Summer (Original Instrumental)

  • Thread starter Thread starter GuitarLegend
  • Start date Start date
GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

New member
Been a while since I posted here. This is a new original that just dropped out of the air the other night.

Both the rhythm and lead guitars are Gibson SG

The original intention was to do the whole song on a single backing chord but I thought it got too monotonous (no kidding?). I maintained that through the "verse" with the guitar echo providing its own harmony but I changed tack for the "chorus" and broke the single-chord idea just because.

Criticism is welcome, any nails that need to be hammered down, but mainly I am just looking for some different ears on the recording

Summer
 
Lunch break listening....I find the mix a bit centered and the bass is sort of stomping on the mix somehow. The majority of it is good though. I do like the whole tune and what you've got for echo on the lead guitar... Nice smooth playing....
 
ido1957 said:
Lunch break listening....I find the mix a bit centered and the bass is sort of stomping on the mix somehow. The majority of it is good though. I do like the whole tune and what you've got for echo on the lead guitar... Nice smooth playing....
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words. Yeah, I kind of felt that way about the bass myself but not sure what to do with it. Might drop it back a notch and see how that comes out.
 
I thought the playing was real smooth. Very nice. The lead tone was great sounding and perfect for the style.

I didn't care for the bass sound. Just sounded like a low rumble. It didn't sound "musical."

I suppose this style calls for lots of reverb. But for me it was too thick. but I don't like verb much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Maybe try raising the snare volume a little bit. Might sound cool.
 
TripleM said:
I thought the playing was real smooth. Very nice. The lead tone was great sounding and perfect for the style.

I didn't care for the bass sound. Just sounded like a low rumble. It didn't sound "musical."

I suppose this style calls for lots of reverb. But for me it was too thick. but I don't like verb much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Maybe try raising the snare volume a little bit. Might sound cool.
Click to expand...

Thanks TripleM, I appreciate any comments, its nice to know what people think. It may have too much verb but I intended that for this particular piece. I was always fascinated with the sound of The Atlantics when I was a kid and never quite got it out of my system. But it is exactly what I was trying for in this one. I have modified the bass and spread the rhythm guitar out a bit to give it more space. Not sure which version of the recording you heard. I use the same link, just change the source mp3
 
A general "thank you" to everyone who participates in this forum. As always, a trip to Home Recording always does wonders for a mix. At least that is true for me and I appreciate the input

Thanks again
 
TripleM said:
I thought the playing was real smooth. Very nice. The lead tone was great sounding and perfect for the style.

I didn't care for the bass sound. Just sounded like a low rumble. It didn't sound "musical."

I suppose this style calls for lots of reverb. But for me it was too thick. but I don't like verb much, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Maybe try raising the snare volume a little bit. Might sound cool.
Click to expand...

Have addressed almost every point you raised except for the reverb. That's gotta stay for my liking.

However, I made the bass line less boring, less rumbling and hopefully more musical.

Drum levels were touched up a little.

Same link but reposting here for convenience

I worked most of the day on this. I have my own thoughts but don't want to pre-poison you with them. Would greatly appreciate any feedback

Summer
 
I heard Livin on a Prayer when it first came on, not to slight it but that's what came to my warped mind ;)

I love the tones, sounds real full on my headphones, I would take down the guitar panning to the right slightly but that's just a personal preference. Good work
 
lynx said:
I heard Livin on a Prayer when it first came on, not to slight it but that's what came to my warped mind ;)

I love the tones, sounds real full on my headphones, I would take down the guitar panning to the right slightly but that's just a personal preference. Good work
Click to expand...

That was one of my thoughts too. The guitar IS slightly high up in the mix but there are places where it isn't. Its set for the loudest it needs to be overall but that means there are places where it is a bit over the top. I dont really want to ride the slider for that because I think it would show up. So I might just take it down a notch and hope I am forgiven for the bits where it gets drowned :) Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it
 
Amazing smooth guitar performance, but as others have mentioned the bass sound a bit muffled. Also the drums sound a bit stale. But again, the performance is absolutely amazing. I hear some The Doors in there with a jazzy kind of vibe.
 
dainbramage said:
Amazing smooth guitar performance, but as others have mentioned the bass sound a bit muffled. Also the drums sound a bit stale. But again, the performance is absolutely amazing. I hear some The Doors in there with a jazzy kind of vibe.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment on the guitar, thats my main weapon. I don't seem to hear muffled bass. I even cut back the low end of the rhythm guitar to give the bass its own space. If I bring up the clarity too much on that it could compete with the guitar. I'll give it a shot but I thought I had made a big improvement on the bass since the first version. What's stale about the drums? I am not sure in what respect you mean. The style or the kit? What would you recommend?
 
I think the drums sound pretty good - the cymbals sound great. New bass line works well too - nice work
 
arcadeko said:
I think the drums sound pretty good - the cymbals sound great. New bass line works well too - nice work
Click to expand...

Thanks Arcadeko, I wasn't sure I could hear anything "wrong" but I don't know what others are listening and comparing it to.

I have added a touch of drive to the bass and messed with the drums a little, not their levels, just a few more hits here and there. I don't think I have hurt it any but I came here to see what other ears say about it so here is the latest version (again, same link but posted here so you don't have to go back through the thread):

Summer
 
Sounds good to me, I'm only hearing about 15 sec of the song though. Is the whole song supposed to be there? Nice tone
 
You may have caught me in the middle of an upload perhaps. The whole song is there.

I have done some work on the drums, hopefully making them less "stale"

I think this might be the final mix. Feedback would definitely be appreciated

Summer
 
Overall I think it sounds good. It has a really nice melody and the recording sounds clean and balanced for the most part(I'd take a little reverb off those drums though). Overall I think the biggest problem is the arrangement. You have a great melody with great tones and nice playing, but your arrangement is IMO too simple and repetitive. I know you said you think you're done with this one and I understand the feeling. However some things to think about in the future are.

1). Don't be afraid to use more instruments. You can use more rhythm guitars, and they don't all have to be doubling each other. Have an acoustic playing constant 8th notes, an electric doubling the bass rhythm and another playing something completely different. Just remember to leave space for everything(both sonic and rhythmic space).

2). Vary the melody a little more. Instead of playing the exact same thing every time play little variations. Add a harmonic, a whammy bar dive bomb, a jazzy run, or a blues lick to the end of a phrase.

You can get away with only using 1 chord through a song, but you have to make it really rhythmically interesting. Listen to some funk records. Many of those songs will go on for 3 min on the same chord, but the arrangement is so good it doesn't matter how harmonically boring it is.
 
Thanks for that detailed feedback. I thought about the repetition too, but mindful of great hits of the past like The Ventures "Walk Don't Run" with rhythm, lead and drums that maintained an almost monotonous pattern to the music, I felt I could get away with it so to speak. Sometimes I do add other instruments but I am not creative enough to come up with anything workable that wouldn't clutter the soundstage in this case. I had an idea and laid down some tracks based on that. The entire song originally consisted of one backing chord but that made it too boring in my opinion so I added the lead breaks.

A previous comment about the drums sounding stale escaped me but on listening to it, they were a little dry. Its not so much reverb per se that I added, just a little bit of roominess to give it a live feel. I am sure I could reduce that somewhat. I thought that the reverb on the guitar that had to be there was a harsh contrast to the dry drums so I tried to balance that up a bit.

The rhythm guitar was too centred (again taking note of previous comments) so I split the mono guitar track into two tracks and offset them by 128th step and panned both to give them stereo separation. I thought it sounded much better, without cluttering it up with additional parts. The focus was on the lead guitar solo rather than what was backing it up but it did sound like something was off. I am happier with the mix now than how it was but yes, I do value the thoughts of others.

Thanks again for the feedback, it does give me ideas to think about and I do appreciate the comments
 
Minor adjustments have now been applied. Smaller room size for the drums and cut the lead guitar reverb a notch
 
Sounds good.

Is this version limited harder than before? I didn't save the other version, so I can't compare. But I didn't remember the song being limited that hard when I listened last week.
 
TripleM said:
Sounds good.

Is this version limited harder than before? I didn't save the other version, so I can't compare. But I didn't remember the song being limited that hard when I listened last week.
Click to expand...

I am surprised that you can pick that. Yes it is but minimally. Just enough to bring up the loudness a touch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top