Showcase your best song!

[undrgrnd studio]

This a great idea! Man, I wish I had my new stuff recorded... well, I'll give you a link to my page, anyway. There are 4 songs here - I think "This Tree and Me" really has potential. I dunno - any feedback is appreciated . What about your stuff, DAS?



www.myspace.com/CallingApollo

OK I gave a good listen to your songs. I think the songwriting is good, and the guitar is played well, the vocals are in key.

BUUUUTTTT!!

You need to sing with more passion. It's the first thing I noticed on every song. You sound like your trying not to wake the neighbors or are holding back so as not to peak the preamp. I've been there and I can hear it with you. Even if you are after that "hushed tones" sound, you can mix it up more. Vocals need dynamics just like a pop song needs a crescendo. But I like what I hear. Just more solos, more active bass lines, more drums, and more BALLS when singing. Cheers, and keep it up!!

BTW if you like this huhed tones type of acoustic music I reccomend checking out this guy called Ryan Lee and the Mindless from Boston. He has a good style you might dig.

 

[undrgrnd studio]

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=11403


This is a song I wrote about a year back and then pulled it out, changed a few things, threw it together, and took to a engineer to master.

Hope you like... it's called Falling.

This song sounds polished and ready for airplay to me. It reminds me of a lot of rock/pop songs out within the past 5 years or so. Well produced, written, and played. Maybe the bass lines could be stronger, but a lot of rock songs have a pretty basic bass riff anyways.

The chorus really strikes out and shines as well as the lead guitar.

If I were to give any criticism, it wouldn't be on this tune but on your next project to reach for something slightly out of the mainstream or even something completely different. It would be a fun way to learn something new at the very least, or some of the most interesting music you ever make at best.

 

[danw]

2.47(a)

There is just so much going on here. What is the stringed instrument you are using a Bazuki? Are these samples or recorded? It is epic in design and definitely transports me away somewhere – Perhaps Morocco with a Marshal stack! Like the first track I am so impressed that despite sounding like 4 musicians playing four different songs the work is unified by the tightness of the rhythm section. Cool Sound

Thanks again; I believe your numerous and encouraging reviews are doing a lot to draw would-be lurkers like myself into being more active members of this forum. The stringed instrument you hear in the beginning is just a close-miked violin being fingerpicked like a guitar. I can't bow worth a damn, so I was trying out playing the instrument in a way that was more familiar to me. The drums are all made of samples that are put together by a little command-line program I found on sourceforge. I have to be the only guy here with a drum machine that runs on DOS. Most of the weirder percussion sounds are from an ethnic drum package I found on Doru Malaia's site. The bass, snare and cymbals are all from a tape recording I made ages ago on a friend's drum set before I left town after high school.

Scrapiron Peacocks

I love the hi-hat panned right which comes in and out – sounds like an sprinkler on a field tracking back to start another pass. Amazing lead work – it like a hard-core funk lead guitarist and drummer have turned up to jam with some ‘good old’ C&W boys and it all works really well. Can not hear vocals though, but I love the melody line as it meanders over the frenetic arrangement.

Great stuff

I'll be damned; it does sound like a sprinkler. In fact, I might like it better if it really was a sprinkler. Everything around here's frozen solid right now, but I seem to recall owning such a device, and I'll have to remember to get a recording of it when the weather warms up. Thanks for the idea. The trouble you mention with the vocals is something that's always plagued my recordings. I feel like there's a very thin sweet spot between not being able to hear/understand the vocals and having them shoved into my face, and I tend to err on the low side. I've learned a lot about EQ lately from this forum, so hopefully I'll be able to make the vocals sit a little better in the mix on my future recordings.

 

[danw]

rayc:

Your stuff is cool, and man is there a lot of it. Full circle is the one I'm currently liking the most. Very simple arrangement, but it does what it's supposed to, I think. I'm also liking softdance; much fuller mix in this one. The only complaint on this one is that the vocals sound a little muddy to me, like you've cut the top end of the eq off. This could just be Soundclick, though, or the fact that I'm listening on headphones. Dig the sax in both.

rainhard:

I like the doubled vocals. I can definitely hear the plosives in them, though. That's the only distracting thing I could find. Nice work.

 

[Whatmysay]

I've learned a lot about EQ lately from this forum, so hopefully I'll be able to make the vocals sit a little better in the mix on my future recordings.

Before EQ think arrangement - I use to put everything, apart from base and cymbals in the same frequency then hope EQ and panning could save my mixes. Now I really try hard to tuck the vocals where nothing else is really happening ( or make nothing happen where the vocals are). Of cause it is not always possible, but it is a better platform to build from. The other is to use minus EQ (lower undesired Fq rather than boost desired) particular if hanging around the vocal range - aparently that is how they always use to do it back in the day!

Your style of music is like a ballroom full of different types of dances and you've got to think of panning, EQ, FX and volume to workout where the spotlight will fall at any given time in the dance (Couple 27 doing the Bosa Nova or your Dad dancing at a wedding!) - it where taste and science become art.

I have heard experimental combinations of music styles instruments and have done sound track work both for film and live theatre, but what is most striking and engaging about your songs is the delight of organised chaos it conveys

Burt

 

[nord]

change partners (unhappy marriage version)

Must you dance, every dance, with the same unfortunate man?
You have danced with me since the music began.

Wont you change partners and leave me?

Must you dance, quite so close, with your lips touching my face?
Cant you see, Im longing to leave this place?

Wont you change partners and leave me?

Ask me to sit this one out and while youre alone,
Ill tell the waiter to tell you im wanted on the telephone.

Youve been locked, in my arms, ever since heaven-knows-when.
Wont you change partners and then,
You may never want to trouble me again.

 

[markusv3000]

its alot of talented people on this forum

 

[undrgrnd studio]

New Best Song

This is a really old song, probably 5 years, but I finally got around to recording it. And as luck would have it I was blessed with a few friends over that night. So here is my latest and greatest tune. Jazz/blues/rock tune. I really love this song. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.

It's called Being Alone

http://www.myspace.com/danieljamessmall

 

[DAS19]

This is a really old song, probably 5 years, but I finally got around to recording it. And as luck would have it I was blessed with a few friends over that night. So here is my latest and greatest tune. Jazz/blues/rock tune. I really love this song. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.

It's called Being Alone

http://www.myspace.com/danieljamessmall

The guitars sound kind of distant maybe to much reverb. The synth sound is kinda weird. I like the vocals but I think you would have been better off with a different microphone. His voice seems like it would sound better warmer with maybe a tube mic or tube pre. Its a fun little bluesy tune slow tempo and relaxing. I like it those are my thoughts though.

 

[GUIDEVOD]

Dantown

I'd say my best that i have recorded right now would be "Obsoletely Absolute" which is up on my myspace. anyone can feel free to check it out and give feedback if you like.

myspace.com/mydantown

nothing too fancy
just beggining in the whole recording thing

ironically written about my troubles with songwriting

 

[Mister M]

Listening to lots of these is giving me an inferiority complex because they are pretty fantastic, but here goes...

This is the our most recent recording, Boomtown

myspace.com/daysofrainband

(I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster so I can't post a link yet...afraid you'll have to cut and paste).

Most of the song was done on a Zoom 4-track in the sanctuary of a church...so it's a bit rough.