My First Tune in Digital...

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Todzilla

Todzilla

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I've done some analog work (Fostex 8 track 1/4"), but I finally went digital. Here's my first song:


I would love some feedback. It's done with:

Mics: Neumann U-89, Crown CM-700s, Shure SM57
Preamps: Demeter HM1, neighbor's APIs, MOTU 896HD pres
Converter: MOTU 896HD
DAW: Digital Performer 4.12 on a DP1.8 G5.

I'm particularly hoping I'm going in the right direction with drums and guitars

Thanks!

-Todzilla
 
Listening now. It's bringing a smile to my face. Good pop sound.

The low mids seem a bit crowded to me. (I'm listening on cans at work, so take my comments on mix balance and tonality with a ton of salt.) Also, the vocal is getting buried at times. I'm having difficulty understanding some of the words, which is a shame because what I'm hearing sounds very witty and creative.

I really like your singing.

Sounds very late 70's - early 80's to me. Is that what you were aiming for?

Don
 
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DonF took the words right out of my mouth. Fun lyrics, good pop sound, late 70's feel. Sounds like you made the transition to digital well.
 
Todzilla:

Very interesting song. At first, I didn't think I would dig it. But then, I felt compelled to listen to the end. Nice work. One or two slight timing issues with the drums, but nothing major.

Vocals are sweet. I particularly like the feel of the vox in the higher, "strained" range. Also, I enjoyed the tone of the guitars (the initial riff has a kind of "Jimmy Page" feel to it -- then the rhythm guitar has a particularly gritty, nasty growl, which I find highly satisfying). How did you track the guitars?

Overall, the drums sound pretty good. What's your setup? Yeah, if your main concern is drums and guitar, I'd say you're on the right track.

There's something strange about this song. I like it. I guess I would suggest substituting some different sounds for the keyboards. I don't know . . . I guess they sound a little "cheesy" at times. But maybe that's the sound you're going for.

Good tune.

Kevin

P.S. Duke got lucky the other night.
P.P.S. Go Illini!!! (maybe we'll see you come tournament time)
 
Thanks for the feedback folks. I guess it has a 70s/80s feel 'cause that's when my musical career really solidifed (since has become avocational). I'll admit to loving the "quirky" when it comes to keyboards etc.

I've heard similar feedback from buddies about the vocals being buried. I'm learning the plug in reverbs and I may revert back to using my trusty outboard Lexicon LXP-1, which always was intuitive.

I still struggle with EQ, not having an instinctive approach to scooping out sonic spaces for each track, thus yielding the nicely balanced sound heretofore so elusive. Thus, I take DonF's comments to heartand welcome any more suggestions on EQ.

Kevin, regarding your question of guitar tracking, I'm trying to go with the basic approach of one of my cheapass guitars (Ibanez strat copy or Gibson Sonex) into my Mesa Boogie DC-3 with an SM57 crammed into the grill, into my Demeter HM-1 Preamp, with a touch of RNC compression, then into my 896HD. I stacked a lot of guitars to get a thick sound. I'm a keyboard player by trade, so I struggle to get a decent guitar sound, thus making me grin broadly at your Jimmy Page reference. My brother (the drummer) keeps nagging me to get a Pod, but I want to master basic amp micing techniques instead.

For Drums, my brother plays a basic Tama kit with the requisite Zildjian/Paiste mix. We used a modified recorderman 3 mic setup (search recording.org for his approach) with a snare mic and undersnare. The two overhead mics (a two drumsticks' distance from snare center - one directly over snare, one over drummer's right shoulder) are Crown CM700s, the snare mic is an SM57, the undersnare mic is my Neumann U-89 (also my vocal mic) and the kick is just a piece of crap Audio Technica dynamic that I use to get enough signal to trigger an Alesis D4 drum sound. For preamps, I used my Demeter HM-1, plus I borrowed my next door neighbors' API lunchbox (am I lucky or what?).

Thanks so much for the feedback!

And Kevin: no lie we were lucky as hell. I'm still hoarse from that game...
 
Fuck yeah.


I'm on fire for this kind of shit.


XTC with some teeth. Fucking excellent bro. I've got some recording to do myself tonight but I'll pick this one up again later.


-Casey


*edit - I listened to this song twice through and I already learned something from it. So cool.
 
I like the tune. Very fresh and unique. The vocals do seem to get lost in the mix at times. I always use SOME compression on vocals. I believe you could have used some on this tune. Well done though. Write on.
 
Style almost reminds me of Phish. Nice work. Good creamy guitar tones

EDIT: And Frank Zappa around 1:45
 
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GatorDude, interesting comment about compression. I did lightly compress the vox with my RNC. My first mix had too much vox and I guess I overcompensated. I will take your suggestion to heart on my remix.

bendbones, can't believe you mentioned my beloved Zappa and loathed Phish in the same post. LOL

Casey, glad you dig it (I have more at www.toddejones.com/jukebox.html). Yeah, I was a huge XTC fan back in the day. So, what, pray tell, did you "learn" from the tune?
 
Todzilla said:
GatorDude, interesting comment about compression. I did lightly compress the vox with my RNC. My first mix had too much vox and I guess I overcompensated. I will take your suggestion to heart on my remix.

bendbones, can't believe you mentioned my beloved Zappa and loathed Phish in the same post. LOL

Casey, glad you dig it (I have more at www.toddejones.com/jukebox.html). Yeah, I was a huge XTC fan back in the day. So, what, pray tell, did you "learn" from the tune?
Click to expand...

This song uses a particular style of pop writing that I've not tried yet, where the vocal melody is a very long musical statement that continues over the chorus and bridge parts - kind of a vocal ride that twists and turns. I'm used to having a discrete vocal part for each part of the song. Now I want to try my hand at writing a longer musical phrase and using it such as you have ( and XTC and Squeeze etc. have done in the past). So there you go.. no "scare quotes" neccessary. I really did learn something, or at least this was the catalyst for the light to finally go on.
 
Just started listening. Nice tune so far. Good guitar tone. I agree about the vocals. Bring them up a little, as they sound good, but are a bit too quiet. Mix on the musical side seems really good. Nice tune.
Ed
 
Supercreep said:
This song uses a particular style of pop writing that I've not tried yet, where the vocal melody is a very long musical statement that continues over the chorus and bridge parts - kind of a vocal ride that twists and turns. I'm used to having a discrete vocal part for each part of the song. Now I want to try my hand at writing a longer musical phrase and using it such as you have ( and XTC and Squeeze etc. have done in the past). So there you go.. no "scare quotes" neccessary. I really did learn something, or at least this was the catalyst for the light to finally go on.
Click to expand...

Interesting you note that as the song was written in my sections. One thing I do differently than most folks is that I do most of my writing in my head, usually until the song is pretty much skeletally complete. Then I have to sit down at instruments and figure out how to pull it off.

This tune is my brother on drums and me on everything else, so it took lots of experiementation with parts until I got a selection of tracks that works. The opening lead guitar was never envisioned until the song was nearly complete. Then I copied it on my Korg Prophecy synth.
 
Fantastic!!!

What a great song. Always interesting. Well thought through. This clearly took a lot of time and energy. Lots and lots of great bits.

As far as the mix, only the vocals really need any help, as has been previously stated. Compression and/or leveling.

Great job. Will come back and listen some more. . .
 
Man this is cool stuff, kinda proggy.
I like it defenitly some 70`s vibes in there.
Cool vox.
very nice and retro sounding instruments as well as the vox.

this a a very good poptune, I wish the played stuff like this on the radio.

I get a Supertramp feel from parts of this song.

great work man. :)
 
Todzilla said:
Interesting you note that as the song was written in my sections. One thing I do differently than most folks is that I do most of my writing in my head, usually until the song is pretty much skeletally complete. Then I have to sit down at instruments and figure out how to pull it off.
Click to expand...

Dude, you do a lot of things differently than most folks. :cool:
 
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