next new Uru demo

  • Thread starter Thread starter sjoko2
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Hey Sjoko,
What's up with the ID3 tag?

Title: Onkel Christian
Artitst: Lars Lilholt Band
Album: Onkel Christian (Live-Mix)
Genre: Blues

Mix sounds good. I like the pizzicato string sounds.

The answer-back voices at 1:23 seem a little too loud to me. The "sad" echo thing that comes in around 2:30 sounds too dry compared to the rest of the voices.

Queue
 
LOL good observations Que - I did it at home on a bare PT system (not in the studio), so I didn't have the processing power to apply a bunch of plug-ins. It was done without any MIDI, all played :(

The I.D.? Thats what appeared after I converted it to MP3 - was to funny to change :D

Oh yeah, I think I should explain what I mean with a "demo". Perhaps its not the right word to use. To us its really just a pre-production excersize.
We follow a certain "procedure" when working on material, a formula that works very well for us, like this:

- We put a very simple loop down to get to what we think might be the right tempo for the song.

- Next we add a very simple bass-line, always continues, because our concern at this stage is the song, not the musical accompanyment, and at this stage we still need to decide on the right place for chorus, verse, etc. Continuity allows for change.

- After we're ok with that, we do a lead vocal. This then helps us to decide where everything is going to be.

- Next we'll add a couple of pads (or not), to set a mood.

All of the above might take at the worst just over an hour.

- Then we focus on backing vocals

- Finally, we do a rough mix.

The purpose is to allow us to structure a new song, to notate music for people to play in the eventual recording, to see if we like certain elements etc. In other words to prepare and experiment.

Sound quality, prescission and a good mix really does not come into play here.


In the eventual recordings I always have the demo tracks as a base, replacing each element when we go along. This means there is always something to play to, something that sets the mood.
 
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hmm.. around 0:23 i don't know if you meant to make a pause, or shuffle the beat, but it jsut sounds like a canned drum mistake. As usual you did a good job recording the voice, it sounds really good. But i don't know so much about the song. I could say a lot about the actua song, but this is the mixing clinic. You do a lot of panning and overlapping. It sounds as if its used to be a filler for a song that is lacking.
 
Gee, I like the way she sings.

Gee, I like the sound on this one.

The layers of vocals are superb music done superbly.

Distortion at 4.01 and 4.25 on the high vocal. Rhythmic glitch at 0.20.

Who's Lars Lilholt?

Was this done by a band really? What about the string and cello sounds?

The drums are delicious.

Big score on this one, Sjoko. Is this on the same CD as the last one you put up here?
 
i have to disagree.

I can't stand those drums, please tell me they weren't real? I've been listening to a lot of music on this site in the past 4 days, and one thing i must say is the amount of canned music is disturbing. sonusman's drum thread, those keyboards, I don't have words to describe them. These drums, they have to be samples. Samples have to sound UNreal, to sound good. these sound like they are trying to be real. doesn't work.

One thing though, it has clarity, and that is something that it has oodles of. you can hear everything. you could put 10000 layers and still hear everything with this clarity.

just my opinions.
 
my feelings too.

It has clarity. Very nice clarity. I love the snare . Knowing sjoko2's mixes, the final version will have a much bigger kick.

I know this is a very expensive voice channel. Something like a $3000 mic into a $3000 pre. It sounds very good, but I sometimes hears some metallic like sound . Does anybody else hear it or is it just my amp?

Uru is very talented. She is going to be serious competition for me when I go back to the home base to establish myself.

Hey, sjoko2, do you mind sharing the plugins/processing that you employed to get such warm present clarity?
 
LOL Dobro - very good. My pre blew a tube, which distorts the sound in various parts, and the glitch happened in a quick MP3 conversion.

For the rest..... both Dobro and kristian - it doesn't look like you read the post on how it was done????????
 
Cyan, the metallic sound - same reason as the distorsion, the pre had one tube blown, but I didn't have another one, so I just carried on.

All the sounds are from a $399 Yamaha DJX, which is the thing we always use for writing.

Plug ins used on the vocal are Audiosuite 1 band - for shelving, Audiosuite delay and a TC for reverb
 
My songwriteing partener and I use also use a "sratch" type of demo plan also...cool way to work!I have no comments on the sound{lo fi listen}and I dont think that was your intent anyway..
My opinions are on the song...Tempo could be a little quicker,kinda is draging the lead vox a little now..Dont know the lyrics,are they ment to be sarcastic,planetive ect. This will effect tempo to acertain degree.. Also the "rap" groove of the secondary vox would be cool done in a male voice.Anyways sounds like a interesting song...gonna be good when you get it done..

Don
 
Is the plan for the tune to be 5 minutes? I could very well listen to Uru noodling around with her voice but the unchanging groove for 5 minutes seemed ...well...repetitious....of course it does draw your attention to what she's doin'....and it did say it's for a soundtrack...is that the reason it's so long? Or do you eventually edit and keep what you want and discard what you don't want?
 
"..... both Dobro and kristian - it doesn't look like you read the post on how it was done????????"

Yeah, sorry, but what I'm doing these days is listening to the mp3 BEFORE I read the comments in the thread. The downside is some of my questions have already been answered. The upside is my comments are uninfluenced by what others have said. Trade-off. :)
 
I think I could do without the farting cello/string sound, especially in the beginning before the other synth pads come in. I'm just gonna hope you'll replace it with better samples or the real thing at some point. ;)

Clearly she is a talented singer working with a skilled producer/engineer, but I'm curious how this might lead to things like a major label record contract, etc. - if that is the goal. I guess I'm just wondering what "the plan" might be coming from someone who has a lot of experience in the industry, from someone kind of working from "within the industry" rather than coming from the outside perspective of most homerec'ers. I'm sure having certain connections, access to your own studio, and things like that are a big advantage but what are the difficulties when you get to that point? Also, are these songs for soundtracks a preface to a full CD release or just a way of getting exposure for a possible contract?
 
The demo's are really just part of the writing process, a means of pre-production for the real recordings, which will start sometime within the next 8 weeks.

The idea is a CD release, in the US as well as elsewhere. However, in Uru's case the "getting a deal" is not so important, as she is with our production company.
The production company takes care of all the "front-end" work and expenditure, like recording, production, videos, artist management etc., things which are normally funded from record company advances. These advances carry, obviously, a large risk factor for a record company, something clearly expressed in the percentage of sales a new artist receives (like - next to nothing).

So, what the production company brings to the table is a finished product. Some production companies have arrangements with a "major" to produce a number of artists a year for release, in other words, they are tied to a label. Others, like ours, are independent, which is not easy, but possible in our case as we have a very solid production record, so the labels will always look very carefully at every artist we take on.

When Uru's record is finished it will be presented to a couple of companies already interested. Thereafter its a process of negotiations, all within a very broad scenario of possibilities.

To give you an idea of the "in-between" possibilities:

Option 1 - We do not do a deal with a major record company, but opt for independent distribution through companies in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Option 2 - We do a deal with a major, for global distribution only, all the other things, like promotions etc will stay our responsibility.

Option 3 - We do a deal with a major who does invest a lot of money into the project, what they would have invested in the front end of a new artist they now spend on promotion.

1 will give us most money per unit sold, 3 will give us the least money per unit sold - but very likely we'll sell more.

That is it in a nutshell. As you can imagine, working this way means I have to be very carefull who I work with, I have very little room for errors of judgement. If the production company had anything like the new artist failure rate of the record companies, we'd never survive.
 
An insightful thread.

"I think I could do without the farting cello/string sound, especially in the beginning before the other synth pads come in. I'm just gonna hope you'll replace it with better samples or the real thing at some point."

Dolemite's a self-confessed excoriator. Sjoko, responding to him as fully as you did reveals that you were just waiting for the right sort of comment to respond as you did. :D

The important thing's how the girl's presented. The more important thing is the girl herself. Bring her into the thread and see if she disagrees.

Good luck on your project. I really hope it works. Good music going on here.
 
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