The final judgement coming up...

[regebro]

I think this is a cool idea, and I'm gonna listen to what you other guys do during the weekend.

Please check out my demos on: http://www.regebro.nu/lennart/music.html
It's not the full songs, so downloading time is not that long... I think (and my friends say so to) that the songs are really good. But what about the recording?
I know there are some details that are annoying me, for example, the voice distorts on one of the songs, and that piano-sound on "pacification" is mixed WAY to low. But other than that? Is it any good? Am I doing something obviously wrong? What sucks the most?

These three songs are done on a Yamaha MT2X 4-track casette. The "Captain my Captain" is all recorded with an pretty cheap mike (AKG 818II or something). The other ones are based around a Roland MC-303 with guitar and singing recorded with an Oktava MK-319. The effects are el cheapo: Microverb and an old analog delay. Dbx 163(?) compressor.
BX-16 mixer. Thats it I think.

 

[Emeric]

Hey I like this stuff. Your getting a very good vocal sound here - That Oktava is looking tempting. But you have a real "radio voice" quality, as in radio announcer - mean this as a compliment. I think this is great, very open and spacious, barely noticed any distortion. As for the songs, I like them as well - Mainly "turningdemo" and "captaindemo".

Very Cool!

 

[gibs]

downloaded Captain, Pacification, and Turning....Captain and Pacification nicely done and good tunes...recording-wise, I heard buzz on the acoustic intro in Captain, and thought the percussion in Pacification needed a more realistic sound...these two songs I really liked, but I just couldn't get into Turning,... it sounded just fine, but I didn't feel you really put as much of yourself into it...it felt sort of detached...if that makes sense at all...gibs

 

[Kaputo]

Ahh, depressing and lonely stuff. Thats when the greatest music is written. They say if you play country music in reverse you get your job back, you get your girl back, you get your dog back... Dig thoes techno beats too.

Kap

 

[Emeric]

Could you put the full version of Turningdemo?.. I really dig this song. I love the chord transition... really nice.

thanks

 

[Emeric]

Ametth, you should check this out.. I think you may like it.. but i may be wrong. Really cool, it's reminds me of the style of one of your songs.



[This message has been edited by Emeric (edited 07-09-2000).]

 

[regebro]

Thanks for the help, everybody!
I'm going for a sparse and open sound, with unrealistic percussion, so it seems I'm doing something right! Listen to "A walk across the rooftops" with The Blue Nile, and you'll get what I'm aiming at.

 

[pglewis]

Pacification: I like real percussion mixed in with stuff... or at least more powerful samples mixed-in. It's a taste issue, sure, but you might experiment with it some time. All sorts of things make noise when you hit 'em, not just drums. The change with the panned low vocs (is that a pitch-shift, or can you really hit that?!) is nice. I agree about bringing up the piano part. I also wondered about the piano being an octave higher, or maybe a parallel octave with the low part. Just a random thought that occurred while listening to it.

Captain: Damn clean, and only 56kbps?!!? I don't know how much high-end is getting cut by the encoder at that low of a bit-rate, but I'm pretty sure that's a very clean recording. I'm guessing you keep that tape machine in good condition and/or use pretty good tape.

Turning: I'm with Emeric on this one, I like the idea quite a bit. I've always been a sucker for Maj7's and m7's. But I think I hear what Gibs was saying about being a bit "detached". I think it's something about the vocs, but I can't really put my finger on it. Maybe doubling the vocs or adding a harmony during the change. As always, I reserve the right to completely flip-flop after things sink-in .

 

[KaBudokan]

Nice stuff Reg... I especially like Captain for some reason. Had a cool feel to it and I liked the singing behind the spoken part. Good quality overall.

 

[regebro]

Now that I have 8 tracks I might put in some real percussion in future songs. (Although I won't redo these songs).
Yeah, I take good care of the MT2X and use expensive tape. It really sounds good. The low bit rate doesn't cut the high end one bit, but you can get a phasing sound of you are unlucky. I can't find much sound difference between the uncompressed wavs and these 56kbit MP3's at all.
It's not a pitch shift, but almost. It's me singing as low as a I can mixed with the sound of an "octaver", a weird stomp box that synthsesizes a note one octave lower than the input.
I think those vocals sound detached because I concentrate too much on being in tune.

Thanks again for the good words! I'll put up more stuff when I'm done with it. The last thing I did I wasn't happy with at all. Sounded like total crap. I have to do it over from scratch. :/