My old man's a fatso

[NotThatBright]

I had these stuck in my head last night, so I recorded them in the evening. I think the mixes are pretty good. These are my favorite type of song... quick & easy!

My Old Man's a Fatso is an Angry Samoans song. Their music isn't as angry as their name would suggest. Ironically, my dad is in great shape. I wasn't about to change the lyrics, though.

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/my-old-mans-a-fatso/s-3kQhO

Suffragette City was always a favorite of mine. GregL was kind enough to share his version when he posted Ziggy Stardust recently, which is excellent. Had to try it myself, albeit on a more "kiddie pool" scale. I ripped off some aspects of his version which I preferred to Bowie's, like the rhythm guitar riffs.

https://soundcloud.com/user92696274096/suffragette-city2/s-xNFSV

Anyway, if you get a minute and can comment on the mix of either song, I'd appreciate it. At this point I think the Fatso mix is good, and the other one just confuses me.

 

[Bubba po]

Jesus, how many songs do you have waiting in the wings? I already have a day job!

 

[NotThatBright]

But what I'm offering is better than your day job! I offer the chance to be bored in 2-minute increments and report on what you heard. All for no money. How the hell are you going to beat that?


I was home by 7:30 last night and had time to kill. If I get in a groove and I have the chance to play drums, I may screw around and record for 4-5 hours straight. Which is three complete songs, recorded, mixed and mastered. Quality or quantity? I guess I made my choice...

 

[NotThatBright]

By the way, there's never any expectation from me that anyone should give a critique. If someone has a few minutes to kill, I'm grateful if they have a listen and comment, but I would rather someone just ignore something I posted if they don't have time or don't feel like doing it. I'm a sweet guy like that, always concerned for other people!

 

[mjbphotos]

Suffragette sure is fast! The snare sounds dull (like when you play with a towel on it - had a drummer we had to do that with as he used to beat the snot out of it). The belled cymbal has no life, and the crahses mute like a hand on them every time - was that intentional? The guitar volume needs to come up a bit when the chorus starts each time, it seems to go lower (or maybe the vocals are just up more at that point).

I don't know the Samoans song, but the thing I noticed was the low (floor?) tom was ringing (loud) but with little definition on the hits.

 

[NotThatBright]

Suffragette sure is fast! The snare sounds dull (like when you play with a towel on it - had a drummer we had to do that with as he used to beat the snot out of it). The belled cymbal has no life, and the crahses mute like a hand on them every time - was that intentional? The guitar volume needs to come up a bit when the chorus starts each time, it seems to go lower (or maybe the vocals are just up more at that point).

I don't know the Samoans song, but the thing I noticed was the low (floor?) tom was ringing (loud) but with little definition on the hits.

I actually switched snare heads today. The dark one is gone for good. Finally I won't have to EQ the hell out of the snare and still not get it bright enough.

As far as the 18" floor tom... your comment was the last straw, I'm hitting amazon before I go to bed and getting a decent mic for it. The regular tom mics I have can't pick up anything but the attack on it, so I've been using my first kick drum mic on it and it performs about as well as you'd expect a $30 kick drum mic to perform... does a great job picking up the muddled low mess, but virtually no attack.

About the cymbals... I only have one overhead mic, and maybe I have it positioned poorly, or just not turned up high enough. Just for the hell of it I'm going to try compressing the overhead track and see if that helps. Currently I compress the overhead so little that I'm not sure it even does anything. I used to compress it more, and they did resonate longer that way, but I thought they sounded "fake", so I got away from doing that.

During the guitar solo I was hitting a 12" splash over and over. That's the cymbal closest to the overhead, and it was so loud that I manually turned the track down several dB just before the solo, and put it back just as it ends. I need to find somewhere else to put it, or better yet, shitcan it and just get another crash.

Thanks for the listen and the comments.

 

[Greg_L]

Haha I know both those songs well.

I've most familiar with The Queers version of My Old Man's a Fatso.

I think you're at a point where you're pretty good with getting the levels right with your mixes, but the sounds themselves aren't so great. And the playing is rough - but seems to have gotten better than your earlier stuff. Source sounds and performance seem to be your limitations right now.

 

[Anders Erisian]

^^Same as what he said ^^

Lazy maybe, but it's a lazy day for me.

 

[Bubba po]

Listened to these on my horrible 486 beige computer speakers at work today and I liked them both. The mixes sound good, will have to check out the instrument sounds when I get home. I've said it before, I like your style, I like slightly lo-fi shambolic performances. They're endearing and charismatic to my ears, providing they're not terribly out of tune, which these aren't. I thought Suffragette City was great, particularly your vocal. You have a good punk voice, in tune and with plenty of grit and liveliness. As Greg says, your next target is awesome sounds to go with all the good points you have already. I followed your Soundcloud account today, but none of the sounds are public yet. Why's that?

 

[Schwarzenyaeger]

Your drum kit sounds like it's underwater. Brighten it up a bit. The low end is weak in general. I coud hear the bass fine in the midrange but not much down below.
You could bring the vocals up a bit more.

Cool song.

Is this your main soundcloud account?

 

[rayc]

Glad you've changed the snare head.
Sounds like you've had a grand time.
Levels seem pretty well sorted but you do have to start getting a GOOD sound from your kit.

 

[NotThatBright]

Haha I know both those songs well.

I've most familiar with The Queers version of My Old Man's a Fatso.

I think you're at a point where you're pretty good with getting the levels right with your mixes, but the sounds themselves aren't so great. And the playing is rough - but seems to have gotten better than your earlier stuff. Source sounds and performance seem to be your limitations right now.

Next recordings will have better snare and 18" tom mics, hopefully that will make a difference. And thanks again for sharing your "Suffragette City", your version kicks ass and inspired this one. So it's your fault, kind of...

^^Same as what he said ^^

Lazy maybe, but it's a lazy day for me.

Thanks. I have those. I call them "workdays".

Listened to these on my horrible 486 beige computer speakers at work today and I liked them both. The mixes sound good, will have to check out the instrument sounds when I get home. I've said it before, I like your style, I like slightly lo-fi shambolic performances. They're endearing and charismatic to my ears, providing they're not terribly out of tune, which these aren't. I thought Suffragette City was great, particularly your vocal. You have a good punk voice, in tune and with plenty of grit and liveliness. As Greg says, your next target is awesome sounds to go with all the good points you have already. I followed your Soundcloud account today, but none of the sounds are public yet. Why's that?

Thanks buddy, you're too kind. They're not lo-fi on purpose... if I can learn to play guitar, even just serviceably, I'm going to put some more time/money/etc into my recording and see if I can get to the next level of sound quality. Until then, I'm trying to max out with what I got. My stuff will always be private on soundcloud, I only put them up there so I can post them here for feedback. I only do this for fun, I have nothing to promote. As far as sharing the stuff, I once made a CD of some of my "cheekier" (that was just for you- nobody says that in this country ) stuff for some friends. They are jerkoffs. If it's not a parody to a tune that they already know, they don't care for it. For instance, I thought in particular one of my originals ("Bullet To the Head", which I had up here before) was great, considering the kind of stuff I consider great. They said it was "ok". Fucking parochial yanks, right?

Your drum kit sounds like it's underwater. Brighten it up a bit. The low end is weak in general. I coud hear the bass fine in the midrange but not much down below.
You could bring the vocals up a bit more.

Cool song.

Is this your main soundcloud account?

I have been putting the EQ for my bass guitar tracks at -1 @ 175Hz to get rid of muddiness. Next time I'll leave it alone. Most of the underwater effect was hopefully from the drum head I had on (a blue Evans one that had liquid in it or something). Hopefully the next thing I record, with 2 new mics and a new snare head, will sound different. That's my only Soundcloud account.

Glad you've changed the snare head.
Sounds like you've had a grand time.
Levels seem pretty well sorted but you do have to start getting a GOOD sound from your kit.

Seriously, I have a better time doing this than when I'm out getting liquored up beforehand. I don't even know I leave the freaking house on weekends. If I would just put the money I piss away into better equipment... Christ, I gotta stop thinking about this.

Thanks for the comments, guys.