My piano ballad

S

SKYflyer

New member


take a listen. I recorded everything (the drums, piano, and voice) just using my one condenser mic, and I suck at drums, so the drums are very badly played lol. In fact, the drum track is a combination of 2 drum tracks I made (I would never be able to lay down a single perfect take!).

I recorded the piano part first without a metronome, and then I had to match my drumming tempo to the varying piano tempo when I played the drums, so thats why the tempo varies a lot :) .

I'm not really interested in critiques on the recording quality, since i know it's not great by any means since I just used my one condenser mic for everything. I'm mainly interested in what you think of my song, musically :) . This is the first song that I sang, and i dont have that great of a voice :/

But then again, if you notice something like if it sounds really horrible on your speakers, let me know, or if you think that the vocal tracks should be softer and the drums should be louder or something, let me know!

PS: the lyrics are a bit stolen from the Jethro Tull song "Requiem"
 
SKYflyer said:
I suck at drums, so the drums are very badly played lol.

I'm not really interested in critiques on the recording quality, since i know it's not great by any means since I just used my one condenser mic for everything. I'm mainly interested in what you think of my song, musically :) . This is the first song that I sang, and i dont have that great of a voice :/

But then again, if you notice something like if it sounds really horrible on your speakers, let me know
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Recording quaility involves everything...the timing, the performance, the vocals.....if you really want a critique, then record the song the way you want it to be heard and stop asking to ignore the biggest part of it....the timng was terrible, the mix was terrible, there were many wrong notes played on the piano....you can have the best song in the world and if it is executed poorly....its still gonna suck...sorry I don't have anything else for you.
 
If you want opinions on the song itself you can try the Songwriting forum.

I haven't had a chance to listen yet but I'll try later.

But if the recording quality/mixing is bad then it's hard to judge the song. It's easier to judge when hearing the song at its best, or at least somewhere close. ;)
 
I don't think the song is terrible, just poorly executed. Listening to it, it seems the wrong notes you played were intentional? You played those notes a couple different times in the arrangement, so who knows. Timing certainly could be tightened up a bit, but it seems the drums were your biggest stuggle while the piano may have been more in time than they were in parts.

IMO, the repeating kinda gets old - I'm guessing this is just a start to the song?

Maybe I'm just in a weird mood, but the song isn't that bad. Kinda reminds me of some kind of experimentation that might have went on in days gone by.
 
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warble2 said:
I don't think the song is terrible, just poorly executed. Listening to it, it seems the wrong notes you played were intentional? You played those notes a couple different times in the arrangement, so who knows. Timing certainly could be tightened up a bit, but it seems the drums were your biggest stuggle while the piano may have been more in time than they were in parts.

IMO, the repeating kinda gets old - I'm guessing this is just a start to the song?

Maybe I'm just in a weird mood, but the song isn't that bad. Kinda reminds me of some kind of experimentation that might have went on in days gone by.
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That's what I was getting at....the execution of the song is bad enough that it makes giving a critique impossible.....one is forced to comment on the execution. The timing needs more than a bit of tightening....its off! It's way off......you can't do this without a timing device of some kind. its the same thing as saying " Here's my song...don't pay any attention to the wrong notes, the bad timing, the poor vocals and the piss poor recording but, tell me what you think" Why post it at all?
 
most of what you are saying is valid criticism-- this was just a rough mix or sketch of a song I am working on, so perhaps i should have only posted this in the song writing forum, which I did recently.

that aside, i played no wrong notes on the piano... so i have no idea what you are talking about in that regard. perhaps i should post a piano only mix of this song so you can better hear the part and realize that I played no wrong notes on the piano :)
 
maybe its some sort of clash? I think you have a good idea for a song. Just take a little more time with it and don't get in a hurry.
 
maybe its some sort of clash? I think you have a good idea for a song. Just take a little more time with it and don't get in a hurry.
 
jpw23 said:
maybe its some sort of clash? .
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Its the piano being out of tune. The F is too high, sounds like a clash. Its a diminished chord that he is attempting. I get it, but indeed it does sound like a wrong note with the piano so out of tune.

I had to listen to this twice. Its actually a pretty decent song. The recording needs all the work that the other fellows mentioned. Basically it needs practiced.
 
ah yes my piano is slightly out of tune, hopefully that is the thing that is throwing you guys off.

anyways, thanks for the comments so far. I plan to expand this song a bit if I can think of a cool bridge for it (although I have been trying unsuccessfully to do this for a while). Also for a more professional recording of this that I plan to do later, my drummer will be playing the drums, and I will be playing piano to a metronome :P hehe

in fact, here is a midi version of the piano part to the song, maybe you can tell if what you were hearing was out of tune now.

http://home.comcast.net/~dajoda2/piano.mid

I added a few frills to the song when I played it for this recording, but it is still basically the same song as in the midi file above.
 
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DavidK said:
You should use a midi keyboard for the song. Its 1000% better. The piano is confusing being so out of tune, it would sound much better with midi. A Rhodes midi sound might be good. :)
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well i have an electronic keyboard that I will probably use rather than midi or my acoustic piano in that case. It's weird, usually i thought I was pretty good at hearing if things were out of tune, and while this piano part I played does sound slightly out of tune, i didn't think it was that bad as you guys make it sound, hehe.

Also, can I have some feedback on how you guys like my voice? Be harsh please! I want the truth. I think I may have been slightly off on some of the vocal harmonies.
 
lol tune your piano man :D
the voice is too nasal
the drums are awful

I would really concentrate on 1 instrument first and let someone tune it properly, whether it's drum guitar or piano.
To be a musician takes years and years of dedicated practice, you cant expect to have a great result of everything in a few hours !
 
I think that this is an ambitious song, and I applaud you for recording it.


It's definitely a real piano, lol. I say just kill the drums and call it a day. There's some interesing chord structure, so perhaps a rerecord is in order, but, sans the execreble drumming this could stand on it's own in a very indie/arty sort of way.
 
This song has a lot of potential and deserves to be fine tuned. Very artistic, I agree w/Supercreep. Piano part's well arranged and recorded. Maybe a little boomy in the low mids. The piano needs tuning, but you know that. Nothing sounds like a real piano. Vox are good, especially the tone and expression. Drums don't fit in the arrangement IMO.
 
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