Let's hear your Music !

goatboy1000

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Just have a quick listen on my laptop.

Sounds Good ! ...

If I was involved I'd have a shorter intro or another part to keep interest during intro.
An additional part might be useful overall during the song.

Overall it's a bit overblown, sounds like everything in trying to be as 'BIG' as possible ... perhaps too big - and in my opinion, unnecessarily so.

The syncopated parts might feel meaner if the drums were dryer. Think how Them Crooked Vultures might approach it - and why.

I'd be dirtying up the vocal to sit into the track better - it sounds a bit disconnected .

Overall good buzz though.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, that's just what I was looking for.
I was thinking it was a bit too 'big' sounding alright. I could probably back off a fair bit on the saturation on the busses.
And yeah, I'm not crazy about the vocal sound. I can't seem to find a distortion that works. I've tried a couple of the AIR plugins, as well as digi's lo-fi and a couple of amp sims (eleven and sansamp) but I'm not having any luck with it.
I don't think we're going to change any of the parts at this stage but I always found the repetitive parts a bit.....repetitive....
I think it would have been easier if we had a particular sound in mind at the record stage, like we could have recorded it differently in terms of mics used and mic placement etc. but we didn't. So I'm kinda trying to get a certain sound in the mix that was given no consideration at the record stage if you know what I mean.
I was thinking along the lines of early weezer in terms of a raw sort of sound only as aggressive as I could make it without going too far......but I could have gone a bit too far!

Setun

http://soundcloud.com/mandrakemachine/piano

This is something I did tonight, just decided to put this up for the lulz. Haven't actually posted any of my stuff up here before because I keep changing how I want to produce my music, so have never been entirely happy with it. The idea behind it was to contrast repetition and straight rhythm with something more tempoless, if you get what I mean. Anyway, would be curious to hear if people find it boring/interesting/relaxing etc - also if they feel that any one element is overtaking the others. Trying to have an equilibrium between the three components (Bass Drum/Piano/Low-Freq Sample).

skydroid

soundcloud.com/skydroid_sc
Enjoy

pinksoir

goatboy1000 wrote: »

Here's a new one of ours. Recorded by ourselves in our houses but I think we got some decent results.

http://soundcloud.com/salad-circus/charge

More goodness here Goatboy. Keep working on that sound, it's a better direction than All Jokes On Me.

sponsoredwalk

Hey peeps, I made a dance-ish song even though I don't listen to dance,
you can hear the punk/rock influence

Please let me know what you think

http://soundcloud.com/sponsoredwalk/songalingling

trackmixstudio

Had the Riot Tapes in today.
They have recorded this song "Photograph" plenty of times.
Here is my version. Tracked and mixed in 1 day.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2133088/01%20The%20Riot%20Tapes.mp3

Loved working on this. Very good band and great singer.

MilanPan!c

trackmixstudio wrote: »

Had the Riot Tapes in today.
They have recorded this song "Photograph" plenty of times.
Here is my version. Tracked and mixed in 1 day.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2133088/01%20The%20Riot%20Tapes.mp3

Loved working on this. Very good band and great singer.

[gonna break my self-imposed exile from MP to respond to this]

Working with Michael was a treat! His studio sounds fantastic and the service was great! Of course the endless supply of tea, coffee and biscuits helped

A wonderful experience! Highly, highly recommended!! Of course, it's SO nice he's blocked booked until Mid Dec., but worth the wait and the money!

BTW: Michael actually noticed a small issue with the mix, and has remixed/mastered the track for us... how cool is that?

So, here's a link to the second mix!:

http://soundcloud.com/the-riot-tapes/the-riot-tapes-photograph-trackmix-02

(His link prolly takes you to the second mix as well, but just in case!)

Anyway, thanks again Michael, for the offer, for the hard work and patience, and the awesome version of our tune... and for the nice words!

Seziertisch

http://soundcloud.com/tiny-telephone-exchange

Introducing the band. There are still some rough edges on these and they should be considered a nearly finished work in progress (if that makes sense)

krd

Seziertisch wrote: »

http://soundcloud.com/tiny-telephone-exchange

Introducing the band. There are still some rough edges on these and they should be considered a nearly finished work in progress (if that makes sense)

I've been listening on my laptop speakers.

I like it - but I'm not going to tell you the bits I like

The hi-hats are way too loud and sharp - they're cutting through the mix and becoming the most prominent feature throughout the track, more or less wrecking it. They're not "that" interesting. Hi-hats are just not that interesting. They're meant to be dull and rhythmic. The lead element on my laptop speakers is the hi-hats by a mile. They distract from everything else.

I like the style of the track and it reminds me of Travis's The Man Who.

The mix on The Man Who is always centred around Fran Healy's muddy, quite and reverby vocals - everything is sacrificed to his vocal - as it's central to the album. No one bought The Man Who for the Hi-hats.

You've also over louderized the mix. If you have reverby vocals there's only so much you can get from it. The Travis album sounds terrible if you try to play it on a car stereo in a noisy car - it just can not be made that loud.

It sounds good on a home stereo late at night after a few beers and whatever, to chill out to. It doesn't have to compete with Usher.

For that kind of music, you do not need to compress anything unless you really need to compress something. It's a quite tune - it should be quite.

You could have also added a thin pad to make all the chord changes hang together.

Seziertisch

So other than the fact that the drums were too loud (in both tracks?) and that "mastering" involved slapping on the Waves L3 onto it at 4 in the morning at the end of mixing, you enjoyed it. Glad to hear ;-)

Can't really say I get the Travis comparison, though. Other than that the singers voice bears a passing resemblance to the guys from Travis and that it is an "intimate" performance (in the first song), musically (other than a fondness of guitar arpeggios) we are a pretty different, I think.

krd

Seziertisch wrote: »

So other than the fact that the drums were too loud (in both tracks?) and that "mastering" involved slapping on the Waves L3 onto it at 4 in the morning at the end of mixing, you enjoyed it. Glad to hear ;-)

Can't really say I get the Travis comparison, though. Other than that the singers voice bears a passing resemblance to the guys from Travis and that it is an "intimate" performance (in the first song), musically (other than a fondness of guitar arpeggios) we are a pretty different, I think.

listen back to it on laptop speakers. You'll hear the Hi-hats - (Milan said the drums were too loud - I think the rest of the drums are ok, it's only the hi-hats are a problem.

Waves or any compressor will never work well on a reverby vocal. If you're going to have a reverby vocal you're not going to get loudness out of it - if you try you'll get a burnt mush.

If you don't get the Travis comparison - get the album - have a few glasses of wine or whatever, when you're really tired and emotional - and let it wash over you.

If you're going for that reverby dream pop sound, it's meant to be made to wash over - everything should be subdued.

Ok - i'm listening to it again - there isn't a chorus - da da dah daw - is not day do ron ron, day do ron ron.

Some of the song is really good. - some of the lyrics and vocals are really good. You could have possibly created a few great vocal track recordings getting the singer to sing over a basic rythm track with a pad. There's an emotion and a narrative in there that isn't coming out.

AND - your expensive Wave plugins - the ones that are doing that weird thing of raising the tail on a vocal til it clips. It sounds loud - like the hi hats

Seziertisch, you are far more accomplished than I am (I am - as I can get people to testify - is unaccomplished)

I think what you need to do is drop everything back - remove the Waves and all the compression. Take the sound files and nudge into place the dragging drum beats - and those drums are dragging. Remove stuff - add your own instrumentation. "Supplement" the dynamics in the singers voice by drawing your own volume rides over the vocals. Add bits of pitching to enhance emotions - what you'll have then is something low, drivng and atmospheric. Then you louderise it.

Den_M

Hi, this is my first post in this section, was messing around with my guitars and computer today and recorded this. It's the start of 'Today' by Smashing Pumpkins, just the first 20 seconds or so. The drums were recorded in Abelton with EZDrummer, the guitars and bass were recorded in Audacity with Line 6's Gearbox program that comes with the Toneport I use to connect my guitar/bass/microphone to my computer.

I have very little experience in mixing or recording at all, have never even played with a full band in my life so go easy on me! Just wanted to find out the things I'm doing wrong so I know better in the future.

Siamese Dream (the album the song is from) is known for the crazy amount of guitar overdubs present so I knew I wouldn't get even close to Billy Corgans guitar sound, but to my virgin ears it doesn't sound that bad.

I'm pretty sure I panned the guitars badly or the drums are too high in the mix of the lead guitar is too loud and a million other things. Please let me know where I'm going wrong, much appreciated!

here it is

Den_M

Sorry about the double post but is the link working? Nothing happens when I press the play button when I was testing the link I gave

krd

Den_M wrote: »

Sorry about the double post but is the link working? Nothing happens when I press the play button when I was testing the link I gave

That's weird - the soundcloud isn't playing. You might need to upload the clip again.

Den_M

Deleted and re-uploaded. It plays fine when I'm logged into Soundcloud but doesn't play when I'm logged out I think. I made the track public, dunno what else I should do. God this is annoying, sorry, I feel a bit technologically retarded now

please work

sponsoredwalk

Den_M wrote: »

Sorry about the double post but is the link working? Nothing happens when I press the play button when I was testing the link I gave

Yeah it works, sounds a lot like it, the rhythm guitar is nice and grungy,
the snare has that typical computer sound I hate because I try so
hard to get rid of it myself

Den_M

Thanks, yeah the drums do sound a bit too digital for my liking.

If that wasn't too bad, here's another I did a few minutes ago...Hello Kitty Kat (my personal favourite Pumpkins song) from Pisces Iscariot..

Here t'is

Seziertisch

krd wrote: »

listen back to it on laptop speakers. You'll hear the Hi-hats - (Milan said the drums were too loud - I think the rest of the drums are ok, it's only the hi-hats are a problem.

Waves or any compressor will never work well on a reverby vocal. If you're going to have a reverby vocal you're not going to get loudness out of it - if you try you'll get a burnt mush.

If you don't get the Travis comparison - get the album - have a few glasses of wine or whatever, when you're really tired and emotional - and let it wash over you.

If you're going for that reverby dream pop sound, it's meant to be made to wash over - everything should be subdued.

Ok - i'm listening to it again - there isn't a chorus - da da dah daw - is not day do ron ron, day do ron ron.

Some of the song is really good. - some of the lyrics and vocals are really good. You could have possibly created a few great vocal track recordings getting the singer to sing over a basic rythm track with a pad. There's an emotion and a narrative in there that isn't coming out.

AND - your expensive Wave plugins - the ones that are doing that weird thing of raising the tail on a vocal til it clips. It sounds loud - like the hi hats

Seziertisch, you are far more accomplished than I am (I am - as I can get people to testify - is unaccomplished)

I think what you need to do is drop everything back - remove the Waves and all the compression. Take the sound files and nudge into place the dragging drum beats - and those drums are dragging. Remove stuff - add your own instrumentation. "Supplement" the dynamics in the singers voice by drawing your own volume rides over the vocals. Add bits of pitching to enhance emotions - what you'll have then is something low, drivng and atmospheric. Then you louderise it.

Horses for courses, Travis leave me slightly cold, I've heard enough of them to know that I am not a fan, that said I don't dislike them as such either.

As for your mixing advice, as I said, we slapped a maximiser plug-in on at the end of a long day. No its not mastering, but it does get things to a reasonable level for an mp3 bounce that is loud enough to be heard. This is fairly standard practice for work in progress. To be focusing in on the short comings of this is kind of missing the point.

Otherwise the vocal tail isn't being raised til it clips, nothing to do with a plugin, that is what happens with layered vocals with hard consonants, the plosive falls at the same point and tends to jump out. The maximisation has exacerbated it in this case.

As for the drums dragging personally I can't hear it/don't see it as a problem if they are.

As for the rides on the vocal, there wasn't time to really get into detail like that at the time of those first mixes, but it will be done. And as for the pitching to enhance emotion, I don't know what you mean.

krd

Seziertisch wrote: »

Horses for courses, Travis leave me slightly cold, I've heard enough of them to know that I am not a fan, that said I don't dislike them as such either.

As for your mixing advice, as I said, we slapped a maximiser plug-in on at the end of a long day. No its not mastering, but it does get things to a reasonable level for an mp3 bounce that is loud enough to be heard. This is fairly standard practice for work in progress. To be focusing in on the short comings of this is kind of missing the point.


As for the drums dragging personally I can't hear it/don't see it as a problem if they are.

As for the rides on the vocal, there wasn't time to really get into detail like that at the time of those first mixes, but it will be done. And as for the pitching to enhance emotion, I don't know what you mean.

No the drums aren't dragging - the hi hat is way too loud and sharp for the song - on my laptop it cuts through everything and becomes the most prominent sound on the recording - it shouldn't.

Otherwise the vocal tail isn't being raised til it clips, nothing to do with a plugin, that is what happens with layered vocals with hard consonants, the plosive falls at the same point and tends to jump out. The maximisation has exacerbated it in this case.

Well, there you have it. You should go over the vocal with a pencil tool to do volume rides to fix the hard consonants and plosives. I know it sounds like a real pain in the arse thing to do, but probably is pretty quick to do once you get the hang of it. And this is the 21st century - in another time, you're only option would be to ride the volume slider live by hand. Which probably isn't that difficult to do once you get it down - but it's probably as tricky to learn as a Hawaiian pedal steel.

What I meant by pitching - is cheating. Last night I heard Oasis's Shaker Maker for the first time in a long time. For much of the song Liam Gallagher is out of tune. This actually works, because it causes just the right amount of dissonance. In the 21st century - as well as being able to pull a vocal into tune - a vocal can be pulled out of tune. When people are emotional - they sometimes sing a little off - this is okay with everyone, because they understand the singer is being emotional. little pitch curves here and there may add a little extra tension to the song.

You're in showbizzness - you're allowed to cheat.

Seziertisch, keep it emotional.

Paolo_M

Idea for a choon.

Any pointers for this mix?
I'm trying to go for a kind of Black Label Society sound here, kinda nasty and gritty, but tight.
Am I anywhere close?
Anyone know how to get cymbals sounding good in EZ Drummer? They sound kind washy/phasey here, I think, but I don't know how to solve that.

http://www.netmusicians.org/files/97-Borrowed%20From%20The%20Well.mp3

Seziertisch

krd wrote: »

No the drums aren't dragging - the hi hat is way too loud and sharp for the song - on my laptop it cuts through everything and becomes the most prominent sound on the recording - it shouldn't.

The drums are too loud, full stop. Obviously listening on laptop speakers (which have little or no bass response) the kick and toms aren't going to be the issue

krd wrote: »

Well, there you have it. You should go over the vocal with a pencil tool to do volume rides to fix the hard consonants and plosives. I know it sounds like a real pain in the arse thing to do, but probably is pretty quick to do once you get the hang of it. And this is the 21st century - in another time, you're only option would be to ride the volume slider live by hand. Which probably isn't that difficult to do once you get it down - but it's probably as tricky to learn as a Hawaiian pedal steel.

I know, that's what I said, you were of the opinion that some fancy plug-in was raising the tail of the vocal, remember? ;-) Though, I would have liked to have thought that the recordings sounded like they were done by people who are aware of the existence of automation, but anyway. I thought my explanation for the reason for not having it automated (lack of time) was pretty plausible.

krd wrote: »

What I meant by pitching - is cheating. Last night I heard Oasis's Shaker Maker for the first time in a long time. For much of the song Liam Gallagher is out of tune. This actually works, because it causes just the right amount of dissonance. In the 21st century - as well as being able to pull a vocal into tune - a vocal can be pulled out of tune. When people are emotional - they sometimes sing a little off - this is okay with everyone, because they understand the singer is being emotional. little pitch curves here and there may add a little extra tension to the song.

You're in showbizzness - you're allowed to cheat.

Seziertisch, keep it emotional.

Don't think I can really agree with that one. I've heard of dodgy pitching being compensated for by a good performance, but I've not heard of artificially creating dodgy pitching to add emotion. Don't know, maybe some other folk can chime in here?

PaulBrewer

Seziertisch wrote: »

http://soundcloud.com/tiny-telephone-exchange

Introducing the band. There are still some rough edges on these and they should be considered a nearly finished work in progress (if that makes sense)

Great name !

Drums too busy to my ears in the verses, it distracts against the 'timid' vocal - which is fine, but to my ears needs the band to be more sympathetic.
The arpreggio guitar leaves the vocal space.

Tracked vocals not tight enough for me, the array of ssses is distracting.

Get a lad to play even the hi-hat part - that will 'humanize' things - if that's a thing you'd like.

Anything that distracts (there's that word again) from the vocal pull back or edit and the song will open up, I feel.

Cool enough overall ... nothing a few hours of tweaking wouldn't sort

If I was mixing it I'd throw the vocal up first and build from there ....

krd

Seziertisch wrote: »

The drums are too loud, full stop. Obviously listening on laptop speakers (which have little or no bass response) the kick and toms aren't going to be the issue

Well, that's how lots of people listen to music these days; on laptops and I-pods. If it sounds great and well balanced through decent speakers - but something is wrong when they go through laptop speakers - like the hi-hats coming out too much - then you could say, that maybe, you just might have a problem.

I know, that's what I said, you were of the opinion that some fancy plug-in was raising the tail of the vocal, remember? ;-) Though, I would have liked to have thought that the recordings sounded like they were done by people who are aware of the existence of automation, but anyway. I thought my explanation for the reason for not having it automated (lack of time) was pretty plausible.

It's just my opinion - I'm not bitching you out. I'm sure lots of the production took time. It just would be my opinion that more time should be devoted to making the vocal sound good over getting the snare just right.

And outside of people who know stuff about audio recording - the general public are completely unaware of things like automation. They know nothing of, or even care, about the techniques used.

Don't think I can really agree with that one. I've heard of dodgy pitching being compensated for by a good performance, but I've not heard of artificially creating dodgy pitching to add emotion. Don't know, maybe some other folk can chime in here?

Ok, right, you don't know about dodgy pitching. I suppose, if you were recording say a blues guitar player, the minute they bent a string you'd jump out of your chair and chastise them for playing out of tune.

Singing or playing out - is a long established style. Used by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Ian Dury. Too much it sounds awful - too little the recording sounds boring.

And there is a whole philosophical point to this. People use drum correction tools and other stuff - yet still go through the rigmarole of recording live drums - when they'd be quicker getting what they're after through programming samples. I have to laugh when I read about people recording drums - then fixing the timing - then replacing the hits. Going through the ritual doesn't make it any more "authentic". If you want authenticity, record everyone playing into a single mic, down onto a C60. Or C30 even.

And the same for the things like bass - if it's meant to be much the same throughout the song, why not just record a few bars and comp and sample whatever else you need.

I'm not a great musician - and I've come across many people who can play way better than me - but many of them are **** - because they can play every note in time and tune but they're boring. Boring people do not belong in showbizzness - they belong driving buses, or working in accounts or cleaning windows (like Van Morrision bullsh1ts he'd like to do in that song he has - about cleaning windows.)

Listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbo2ajRUXwE Jamouraquoi Cosmic Girl. The timing and tuning is all over the place - if it was bang on the button it would sound like absolute dog sh1t.

Seziertisch

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Great name !

Drums too busy to my ears in the verses, it distracts against the 'timid' vocal - which is fine, but to my ears needs the band to be more sympathetic.
The arpreggio guitar leaves the vocal space.

Tracked vocals not tight enough for me, the array of ssses is distracting.

Get a lad to play even the hi-hat part - that will 'humanize' things - if that's a thing you'd like.

Anything that distracts (there's that word again) from the vocal pull back or edit and the song will open up, I feel.

Cool enough overall ... nothing a few hours of tweaking wouldn't sort

If I was mixing it I'd throw the vocal up first and build from there ....

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. Don't know what you mean about the hi-hat part, it is already played by a lad, all the drums done live, minimal editing, definitely no beat detectiving, thought it sounded pretty human. We were a bit too into the sound of the drums, just soloed they sounded really powerful, resulting in them being too loud in the mix overall. But at 3 in the morning that's forgivable I think. There was more time spent on the second track (which nobody has commented on) so I guess that's a good thing.

As for your opinions on the drum pattern and starting with the vocal first, you like some terrible sh#t, so I take anything you say with a grain of salt. On the other hand, my tastes are beyond reproach. ;-)

And for anyone interested in hearing some extreme "d" editing (whether in mixing or tracking, I'm not sure) check out the layered vocals on the outro to this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tsLfPsYOXQ

The d on the second "world" isn't there at all.

PaulBrewer

Seziertisch wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. Don't know what you mean about the hi-hat part, it is already played by a lad, all the drums done live, minimal editing, definitely no beat detectiving, thought it sounded pretty human. We were a bit too into the sound of the drums, just soloed they sounded really powerful, resulting in them being too loud in the mix overall. But at 3 in the morning that's forgivable I think. There was more time spent on the second track (which nobody has commented on) so I guess that's a good thing.

As for your opinions on the drum pattern and starting with the vocal first, you like some terrible sh#t, so I take anything you say with a grain of salt. On the other hand, my tastes are beyond reproach. ;-)

Oh , I thought it was programmed ... it sounded too thought out. Like a non drummer wrote the part .

So you agree , you can't really sing ?

Seziertisch

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Oh , I thought it was programmed ... it sounded too thought out. Like a non drummer wrote the part .

So you agree , you can't really sing ?

The drum pattern is based on/inspired by Take 5 (I had nothing to do with it though), the other parts were too static and something with a bit of swing was needed. This was the solution that the powers that be came up with and quite and I think it works well, definitely a step away from that borderline-boyband nonsense which is the backbone of your signature sound

As for my singing, personality goes a long way. I'd even go so far as to say that the off-scouring of the underside of my balls has more personality and is of greater interest to the general public than any of your output as a producer. You might disagree on a public forum, but in private when you are alone, having a wa*k and crying to whatever latest indie fad you have have decided to latch onto, you know I'm right. And for that I respect you, Paul, I really do

PaulBrewer

Still no excuse for sloppiness ...

Seziertisch

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Still no excuse for sloppiness ...

That's what she said

PaulBrewer

No, I meant push the vocal fader up first, not start the track with the vocal.

Anything that interferes with it can be placed to suit - it sounds to me that the vocal was placed on top of the mix, not the mix built around it.

If it was Bono he'd be shouting above it and it wouldn't be a problem - but it's not and should be mixed accordingly.

Seziertisch

PaulBrewer wrote: »

No, I meant push the vocal fader up first, not start the track with the vocal.

Anything that interferes with it can be placed to suit - it sounds to me that the vocal was placed on top of the mix, not the mix built around it.

If it was Bono he'd be shouting above it and it wouldn't be a problem - but it's not and should be mixed accordingly.

I know what you meant, Paul, I was only taking the piss.