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

  • Thread starter Thread starter heylow
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I kinda get what you mean about the flubs. If you leave the flubs there, you kinda get a more honest representation of what the 'band' would sound live. So that would make it more real. Of course, some flubs just make the song unlistenable to some, while others don't mind. Some people get all bent over a small bend mistake in a solo, while others don't notice such things, rather they look at the big picture of things. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that some listeners are musicians and others are not.
 
Listened to Taking My Time. Really great. I only listened to the lofi on headphones, but the overall feeling and sound of the song was great. I hear the Bowieness, but more so, Elvis Costello. Great vocal. And the riff and groove swing along.

Sometimes I wonder why I mess with real drums. It'd be so much easier to use something like fruity loops. Does fruity loops use actual drum loops, or just single hits?

As far as flubs go, I suppose it depends on the flub. The Beatles had lots of flubs, but they were all really good ones!

Anyway, really great!

Macle

p.s. oh yeah, that organ bit's too loud!:)
 
Yeah! Taking my Time is great fun, really like it. I am not an expert on mixes, will leave that to the others. I am an expert on fun tunes, and this is one for sure. I now most listen to "Pigs on a wing" to get me out of this good mood...;)
 
This is my first critique, so here it goes

I downloaded and listened to all three and here are a couple of thoughts,

Anerasia Automania:

sounds good for just 1 mic goin' to 1 track. Without having mix controls between the guitar and vocals the stereo effect on the vocals dont seem to mess with the guitar.

I totally hear Blue Bears breathing noise at the beginning, its most noticable between 0:02 and 0:20.

good job for doin' it "on the fly".


Take it or leave it:

Good tune. The rythem guitar tone doesnt knock me out though. It sounds like a pedal going di.

I do like how the lead guitar kind of plays a backup vocal on the chorus. Its almost "singing" take it or leave it, real catchy.

The vocal effect @ 1:56 is a little too harsh - I like the idea its just a little too i dunno....harsh?

The minimal drumming is cool. It sounds like a kick, snare and a couple of cymbols. Nice laid back feeling ala T-Rex :)

The whole song runs a bit too long for my short attention. I dont want to rearrange yer song, butt (and its a big one) maybe put the 3:27 break in @ 3:12 and get this baby in under three and a half minutes. Again thats just my tast.

Did i mention this is a very catchy tune?


Taking my time:

The softer sounding organ is way cool throughout aside from 1:37.

I may be way off but the the vocals have kind of an Urge Overkill quality to them at the beginning.

this is another catchy one!.......and a perfict length!!!



You've got a great voice and youwrite some damn (dare i say again) catchy tunes.
good job.

rodvonbon
 
I listened to "Taking My Time".....i hear the breathing a bit also, but its a demo, and capturing a groove/feel is the idea....and you did those magnificently......its a damn good tune, definitely worth another shot.....it just finished looping for the 3rd time and gone for more......great Fruity Loops work on the drums, btw.......
 
good commercial tune!

Taking My time was great. I think A1A2 said it had a good commercial feel to it and I agree.

The recording was good. I am not experienced enough to add more than that on the mix.

But... I would have loved to hear some bridge or "new" part to break up the song. Maybe a keychange or Minor 3rd shift to give some movement in the songwriting.

Good song! (-:

jerod
 
A great, fun tune.
The drums and organ sound good considering they were done through Fruity Loops - good snare and highhat sample, didn't like the toms though.
Didn't like the intro "noise" - and I agree with Blue Bear about the mids - this tune should sparkle more, whatever that means. :)
That being said however, those things don't really matter much as I really like the tune - even saved it for future listening. ;)
Good job - look forward to hearing more.

Oh, and personally, I think if you'd add an ass of reverb & smother everything in synth pads, it would sound alot like The Cure on Prozac. (You can use that as a press quote if you like. :D )
 
"But... I would have loved to hear some bridge or "new" part to break up the song. Maybe a keychange or Minor 3rd shift to give some movement in the songwriting. "

Nah - that would make the song too cliche.

I love it how it is. Awesome song...I've been playing it for about an hour now. Great stuff.

Kinda reminds me of The Cars.
 
by the way macle, fruity loops uses individual samples. it's pretty good for drum programming.

if you ever listened to the song "mind bender", posted by..someone else, a few weeks ago...their drum samples were amazing...lots of room noise and stuff. I was wondering why i don't just use those as well ;)
 
Hey, Anersia was my favorite of the litter. It's just so fueled and honest and in your face. I can feel the energy that you put into it while playing it. I was happy to hear that it was one track and one mic. I think a lot of times people use to many effects (especially compression) and destroy the energy of a song. These songs may sound nice and polished and close to perfection (rarely) but a lot of the emotional energy goes out the window. Sometimes it takes a low-fi take such as this to rekindle what I like about music the most.

Thanks,
-Sal

p.s. It this "breathing" thing that everyone's talking about in the attack of the guitar or are you talking about the reverby springy background noise (noticeable only in the beginning) or none of the above?
 
I love the organ in time...

I guess it is a little loud...but, makes a nice effect.
 
WOW!!!!:)

Lostsa replies! I've gotten way more than I expected and I just have to say THANKS!!! and I appreciate everyone taking the time!

This is cool. Since there are so many, instead of replying to each one individually, I will attempt to address a few points that stick out to me:

On flubs:
I like the exchange over this, actually....nice topic in a topic. Just to clarify though, what I meant by "no punch ins, keep the rockin flubs" is, these are more MY demos...the songs I like will all be re-recorded later with the help of some friends with way more experienced than me.
These are practice and ideas for me, really and A) It seems silly to put in hours getting "the right" take for a simple demo and B) Its good practice to have a "punching in sucks" attitude for later. You may want to punch the "little things" in a serious recording but in demo mode, it keeps you from developing the punching in every 10 seconds disease (that I used to have:D )

Other stuff:

Fruity loops is great for this application....single samples, cheap, easy to use, fun to use....comes with crappy samples but its easy to find good ones and easy to make some yourself. Download the demo! By the way, Macle...your stuff rules!

Fed....yeah I used to record only on the 4 track till very recently. Taking my Time was the first thing not done on it. I got a bunch of stuff all at once and I have double the learning curve now;) I do have an NTK as well as a few other decent mics and various other new toys. I listed everything I actually own on this thread: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51377

Gidge, I appreciate the feedback....I must admit I was ready for some slamming after a couple of the shots I took at you an a different thread....very adult...thanks!;)

Jim....I MIGHT just use that quote!

ROD, I agree with much of you say....especially the guitar sound thing....I can be so DAMN lazy sometimes. Like in Taking my time...I was lazy about guitar sound....it was late and I couldnt plug in but I wanted to record. I could have used a real acoustic but NO....I used my archtop electric cuz it was close.....see!?!? Lazy. A habit I will work on! Thanks for the kind words as well.

Sal, I appreciate the sentiment!.

That BREATHING thing in Anerasia....

The reverby springy sound heard in the beginning is the futon I was sitting on!!:rolleyes: :D

The breathing thing is not human breath...it's the effect I used later in conjunction with the guitar attack.

::::::Here's what I did:::::::::
As I said, the track was one track. I liked it but thought it needed spicing up....Im wierd. I took the wave into Fruity loops and used an ANWIDA reverb in one of Fruity's effect loops set for a wierd mirror type reveb/delay and hit record(for automation). I "played" the effects send "knob" while Fruity recorded my actions (automation) and then I exported it. This is why its called Anerasia Automatia, by the way:D

It took a few times of practice. If you listen carefully you'll hear that it is not just sitting the same all throughout the mix. I kept swelling it up for different textures on different words and notes. Listen once just for the effect....I think its interesting, anyway;)

Again thanks everyone!! I'm stoked that this may people took the time...IM NOT WORTHY:D :D

Any other questions, just ask!

heylow
 
i dunno, i think the miked archtop is the whole beauty of the sound...

I am gonna try that sometime.
 
I listened to the other 2. Good stuff. I like the chords in Anerasia Automatia, especially when you go to a major or something. The second one, (bang a gong, get it on...) this one actually seemed not as good to me, I think with the band it made it a little more mundane sounding, oddly enough. I listened to Taking My Time again (you like that bang a gong riff!). I agree with Wes, there's something about that guitar sound with the organ that's really good. When you redo it, would be good (to me) to keep the exact vibe you've got now.

Thanks for the Fruity Loops info (Wes, too). I'll check it out, but I probably won't use it. Every time I start to mess with CD loops or drum machine sounds (even good ones), I start to get depressed. Would be a lot easier, though, and probably sound better, too, in a way, more modern and "produced" sounding. But, as Ringo says, it's the rolls.

Anyway, thumb's up!
Macle
 
I liked Takin' My Time. Good tune throughout. The only thing I would suggest may to to lower the keys a bit in that little instrumental break. They came in a little bit loud, but otherwise I really liked the tune.

Good vocals and nice mix on the guitars, drums and bass.
 
Nice tune, good mix , drums a little thin for me but for fruity drums youve done way better than Im getting so far and the sound does go with the tune well. I dont know what so many are talking about, breathing, fret noise,ect. I did not hear anything objectionable, it may be my poor hearing or this constant ringing in my ears or it may be someone having to say this or that, just to show how good they can hear. There was 1 keyboard lick that was very loud. They need to listen to the tune and not make an audiolgy exam out of it. overall Good Job :) Thanks for sharing
 
Hey Mix,does this mean we can all dig up our old threads for the newbies?:eek:
 
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