The race.

[Emeric]

A new song. It's incomplete at this point, but close. Feedback positive and negative is appreciated. The drums at the end are a punch in and not finished yet. Bass at the end and other places will be redone as well. And a lot of the vocal tracks, there will be some harmony stuff.. ok, i've rambled on enough and edited this enough.

Anyway,

oh yeah, it came out kinda quiet in perspective to other stuff. I'll try and fix that.

 

[drstawl]

Beautiful job. You really handled those measures blending 5 with 6 smoothly. Took a careful recount to see where the measure boundaries were. The electric interlude(s) brought to mind "Thick as a Brick".
Wasn't all that quiet in the perceived volume of the track as a whole. Not really loud, though. The vocals sounded nice overall. One spot was a little reverby....
Was that a plug-in?

 

[Emeric]

Yeah all plugin's. the verb does seem to stand out in some parts, maybe due to the sparseness. don't know. Thanks for checking it out!

yeah, your right about the thick as a brick thing too. I was thinking of doing the aqua lung thing EQ on the bridge... but.

hehh.

 

[dobro]

I've just done about 40 reviews on garageband.com, and now I'm ruthless. I'm not very popular there, but I'm occasionally useful. You've been warned.

I've heard this song before, this is the kind of song you do, but I haven't heard this level of sonic quality before. Plus you're singing better, and the crunchy guitar's coming up with interesting rhythms.

I'd like to hear more definition on the crunchy guitar - it seems sort of hidden inside the crunch. I'd like to hear no acoustic guitar at all until the clear guitar break at about 1.27 - I have a hunch it's time for you to abandon that strummed acoustic that you use as the backbone for most of your songs - what would the song sound like if you removed it entirely for about the first minute and a half? I'd like to hear you write about concrete things like rain and dogs and beer and beery raindogs. I don't mind the unremitting bleakness of the lyrics - it makes me feel sort of at home in fact - but have you heard that track by radiohead about the guy walking down the street and the dogs are barking? The singer tells him to slow down, and the magic's everywhere. It all happens on Bleak St. I'd like a Royer R-121 and a Mindprint Envoice...oh sorry, misplaced desire...

I'm not on top of this, and these are only impressions. You're a pop architect. I know you can handle all this.

[Edited by dobro on 11-19-2000 at 07:44]

 

[GT]

Emeric,

Man that's nice my wife and I both listened together. My wife says she likes it a lot, and she says she's not just saying it.

Sounds like you got a handle on the bass balance on this one, that's good, conducive to turning up the volume.

Is that you on all the instruments, if so you be the one man band extrodinaire!!

I don't think I'd change anything on this mix, sounds like you mixed them on my speakers, great work. Treble and bass balance just right, nothing overblown, great work.

Question: What mp3 ripper are you using? That's the best sounding 96KBPS I've heard, no flutter on the acoustic. This is another reason I like your stuff, much shorter download time, we should all take a lesson.

Anyway, really nice, this one will get lots of play.

GT

 

[Emeric]

Hey GT, thanks for the listen and comments. I don't play everything on this one. The drums are Charles Watson, the rest is me. For encoding I'm using audio active production studio, seems to work ok - it's an old version. There are as good or better free ones out there. Thanks again.


Dobro: I just can't avoid having an acoustic strumming away somewhere, it's a crutch Crunch yeah, maybe a bit of EQ will sort that out, BTW these are not POD. Mr. POD appears on the lead guitar though. The lyrics are bleak. Listening to it today, the vocals at the very end are way flat and make me cringe, they will be redone. Pop architect haha, right. Thanks for the review!

 

[GT]

Emeric,

Thanks for the tip on Audio Active, I think I will give it a try. I'm using Music Match now, and at 96KBPS there is way to much flutter. I thought it was inherant, but sounds like that is not the case.

Once again, great song!!

 

[gibs]

Great work as usual...I always say that with your stuff though, don't I........lucky you, to have a human drummer....wonder if he could add some tom sounds here and there in the tune....the song is pretty dramatic as is, but that would give it even more, in my opinion...gibs

 

[dobro]

Hey, you've got a drummer - good news. There's nothing wrong with doing it all yourself, but interaction comes up with unexpected stuff. And your songs *are* architectural - design and structure is one of your strong suits.

 

[Cooperman]

Hey... I forgot I downloaded this the other day...

Anyway, cool track Emeric... I am glad to hear a track with lots of electric guitar in it... and although it may not suit the songs your write but more solos man... I love your leading playing!!!

I agree to a certain extent on the need to add more definition to the crunchy guitars. Was the crunchy guitar your tele?? What amp did you use for the rhythm parts if you didn't use the POD. I think a treble boost on your guitars may help with the definition.

I actually quite like the acoustic intro and then come in with the crunch... however I'd tried to do something so that it comes in really powerful... I'm not sure what though... it should come in and knock your socks off... at the moment it doesn't really hit you in the face that hard. Maybe a couple more overdubbed crunchy guitars... maybe a short orchestral synth burst on that first beat... if you did this you could do like a volume swell into that first beat that I think would sound cool. Maybe some orchstral synth sounds might sound cool over that acoustic intro. Maybe this is just ear candy... I don't know... just random thoughts

 

[jet-rocker]

Hunh...
I actually liked the acoustic guitar stuff in the begining the best. For 96k this song is pristine. Absolutely. I agree with the others that the crunchy guitar could use a little more crunch so to speak. Just a little more texture and it's there.

-Jett Rocker

 

[bball jones]

Damned impressive as usual, Emeric. Seems this tune breaks every songwriting rule this side of Joni Mitchell. I was feeling some definate measures of 5/8 for a while, weaving in and out of other tempo changes. Sounds like about half-dozen layered guitar tracks toward the end, hammerin out that one chord syncopated rhythm. Wish I had some better speakers here at the car wash.

 

[Emeric]

Cooperman: The amp was a crate tube amp. Guitar was a Lado with a Gibson high-output humbucker. Your right that it does need something between the quiet start and where the electrics come in. Maybe better mixing and/or some type of special effect.

jet-rocker: Thanks for checking it out, yeah the guitars need more crunch. Don't know if I can accomplish this through some EQ or whether I will retrack.

bball jones: Yeah 6 guitars at the end, but I will be adding a lead as well, hopefully it won't become to cluttered. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[mojovoodoo]

emeric!!nice emotions!!!i really just want to hear it with harmonies.that to me is really what completes every good song.especially something as dramatic as your song here.i have not heard youyr other material so ,it's new to me. i like things that ride a theme though,i mean i love re-occurring themes and melodies that re-appear,but i suspect that this is not the case and i am talking outr my *ss.i really would want to hear the song not fade out,and remain consistent with that dramatic dreamy feel.fades out too soon,perhaps?slower fade?oh idunno,with songwriting this caliber and recording the same if not better ,no true criticisms from me.but i do somewhat agree with cooperman on ear candy(that could also be that a lot of people tend to project what they want,which isn't necessarily bad)nonetheless,i could see you adding more "ear candy" and still remaining in tact ,tasteful,and still the song would breathe.beautiful song!!

 

[Eddie N]

nice tune... i likes it... but im not used to hearing your voice for over 5 minutes without hearing the word "fuck"..

- eddie -

 

[Emeric]

mojovoodoo: Yeah, I'll get some harmonies in there, should fill some of the void. As far as ear candy, I'm not sure what I'll do yet, something though. As far as the fade out goes, you may have a point there. I was thinking of doing a cross-fade into a short 20sec idea. Different key/different tempo so I'm not sure if it will work very well. Thanks for the listen.

Thanks for checking it out Eddie! I try to work some cursing in there somehow!

 

[mojovoodoo]

actually ,emeric,that cross fade idea sounds great!!that wuld be the perfect ending!(opinion,of course)i listened to it again before i went home from work,and it still held up through out the work(arrgh,i am still here.again on friday)day!!be sure to put it on as soon as it's done-

 

[pglewis]

Know anyone who plays violin? It might be cool in the intro up to the stop at about :16. The ending could use a little more punch, but that might just be the drums (which you already know about). Good tune and mix, as always.

 

[dobro]

That's a really good idea, pg, but if you have a fiddle at the beginning, you're going to have to reintroduce it at some point, right? For the sake of consistency, and because of the massive opportunity created which you'd want to exploit.

 

[Emeric]

Hey pglewis, yeah fiddle might work. I don't know anyone who plays. Any volunteers? Dobro, it could be reintroduced during the acoustic strumming part in the middle, maybe. I don't know.