sure he's English and I'm Scottish - worlds apart, in terms of accent!

I'm really glad you like the song - thanks again.

Alastair

 

[fenderlikingood]

getting here late!!

WOW, some excellent feedback!!!!!!!

sound's good man, first attempt!! damn!!!!!!!

rock on !!!!!!!!

peace

rick

 

[petelait]

Didn't mean to imply you have an English accent,just Your accent sounds very cool!
While I'm here I think I'll listen to it again!

Best to you,
Pete

 

[alibish]

fender - thank you very much. Glad you like it.

Pete - don't worry, I didn't take offence - being compared to Ray Davies is the kind of insult I can live with!

Alastair

 

[erichenryus]

alibish, got your drums: http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1445&alid=-1
just let me know when you want the song taken down and i'll remove it.

so here are the caveats:

i'm still working on getting a good crash cymbal sound. i did the recording with a roland v-custom kit and the crash cymbals are crap. now i have to go out and buy a software sampler! this is getting expensive.

i'm very new to mixing so i'm sure the levels and such aren't right. not as stereo as yours.

i had trouble with the intro. tried a couple of things and wound up just hitting a single crash. if you suffer through that, the rest of the song sounds more natural i think. basically, if you adjust the kick pattern in your original drum track it feels a little better imo.

i captured the midi events as i was playing so i've got a midi track that i can send you if you want it.

thanks for letting me play along.

 

[StevenLindsey]

I think the song sounds a bit more natural with the drummer although I am not a great fan of electronic drums. Would love to hear it with a good acoustic drum set. ( Not knocking the drummer at all - very good job. )

I listened to the other song on the site also. You have a nice sound to be just beginning to record. Wish I could have sounded that good at first ( or now for that matter. ) I'm going to listen again. Good day gentlemen.

 

[alibish]

eric - thank you very much for going to the effort of posting your drums version. I love what you've done, and in particular the chorus drums are *much* better than mine. Also, all the fills are much more varied and "natural" sounding.

And you're right - the kick is definitely the weakest part of my original track. Mainly because I don't know the first thing about drum programming.

If you could send me the MIDI file, or post it, that would be excellent. I'd love to try using some other drum sounds, but with your playing, if that's OK. I'll post the results if you don't mind?

By the way, this whole experience has been very cool and slightly freaky - here I am in Scotland, programming drums very badly, and a real drummer half way around the world can play a much better track, send me the MIDI, and I can then incorporate it but with different drum sounds. Sometimes when you take a step back, technology really is pretty impressive!

Cheers

Alastair

PS I really liked your song. Cool tune, nice harmonies, excellent drumming

I'd probably bring up the main vocal in the first chorus, and I might smooth out the lead guitar slightly. But these are details. The song itself is excellent.

 

[erichenryus]

this is really cool! virtual collaboration. i'll send you the midi file when i get home tonite. if you don't mind, you can pm me your email so i have somewhere to send it, otherwise i can try to figure out someplace to post it. don't have a website yet.

you'll have to check the mappings, i'm not sure how roland maps those triggers.

i actually liked the drum sounds that you had in your original, just needed to feel more natural imo. hopefully this does the trick!

hey, let me know when you have another one. that was a lot of fun!

 

[scottr]

this is really cool! virtual collaboration. i'll send you the midi file when i get home tonite. if you don't mind, you can pm me your email so i have somewhere to send it, otherwise i can try to figure out someplace to post it. don't have a website yet.

you'll have to check the mappings, i'm not sure how roland maps those triggers.

i actually liked the drum sounds that you had in your original, just needed to feel more natural imo. hopefully this does the trick!

hey, let me know when you have another one. that was a lot of fun!

Maybe we need a thread dedicated to virtual collaborations... That would be cool. You post your song and say "I need some bass and drums", and you'll probably get 20 new versions of the same song....

Scott

 

[alibish]

New version with "real" drums

I've posted the latest version of "Not The Only One", this time with a MIDI drum track originally played (live) by erichenryus - thanks eric, the drums sound excellent.

I've also been mucking about with Ozone for "mastering", and changed some of the EQ and compression on a few of the tracks. I fear I may have overdone it a little.

Any improvements are thanks to erichenryus, anything that sounds worse is all my own work!

Cheers

Alastair

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1715&alid=-1