Well... here goes nuthin... :p My first submission.

  • Thread starter Thread starter WATYF
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WATYF said:
I told you man.. I'm a serious hack.

Did I mention that this whole thing was recorded while my Unreal Server ran at full load in the background... :cool: man I love my computer... :D :D :D

WATYF
 
I think your vocals sound pretty damn good. And the guitar sounds great also. I think more instruments would round this out, and a full gospel choir(got one of those?).

thanks.
 
Nope.. but I got a great sound guy.. :D that's almost as good... When we do the full version there won't be two acoustics and the electrics will carry the song a lot more,.. along with the bass and drums.

WATYF
 
Crap!!

I went home on my lunch hour to mess with it some more.. (I think I'm addicted :p ) and I ended up inadvertently making that "seagull swoopy" thingy (right before the solo) too loud in the mix. I'll fix that when I finally get home... (darn this infernal thing called "work") :p

I did try to get the intro acoustic up a little louder,.. which brings me to my question... how come my recording sounds so quiet? I mean.. I listen to other mp3's aroond here and they sound fine and then I go to play mine and I have to turn the volume way up just to get a decent level out of it... but in n-Track, the output levels are maxed out (even clipping in certain parts)

Is there something I'm doing wrong,.. or is there any way to change the level at mixdown.. or am I just crazy and imagining things...? :confused: and is anyone still reading this thread??? :) not that I care.. I finally have a chance to get my post count up... :p I've been here two freaking years and I still can't use a custom avatar! I want my custom avatar, dang it!!!!

:p

WATYF
 
P.S... thanks to everybody for the compliments... maybe it's just me, but I'm not too fond of my voice.. trust me.. if I was someone else and I heard my voice come on the radio... I'd change the channel... :p

(only 45 more posts to go...!!) :D

WATYF
 
WATYF said:
...... maybe it's just me, but I'm not too fond of my voice......
It's just you, your voice is fine. And I like the seagull swoopy thing (a new technical term I can use) :D
 
Hey.. no prob... just making my daily contribution to the American lexicon... :D

I guess I just think that I sound like I'm only talking... It's a little monotonous to me... I mean,.. if you could hear my natural voice.. you'd see that me "singing" is basically just me talking a little louder.. in... notes... sort of...



but that's.. pretty much... what... singing is... isn't it...?






geez I'm retarded

:p



I'm just very scrutinizing of myself... (and that's putting it lightly :cool: )

WATYF
 
hey WATYF....

If yer trying to pad yer post count why don't you go post a few words on my thread (instead of reviewing it here...) and save the damn thing from the depths of page two...? ;)

Queue
 
Nice singing. You do have a cool voice. A little compression might help.

Song wasn't bad. I generally hate christian tunes but it wasnt bad. It didn't have that usual cheese.

You need to roll off the bass on those acoustic guitars. It's really boomy with a sub.
 
Queue... I will do that.

Tex... ok... see... this is a perfect example of what I need... I noticed that too... (way too much bass with my subwoofer)... but how do I get rid of it??!?!... being the pathetic newbie that I am, I have no idea how to solve that problem... what do I do...? put an EQ on the master channel and just suck some of the bass out???

P.S. I listened to it on my bro's stereo and it sounded like all vocals with a little guitar in the background... so I took the vocals way down and reposted it... I think it sounds a little more rounded.

WATYF
 
WATYF,
Here's how you do it:
Put the EQ on the guit trax and yank out / cut / supress the lows.

That way you won't kill all the lows, just those of the ac. guitars.

Queue
 
I think I need new headphones... everything sounds great in my headphones, but when I play it on my speakers, there's too much bass and when I play it on a stereo, it has no "life" to it at all, and you can barely hear the guitars... :confused: :(

(or maybe I just need new speakers and a new stereo) :)

WATYF
 
Well, you kinda hyped the song here :D ("Can't sing, can't play") Those acoustic guitars sound just fine. Much better I could ever produce. And you can sing also. I'm into this clean stuff now. I have no problem for criticising a "god" song. I don't usually pay attention to lyrics much. If the song is good, I can dig the lyrics no matter how "silly" or "heavenly" they are. I'm not that picky about them. After all, I listen to some Manowar, and if I was picky about lyrics I couldn't listen to them, but the songs make up for it (and I'm not sure if they are even serious). Your lyrics didn't sound so overbearingly christian to me from the first listen. Good production.

(One day you'll all get a good laugh when I get my balls big enough to sing. That's when you all realise you have good voices)
 
Ahh, nice

I was very much looking farward to hearing something from you mate, excellent. I think the guitars sound heavenly and your voice is very very good. It sounds like your hiding it though. I would love to hear this louder as I am sure others have said. Don`t put yourself down, just keep them coming. I bet you`ve got loads up your sleeve.

I thought that the vocal chorus is outsanding and I can`t get that part out of my head. Its good. As a song, its great - Performance, sounds and singing. Good show, tally ho......

Erland
 
Hi WATYF! I love your God attitude when you first started the post :) As for the song, I can't wait to hear it's full production when finished. It sounds great now! Nothing wrong with your voice, become the singer permanently. I agree with the earlier post though, more vocal compression, the chorus is too much without it. Harmonies would be beautiful there. Lyric wise is cool too, kind of like Lifehouse only theyre more suttle, most people dont know they used to be a worship band called Blyss.
What kind of mic did ya use on those acoustics? A very little more reverb on those would do wonders. Awesome job bro, like I said, cant wait to hear with strings and maybe drums or whatever...

S/R
 
Cool,
I think if you cut some bass out you will also be able to bring the levels up more.

Don't worry much about the singing. It sounds fine (except some strained high parts. :) ). it's a good song to work on mic technic. You start kind of low then you are loud later on "waaaay....." part.
Actualy doubling that part did introduce some swirling and it sounds kind of bad to me. I think it's a phasing issue that somebody reffered to earlier.

The first "why don't I just follow you ..." is flat. The you warm up a little :) Also on the " and walk away..." part with the harmony you kind of slide up to the right note, you should try to nail it like you do on the word "day" later. Sorry to pick it appart like that, but those are things that I do wrong all the time (like trying to sing higher then I actualy can :D lol).

Defenetly sounds like a band tune.

You might want to try tunning your guitar half step down. A lot of bands do that and it will help to get those high notes cleaner. Or play in D, but it will change the chord voicing so might not work.

Mixing wise I don't here anything glaring. accept the low parts are lower in the mix then they should be IMHO because of the higher part. So you might need to work the mic or the faders (or volume envelope :)) I assume I 'm listening to the improved version, based on other comments.

I like the tune. Actualy I was wondering if it's ok to sing it with our team? I want to show it to them see if they like it.

cheers
 
WATYF said:
I think I need new headphones... everything sounds great in my headphones, but when I play it on my speakers, there's too much bass and when I play it on a stereo, it has no "life" to it at all, and you can barely hear the guitars... :confused: :(
WATYF

I listen thru phones too, and the way it stands now the guitar sounds good (levels and eq) but the vocals are waaaay back - I can't understand the lyrics much of the time the levels are so low. But maybe that's just my headphones.
 
LOL... Thanks Erland... I guess I'm just returning the favor to you for getting all your stuff stuck in my head... :p I guess I should mess with those vocals again... I took em down a bit cause they seemed overbearing on my brother's stereo, but now they sound a little too quiet.. so I’m gonna bring em back up later today.

Solomon.. I used an SM58 for the acoustics (and the vocals :p ).. and I used compression on the vocals.. but it's just not working enough.. maybe my plugin just sucks beans.. :p

Fed... I hear ya... I noticed all that "flat" and "strained" stuff and the goofy harmonies parts too.. if you check out the beginning of the thread, I was sayin' how this is mainly just a scratch recording I needed to make so the rest of the band could hear the song structure. I would have done a few more takes on the vocals (and the guitars for that matter) but I didn't feel like takin' the time. The finished version, I assure you, will have a flawless vocal line.. (mainly cause I won’t be singin' it) :D I did try tuning down a half step originally, but the guitar sounded a little too "flat" when I did that. (flat dynamically, not tonally). And I have to keep in mind that we need to be able to play this live, so they need to learn it in a standard tuning.. And our CD will be out at the end of the summer,.. I can let you know how to get it and then you can hear how the "real" version will sound, and then, by all means, feel free to play it all you want. :p

**OK... PLEASE READ THIS PART**

I need some advice on something. I'm gonna post this HERE in the Songwriting forum too, so please go check out the thread and vote on what you think I should do. Thanks.

I'm having a dilemma with this song... (actually,.. a couple dilemmas) here's the deal.

The guitar lick (that the whole song is based on) was the very first thing written... so the melody was basically written around an existing key. (the key of the guitar lick) The problem is,.. this is just at the very edge of my range, so I can't sing it like I want to. The way I want it to go is like this. After the "daaaays" part, the "you alone..." part is supposed to be an entire octave higher than I sing it on the recording... that part is supposed to be even more driving than the first part of the chorus, but I can't hit those notes an octave higher (so they match the chorus better) so I have to sing them "low". Now,... If I drop the key of the song a step or so, I can sing it like I want, but... then the guitar lick doesn't sound nearly as good (cause it’s in an E based formation)... that's problem number one.

Problem number two is,.. for the CD we're making... we only have two vocalists to work with... a male, and a female.

The male vocalist would have to sing it just like you hear it now, (with that melody "dip" in the middle of the chorus right after "daaaaays") OR we'd have to change it to another key so he can sing the whole chorus up high. (Like I want it to go.)

The female vocalist is the primary vocalist... and she wants to be able to sing the song... BUT... it was written in a "guy's" key.. so when she sings it, she has to sing the verse high and the chorus low.. (the exact opposite of the original recording, which has a low verse and high chorus) This detracts from the dynamic of the song... (i.e. you hit a high point of the song where all the instruments build up and then crescendo, and yet the vocals go "lower".. it just doesn't fit). So.. in order to fix this, she's wanting to maybe change the melody of the chorus to a harmony line that isn't so high,.. that way she can sing it somewhat high (instead of a low version of the original melody)... but that way,.. it doesn't sound like a melody anymore... it's obviously a harmony.. and you feel like something's missing.

So... in summation... here are my choices.

1) Leave it the way it is and make the male vox sing it.

2) Lower the key so the male vox can sing the chorus like you want to (at the expense of the guitar lick)

3) Let the female vox sing it with a high verse and a low chorus

4) Let the female vox alter the original melody of the chorus to a harmony so she can sing it somewhat high.

5) Sign-off on the song and just let them change it however they need to.

6) Put it back on the shelf until I have the resources to do it right.

Please check out the poll HERE and let me know what you guys think I should do. Thanks.
 
O.K... raised and compressed the vocals.. took some bass out of the gits... now I'm OK with it.. I think I'll leave this "scratch recording" alone for now... :p

WATYF
 
Hey Watyf -- Your voice is not even close to as bad as you think it might sound. It totally fit the mood of this song well! I would say that most of us who actually sing our own stuff probably wish that their voice sounded better.

Anyway, I liked this song and its message. I could totally hear this going into a more ambiant direction when it is fully recorded.

Anyway, great job!
 
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