This one's sort of an anthem.

A

ap

Member
Haven't been around in a while. Love for someone to listen to my music. Hard to tell about your own stuff, ya know? Feel free to offer positive comments or helpful criticism on all aspects from writing, performance, mixing etc. Thanks!

BTW, bicycle love song is the name of the band, not the song. The song is "Alone."

Bicycle Love Song
 
Cool pic! Looks like a really nice space.

Loving some of the guitar sounds here...especially the pulsing, warbly bits. Your voice is hard to make out at first, but then gets supper loud later on. Great job holding some of those notes...

The mix overall though felt a little empty to me. The drums are kind of lite and the timing got a bit rough here and there. There seemed to be many sections with no bass guitar at all, and then during the fuller sections where I'm pretty sure there was a bass, it got lost for me a lot of the time.

So, the guitars and vocals seem to be the star here, but the drums and bass could be beefier and provide a better supporting role I think? Just my initial thoughts...thanks.
 
My intention was for the start to be obviously rough and incoherent, like a band sitting down and settling into a warmup. Guess I didn't carry that off too well. Think the vocals get too loud?

I thought I caught all the bass drop outs where I was making quick edits during tracking. I'm trying not to listen for a day or two.

Yeah I know the drums are rough, especially so in some places. I'm doing my best to find a real drummer but I actually surprised myself playing as well as I did.

I was thinking they "sounded" pretty good though. I haven't brought the toms out fully in the mix yet but I was feeling like the snare, kick , and cymbals were pretty spot on so far.

Thanks for listening through it. It's kinda long and I know it can be hard to have faith and patience for that long.
 
Hey. I hope it didn't seem like I ripped it apart too bad there. I'm listening again now and can see more how you tried to have it build and come together more as it progressed.

Yeah, I can see how the drums on their own might sound fine. I just think they sound kind of small up against the beefier electric guitars. Yes, I thought the vocals got too loud, particularly when more than one voice is holding prolonged notes at the same time.

I don't have the greatest monitoring set-up here though and I'm just one set of ears, so don't read too much into it :).
 
Hey no worries! I appreciate the comments. This place should be more than just a pat on the
back.

...though sometimes I think people make negative comments just to sound smart:spank:
 
I like the little journey this takes you on. Nice tone on the guitar, especially the ending part.

If you're not a drummer, then I think you did pretty good. I hope you find someone to help with drums, I think the it will really pull the song together. There's something about the hihat that doesn't sit quite right. Not sure what advice to offer.

Thanks for sharing!!
 
Yes, Journey! That's what I was going for; didn't know how to say it.

The hats are def too in your face, esp in the first part.
 
I really like the intro. I liked the whole feeling of the song, kind of like the first song a band would play when they get on stage, and for sure I dig that aspect of it, heard it often enough to grow to love it at live gigs. :)

I think at around :30 it starts coming together for me when I'm listening, and I want it to carry on rhythmically from that point forward. But the guitar seems a bit out of time at :39 or maybe it's the remaining noise of the piano/keyboard? I can't say for sure which of those two elements it is sorry.

After this point it seems to be OK for me. Anyway, it's really good and it's only my opinion. It deffo has merit as something I would choose to listen to anyway...my kind of sound, even taking what I might have to criticize about it.
 
nice atmosphere. i'd like to hear more even leveling amongst the instruments, different things take center stage. the piano riff gets lost for example. maybe some panning on the guitar to open it up. then like the crunch guitar come in and mashes everything - stuff like that. i do like the loud wide cymbals though. seems like today you only hear these little piffs fly thru. cymbals are loud - honor them. vocal intro is cool in that it comes up and sounds tormented. nice work.
so where you been?
 
thanks frits. very helpful feedback. I'm wondering how much patience folks'll have for the intro. I wanna stick to my artistic vision but I want others to like it too.

And yeah, I will be tightening everything up. I'm just anxious to get some ears on it and not overly concerned with perfection at this point(but that doesn't mean I don't want constructive criticism!) Lot's folks don't understand this but I was thinking other recordists would be able to see beyond what's just there now.

Sounds like you get it Manslick. I'm totally with you on everything you said. Not sure how much piano I want coming back at what places yet. I like that it goes bye bye sometimes.

I was pretty active here about 10 years ago or so. Finished my studio, got into recording other folks, combined with personal issues put my own songs on the back burner.
 
Hey, AP.
People will have patience if they like it.

I listened through and I really like what you're doing here. The vocals sell it. You got Eddie Vedder and taught him english. :p

I get what you're going for, I think. A journey that you kinda blend into rather than listen to, right?
I wanted to turn the critical ears off and just blend in but few things kept taking my attention.

The hats is one of them. Turn them down or verb them up or something; That'll help.
The electric rhythm guitars were pretty loose timing wise. That was more towards the start than anything.

I'd go ahead and play with space a bit more. Sometimes this sounds distant and shimmery (which I think is good), but sometimes something will sound quite close and dry and take away from the overall ambience.

Maybe the very long vocal notes could gradually fade to wet?

There was the odd drum roll into cymbal that seemed out of place to me. It's like the kit is marking a new bar or section, but not really at a new section, you know?

The idea is cool though. Maybe just make them more distant too?
I'd put the kit in a big (virtual) room and roll the bass off on the way in so the kick doesn't go boomy.

It's preference, but less can be more. Around 3:30 ish "Hey baby....etc", I'm thinking pull every thing back and let the vocal take the lead.
Maybe the music would come back in with more impact then at 3:55 ish.

Top marks for vocals bro! There's a dose of Cornell after 5:00 too!
 
ap said:
thanks frits. very helpful feedback. I'm wondering how much patience folks'll have for the intro. I wanna stick to my artistic vision but I want others to like it too.

And yeah, I will be tightening everything up. I'm just anxious to get some ears on it and not overly concerned with perfection at this point(but that doesn't mean I don't want constructive criticism!) Lot's folks don't understand this but I was thinking other recordists would be able to see beyond what's just there now.
Click to expand...

Oh yeh, totally take what I say with a pinch of salt, I got no clue of what I'm doing so hell, take it with a whole bag full of salt, in fact. :D
 
Like your ideas. I hadn't thought of some of that. Will definitely try it out. Easy enough. Thanks for the vocal praise. If anything, I'd say that's what I do. I only learned to play stuff cuz all my musician friends are a bunch of punk ass bitches.
 
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