This actually turned out much better than I expected...

  • Thread starter Thread starter VomitHatSteve
  • Start date Start date
VomitHatSteve

VomitHatSteve

Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I've been fighting this song for years. I was never quite happy with the melody, but I really liked the lyrical concept.

Finally, when I got around to recording it, I figured out a harmony bit that sounds way better than the melody. Hopefully, it works now.

As always, click the title of the song to download the mp3 and please give feedback.
 
Hehe..... Very original sounds, bro. I can't help saying this, and no offense, but your vocals are very reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. Sounds almost identical.

You've got some very interesting percussive sounds going on. The thing I find most interesting is that everything sounds very organic. Quite different than the synth-electro stuff which most people turn to.

I'd categorize this, very subjectively so, as extremely interesting, yet a bit un-polished creativity.

Wow, just finished the song - very, very interesting. Very. I suspect there's a lot going on in the mix which goes un-noticed, but contributes to the unique texture you've got.
 
I'm afraid I'm deeply offended by being compared to very creative and intelligent people who basically invented the genre of music I most identify with in the modern era. :D
It's kind of weird; when I was a kid, I mostly listened to Weird Al and the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what I basically styled my music after, and lo and behold! It sounds a lot like TMBG. Well, happy coincedence, I guess.

Thank you very much!

Polish and percussion are always the parts that I struggle most with. I like to do the layers and layers of instruments so that each new listen allows some new part that you hadn't heard before to emerge, but it's really hard to do cleanly.
 
I can still hear that snare from your last tune. Call me old fashioned but I like a snare to sound like a snare. That's what rocknroll is all about. This snare sounds like the drummer's hitting a sackfull of egshells. Is that that what you want it to sound like?

For me the song doesn't get going until around 0.30 when it starts rocking out. This is where the fuzz guitar and the vocal melody combine - that's great rocknroll right there. Good vocals. But imo this is still a work in progress. If it was me, I would chop the 1st 30 seconds off and start with the fuzz guitar part..
 
You mean the snare that's going during the entire song, right? Not the one that comes in later?

My setup for analog drums is pretty sub-optimal. I really need to get my own kit and mic it properly.

You may be right about the first chorus. I was going for more dynamics by having the really heavy instruments not come in until the first verse. Though front-loading all your dynamics may not be good idea!

Anyway. Thanks for the feedback.
 
GOOD SONG!
It has some TMBG earmarks in arrangement & vocal delivery but is good as it is.
I like!
 
The snare still sounds weak, but it all depends on what you're going for. It's not bad I don't think. It's a weird sounding tune. I don't listen to any music that sounds like this, so it seems original to me.

I'm listening to this on my gaming computer that has standard cheap $25 dollar 2.1 speakers. It sounds like there is too much stuff going on sometimes and it throws the main vocals to the back of the mix in some parts. No offence but the parts that come to the front aren't interesting enough to replace the main vocals.

It sounds like a great foundation for a song though. There are limitless things you can do to make it WAY better, not that it's not good already. Stuff like this always gets the creative juices flowing.

Good job though dude. Very creative song. :D
 
I suppose I'm not surprised if the vocals got buried a few times. Can you tell me specific spots?
 
It is better than your usual offerings. The song is pretty catchy, but I can't make out hardly any of the lyrics. The double tracking and backups and all the stuff going on makes them unintelligible. The timing is pretty rough too. If you're gonna have this much stuff happening at once it needs to be tight. Otherwise it just sounds like a train wreck. You might wanna look into a drum programming software like ez drummer or drumkit from hell.
 
But drum machines are cheating so very much! :(

The stuff I was doing two years ago had pre-programmed drums. (The samples may not have been great, but at least the timing was always on). I really like the IDEA of having real drums, so I've been trying to move towards that.

Might have to go back to all machine though. :(
 
VomitHatSteve said:
But drum machines are cheating so very much! :(

The stuff I was doing two years ago had pre-programmed drums. (The samples may not have been great, but at least the timing was always on). I really like the IDEA of having real drums, so I've been trying to move towards that.

Might have to go back to all machine though. :(
Click to expand...

It's a fine line. Of course I personally prefer real drums, but if your drums sound bad, you can't record them properly, and/or you can't play worth a damn, then yeah, use a drum machine, or loops, or program your own patterns with software. It's really all about the end product, and bad drums totally ruin what could be a good mix. Seriously. Get the drums right and the rest is easy as pie. If you're not a drummer and don't have to drum these songs live, then it doesn't matter. No one will care if you use samples or loops.
 
I'll listen to it again when I have time and tell you where the vox end up too much in the background.

I don't think you should take greg's advice on this one. You could cut to the chase and make it easier with a drum machine, but I don't think you should. If you give up now you're never going to get really good at doing it.

I have a ton of things in the studio I'm not too good at. I just keep doing it till I get it right. I find what helps me the most is moving on to other projects or songs and looking up different methods. Doing a lot of research on any one aspect is a good thing.

There is a TON of info out there ready for you to master, but it takes time and hands on experience is the best experience you'll ever get. So, just keep doing it. Maybe 6 months from now you'll have it down so tight you can dust off this song and it'll be fresh and exciting for you to re-record.
 
FoulPhil said:
I'll listen to it again when I have time and tell you where the vox end up too much in the background.

I don't think you should take greg's advice on this one. You could cut to the chase and make it easier with a drum machine, but I don't think you should. If you give up now you're never going to get really good at doing it.

I have a ton of things in the studio I'm not too good at. I just keep doing it till I get it right. I find what helps me the most is moving on to other projects or songs and looking up different methods. Doing a lot of research on any one aspect is a good thing.

There is a TON of info out there ready for you to master, but it takes time and hands on experience is the best experience you'll ever get. So, just keep doing it. Maybe 6 months from now you'll have it down so tight you can dust off this song and it'll be fresh and exciting for you to re-record.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. I just think I remember him saying something about only using 2 drum mics or something. Maybe I'm wrong on that.
 
Someone once told me that on van halen's first album they only used over heads for the drums. Not sure if it's true, and I couldn't find anything on it, don't have time now I gotta run.

I've seen a lot of video examples for different ways to mic drums and back in the day they only used 1 mic. I know for a fact it's possible :D
 
FoulPhil said:
Someone once told me that on van halen's first album they only used over heads for the drums. Not sure if it's true, and I couldn't find anything on it, don't have time now I gotta run.

I've seen a lot of video examples for different ways to mic drums and back in the day they only used 1 mic. I know for a fact it's possible :D
Click to expand...

I didn't say it isn't possible. I said "sound good". Drum sounds mostly sucked "back in the day", and no pro studio uses one room mic and nothing else. Most modern drums are recorded with sometimes 3 mics on each drum. Chances are that on most of the music you listen to, the drums were recorded with multiple mics.
 
I think this is an improvement over recent stuff of yours. A better mix and tighter performance. At the same time, it still comes off as overly loose and a little jumbled at times. Very interesting though.

The vocals do get lost at times, and the drums...hmmm.

The snare sounds kind of paper-like if that makes sense. I actually suspect that, with enough trial and error, you might be able to get a good sound for your kind of music with a really minimal drum set-up.

In some ways, I agree with both Phil and Greg...

While it would be cool to keep at the whole acoustic drum thing and try to perfect it, there is nothing wrong with using drum machines and the like...not cheating at all - this is not a quiz or something. It is in fact all about the finished product. I am sure modern pro recordings use an inordinate amount of drum mics, but again, for your kind of music I think you might, with a lot of experimentation, get a suitable sound with much, much less. Keep at it, but don't swear off the old drum machine either...better yet - use both!

Whoa - way too many commas - sorry!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top