The Buzz Is Over

  • Thread starter Thread starter macle
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Nice stuff (as always), macle. I can definitely hear the Beatles influence (maybe a little too much)... The recording seems incredibly clean and beautifully mixed -- every instrument has it's place and comes through perfectly (something I'm currently struggling with). Overall, solid tune with tight production. Unfortunately, I can't give any advice to improve on it... Keep 'em coming!

J
http://www.30SoS.com
 
It really was a pleasure to listen to.

I agree, and thought all the way through it, that the vocal is like John Lennon circa Sgt. Pepper (I also agree with.... maybe a little too much like John Lennon). Strings are obviously synth but well done anyway!

I would end the song at the climax (around 3:30).

You're in California? You guys should hook up with a rhythm section and play out.
 
Great sound.

Not everyone is born with ears.....

You definately have a pair!:)
 
Oh and about them strings.... I like the fact that they are synthy... Gives them that mellotron sound that I think you were probably going for..:)
 
DAMN! That was some beautiful arrangement and execution.

I hope you've got that copyrighted. Even if you can't sell YOUR recording, there has got to be a market for the rights to record this.

Some are saying Lennon, but at 1:37 that passage was very Paul/Wings.

The vocals at the start were very Gilbert O'Sullivan singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

A few nods to ELO here and there.

Great Job!

In the spirit of CMiller, I'll nitpick about the vocals. They sounded somehow "harsher" than the rest of the parts. Did you EQ the vocals at all?

One more amusing (for the audience, anyway) hypothetical question.

If Paul called you up and wanted to record this, would you let him do it just for the plug, or would you need some cash as well?
 
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Wow, I can't believe the great response on this one from you guys. This is really cool!

gnarled-thank you. I generally hate synth strings, too, (the more digital sounding kind). If it had that sound, I probably would drop the strings completely. Thanks again!!

Scott- Yeah, that could be cool! Picturing ourselves on Letterman might be too much (nerves!). Maybe just pretend we're on Craig Kilborn or Conan. Or that new Carson Daly :p :eek: show after Conan. The later the better.

The Stickman-Thank you!! Why aren't we signed? Short story: when we first started this, we wrote a couple of songs, and tried sending 'em in, and calling places, and all that nightmarish stuff. The few people who showed interest were immediately sort of ruining it and taking all the fun out (from your basic runaround BS, to change the songs, words, music, to pretty much wanting to kick me out!! :( ). So we thought, f*ck that sh*t !!(pardon my asterisks), we'll just keep on doing what we want, and then when we're through with the music, we'll try again. :rolleyes:
Anyway, thanks very much!

LongWaveStudio-The recording rig is Emu-Ensoniq Paris 2.1.(Emu, I hear, is dropping Paris, which is a bummer.)

maryslittlesecret-thanks a lot! yes, I suppose it could be too Beatley, I have a tendency to do that. This song actually started out sounding more typically "alternative", but I messed around with the chords and stuff, and moved it in that Beatle direction, I just am really into those Beatles right now! :) Thanks for checking it out!!

L1Slim- thank you! Thanks for the Lennon comment. really cool. I agree with Voxvendor that, even though the strings are fake, or synthy, that I was trying for a mellotronish type deal. Analog fake. Glad you like em! Hopefully, down the line, we'll play out. Would be fun after being cooped up. Feel like I've been working on this forever!

VoxVendor-Thank you very much, and thanks for the string/mellotron thing. :)

drstawl- thanks!! All your references, all cool. On the vocal being harsh, actually I was really worried about that. I had a horrible time finding a mic/comp setup that would work on this sort of Lennon type singing. Everything sounded a little too edgy and harsh, no matter what I tried, mics, settings, blankets over my head! Finally, I got the Rode NTK, which seems to work well, but these lead vocals were recorded before that, so I tried fixing it with EQ and compression, so I thought I had improved it, but...maybe not!? I do think, though, that the MP3ing made the edginess a little worse.

If Paul McCartney wanted to record this song, I'd pay HIM (i'm sure he could use the $5 I could afford!)

Thanks,
Macle
 
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Great song as usual. Is this the fist song you guys did without the Classic II? I would like to know how you miced your Casino (for clean as well as distorted sounds) What amp do you use? I love your song writing. Especially the complex arrangements and how everything sits in the mix so well. Did I tell you I listen to your songs frequently at work? Even the songs that don’t grab me right away at first make their way into my brain after a few listens and then I’m hooked! There are few Beatle influenced song writers that can create their own sound without doing an injustice to the fab four. Though it is clear where your influence lies I believe you explore new grounds which gives you your own style.

The cymbals are way low on this song but it works. What cymbals do you use anyway? reason I am asking is I am looking to buy a kit (quite possibly the stage custom) and know that you shouldn’t skimp on cymbals. I love the sound of the crash in Joke.

P.S. glad you haven't sold out yet. Keep developing your songs till until you get an offer where they won't mangle them. Then sell your soul.
 
Hi VirtualSamana, thanks for your very kind words, especially this line: "Though it is clear where your influence lies I believe you explore new grounds which gives you your own style. " That's really great to hear.

I don't think this is the first that we didn't use the Classic II on (that's on odd sentence). To be honest, I'm not really sure what mic we used on which songs! The amp was a borrowed Vox AC15 . I just put a Shure SM57 on it. The cymbals are: Zildgian 18" medium thin crash, Zildgian 20" crash/ride, and Zildgian 14" New Beat HiHats.

Thanks again for checking this one out, always great to hear from you,
Macle
 
Yeh, my drummer (well there's just him and I makn music in this studio) just got his new zildjian symbols to replace the respectfully bashed to death old zildgians. And fuck they sound good. what a top end. And to test them out we did a Hendrix song "stoned free" as faithfully to Jimi's version as is we humanly possibly can be.

Zildgians still rule. Thats for damn sure!
 
Hey Macle, I use a classic II for vocals as well. Love it to death. It even makes a fart sound sniffably nice. But yeh, sometimes that big valve mic sound isn't called for and a 57 or whatever gives the tone for the day. Resist it if you need to, as hard as that is. It'l be in your ears in another song soon enough.

Scott,
Worlds biggest Rode fan.
 
wow! impressive!

The vocals are a little too harsh from the double tracking on the verse, The chorus rocks tho. Especially that little bit of grittiness that pops up at key points in your voice. Very nice.

The first thing I thought when I heard it was Oasis, but thats basically the Beetles.
 
Scott- Zildgians is cool. Good enough for Ringo, good enough for me! You aussies know yer mics, and cheap(er) too. I will be downloading your movie soon (I really need to get a better connection, even short mp3s take forever.)

Webcyan-Thank you! Hopefully in remixing, I will be able to fix the harshness on the vocal. Thanks very much for the "grittiness" comment. Oasis, Beatles, either way, great compliment, thank you.

Macle
http://www.angelfire.com/rock2/3songs

P.S. For those who asked, I put up mp3s for the other songs. Just scroll down the page if you're still interested. If you have any comments on those ones, I'd love to hear them. Thanks very much.
 
definitely bring those cymbals up some more,
maybe a tad more bass drum

hope the remix goes well.

what compressors did you use?

are you using paris entirely on its own, or do you have stuff outside it too?
 
Dude, I never really payed much attention cause I have a hard time listening to stuff on this connection, but geezus, you got it going on. Listened to a couple. I dont wanna gush your head up like everyone else is, but these songs are great and totally marketable.
If you dont mind at all, I'd like you to email your email address and some contact info, and I'm gonna have Travis Meeks (Days of the New) take a listen to this stuff and give it to his dad, and also Scott Frasier, who manages Flaw. This stuff is quite different from what Scott usually runs past record labels, but I think he'll dig it enough to try it. Maybe not. Worth a try.
2 or 3 Cd's would be preferable though (one for myself of course, heehee) Those guys are very short on patience.
If you'd rather me not, say so now.
Good shit, man. You have skills. I too hear alot of Beatles, and I'm not a big Beatle head, but I do like it. Sounds alot like Oasis too.
Peace.
 
LongWaveStudio said:
definitely bring those cymbals up some more,
maybe a tad more bass drum

hope the remix goes well.

what compressors did you use?

are you using paris entirely on its own, or do you have stuff outside it too?
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Thanks for the feedback on the cymbals and kick. The compressors on mix down are the Waves Ren Comp. Tracking, I may have used the RNC, but I'm one of the few who don't like it, and in fact, found it to be really annoying. I also tried out a few other compressors, an HHB, and a Focusrite, before deciding to spend a little more, and get the Distressor, but that was after I did the tracking on most of the songs (bummer!). The preamp is a Brent Averill API. I don't have any reverbs (wish I did) or any other effects boxes.

On mixdown, I just use Paris plus the Waves Ren Comp, and sometimes the Waves Ren EQ.

Thanks again,
Macle
 
tubedude said:
Dude, I never really payed much attention cause I have a hard time listening to stuff on this connection, but geezus, you got it going on. Listened to a couple. I dont wanna gush your head up like everyone else is, but these songs are great and totally marketable.
If you dont mind at all, I'd like you to email your email address and some contact info, and I'm gonna have Travis Meeks (Days of the New) take a listen to this stuff and give it to his dad, and also Scott Frasier, who manages Flaw. This stuff is quite different from what Scott usually runs past record labels, but I think he'll dig it enough to try it. Maybe not. Worth a try.
2 or 3 Cd's would be preferable though (one for myself of course, heehee) Those guys are very short on patience.
If you'd rather me not, say so now.
Good shit, man. You have skills. I too hear alot of Beatles, and I'm not a big Beatle head, but I do like it. Sounds alot like Oasis too.
Peace.
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Wow, that's unbelievably cool that you would do that!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd love to send you some CDs, but if it's alright, it'll probably be awhile. Don't know if you saw the reply above to The Stickman, but we really don't want to start dealing with that sort of thing until we're really ready to go (especially if these guys are short on patience!:D ). The whole business side and A&R people and all that are such a different mind set than writing and recording that we really want to be more prepared.

Thanks tubedude!!!,
Macle
 
macle said:


Wow, that's unbelievably cool that you would do that!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd love to send you some CDs, but if it's alright, it'll probably be awhile. Don't know if you saw the reply above to The Stickman, but we really don't want to start dealing with that sort of thing until we're really ready to go (especially if these guys are short on patience!:D ). The whole business side and A&R people and all that are such a different mind set than writing and recording that we really want to be more prepared.

Thanks tubedude!!!,
Macle
Click to expand...

Macle, heh... right on!

I remember a time not long ago (around '92 or '93) when I was in a band, and just through some "happy" accidents I got to know an A&R guy at one of the (now defunct) Atlantic records subs... and I got the whole treatment.... first he tells me he really wants to hear a well produced demo, so we go into one of the better studios in town (run by a friend of mine... whom I haven't seen in years)... anyway... we cut a demo... and this guy says "Yeah, send me a tape, and make sure to put this code-phrase on the envelope so I know I'll get it..." so I did and about 2 weeks later I get a call from said A&R guy really excited... so I get really excited (holy crap! I can quit college!)

Anyway, to make a long and stupid story short (and maybe not so stupid) is that what it turned out is... yeah, they wanted us to cut a release for them, but... well, gee... we'd have to pay for the production... oh and you have to use one of our studios that we have agreements with (yeah, like 4 college students have $100k to spend recording something). But, wait... my father said he would be willing to help us out... but then as we got closer to that... I got the run around saying they couldn't guarantee us that if we *did* go into the studio and spend all that money that they would actually put something out!

So, I told them to go pound sand and we released it on an independant that gave us $300 to finish the damn thing... oh, then ripped us off because they sold like 8,500 copies and we didn't see our 10% (which isn't much... but when you are in college... every tiny little scrap helps).

What I learned: screw majors, screw the business... i wouldn't trust an A&R guy as far as I could throw him (and I'm not very strong so that wouldn't be too far :) )

I would stick completely with the independants (even though we got ripped off... it was the person running it was a criminal - I actually got a call from this fool from jail once asking me to bail him out!). Independants actually *care* about the music, and are (for the most part) passionate about the music.

Well, that is just my horror story :)
 
What a drag, minusone! This sort of thing would probably make a good thread. "How I got screwed by the music biz", or something. It's good to know what NOT to do, as much as what TO do, and what to watch out for, and all that.

Macle
http://www.angelfire.com/rock2/3songs
 
Ooops. Didn't know she was your GF, Macle. She's still a bombshell, though... (!)

I did this once with Ametth, too. Hm.



Your song:

WOW. Yeah, great stuff... as usual. I wonder if somehow we'll be disappointed when you post a "regular" song, lol...

What exactly are you running your NT through? Which pre-amp? EQ? Compressor? While recording, or afterwards (EQ, comp)? Do you drink a lot of KoolAid before sitting in front of the mic (you have super energy!)? What size is your vocal booth/room?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!

I'm in LOVE with your string sound. Wow. How much money do you think you've gone through finding what you're using now, in all? Ok, maybe that's a scary question. How LONG have you spent super-money getting the rig that you're using? hehe...

I mean, you've got your WHOLE FUCKING STUDIO right THERE. You don't need an A&R guy... you don't need a studio... you don't really need ANYTHING, unless you get tired or lazy down the line and want someone to mix for you. No shit, it's THERE.

Except at 2:27, which I feel needs more room at the string-kill. Too sterile as is, IMHO.

Amazing as usual. Shithead. :D

The only thing you need worry about is distribution and promotion. Fuck anybody who tells you you need to invest in production; you're not going to sound any better without diluting your artistry (and even then, how much better is it REALLY going to get?). It's THERE. I say keep doing what you're doing, and sniff around for distribution avenues...

p.s.: dig the JavaScript. ;)
 
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