Time For Sale

  • Thread starter Thread starter LI Slim
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LI Slim

LI Slim

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Please check out my new song, "Time For Sale", at www.mp3.com/LarryKolker. It's an acoustic rocker. I've taken the radical step of adding a percussion section (well, a conga). I'd be grateful for your comments.
 
Hey LI Slim,

Nice tune, I think you've cornered the market on nylon strings, at least on this site, this sets you apart, very nice.

Nice clean recording, the percusion seemed a little ill defined, perhaps make it a little less bassy. Maybe a little less verb on the voice, to make it less detached from your guitar.

Other than that great playing, nice tune.

GT
 
Very cool tune, well played...I agree about the reverb on the vocal...I'd try a good delay instead...the percussion isnt to bassy, it just needs a little high end to bring it out, to hear the snap of whatever it is you are beating on (i dont wanna know)......
 
that hint of background vocal at 2:49 made me want more of it.....as usual, the guitar work was excellent....I'm glad you did some percussion on this one, but like drugs, it was not enough...maybe a highhat sound added throughout would be cool...

my left speaker seemed to get a clippy sound, maybe it was the conversion.....

This had a really nice feel to it....I think I like it the best of all I've heard of your stuff.....gibs
 
I'll actually just say exactly what GT, Gidge and gibs said combined in one post, with the addition that the songwriting WAS FREAKING SUPERB!!!!!
 
:)

I thought this was nicely recorded. I wish I had more to say, but that really sums it up.

Thanks for letting us hear it.

-john

Me on Mp3
 
Thanks very much for your comments.


GT and Gibs: I have indeed been struggling with my reverb level on the vocal. I guess I should back it off. There is already some pre-delay on it, but maybe I should back reverb way off and add a little pure delay (which I can do separately from my echo effect). Another way to go might be to add a little 'verb to the guitar and/or conga. What do you think?

Gidge: I spilled the bean, it's a conga. I'm a conga beginner; I boosted the eq a lot at about 6.5K to try to bring out the "slap" on the off beat, but it still gets swallowed up. Maybe I just need to slap better.

M'ga: bless you.

Thanks again.
 
I liked it too, Slim... alot!

I gotta agree with some of the previous comments about the overall sound. But, as usual, your writing and performance is kick-arse!

Buck
 
Hey LI,

First of all I agree that this song is very well written!

I didn't like the acoustic sound on this one as much as what you have previously recorded. Hmm, maybe I take that back, I think that the drum and the vocal reverb are just walking all over the guitar...it's really fighting for clarity.

As far as reverb goes, I've recently come to the conclusion that reverb is not something that should be *heard*. That is, don't turn up the reverb until you can hear the reverb, turn up the reverb until the sound puffs up *just so* and begins to take on some dimension. Unless of course you're going for a warehouse sound....but your guitar certainly wasn't in a warehouse on this track :) Oh, and since you use n-Track...I've found the n-Track Reverb to be the best sounding and easiest to use of everything I tried. Just a little bit of wetness (-20 to -25db no pre-delay, small-medium room size) can add a little life to vocals or guitar. You won't hear the reverb persay, but the track will sound sweeter and play nicer in the mix. That's just my **novice** opion.

Good work. I had to listen to Make Me a Pallot again... i sure did like your guitar playing on that song.

Slackmaster 2000
 
LI,

Nice tune, my friend.

I've got to agree with Slack about the verb... actually, I'd like to hear it without verb completely. The vox sounded even enough. Did you use compression?

The percussion was heavy heavy on the heaviest strike (I don't know how to explain)... the "bomp" part... Very heavy to the point of really becoming uncomfortable during listening and drowing out the rest of the tune. (Although, I listen to everything at pretty loud volumes, but they shouldn't drown out your guits and your vox).

Additionally, the percussion was very disjointed from the your vocals, as was the guit... because of the verb on your vox, your vox were way way back, like you were in the corner of a big old room, and like the conga player was in my face beating away and the guitar player was right behind him.

Try the vox without the verb, or really lower the verb level... just a suggestion.

Lower the level of the congas... or hey, drop the verb on you vox, ALOT, and put a tiny miniscule, a pinch, a tiny droplet of verb on the congas... I dunno... Then that might cuz a disjointedness from the guit...

It's a good song however you end up mixing it... I'd like to hear want you end up doing though.
 
No more waiting for mp3.com

I uploaded a remix of this song, using some of the great advice that you all have given me, at mp3.com more than a week ago. Apparently they're on strike against everyone who hasn't subscribed to their premium artist service (but that's a whole other thread). Anyway, I've got it up at a few other places, like here:

http://www.besonic.com/User/0,1391,g0r0l0t0o1i209961,FF.html

so please tell me what you think. As you can see, there is some disagreement over how loud the conga should be. Part of the problem I have is that most people listen to this stuff through their computer speakers, which of course don't have the bass response we're used to in our cars or home stereo systems. I haven't figured out yet how to do a Mix For All Seasons.

Anyway, I left the conga level about the same but I added a broad treble eq and a little reverb to it. I think that this helped emphasize the "slap" and toned down the "thump" a little, and also brought it back to the guitar a little better. I reduced the reverb on the vocal significantly, but it's still there. Hopefully my mouth is now in the same room as my hands. Part of the problem I have in mixing my own stuff is that I start to hate the sound of my own voice (I'm insecure enough about it to start with), so I want to hide it with a bunch of verb.

I also converted to MP3 with Music Match instead of N-track, which I think helped make it clearer.

Thanks again for your feedback.
 
Here's what I can offer

Hey LI,
Nice tune. Catchy melody and clever lyrics. I'm a total lyrics nut, and I dug yours.
As far as the mix goes, I would change one thing: I would scoop the guitar a little. It seems a little heavy in the low-mids. If you can scoop that out a little you'll open up a happy place for your congas to live in, and you'll end up w/ a sweeter, janglier acoustic sound which I prefer.
Of course, this is just based on listening to you tune over my computer speakers, so what the heck do I know.
Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com
 
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