now now...be patient...
here i am. I listened to both songs. I'm not a real punk fan (if unreality is punk type genre?) so cant comment much on that one. I suppose the gritty, very very basic chords and arrangement is the point, like i said i dont know how to critique punk, soi wont try. It would be like a plumber checking your electric, it would profit you nothing.
Now alien, I liked, and i can tell you why: songwriting skills. you have it. are you just getting started in this songwriting business, or are these covers and i just dont know? but if alien is an original, i liked the songwriting.
you conveyed an emotion, and well. I felt an emotion, you feel like you dont belong. THATS the hardest thing to do, is write the song and put music to it. You told a story. Lyrics, check. Music, check. I actually liked the way it builds, goes away, climaxes and comes back before receding. It all works as far as songwriting. (there are songwriters, famous ones, who cant play any instrument worth a damn nor can sing...yet they make moving ballads that are top songs...)
ironically, the songwriting is the hard art to learn, and alien has that. The SOUND of the song is another thing. I liked the SOUND of the other song. I'd like to hear alien recordsd however the other song was. Things to try: do numerous sound checks, trying to find a way to mic the amp (distance, position, etc) that is pleasing. I get the feeling in alien that something was clashing, or sounds masking each other. I'm no pro at eq'ing a track, trust me, but i think that might be called for here.
Are you doing this all yourself? It might be interesting to hook up with a vocalist and see what they do with the vox (dont get mad, you can sing and lord knows i cant, but youre main skills seem to be songwriting and playing guitar. FWIW, i liked the guitar track on alien)
ignore anyone who flames you for the SOUND...the songwriting on alien was great. Remember, you can always hook up woth or hire a vocalist...you can always hire out recording room,equipment, real mixing dude...but all that and if the songwriting aint there, its a polished turd. That could be made into something, i think i hear it.
Ive not been mixing for terribly long either. Boy, does it take time. There are periodically mixing contests here, and i suggest you do them. Learn by doing. Keep mixing and remixing alien until you get better at mixing. read all the posts religiously, ive learned more here in the past month than in the last year any other way.
i'm actually jealous. I'ma drummer, and i'm trying to compose songs digitally from scratch. I wish i could arrange and write a song like alien.
BTW, i use cool edit pro as well for recording and mixing. I ALSO use fruity loops 4 producer edition for at first 4 drum tracks like you did, although now i find myself noodling around making (or TRYING to...lol) whole songs digitally with it. took me a while to find out that fruity loop wasnt just a beat box drum machine, and ive heard other make some really polished tunes using nothing bu fruity. SInce you have skill at songwriting, you could make vastly more use of the piano roll than i can. I would strongly suggest "getting into" fruity more...you could make use of some of the tools it has available i wish i could. I can HEAR the song i want to make in my head, but my compsition is lacking...you have this skill.
hearing past the sound, the song and its arrangment is great on alien. Keep it up, and remember you can hire a vocalist or a recording/mixing pro. Your voice aint bad, maybe someone who knew their way around a recording room could iron that out.
quid pro quo, and all that. remember my composing skills are limited, so if it sounds like im overusing g maj and g min for my simple melody and bass lines, its because i am. now you have to hear my song:
http://www.audiostreet.net/artists/006/425/sedstar.html
its the only one there, called untitled.
another incomplete song, just a real basic guitar loop i put my drums to, is:
www.acidplanet.com/SEDstar
incomplete song title is mix down 3. this thing needs a lead guitar track!
PS: are you a drummer? if youre alien song is recorded to a definite BPM, i'd like a crack at making a drum track for it.
mixdown3 had a really catchy riff. i listened to it all the way. maybe you could add another part, it was a little repetetive. i had that problem with "Unreality" i was kind of stumped on it, id idnt really know what else to it, so it became overly repepetive but it's okay i guess because the weird change in the middle makes up for it.