OK....time to stop being the critic....

heylow

heylow

New member
....and be the the criticized.:D

This is my first submission for your approval to the home rec zone...

It's not a very serious deal....just a demo of a song. I often do these to flesh out ideas for later recording and for the band to learn the song, etc. Plus I was trying out new gear...this marks the first thing that wasnt done on the old 424 for me.

There are a few issues with it. I programmed the drums and organ in Fruity loops and spit it out as a stereo file to my recorder so it was pre mixed and the organ was eating up a lot of frequency range. I also added some bass and it was hard to keep them from clashing.

The guitars are 3 tracks....2 of my archtop (not a loud one either) being played acousticly in the middle of the night into an NTK and HHB radius 40. And one was an electric track I had left over from experimenting....just a room mic...like 15 feet back and then buried in the mix to fill out my anemic "acoustic guitars."

All this of course cause odd structure problems and strange peaks so it was hard to "compress" it afterward without it getting a little squashy.

All in all though...I like it. It was just a demo and a day of experimenting and I think it worked out for at least that. Give it a listen and let me know what you think!;)

If anyone is interested.... the vox chain is also the NTK through the HHB. I think I overdid the compression though.....live and learn.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1318&alid=-1

EDIT: The song is "Taking My Time"

Thanks guys,

heylow
 
first song -
Breathing noises on the acoustic guitar track... big no-no! The delay effect is appropriate but needs to be tucked under a bit more (it's too obvious.)

The vocal tracks sounds like you were moving to/away from the mic as you were cutting it....

The guitar track is reasonable but suffers from too much fretnoise/squeak for my taste (some is ok, but too much starts sounding amateurish...)

Cool tune though - cool rhythm...


second song -
The drums sound muddy - and the bass sounds kind of nasal and "middy."

The vocal sounds buried in the mix... on the bridge part, the vocal effect could work but you pushed it into distorting, kinda killing the effect...

Guitars aren't too bad sounding but lreally dominate the mix unnecessarily...


third song -
Drums are better -sounding than #2, but too thin........ bass needs more meat........ vocals are buried.... that keyboard "break" needs to come down a bit, it jumps out far too loudly when it comes in.........

Actually the whole mix sounds like you sucked the mids right out.... OTOH, you mentioned it was just "kicking ideas around..." so I guess it doesn't matter much!


Overall good effort - cool tunes -- ya still got some work ahead on the recording chops! ;)

Keep at it!

Bruce
 
it gave me a smile right away, A happy tune. Could be a great TV commercial song. The only things that seem strange were the telephone like vocal (too much low mids maybe?) and the EP that came in a little too loud. But, these can be just my taste.
Also, I am not sure if you did this intentionally, but, there is a small frat noise at the intro, and the beat felt kinda weird. After listening the intro a few times, I think the reason is that the kick was missing at the first beat.
Good work. Drums sound pretty human to my ears, the guitars are nicely mixed, so are the vocals.
AL
 
Thoughts

Dammitheads is a great name.

Listened to Taking My Time. I liked the effects on the bass. How did you get that sound?

I'd bring up the lead vocals just a bit. Good effects on them.

The keyboard at 1:37 is pretty strong and could stand to be pulled back a bit.

Nice overall feel to the song.
 
THE VOCALS WERE TOO LOUD!

just kidding, cause that,s used a lot here. he he he

Great tune heylow, I liked it all the way thru. Put up more.

dtb
 
cool tune.. I like the singers voice..

I think it sounds like Steely Dan, but dont kill me because I might be wrong...( I dont have any Steely records)

My biggest problem with the tune was the keys that come in at 1:40 ish. They come in too loud and that hurt it for me...

I like pretty much everything else about it though.. I was wondering what your tunes would sound like...

I'll check out your other tunes a bit later...

I didnt read the other posts yet..

decent tune though, I liked it..

later

B
 
I checked out your other 2 songs, and since you didnt ask for any thoughts on them, I'll just say I thought they were cool in a radio friendly way.. 'Anerasia" being the one I liked the best..


later

B
 
great feel

Just have to say, i think you got some tough critism here. From a purely enjoyment point of view i really thought Taking My time was fantastic.

I think the vocal accompanies the beat and rythem really well. Theres almost a David Bowie feel to the singing and layers. Definately a Brit sound goin on. Really really great sound. I love the bridge oo oo bit and the chorus is great. Yeh that high organ bit is loud but mad and suites the song.

I`ve listened a few times and it does sound top dog, to me. Its a good background, getting ready to go out song.

But hey....

later

Erland
 
Taking my time's a cool tune. The main comment I have is the vocals are too low. They really need to come up. And of course the already mentioned bit about the keys coming in too loud. Fairly decent mix otherwise.
 
Hard to add anything more I agree wilth others about the vocals and the keyboard thing. The thing about no mids that Blue Bear mentioned actualy sounds good to me kind of makes more hallow open sound. I think if you bring vocals up it will fill up.

On the other note it's sounds very pristine to me.
Great stuff. I'm goin to listen to other stuff too

Cheers
 
Guys, I'm really appreciating the feedback!

If some would like to comment on the other two songs that would be cool as well. Keep in mind though, that Anerasia was recorded AS I wrote it....hence the strange lyrics in spots. It was also recorded by sticking an SM58 at chest level which recorded both guitar and vox at the same time...its all one track brought over to computer where I added the odd effect over it.

The second song was a lot of experimenting....my second recording ever actually. My drummer played on that one and I did everything else.


So:

BLUE..

First song....Yeah, I meant for the effect to very obvious...for a creepy outer space AM radio vibe or something. I like odd stuff as my music tastes are odd stuff. The track was a happy accident really....one mic (see above paragraph), just writing a song.

Second...I agree with everything you said here except that vocal effect. Again this is where I like wierd stuff. Those are 2 vox tracks....one 58 and one strange junk mic from the 50s that was going through my guitar effect...lots of distortion, some trem, etc. For that part, I muted the 58 and brought the junk mic all the way up. The effects are always there though.

Third...Yeah I agree with you. I had a lot of problems with this one. I couldnt get the bass to jump out because the organ was taking up ALOT of space (too much). And since the drums were on the same track I coulndt remove too much...this is why the drums sound thin as it is....I cut a lot! Originally it was going to be a demo with just drums orgam and guitar but I went for more.


A1A2

Thanks for listening and thanks for the compliment! I dont know what you mean about the telephone vocal thing though and you are right about the intro....I actually meant to edit it and fade it up but I got sick of working on it!;)


TripleM

LOL thanks! The bass you are hearing is mostly the organ....a B3 plugin in fruity loops. There is abass part mixed in subtly just to help define and push along with the drums. BTW there are NO effects on the vox...just vox

Thanks DTB

B Sabbath

Thanks man. I'm the singer. Yeah Im not into Steely Dan much but thats cool;) I appreciate the feedback. That keyboard part everyone wants turned down...I kinda liked it loud though I realized it was obnoxious. The problem was that it was all on one track so by the time I WANTED to bring it down some, it was too late....Id have had to start over and since it was demo......you know;)


Erland

BIG thanks!!! You hit the Bowie/brit thing on the head....big inluences in sound and that "layering" thing! Thats kinda what I thought about the high organ thing as well....thanks!

Lt Bob

Thanks! Yeah the vox were a little low. They would have been lower but my girlfriend insisted I bring them up....guess I get bashful:D

Fed

Thanks! Yeah listen to the other stuff as well...much appreciated!
 
HEY blue!

I listened to Anerasia again....what did you mean by "breathing" on the (acoustic) track? Can you give me a time frame on that? I didnt hear it. Im assuming you meant breathing like human breathing.

thanks

heylow
 
You didn't ask for the first two song reviews, but I did those as a bonus :)

ANERASIA AUTOMATIA sounds kinda psychedelic, due to the compressed vocal with delays, which I like. The guitar has too much of that fret noise mentioned earlier. This song sounds way too loud for some reason. You sing good, BTW.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT has the same problem. Somehow everything seems to be too loud or in your face. It feels like it needs room to breathe. Or maybe it shouldn't be listened to loud :) I'm not too keen for those weird voices that echo left and right. Sounds like some kind of slapping or something. The song is simple and to the point. The singing in about 2:00 sounded clipping. I think you should check your recording levels, as it seems you have some distortion here and there.

TAKING MY TIME. Once again, I'm wondering what that noise is. I guess it's the pick noise or something. It's way too evident, and it echoes too, so it must be eliminated somehow. The listener gets distracted by that constant clapping snapping sound :) And the organ jump at 1:30 is a bit too loud, as everybody has pointed out already. The song is another straightforward nice pop tune, which I like listening sometimes. Just try to sort out the recording problems. Also, the song stops kinda suddenly, which makes it seem too short.
 
Thanks Cranky/Hey Bear...

Thanks for the input Cranky One. I truly appreciate people taking the time!

Yeah Take it Or Leave It was done on my 4 track as the second song I ever recorded by myself. I tend to kick levels up high on thing. All effects were done straight to tape...I'm adventuous that way...I think thats some of the clipping you hear....some of that stuff was put through the ringer. I think the reason it sounds like has no room to breathe has a lot to do with the sloppy and amatuerish EQing of thing....seems a little "fat" or "sluggish" in the mid range.

I like that recording though because its interesting to me....guess thats why I keep it around. I think I got pretty creative there, conceptually. Its funny to me that so many of the little things that are critiqued badly are things that I liked and did on purpose. (actual recording sounds not withstanding as there are some LAZILY recorded signals in there!!!) Maybe Im just a misunderstood artist!:D :D :D



Hey BEAR!

I couldnt for the life of me figure out your breathing thing! My girlfriend finally figures it out.....I think. You MUST be talking about the "effect" that I purposely turned up for a second right before the vox come in. I turned it up to "over emphisize" the guitar there and "set up" the oncoming vocal.

Guess I'm wierd.......I STILL think its damn cool for a single mono track captured with a 58 and a minidisc recorder. Guess thats what I like about it....the simplicity....a simple creative moment haphazzardly captured to a medium. Will it get airplay?? No! But its good for the soul, brother Bruce and I appreciate your help.




A critique about some critiques though.....

I (even in others' stuff) think you guys are sometimes way too analytical about little things like fret noise, etc. Its music...thats it. Guitars squeek and sometimes snares rattle and God knows what else. We live in an age where every little "noise" is edited right out of music. Its bad enough I gotta use drum machines on some of these demos. I dont need everything else to be robotic as well. I also have a "no punch in" rule when demoing....a little flub...its me, I did it, it rocks, its a demo....Im not saving lives here.

Im not wanting to sound unappreciative. I apprecite EVERY post to this thread. I just want you know where my stuff comes from as its only fair to everyone involved. I like bands like Spaklehorse, Spoon, Beulah, Death Cab For Cutie, etc. Im not saying my stuff is that quality....just that, like that stuff, perfection and high buff wax job are not included in the deal. I listen to the radio now and then and wonder where the music is and for the most part I would guess it ended up somewhere on the cutting room floor or perhaps edited out of the final cut. At the same time there are guys with four track out there (not me) that make some of THE most soulful slices of music out there.

Thanks again everyone:cool: :)

heylow
 
Very cool dude...:D
I aint gonna comment on the mix because you already got that from some of the best ears on the board.....

Takin' My Time is a very cool tune man....very commercially acceptable...upbeat kind thing....you should do something with it...ya know?
Take it easy man...good stuff.
Joe
 
heylow,
I can see your point about pickin stuff out in the mix.
however you didn't specify what you want the critique for, so everything was "game" :)

I guess it all depends on what your goal is. My goal is to make the best production recording wise as posible with my home equipment. So if people like the song I post, well great, I appriciate it, but that was not the whole point, at least for me.
I want them to say "that guitar has to much mids" or "you should use this thingy and set it 100:1 ratio". (I also like to hear that they liked the song :D lol)


As far as the flubls go. I totaly diagree here. I have a good friend and he is like that. We would be tracking a song. I would play lead or something and I wouldn't be happy with it (little flub here and there :)) but he would say "Hey it's cool, it's raw, it's rock, fix in the mix" and I'll be all mad because I know I could play better.
THere is nothing wrong with going for perfection. I also agree it shouldn't be obsession. There is a point where you should say this is good enough becuase I agree you can over do it. But if you here a flub and you can fix it, well, why wouldn't you.

Anyway, I did like your ideas as far as the tunes go. And I do like your voice. it's got character, (and you stay in pitch :)).
Let me know what you want critique on ;)

I think I came through kind of angree sounding. I'm not :)

Do you record on the 4track? You mentioned a semi expensive NTK mic so you probably apgraded since first tune

cheers
 
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