Piper Of Your Dreams (Demo)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matthew M.
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Matthew M.

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Here is a song I wrote about a month ago, entitled "Piper Of Your Dreams." Everything you hear is me, from the composition to the recording and the production. Nonetheless, it's just merely a demo, so I know a lot of things aren't top notch (it was all written and recorded within a couple of hours, which explains things), but I thought it could be helpful to hear your comments on what's here so far, so I hope you listen and enjoy it! Thanks!

So, here it is: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=910733&songID=7223637

Link 2, if the other one doesn't work: http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=119441

Enjoy!
 
No bass drum.

There's a general lack of presence, except for the vox. 100% L&R pan works when there's glue in the middle...otherwise, pan in some.

The opening verse has all the instruments playing real choppy-like. There's no sustained wave underneath it. Glue.

I might try doing a dry re-mix with some eq-ing...find the bass drum. Get it sounding good dry...then apply verbs and delays. Maybe a little more sparingly.

There was a lot of interest in the parts of the composition...but I got lost about halfway through......a little too complex to grab??

I can hear a real good song in there....and some natural composing talent. The 'knack'.

Keep going. And listen to good recordings ...as much as you record...listen to the mixes and ambience and textures of the instruments. Identify things, and apply them to your work.
 
Jeff, thank you very much for your feedback. It's much appreciated. You make some very helpful and insightful comments on the mixing and, to be honest, while a lot of it is definitely inexperience, it was also probably "just trying to get it done" too and, sometimes, I can have that tendency to just focus on finishing it and, in the process, probably not doing the best I can. And you did pick up on my fatal flaw: not putting enough on the bass drum. That's something I do have a tendency of doing.

However, I just noted something that I feel like a dummy about...

The first link, if that's what you clicked on, was to the wrong song!

I accidentally linked to a song I did last year. Here was the one that was supposed to be linked on link 1:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=910733&songID=7907985

Alas, it's also probably not much better in terms of mixing, as it's just a demo, but that was the one I intended to post, instead. Sorry about that!
 
I just took a listen.

Man....I really like your natural arranging and melodic gifts. That composition has tons of potential.

The drums are in a little room. The guitar L is in the grotto. There's an echo? or a synth R ?? the bass is there. The vox are too low and also in another cave of seemingly different dimentions.

The comp sound loads like a Fleetwood Mac-ish thing. Even the kit sounds like Mick.....but the tonal quality is not good.

If you can get a handle on making nice recorded sounds....listen, listen, listen....and keep recording every day.....you're gonna be makin' something really great.

Your melody, arranging, and other basic stuff is solid. Keep going!

I'd suggest: recording all your tracks dry, and anticipating low-mid buildup in a final mix...record with -3 or-6db on layered guitars between 300 ans 500Hz, eg. That way, you final mix will be dry, un-screwed with, as much as possible. Listen to the dry mix. Get it right at that stage. If you can get it sounding good, then you won't be inclined to paste stuff over it...which will make a badly-communicating stack of tracks worse. Just gotta keep doing it...and listening to the art of great engineers in an educated way....comparing. You should never give up or slow down: you have song ideas worthy of the best production.
 
I like the imaging on the drums and the delay on the vocal is perfect. I really like the song.
 
dodgeaspen said:
I like the imaging on the drums and the delay on the vocal is perfect. I really like the song.
Click to expand...

Took the words right outta my mouth.:)
Don't love the synth(? heavy, long decay time reverb?) you got going on in the beginning. The thing just seems to be swollen and it introduces a lot of mud.
Again, though, the song itself is great, i'm sure it'll sound awesome if you play around with it some.
 
Thanks, guys, for the compliments and feedback. I'm very happy to hear that you all like the song! Your feedback is very constructive and helpful and all of your words are much appreciated. I think one of the reasons I've had a bit of difficulty getting the sound I want is because all the instruments you hear are actually virtual. The only thing I actually used the mic for was vocals, while the rest of the stuff (guitar, bass, and drums) are from the software I use, Logic. So I had some issues with the guitars especially.

The feel that I'm trying to get is something with a bit of a creepy vibe to it and I think that's why I did put a bit of reverb on the guitars, though I loaded everything with too much of it and ended up drowning everything in the process. Nonetheless, you all inspire me to want to go back there and give it another shot and I think I will; right now, in fact. Again, it's all just a demo, so I do plan to redo a lot of things, including rewrite the lyrics (as it was just me singing what came to mind), so it's a process, but I was curious to hear where I'm at with it now and so I thank you very much!
 
Added another update to it a few days ago, for those interested. I'll get this right eventually!
 
Cool song, you've got a nice sounding voice for this type of music.

The only thing I didn't like was that crash cymbal I kept hearing, sounded too phony.
 
Much better. Here's where I think it could be further improved:

At :50, there's 4 bars[?] between v1 & v2....a little guitar solo action , lifted from the later solo, would bridge the gap interestingly. A theme?

The last note of the guitar solo stops abrubtly before the first note of the vocal of the next part; lift a single, good note or phrase from the guitar solo, and edit it onto the end , to ring under and through the first few words of the following vocal....and close the solo with a fade...

There's a part of the vocal..a few words, before the final parts, that drift off pitch. Without re-recording it, maybe there's something you can edit in to substitute.....or you could mask it ...overlay...with some guitar solo material?

The guitar is, IIRC, swept R after the intro. I might keep it closer to CTR...

And , lastly, increase the HF on the drums...they sound dull. I can't really sense the hats subdividing the time " sit sit sit sit....." Or try tamborine or something as a dynamic add in? And another light piano part...coming in at a later place...playing a counterpoint rhythmic figure to the guitar groove, could add dynamic interest and build.

Still a little wet for my taste, after the band starts chugging. I'd think to put the verb on seperate tracks, and use a volume envelope to withdraw the sweetness a bit on some full-band parts. Might be causing the muddiness I think I hear.

I like the tune. I think with a little editing and weaving, it's going to be very, very good.
 
Hmmm. I really like what you've got. To me the toms sound too prominent, but other than that I like.

Ends a little abruptly, no?

C
 
I like your voice, and the song is really good. Production sounds a little dodgy, & it doesn't quite punch. The guitar solo is cool. Reminds me a little of Neil Young/Travis type thing. Needs to be remixed. Some of the guitars are getting lost, and it's a bit muddy. Cool song though.
 
Very good tune, nice melody.
Voice is very good for this kind of style. I do detect some very small pitch issues here and there but those can be fixed. Also the volume level of the voice varies, so might be a good idea to compress the voice. Pretty good work up to now.

Joey :):):):)
 
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