You guys scare me, but I'm still going to let you rip this apart.

  • Thread starter Thread starter umair
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umair

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I've been wanting people to hear my band but I've always been scared of everyone bashing this. But I really like this song so I don't care anymore. PLEASE NOTE: I know this song is not recorded all that well. This is my first experience with this stuff. In fact it's actually not even finished or anything because we are still suppossed to go over some clean guitar parts. The only reason we didn't finish it is because I am trying to upgrade the stuff I used to record this and I am completely confused as to what I should buy. I can't decide at all.

Ok please don't bash the recording itself, but I am curious to see if you like the song.
Suggestions would be appreciated but be nice because after all we are still trying to get this song writing thing down.



Thank you.
 
Hey Bud,You have a pretty good thing{Orange county Pop Punk}..Ya the recording is not really there and the preformance needs some work..But the germ of the song is very workable and cool!The arrangement is off{your breakdown is too long and in the wrong spot}..Lyrics... post them I couldn't hear the words very well...hook yes.. but the body of the words were hard to make out..It sounded like you have more words than you need..This takes some of the sing song appeal away {important in this style{read hard to make the words out though}The vocals for this style are pretty good..You have nothing to be worried about the songwriteing is not bad at all!Hope that you take this as encouragement...Good work!


Don
 
Thanks.
We will work on those things. I want to re-record after I get my upgraded equipment (see my post in newbie section).
For some reason I didn't put the lyrics up on the website. I will do that soon. If you feel like checking out the website it is at www.what-exit.com and we have a few other songs on there but we didn't spend any time doing those so they do not sound great at all. Our best songs are still yet to be recorded. The ones we did are just ones that we felt like doing that day.

So when I re-record...
- Bring out vocals during the verses/prechorus (we will be using a better vocal mic) and the singer is taking singing lessons.
- the arrangement... we agree and already decided to cut the slow part down considerably... but not sure what you mean by wrong part of the song....
- Drums will be recorded with better mics, shure sm57's, ECM8000 overheads and either an RVD1 kick or AKGD112.
- Guitars are recorded with sm57's and AT3035
- Bass direct in
- I really like that feedback thing I did with the guitar after the second chorus, I just hope I can repeat it exactly as I had it... it was actually a mistake.

We appreciate your suggestions and hope to get better. I can't wait to record some of our favorite songs. I wish I could borrow a recording engineer for a day or something.
 
umair said:

- the arrangement... we agree and already decided to cut the slow part down considerably... but not sure what you mean by wrong part of the song....



..Ok.The "slow part" should happen earlier perhaps after the 2cd verse as a bridge..The type of music you are doing is energetic and by placeing that section there you detract from that feel..Also it takes your "chorus out" and leaves it hanging a bit and separates from body and flow of the tune..IMHO
Also see if you can"marry" the section by useing a regge rythmic drum feel{Kinda like the little section you do on your verses with the guit chords}



- I really like that feedback thing I did with the guitar after the second chorus, I just hope I can repeat it exactly as I had it... it was actually a mistake.

Next time you might even do something cooler!Thats performace Ya never know..Sometimes you gotta leave room for magic!
One thing for sure is rehearse and rehearse..and rehearse some more!The better prepared you are the more apt you are to have those moments!Know the song so well that you can feel it!When your that on top of the tune, you will be talking in terms to feel/magic and not miscues


We appreciate your suggestions and hope to get better. I can't wait to record some of our favorite songs. I wish I could borrow a recording engineer for a day or something.

Post and see if there are any guys here from your neck of the woods...Maybe someone could help you out..Never know unless you ask
Click to expand...


Good luck


Don
 
I am the thing you should be afraid of here.



This song is weak in every way. I don't know where to start....geezus.


Just get an identity or something and then we can work on the crappy sound you are getting.

The weak things about this recording are in order:
1.guitar tones suck and are way inconsistent. When you use different sounds try to keep the levels similar. Look at your meters.
2.The vocal is mid heavy and sounds canned and lo-fied, badly


The song is so bad that I can not even express it here but that's a taste thing and you can very well plug in the bad taste excuse here to list of reasons why you really rock.
 
i don't think your singer necessarily needs lessons, although they can do nothing but benefit his sound. he just needs to sing a bit louder while recording. i know this because i do the same thing.

take out the ska part. i hate when punk bands have ska parts in their songs just because "punk bands have to have a ska song!" plus it doesn't really fit the rest of the song.

other than that, and recording problems that you already seem to be aware of... its not bad. very generic, but decent.
 
wow, Jake...................:eek:

And umair......Please be nice?........have you never read any of these threads?.....that's like throwing chum in the water and asking the sharks to play nice. :D

I do think Jake might have been a bit harsh.....there are certainly issues with the recording but you said you already knew that.
I think the energy was there and it sounded like you were having fun. That's enough for a good starting point.
 
I'm a little puzzled by the hairy response to this one. It sounds like a solid bit of mainstream pop to me. You seem aware of the recording deficiancies so I won't go down that road. The form of the tune itself could be a little more concise I suppose. You've obviously listened to a good deal of Green Day, Sublime, etc. and one of the strengths of those bands was their brevity - they jumped in, nailed the tune in a couple minutes and jumped out.

But hey, it sounds like it hits pretty close to the mark I imagine you're aiming for.

Chri
 
Thanks for all of the criticism.

We are going for main street (marketable) pop punk rock. So if you don't like that type of music then obviously you won't like it. And that's totally cool.
The ska part... well this is the only one of our songs that has it and its a lot of fun to play on stage so I don't think I can convince the others to take it out... we will try it without it to see what it sounds like though.

jake, I'm not sure why you hate it. But that's cool if you don't like this type of music. If you do like this type of music and you hate it, then I would be more concerned! But how do you get a better guitar tone? Most of the guitars were a fender american strat on a mesa boogie mark IV although I think the singer did the clean stuff using a crappy guitar. We have upgraded since the recording to better guitar equipment. I used shure sm57 through a dmp3 preamp to the c-port. The vocals... have always been our weak point in our opinion. I don't know what low fied means. Please explain.

As far as identity, I love playing in my band. The core of it has been together for 6 years but we have just gotten really serious with acquiring the proper rythem personell. Its interesting because the lead singers favorite band are Green Day and Goldfinger, my favorite is Bon Jovi, the bassist plays folky and much lighter rock stuff, the drummer likes really heavy alternative stuff. Put us together and we have a whole lot going on but we have an absolute blast playing. We practice (now) 4 times a week. What's cool is that away 5 bucks each practice and put it in a pot. I get to buy music stuff with that. The band is a pretty good infusion of different genres of music.

And now, that we have all that stuff settled, time for me to upgrade my gear! Akai DPS24 is what I have my eye on! Wonder if that will help us with our tonal problems and the "low fied" sound.

Also, groucho, good point about brevity. We need to work on that. We are cutting out quite a bit of our songs because we try to keep them under the 3 minute mark.

We're workin on this as much as we can and appreciate all suggestions.... Sometimes I think we work too much on the band and I just hope I don't get fired from work becuase I do band stuff all day on the internet!
 
Hey, I like green day. I like NOFX and a few other pop-punk bands. AFI is kiler, I'm not outright against this type of music. It's just that you sound like a collage of a few things you've heard. I don't mean to go all old school dinosaur on ya but have you even heard the root of your beloved punk music? I used to hate it when old guys would ask me that but now I know why.

It's about breaking comformity with any means possible. Exploring sick, twisted, joyous, insane feelings in a brand new way. So please save the "it's such and such a genre" load of BS for someone who doesn't know better. I have friends in bands that sound exactly like you do. I tell them the same shit, we don't see eye to eye.
Fuck all that, I don't need to listen to it again to help you get better recording-wise.

Sooo.....have to spenst time on getting sounds.
That is foremost.

1.Sit there with the recorder and mic wearing headphones recording and re-recording listening each time on phones and speakers. Move your mic a few hundred times the next time you record. You will see what I mean after that. You get wildly different sounds with a slight angle or distance change. Once you get it down don't stop experimenting and listening.

2. Before you even do that spend the time to position the amps in the room to get the best overall sound. Listen for boominess and rattling, they will show the problems. Use lower mid and mid lows settings on your guitars and bass to not exaggerate the problems inherent in your room.


Getting sounds applies to vocals bass and every sound element of the music so take the time and listen very carefully and use your ears like the most important gear you own. Don't wait for some new mic to fix stuff.


Good luck and I hope you never get famous, but you never know.
 
BTW my best friend since age 5 is anaerospace engineer who likes the same crappy music you play so don't take any of this too hard.
 
this song sounds like " sissypunk paint by numbers "

but there is something to it

it shows a pretty deep understanding for dynamics, and the right way to build up tempo and style changes.

someone has done some serious homework

but maybe thats the problem...it kinda sounds like a song built by a team of marketing experts " well 30% say to put this blackdoom blackddom beat at the changes, 42% say put a ska part in there, 78% say put in gay fake english slob accent that noone in the real world talks like" etc. etc.

I think thats probably the problem jake had with it

needless to say the recording sucks but even there, there was some serious homework done on the mixing and fx, and the bonky drum sound...all in all very good job, but I still hate it....:)
 
if the ska part is fun to play then start a ska band. it really doesn't fit this song at all.
 
Disclaimer, I really dislike this genre and don't listen to it - but it sounds to me like you've got the songwriting down solid. If the recording were better I could hear this in American Pie soundtrack.

You said be nice on recording, so I won't touch that.

For playing and sound - there are some tempo issues and you could get tighter. But practicing like you are, you're gonna be really tight really soon. Keep at it.

Strat through a Boogie? Seems weird for this genre. I think the guitar sounds a little modernish. I've never played this style or paid too much attention, but I'd think a Marshall sound with lots of mid and lots of pre.
 
I like the song.. no woman no cry/ let it be-chords all the way (C G Am F, right?)

No, I really like it, it's just the arranging and of course the sound quality (except so much for the vox, quite strange) i really disgust here.

Keep it up!
 
I used:

STAudio C-port at 24bits/44.1Khz throught P4 2.4 GHz, 533FSB two 7200 RPM maxtor hard drives using Win XP.

Mics used were:
2 Sm57's snare and guitars
AT3035 guitars and vox
MXL 660 vox
AKG D550 for kick
2 AKG D440's for tom
2 D660's for floor tom and high hat

DMP3 preamp
behringer MX3282a mixer

basic nuendo for EQ

Instruments:
Orange County Custom Drum Set (sweet ass drum set)
Fender American Strat
Ibanez S470 with EMG active pickups (I think 87/89's but can't remember).. but I love the sound whatever it is.
Gretch somethin or other electric guitar
Boss Gt-6 effects processor for limited stuff.
Boss CE-2 chorus
MXR compressor pedal
Mesa Boogie Mark IV Amp (kick ass amp)
Crate GFX 212 SS amp (I like it for some stuff)
Fender bass amp (don't know which one)

We have since rerecorded bass using... well I don't know what the bass player was using to be honest. But the new bass sounds excellent but we did it through a DI box and direct into the C-port.
 
It doesn`t matter to me what language or style your playing. It sounds like your intense and sincere with it, and it`s what you folks like. If you can pull that off consistently thats cool. Do it.. The mix on this aint bad to me either. I dont know anything about the bands metioned earlier, but I liked the guitars and the drums, although the guitar was a little top heavy in the mix. I prefer a little louder bass and the kick and snare rockin loud. The singer is on his mark to me. I was a little unsettled with the curtain changes in the rythyms but it has structure.
 
you used all that!!?? and came out with...??! read the posts on this message board every day. doing this has gotten me sooo far and i still learn new stuff every day

T
 
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