The Castle revamp

  • Thread starter Thread starter JMarcomb
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The delay sounds a little too much. It's better on your other tunes IMHO.

There is cool theme that starts at 1:13. I really hear it repeat on the last note of the previous run like an echo. It might be over doing it but then you can develope those answers/echos into it's own theme. and build up before next section.
This probably doesn't make sence. It works the way it is very nicely too. I just wanted to share what I heard.

I like the rain-stick but you might want to work it into the music more rather then "rain-stick" it at the end like that. :)

Great tune and playing. You get some great sound on that guitar.
must be in the fingers :D
cheers
 
oh well... Its not one of my best songs... but im gonna leave it for now until I finish all my tunes.. :)

Im just happy im getting better with my mixing skills.
that really was my biggest weakness a month ago. I feel im coming along.

thanks for coming back to listen!
 
Hey you sound a little sad :) Sorry. I'm little rough here lately :).
But it's not because I think everything is bad.
Also I am not native english speaker so some things might be getting lost in the tranlation :).

It's great tune, just not finished yet.

I realy like what you do with the accoustic sound, specificaly on Blue Moon. What are you using? Therse are chorus/reverb/delay/??? combinations that make it sound very nice and full. And the way arpeggio guitar is more upfront and the lead is airy sounding is really cool.

cheers
 
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Oh.. im fine Fed ... Sorry if my attitude sounded down.

It just seems like I put 100 hrs in this week recording... actually pretty close :eek:

I have to go back to work tomorrow .. I think that might be showing :(

Someday I'll be able to record full time ..I cant wait till that day .. big dreamers live big dreams ;)

:cool:

All my acoustic sounds are pretty much the same... most of my guitar playing life has been on an electric guitar.. so thats why you can hear an electric style of playing on my acoustic guitar. Obviously..you are right most of the tone is coming from the fingers.. but the other half is from gear.. which is just my triton for effects and mackie board for preamp and delta1010 a/d converter.. I monitor through my Sennheiser headphones alot ... because of noise.

I posted this for ya before.. in case you didnt read it

The signal that comes out of my guitar gets split into two which is -fed- hehe into my triton boards L/R inputs. (you dont need an expensive board for effects as you prob already know). I mix in a little reverb/delay from the keyboards onboard effects then stereo into my mixer. The tricky part is mixing in the akg c3000 mic ... this mic doesnt sound good to me.. maybe im not in phase with the other guitar signal? so I usually turn that channel down to a point where you can just hear some nice guitars frequencies. Its hard to position this mic properly... Im constantly trying to get that mic to sound good.


talk to you again!
 
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Oh wow, I forgot all about that post. Sorry dude.
Man, that's when you know you're posting too much.

Hey do you still have the first version? I'd like to compare the two more side by side.

I think I actualy liked the first version better then this one. But I only go on remembering my first impression.

Thanks for reposting the info for me. I don't have an akg3000 so can't help you there. I bought mxl2003 and it did pretty good on my voice and rithm acoustic. There was a song that I posted here a little while ago. I didn't get good lead accoustic sound out of it. But it was 1am. And I didn't play with it enogh. I just barroghed (man, how do you spell that???) Shure 81. Can't wait to see how it sounds on my guitar.

I don't think you need to make any excuses for the mic though. It sounds good to me. I know that sometimes I hear in my head certaint sound and just can't get it that way on tape, maybe that's where you are comming from.

Oh ye one more thing. I don't think first version had any percussion on it. And I didn't think it needed it. There is very good implied groove in the main theme that just didn't need any more reinforcement IMHO.

Also (oh well another thin :D) I read somewhere about trying to match the multitap delay to the songs tempo. I have not tried it yet on anything. But this would be the tune I'd try it on.

cheers

PS. I hear you about recording full time. That would be sweet. I got so much material to record it's not even funny. And so little time.
 
Nice stuff -- reminds me a bit of Al DiMeola. Beautiful melody, very well played.

Now to the mixing... I too think there's just a little too much wash of delay/verb on this and most of your others I've heard. It's just a bit too noticeable.

The rhythym stuff just doesn't work for me. Are you slapping the guitar top for that almost foot-tapping part? That works sometimes but here I think it's too intrusive... maybe if it were varied rather than so insistently 1-2-1-2...

I also didn't think the cymbal/gong crash in the middle of the rainstick at the end added anything. Perhaps if they occured a bit more often in the piece they would seem to be part of the song rather than something extraneous.
 
I think your playing outshines your recording....but your recording is fairly decent in many ways. ...and...that is a good way to be. I believe good playing is a preference over good recording.

on the recording...a little noisy, me thinks...and the reverb is nice, but I think you'd be much happier with the same amount using a killer verb, instead of what you are currently using....Like a top end Lexicon, etc....but of course, they're expensive too. I think you can get away with lots of reverb at times, but if it doesn't sound natural or real (like in a huge canyon..or the Taj Mahal), or as a GREAT effect, it just kinda sounds...well...kinda lousy. So...in this tune I MIGHT back it off a little bit, which will also have the affect of bringing your mix farther forwards, and give you a little bit more of realism and better dynamics. But...me being the reverb abuser myself...I should talk!!

Personally, I like ear candy like the rains sticks, gongs..etc...so those things don't bother me. I like repeat echos too...if done tastefully...

I think you've got a great start, and you're approaching the top end of home recording sound, but still a ways to go... but with your playing, you need to do better as your stuff recorded pro-wise would just be a knockout. Now...I hope no one interprets this as the recording will make the song...but I'm saying that your playing is beautiful, and beautiful recordings will enhance it that much more to put it over the top of home recording.
 
Yes .. I could'nt agree with you guys more after listening to the song. I believe part of the reason with because I was recording, mixing, tweaking knobs all in the same session. Thats a huge No No. After 14 hours.. your ears start missing little things in the mix. At least your novice home recordist like me. :)
I felt so bad about the mix .. I almost took it down. But then I gave it some thought and said.... wait... this is a learning and growing experience and Im not here to impress anybody. :) Its just with all the great music in here it feels competitive, like you have to do good. Which I think is a great experience for getting better. The world is full of all these disillusions :)

A great person once told me, "Whatever you do in life... it will ultimatley lead back to yourself."
I gave this line much thought and said to myself ... in the end I will be doing what I love. Music.

Keep your dreams strong guys!
 
I think the recording itself sounds good to me, and the original song is quite cool. I'm not diggin the counter melodies though..too much effect and it sounds too busy when it starts IMOP. The original feel is hard to find now..

It's cool, but I saved the original as soon as I heard it. Not really the counter melodies I was hearing, but then again, who cares what I was hearing..:D

nice overall, I am probably too picky when it comes to the few musicians in the clinic I really care about.

later
sam
(B.Sabbath)
 
Extremely well played and recorded. There is a gorgeous tone on the guitar.

As has been said, that much delay probably distracts more than it adds. I would think that trying to get an ambience through more reverb would be a better route to take.

Nice song.
 
Yup really nice track man, and definitely a great tone to that guitar, very sheen and clean. I'm a big synth fan so IMO it'd be cool if there was a little bit more of that synth kinda gliding in and out like it does but just with more power, if you know what I mean. This is only the second track I've heard of yours, the first being the un-vamped version of castles and it seems I obviously need to check your other stuff to, you're a great player!



Laj
 
Great and atmospheric playing. There's too much delay in the mix. Maybe lessen the amount of delay, and/or make it a stereo delay, kind of a ping-pong delay, or what's it called. I envy your playing abilities. You really shine on the acoustic here.
 
alrightee

I really want to here the original first. Is it still up? Anyway, I`m really looking farward to this..........

32 mins later

Ahh, purrfect. I thought It was a beautyful melody. You know it has a sting and the police like quality to it (can`t forget your cover). I liked at 1. 15 ish when the new string part comes in, nice. Then at 2.20 when we are hit with the familiar melody again, cool. Is that one of those rain sticks at the end, it started pissing down here! thanks

Erland
 
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Outstanding! I love the echo on the guitar. The strings were a nice touch too. I thought I heard the tamborine stray a little though. Overall, it kicks ass.:cool:
 
Caught some hiss in the very beggining before the gits came in.

Nice stuff though. Reminds me of Michael Hedges. Nice switch to 3/4 around 1:50.

I like the delay, but personally I would back it off just a tad, whatever a tad is.

I very much like this. My only gripe is that hiss is present throughout. I don't know if there is just one offending track, but I would try to find it.

What is the sound at the end? Is it a bong or midi applause? :cool:
 
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