Our first little album

[v6v6v6]

Our first EP album

Hey folks, it's been awhile since I've posted... I'd love to hear your reviews of my songs at http://www.tzerptheb.com. The album consists of 4 originals and 4 covers (Elliott Smith to be exact--skip 'em if you don't care for covers). They're pretty basic stuff, nothing fancy.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm posting the MP3s of the originals here to give you quicker access:

It's Not the End
No Match
What Do I Say?
Going

 

[madmush]

i guess i'm one of those not too keen on covers. Since you're putting this out, it's a shame to come with tech criticism. So i won't! You seem to me to have your act together, so well done on the finished album! It's alive, sweet melodies on all 4 tracks, and although the production isn't picture perfect in my ears, you totally get away with it One thing though (can't help myself), i think with some work on the recordings of the vocals, you'd have some killer stuff here. Nothing wrong with the actual singing. Is that a modulation effect on it? I'd skip it. If that's the room acoustics that is picked up, i'd try to get rid of that...

Clever tactics with the length of the songs too (apart from the third), makes you play it again immediately since you didn't get enough.

Actually, on the last one (which is TOO short dammit with that length, you should have more songs on the album! ) the white noise from the vocals mic is quite prominent and disappears abruptly when the singing is over with... would be interesting to hear more about how the recording was done!



...

 

[v6v6v6]

madmush, thanks for listening and critiquing the songs. I wholeheartedly admit that I've got very little knowledge of recording and mixing. Frankly, I don't think I've got the patience or technical know-how to learn the finer points of it all. :/ But I try to pick up a couple tips here and there and just do what I can.

For most of the songs I recorded the vocals 3 times and panned them left, center, and right, with the volume raised on the center vocal. The only effect I use is compression and a little equalization so I'm guessing the white noise you hear is probably the room? How would I get rid of it? I did the same thing for guitars on a few songs.

As for the length of the songs, I've tried writing songs which include the ole' verse, chorus, verse, chorus, etc. but I don't feel like I've got enough content to provide for a 3 to 5-minute song. I usually find that by the time I'm at the third verse I'm just filling in with really bad rhymes, which may just be a testament to my writing skills. So it turns into an extended single verse/chorus mix and then it's over.

 

[v6v6v6]

I hope there are more opinions...

 

[madmush]

...put a gate on the vocals, to cut out the noise on the recording when you're not singing. (Actually, maybe you'll find you like the noise there. If so, you've got to add it on the last song after the singing finishes.)

Your dubbing the vocals 3 times explaings the modulation fair enough!, personally i'd probably prefer having just one lead vocal take.

....the drumsolo is funny the cheek!! heheh....


...

 

[v6v6v6]

Thanks for the tips! The drum solo was impromptu, but we had watched a Led Zeppelin DVD the night before of the drummer doing that awesome solo. Obviously not of the same caliber, but we left it in the recording because it offered some really stupid/funny contrast.

 

[grn]

I feel like the mixing itself could be improved (with generous amounts of EQ), and yeah the songs are wicked short. As far as making it tighter, I'd suggest blending the vocal better with volume reduction in some places and reverb. If you have separate files for tracks like drums, vocals, bass, guitar... I'd be interested in mixing just one song to show you what *could* be done.

 

[v6v6v6]

grn, that'd be great! I'll PM you and see if we can set that up.