New song with new gear, see what you think!

  • Thread starter Thread starter BJW
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BJW

New member
Hey everybody,

I just got some new gear (i.e. microhpones and pre-amp). I recently wrote a song and just finished recording it.

Song Title: "The Way It Has To Be"
Here is the link: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=261004&T=7465 The song should be at the top.

I recorded the acoustic guitar with a pair of MXL 603s's, and the vocals with a SP C1. All mic's went through an M-Audio DMP3 and into a delta44. I used Cubase SX 2.0, which is where I programmed the drums and bass. If you listen to something like the song "Something Better", you can hear a huge improvement from my old gear (or maybe I'm just getting better at this).

Let me know what you think!

-Brian
 
Nice! I like it. Your got a nice clean recording. The guitar sounds like a guitar! The production is good.

Things I might do:
Work on the drums. They are not as good as the rest of the tune.
Add some harmonies. There are great opportunities here.
Add electric guitar in chorus to help build it a bit. Just simple chords or appegios, not too hot in the mix, but an added "wash at the back of the music" to quote George Martin. Strings would work, but I think that would not help the mood as much as another guitar. Hey! I'm a guitar player! :)
 
Hey thanks, Rocker.

Yeah, the song is kind of a work in progress. It's got a nice base, but it needs more. I've got the Amplitube plug-in, and I'm curious to see if I could get some cool stuff with it. I might try and add some strings or something via midi to build it up in the middle of the song(maybe I can see if I can figure out the chord builder thing in Cubase - or better yet, just re-learn how to play piano and write some parts), then maybe add some guitar (i'm a guitar player too, although, not a very good one) and strings towards the end to give the song more dynamic character.

I want to put in some background vocals/harmonies. I also think my vocals need a bit of reverb. They are pretty dry in the mix. All I did was EQ (put a bit of a boost in the high frequencies and a bit of a cut in the mids) and some compression. The C1 worked pretty nice for me. I used to use a Superlux LD condensor and I had to EQ the crap out of it to get it to sound decent, plus add a bunch of effects to try and get some presence - the sound was just too "processed" and not warm at all. With the C1, my voice sounds more like my voice, which is good.

Also, I'm with you on the drums. . .they aren't very good, but they are the best I can do for now - I've never played drums in my life. I need to get with a real drummer and have them teach me a bit about basic beats/fills and that kind of stuff - I think my drum programming would greatly improve. That or just get GrooveAgent or a drum machine or something.

Thanks for the kind words
 
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With consideration to your expierience level, this recording is just fine in terms of a demonstration.

Your vocals are consistently out of tune by as much as 30 cents.
That personally ruined the enjoyable factor to me.
I would recommend purchasing "Auto Tune".

Have a nice day :)
 
xfinsterx said:
Your vocals are consistently out of tune by as much as 30 cents.
That personally ruined the enjoyable factor to me.
I would recommend purchasing "Auto Tune".
Click to expand...

Ouch, haha. You think? I thought they were pretty good, but I'm no professional. . . . I've got lots more stuff with way more out of tune vocals than that song, haha. Thanks for the compliment, though. My experience level would be described as little to none, haha.
 
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