Two songs from "The Mystery Session" Any good?

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SnakeDog5050

SnakeDog5050

2 headed snake witha rake
Hey guys, something different probably, themes from a mystery novel :D
I wrote these songs to go with an 1800s story I'm working on. You'd be the first ever to hear these, so I'd appreciate if you'd listen through them and post any comments/suggestions, since I tried a bunch of new things here and don't know what works. Let me know if they're any good, and what parts are good or bad since there's a bunch of changes happening (especially in the second song)


Welcome to The End
More straight forward, a building acoustic piece to the big climax


The Legend of The Black Circle
More "mysterious", still acoustic at heart, but heavier, and has more going on. Speeds up later on for the final battle scene :D


Thanks :) I wouldn't usually post 2 for review songs at once, but my place is going to be overrun with Canadian relatives for longer than a week, so I won't get to play much. Plus I want to get this session over with and move on to more vocal songs. Cheers!
 
Listening now, but I have to run for a bit. So far, sounds are good. I'll comment later after a few more listens.
Ed
 
I would highly suggest that you cease and desist from using the name "Mystery" for your title.
I will gladly have this breach checked into.
Ted Philips/Mystery Records
 
Welcome to the end....Nice sounds at the start. That seems layered well. At about 1:00, there seems to be some sounds that are abnormal. The clean guitar is stepping on something maybe, and it's kind of distorting itself? Just does it there a few times. Something weird. That was the only real issue I heard. Just a bit of sonic distortion, or something. Cool tune. It will fit well with the rest of the story...

The Legend Of The Black Circle....Totally different vibe. Very cool. I like the funkiness of this. The walking bass line is pretty cool. The harmony notes behind some of the chords are great. Really fill the space up with some nice phrasing. Nice playing all around. Very cool vibe.
Ed
 
Canucks coming to visit eh ? Cool - bet the weather's better there than in Canada right now brrrrr.....

Listening and typing .....

Welcome to the end....
Nice tune man - good soundtrack type stuff for sure.....
Vibrato's good in the intro (just not used enough nowadays). Nice build up to the main part - flange? And throughout the lead?
Drums nice throughout. Could use some more bottom end - maybe.

Black Circle......
Intro effect was like... "wild" - very cool! Brighter than the last tune - more chorus than flange... More a dance tune than a listener tune. Especially toward the latter part where it builds up.... oh oh a tempo change???? Now we're really dancin'! Spacey ending!

Cool Dog!
 
Welcome to The End
1:39 - 2:02 in this area, I thought the lead took a back seat to the rhythm, which may have been the intention all along.
Bass not visible clearly. I'm cranking up the volume and not hearing it but barely.
May bring in more lower-end frequencies. And slightly dab the >1KHz frequencies. Just a touch and only on the guitars. The cymbals and all sound really nice just the way they are.

The Legend of The Black Circle
Bass more visible than the previous song. Not visible enough.
Drums sound nice.
Kick doesn't come thru all across the track. Maybe boost slightly.
Rhythm guitar sounds a little shrill.
The lead sounds really sweet and mellow.
Tune - The tune itself is very nice. :)
Ah a tempo increase. Sound very cool.
I hear the growling rhythm.
Did you Flange the cymbals?

I would say need more low frequencies. Maybe EQ in some lower frequencies like in the 40H - 200H range. On the rhythm maybe EQ down above 1KHz a little. Or maybe above 10Khz reduce drastically.

In both tracks, I like the drums. They sound real to me. Mine sounding crisp clean and hot off the drum machine and are just starting to really become a focus point for me now. I'm always obssessing on how to make them sound more natural and better.

I really enjoy the tunes in both tracks. Welcome to The End sounds more like it's building from bits and pieces. As in when stories move along showing different sides of the story and different characters that will later come together. And it does seem to build a climax.

The Legend of The Black Circle sounds more concentrated on a particular story. I guess you say battle scene and I maybe thinking the whole tune sort of plays along the battle scene. But I think the tune itself and its composition and performance sort stays true to a theme. There you go, it has a central theme.

I wrote you an essay. I don't know what you'll do with it but I hope it helps. :)
 
bigbubba said:
I wrote you an essay. I don't know what you'll do with it but I hope it helps. :)
Click to expand...

Big Bubba, yeah I enjoyed reading your novel man :D A novel for a song about a novel, not bad. Some good tips too, I appreciate it. I always mix on these speakers, which aren't the greatest, so there's usually some problems and can use any tips I can get. I still struggle with getting bass in songs just right. For Welcome to The End I actually lowered the bass too much on purpose, I just didn't like the quality/sound of the recording so I thought I'd go with lower bass then loud distracting ugly bass. I'm going to completely retract it sometime soon.

Thanks about the drums on The Black Circle too, I tried some new things and put more time into that drum track then ever before, so that's cool it worked out :D And yep, I flanged out the cymbol at that one point, I kind of liked the sound there of the song just like exploding. Then going back to normal.

Cool, thanks for the listens and the novel :) Glad you enjoyed them and that's cool they felt like a story/soundtrack to you. Cheers!
 
ido1957 said:
Canucks coming to visit eh ? Cool - bet the weather's better there than in Canada right now brrrrr.....

Listening and typing .....

Welcome to the end....
Nice tune man - good soundtrack type stuff for sure.....
Vibrato's good in the intro (just not used enough nowadays). Nice build up to the main part - flange? And throughout the lead?
Drums nice throughout. Could use some more bottom end - maybe.

Black Circle......
Intro effect was like... "wild" - very cool! Brighter than the last tune - more chorus than flange... More a dance tune than a listener tune. Especially toward the latter part where it builds up.... oh oh a tempo change???? Now we're really dancin'! Spacey ending!

Cool Dog!
Click to expand...


Ido, yep, Canadians everywhere! So many that I camped in the yard last night, which I wanted to anyway. And yeah, one of them said they haven't seen the sun in like a month :eek:

We just got through harrassing a llama in the backyard :D Sounds mean, but he asks for it.

On Welcome to The End, there's no effects on the lead. But several on other parts making some buidling combo of sound. One rhythm has the vibrato again, another electric rhythm is providing all the flange, and the acoustic rhythm has some delay.

Cool I got you dancing on The Black Circle, I could see what you mean. And even though I didn't mean it, i agree, it sounded like the song launches into outer space later on!

Thanks a lot for the listens! :)
 
Dogman said:
Welcome to the end....Nice sounds at the start. That seems layered well. At about 1:00, there seems to be some sounds that are abnormal. The clean guitar is stepping on something maybe, and it's kind of distorting itself? Just does it there a few times. Something weird. That was the only real issue I heard. Just a bit of sonic distortion, or something. Cool tune. It will fit well with the rest of the story...

The Legend Of The Black Circle....Totally different vibe. Very cool. I like the funkiness of this. The walking bass line is pretty cool. The harmony notes behind some of the chords are great. Really fill the space up with some nice phrasing. Nice playing all around. Very cool vibe.
Ed
Click to expand...

Dogman, thanks dog! You da dog, dawg! You know what I'm saying, dawg?
Anyway, I'll look into that one spot that wasn't quite working out for you, there's a lot of panning, guitars, and effects so many I can improve the sound there somewhat.

And you felt the funk on the second song, cool. I wasn't sure how to describe that song, but I like the funk. The mysterious funk I can call it, the new music and dance by snakes and dogs everywhere. Don't miss out :D :cool:

Anyway, thanks a lot, everyones comments mean a lot to me. I just did whatever I wanted within the mood and events of my story and thought they turned out "different sounding" I wasn't sure if I put together some weird tunes that only I like, so it's cool to hear some feedback. Peace dawg! Gotz do go party it up with tha fam, man. Wid da llam-a!!! :D
 
Doing the listening while relpying i suck so badly at. Listening to Welcome to The End. Really like the chord progression with the leads. Great guitars, i always dig your leads. At about 1:45 those effects on the guitars in the background are great. Like the drop out at about the 2:10 mark as well. Real cool song man. Mix wise everything sounds ok to me, maybe a little bright but my monitors tend to be kind of dark so who knows.

Ok soundclick is hating me for song two, won't let me open the player.

forget it here it goes

Digging the drums right off the bat. Having a bit of a hard time hearing the bass but it sounds cool. At 0:43 that guitar riff is great i really dig that. Good lead guitar work again. Love you how you reintroduce that guitar riff at about 2:28. Love the end of this one too, seems to build up nice.

Really dig both songs man, parts of these are some of my faves ive heard from you so far. Good luck with the writing thing man my girl is an author I know how hard that is.

Take care

Gary
 
gbav said:
Doing the listening while relpying i suck so badly at. Listening to Welcome to The End. Really like the chord progression with the leads. Great guitars, i always dig your leads. At about 1:45 those effects on the guitars in the background are great. Like the drop out at about the 2:10 mark as well. Real cool song man. Mix wise everything sounds ok to me, maybe a little bright but my monitors tend to be kind of dark so who knows.

Ok soundclick is hating me for song two, won't let me open the player.

forget it here it goes

Digging the drums right off the bat. Having a bit of a hard time hearing the bass but it sounds cool. At 0:43 that guitar riff is great i really dig that. Good lead guitar work again. Love you how you reintroduce that guitar riff at about 2:28. Love the end of this one too, seems to build up nice.

Really dig both songs man, parts of these are some of my faves ive heard from you so far. Good luck with the writing thing man my girl is an author I know how hard that is.

Take care

Gary
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Thanks a lot Gary for all the comments. Sounds like everything I intended by the songs worked on you :D I agree with you and do think your monitors are telling some truth though. I tried it on my truck system and it does sound a bit too high end and not enough low end, so I'll work on remixing it a bit sometime soon. Other reviews seem to agree to, so I'll get on that.

That reoccuring part that first starts at 0:43 in the second song is a heavily distorted bass guitar. I recommend giving that a try sometime, I thought it adds some neat thick sounds in places when the electrics are added over top too.

Thanks for the luck on the writing too. I see how hard it can be, but I mainly do it as a hobby. So basically there's no pressure on me and I don't plan on publishing anything... but you never know what might happen :D I do the same thing with music too and they usually end up being related, like songs like these.

Take care too man, thanks for the listens :)
 
Just checking out "The Legend Of The Black Circle" now, whats cool is you really have your own style and it is easy to tell that this is a Snakedog recording :) !Its got the trademark pseudo surf guitar and the tempo changes which I really dig....drums sound really good to me on this paticular tune.Pretty cool tune man!
 
rocking music Snakedog. You know, I was wondering when you were gonna come up with a new song, and then you produce two. Way cool dude, way cool!
 
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variaxman said:
trademark pseudo surf guitar and the tempo
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I always thought surf guitar, yes, but also that he was sort of putting that extra "space" guitar sound into it.

What's cool about being india (edit:I meant indie) is that all of us put our recordings up for review and I notice that we're not all Bon Jovi's with the same sound produced by the same studio by the same guy to make big bucks. We can give it our own sound. This week I'm going for techno, the next for blues, and the next for 80s rocks and so on.

variaxman, dude you haven't put any new GnR like pieces up. Been a while. Chop Chop! :D Moving on! Jeez I sound like a fan! :eek:
 
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Very 'mood' music. Dig the vibe. I have to be honest, I think the guitar solos are a little methodic. By that, I mean they seem to be dancing through scales busily. If that is the effect you want, than good, you did well. If not, then I would suggest to highlight the solo passages in sections, and only when you "feel" the need to play.
Dig the flange/phase to set the mood. :)
 
Seeker of Rock said:
Oh my God, did you guys see Casey's Prom dress?!
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Dude, what does this mean? I've been thinking about asking.... :)
 
It's from a cheesey, worthless show that I watch about kids when here I am 38 years old that either intrigues me, entertains me, helps me deal with the onset of mid-life, educates me about the social environment my kids may face, or (and probably the truest of all of the above), just is fun for some reason to watch...."Laguna Beach; The Real OC"
In the second season, the Laguna Girls are all uptight about this outsider 'fake' girl named Casey who wears this provocative dress to the senior prom. Sorry for the OT, but the show is like a bad commercial that keeps circulating through your head even though you do not want it to.
Watch it sometime if you get the chance on MTV, or MTV2, VH-1, cant remember, just know the name and they play it in marathons on the weekend when I am hungover. I spoke honestly, told the truth...now don't even think of coming down on me for this one :mad:

PS- a little tit for the tat...the first passage is from a legacy that I really dig, the last is kind of a mock. ;)
 
No, no. I generally watch the Disney channel. I'll be hitting 30 soon now. But, seriously I can only watch so much Ray Romano complain about life, about his wife, about his family, about his friends. I mean we don't really need to be brainwashed 24/7 to hate our families and to disrespect our wives and parents.

I am still a kid at heart. I fly out a lot for work sometimes and when I'm at the hotel, I just leave the Disney channel on. Kim Possible, anyone? I can tell you a lot of quotes from Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens, or Totally Spies. If Star Trek (esp. Voyager) was still on, I wouldn't have to watch all this. Even Friends is gone. Now it's the kids' shows, Joey, and The Apprentices (Trump's, Martha's, and Alan Sugar's version).

Oh and even Frasier is gone.

I'm not old! Whatever!

Ok, now there's two people here watching shows meant for kids. LOL. Laguna Beach, the real oc. I've heard that before. If it's not R-rated, I just might watch it. :)
 
Hey Axeman, Radiohead, Seeker, thanks dawgs.

Axeman, glad you like the Snake Style. S^2 I'll sell you my song writing formula for big money :D PM me. Hehe, actually when I have an idea and start working on a song I just do whatever I want and be as free as I can with the song. I hardly ever write a song with an audience in mind or something.

Seeker, yeah I was trying to be moody here, catch those mysterious elements of the story. Thanks for being honest about the leads too. I always appreciate criticism. I usually do highlight my lead parts more. This time though, like on Welcome to The End I went for this relatively simple part that keeps repeating with a little more each time, but the music around keeps building and building. Similar with the acoustic for other track, I wasn't trying to have the lead stick out, more of a consistant like wall of sound for the mood. So hopefully, that's fitting enough for these songs.

Radiohead, wow I feel like I have fans or something crazy :eek: when somebody is wondering when my next tune is coming out. Now I get to pretend like I'm a rockstar for a day. Want my autograph? PM me. Just kidding... Thanks man :)


Bubba aka "old guy" , Speaking of different styles, I'll have the first Snakedog techno song up by the end of the month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111 :D :D :D :D :D Don't get too excited.
 
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