johnny d is first &mdash 01/13/08 - 11:49:01 PM
RE: &mdash 01/13/08 - 11:57:52 PM
Square Pegs &mdash 01/13/08 - 11:56:01 PM
Coool Rockin my friend ..would love to hear
your nice singing and guitar riffs into the
middle dunno just my rusty ears ..all in all
just great !! welldone !! [ Reply to This ]
Good idea &mdash 01/14/08 - 12:00:18 AM
I've played this song for 7 years and I've always done that middle part quiet. I've messed with the dynamics of everything else but not that. It probably is a bit dry. I'll have to tinker with that. Thanks for the tip! [ Reply to This ]
bones &mdash 01/13/08 - 11:59:42 PM
This has the bones to be great. You have a couple mixing issues though. Why are all the instruments in the left channel only? The only thing that is in the right speaker at all is the drums.? Oh, and then later an organ comes in on the right a little. Pan the guitar out to center or maybe 10 degrees left off center. Main vocal center. Harmony vocal 10 degrees right. Bass center. It will be much more impactful.
The song itself is really great. You have a strong voice that suits the Alt. genre of the music. The guitar work is strong too. Keep it up! [ Reply to This ]
mix n match &mdash 01/14/08 - 12:04:44 AM
The mixing was my waterloo. I tried 6 different mixes and eventually had to just move on. I'll have to look in to the panning. I did do some crazy panning stuff but thought that I had moved everything back. I don't have any monitors at all so I would mix through my headphones, burn a copy, then listen to it in my car. Probably not the best method :). Anyway, thanks for the advice and I'll get back to this song in a few months once I get the hang of everything. [ Reply to This ]
hey welcome eric &mdash 01/14/08 - 12:01:52 AM
interesting panning, makes it feel and sound live
drums are great
Love the stop in the intro
get a catchy chorus, its in here somewhere
why not the title and just add a chord or two to your outro and you have a great chorus
I'd mix your vocal in the center or make a copy and put you voice on both sides and to gain a fatter vocal
you could add a bit of reverb or make it rounder on one side with eq
just some ideas
move the bass to the center more also
turn up the bass MHO
you need some more balance in the mix, a second counter rhythm guitar on in the right ear, you
more bass
a little lead guitar bit some where, definatly in the end
these are my ways and don't reflect on how this sounds overall.
The over all sound of the recording is very hip
I bet out of ear phones with this turned up it sounds different(cant do that now kids and wife are sleeping)
i dig this tune very much and i dig the guitar sounds
your voice works well with this song and you sing it with lots of confidence
Good arrangement, song writing and performances
peace
looking forward to what else you got up your sleeve
tim
[ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/14/08 - 12:08:35 AM
Those are some great ideas. I'll give all of that a shot. I just updgraded from the Tascam Porta-02 4 track tape so the idea of any EQ AT ALL, and more than 4 tracks (7 with the tape to tape trick) is befuddling indeed. But I'll get it in the next few months. Thanks for listening and offering great suggestions! [ Reply to This ]
Great first &mdash 01/14/08 - 01:18:40 AM
post Eric. Lovely songwriting, musicianship and vocals. Good advice above re the mix but the most important thing always is the song, and this is good.
Cheers
Len
[ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:03:59 PM
Thanks! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:04:14 PM
sounding good! &mdash 01/14/08 - 01:22:50 AM
id love to hear a fuzzy distorted driving guitar in there during the verses - a la Weezer's 'Buddy Holly' - it could drop out during the break then kick back in for the last verse. I think you should keep the break quiet as it is. In fact you could start it even quieter and let it build. This has amazing potential. I'm looking very forward to hearing it develop! [ Reply to This ]
Weezer &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:10:22 PM
I'll have to try the Weezer thing. I'm a HUGE Weezer fan, but I've never tried to emulate their guitar sound so that should be fun. [ Reply to This ]
Great potential. &mdash 01/14/08 - 01:35:06 AM
There's a lot going for it, but like everyone has said there are issues with the mixing. It has the makings of a great song so I look forward to hearing the next attempt.
Good start!
Adam [ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:12:12 PM
Good Effort &mdash 01/14/08 - 01:58:19 AM
I liked the song and you're right. Mixing can drive you crazy and after a while you start losing perspective.
Put everything in the middle and do a mono version, then proceed from there.
Good luck and welcome to Macjams. [ Reply to This ]
Mono &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:14:27 PM
It would be far less aggravating if what came out on my CD was what was coming through my phones. I'll get it though. I'm having too much fun to give up. [ Reply to This ]
great philosophy... &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:37:01 AM
good song and i wish you all the best with the mixing bit - i'm a one take and no mixing kinda girl myself (i don't do technicals) - this has the potential to be excellent - good luck and enjoy! [ Reply to This ]
one take &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:16:11 PM
Many props on the being a one take girl. It takes a lot to get it right the first time! [ Reply to This ]
This &mdash 01/14/08 - 05:54:28 AM
is a really cool song. Good advice above...
The chord progression with a bit of dischord is really cool and I like the break to quiet part - put a little more "bite" on the lead; solid vocals
great first post.
. - Harold [ Reply to This ]
lead &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:17:39 PM
Thanks, lead parts are scary for me. Someone who has never played guitar can come up with better leads than I can. Maybe that's why I hide my leads so much :). [ Reply to This ]
This is a nice song &mdash 01/14/08 - 06:08:17 AM
Good catchy melody, and a strong vocal performance. The song has a strong hook. Like others, I would try copying the vocal track and placing it in the middle. The guitar track in the left could work, although something on the right to balance it out might (perhaps more keys?) could be good. All of this is a bigger issue for me because I'm listening through phones so the quietness in the middle is more obvious. This is a great first post. Welcome to the neighborhood! Peace. [ Reply to This ]
balance &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:22:11 PM
It does need balance. I may just start from scratch. I don't want to add too much to fix the bleeding or I'll just end up with more of a mess. But thanks for the compliment on the song! [ Reply to This ]
Good first song here &mdash 01/14/08 - 06:20:13 AM
and I can hear the Lennon-ish feel in this great song. I like your vocal and the instruments and volumes. I think the mix is wrong, but you'll soon learn as we all have to here.Your execution is good, but if you follow what Racerat and Tiomothy Devine have to say about the mixing, this song will be really Hot. Do what they advise and then post it again, Welcome to MJ and cheers M [ Reply to This ]
Thanks~! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:23:48 PM
Utilizing the pros here is what I'm excited about doing! I know the mixing will improve with a little help. Thanks for listening! [ Reply to This ]
hello and welcome &mdash 01/14/08 - 08:16:15 AM
silly question from me but when you record in gb are you doing it in"mono" as opposed to "stereo"? reason i ask is cos i had this panning issue for a while.. "everything to the left" till some kind Mjammer enlightened me..lol.... if you are recording the tracks in the preset " stereo" your panning attempts are for naught... right then.. agreet with phillip.. this one has bones and has some great possibilities... wish my first post had of been as good! [ Reply to This ]
Eureka! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:27:43 PM
That must be it! I'm not 100% sure, but I do believe I did select stereo as my preset. You may have solved at least a fair majority of my problem! I was getting so mad because I know I put all vocals, drums, and bass in the middle. so I couldn't understand why things were going wherever they wanted. Now I have to scrap the two projects I've got going on now, but at least I know! Sheesh. Thanks! [ Reply to This ]
Great song but ... &mdash 01/14/08 - 09:08:41 AM
really needs the mix to be central.
I liked the guitar in the left channel to start but was surprised that nothing came in on the right.
A remix and a repost I reckon :-)
Welcome to MJ.
Cheers
Dick [ Reply to This ]
Most definitely! &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:29:12 PM
I will certainly have to remix this one and get it reposted. Although it sounds like I'll have to re-track, remix and then repost. [ Reply to This ]
I so want... &mdash 01/14/08 - 09:51:42 AM
...your Tele...
...Cool tune and the lyrics are killer. I can relate...been there before as, I'm sure, many of us have...
...be patient with the mixing. You'll get it. Tough at first. But you've got lots of people at this site who're more than willing to help.
Bob [ Reply to This ]
haha &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:35:27 PM
Thanks! I like my Tele. They really are incredibly versatile. I'll get the mixing squared away and I'll do her proud! [ Reply to This ]
Great first pass &mdash 01/14/08 - 12:38:54 PM
I think this is a great tune. I like the melody, the lyrics, and the overall structure. The production does have its issues here and there and I think this could certainly be improved to make it shine to its full potential. I'd like to hear the bass guitar and the drums have a lot more presence in the mix. I hear some mic popping in your vocals that could be eliminated if you use a pop filter when recording. In the meantime though, you can significantly reduce the popping on the existing recording by using EQ to cut out most of the bottom end frequencies on the vocal track.
Generally, it sounds good to the ears but there are surely a lot of little things you can do here and there to get more out of it. I like your performance and the inflections in your singing.
Really nice work. Keep playing with it. [ Reply to This ]
pop &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:38:31 PM
Those pops drove me nuts. I did have pop filters on my mics until my daughter got to them... no joke. They are now "hats" and are in terrible shape. But listening back to the tracking after I did vocals I see that I needed them badly. I tried automating out the pops but it sounded goofy so I just let them stay for now. Thanks for listening and for the compliments [ Reply to This ]
Telecaster Lennon &mdash 01/14/08 - 02:40:53 PM
Love that Telecaster sound, man. Everything is in my right speaker, though. Except a drum. Take it off STEREO and which it to MONO. Trust me. As Racerat said the song is great and your vocals, too. Take whatever advice he gives. He semms to know what he's talking about.
Dave [ Reply to This ]
Mono &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:39:54 PM
Yeah, I was tuned in to the mono/stereo mistake earlier. Yikes. I'm excited to go home and fix everything up. Thanks for listening and for the compliments! [ Reply to This ]
great song &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:28:21 PM
only gripe i have is that everything is panned to one speaker. i love your voice and the whole vibe (gtr sounds awesome). actually I would like to hear some more bass in the mix. i do like the non-standard arrangement though (no chorus). nice when the harmonies come in at the end too. great job, welcome to MJ. [ Reply to This ]
Thanks &mdash 01/14/08 - 03:43:43 PM
A chorus just didn't work with this song. I said all I needed to say and the outro worked for what it needed only as an outro. I don't think I'm Bob Dylan or anything, but I do enjoy the ol' goofy song structure. [ Reply to This ]
perfect &mdash 01/14/08 - 06:18:07 PM
as is. i am a big fan of not sticking to convention. whatever the song needs, right? great stuff though.looking forward to hearing more from you. [ Reply to This ]
very good song &mdash 01/14/08 - 05:20:29 PM
you can hear that it wants to be great. I think you should bring up the kick, snare and bass. Put them right up front. Hope you get some monitors soon, you got tons of talent. [ Reply to This ]
monitors &mdash 01/14/08 - 09:45:51 PM
I hope I pick some up soon, too! The song does want to jump out of the speakers and really move people, I just need to give it the right tools to do so. [ Reply to This ]
Great start &mdash 01/14/08 - 06:16:37 PM
This a is a great start... definitely shows potential.
I definitely agree on the comments of Racerat and others on the mixing. I've done some reading before that talk about how your brain perceives sounds/music. Apparently, your left ear is more prone to pick things out in a music track, whereas your right ear is more prone to blend the sound. With this as the case, if you want something to be noticed, pan it a bit more to the left and make your background sounds a bit more to the right. In your song, it's a bit of left ear overload :). Like racerat said, pan your vocals in the middle of you mix (in other words, don't pan them, lol) , pan your guitar a little left, other instruments a little right.... it doesn't take much (only 10-15 either side) so widen out your sound.
If you want to pan something completely right, a cool technique I've been messing with lately is record to seemly identical guitar tracks, pan them to extreme opposites (100% left and 100% right) and blend them with reverb into the background. I only use them in parts where I want to build it. Even though I'm playing the same thing in both tracks, no-one's perfect, and the slightly different between the two different recordings actually widens the sound and makes it seem bigger. Give it a try sometime :) [ Reply to This ]
panning &mdash 01/14/08 - 09:48:15 PM
Thanks for the vote of confidence. That's certainly interesting about which ear perceives which sounds. I've definitely got my work cut out for me, but it's something I love doing so it should be a lot of fun. [ Reply to This ]
Cool song &mdash 01/15/08 - 03:34:38 AM
Really good though like others have already things need to be centred particularly the main vocal. It's a little displacing as it is. But really great voice and great lyrics.
[ Reply to This ]
thanks &mdash 01/15/08 - 02:44:09 PM
Yeah, I'll have to keep an eye on that mono/stereo switch. Thanks for the listen and comment! [ Reply to This ]
I don't &mdash 01/15/08 - 10:14:14 PM
know anything about mixing- but you've got talent.This is a great song! [ Reply to This ]
Mixing &mdash 01/15/08 - 10:21:04 PM
You don't know anything about mixing? That makes two of us! Thank you for the compliment. I love songwriting and I'm so glad I stumbled across this site because it really is oozing with talent and I have yet to see snobbery, which is amazing when you think about it. The mixing will come around. [ Reply to This ]
STARTERS &mdash 01/17/08 - 09:41:42 AM
Sounds like early Elvis Costello and THAT'S Cool.
But, it seems to have forgotten about the right channel.
Gonna Re-mix using whole spectrum/envelope? [ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/17/08 - 02:43:32 PM
I love Elvis Costello, and really, who doesn't? Thanks for the compliment. I will be re-mixing this song later. I recorded it right when I got everything set up just to see what GB was all about. My band, the Ex-Kings already recorded a version close to this so I will get back to this song, just not any time real soon, you know? [ Reply to This ]
This &mdash 01/17/08 - 01:31:42 PM
is a great song and very good songwriting, nice break in the middle, I loved the guitars and vocals! It's already been said about the mixing and good advice from everyone, look forward to hearing more of this song! [ Reply to This ]
Thanks Bob! &mdash 01/17/08 - 02:45:34 PM
I'll get a remixed version someday. I've already got two other projects running so when I run out of other ideas I may revisit this song. Until then, thanks for listening! [ Reply to This ]
Like Philip said .. &mdash 01/17/08 - 03:10:13 PM
.. great bones! Needs a chorus, and the mix is pretty average - you'd get a huge improvement just by returning everything to the centre and slowly and slightly panning each track until it sounds right. Bass and drums could stay in the centre until you sort the vox and instruments out. I'd be leaving the vocal pretty much centred also - so that leaves the guitar and organ - one slightly left, one slightly right. A second guitar track would also help balance things a bit. See how that sounds and go from there.
This song is definitely worth some more work!
Neil [ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/17/08 - 04:12:43 PM
It seems I recorded it in Stereo so all my tweaks were for naught. I will get another version of this put out, but it will probably just be a totally redone version rather than just a remix because there's enough to fix. Thanks for listening to it and for offering the tips! [ Reply to This ]
Hmmmm &mdash 01/17/08 - 04:51:15 PM
I record a lot of my tracks in stereo (all except bass in fact) in Logic and it doesn't present any panning problems at all. Just make sure you don't pan right or left during the recording process for each track - keep it centred and stereo should work fine.
Cheers,
Neil [ Reply to This ]
argh! &mdash 01/17/08 - 07:12:16 PM
Don't tell me that! :). If that's not the case, I have the problem of finding out why my pan controls won't obey me. [ Reply to This ]
Good job! &mdash 01/23/08 - 10:33:48 AM
You have a gift for putting together songs. I see almost everyone has given feedback on production so I don't have to. Your playing and singing are swee-eet. I really like your song writing style though and I look forward to more of your work. I share your frustration with the tech details. I always hear it perfect in my head. Now if we can just develop an interface . . . [ Reply to This ]
Thanks! &mdash 01/23/08 - 10:46:51 AM
I'm glad you liked it. I know what you mean about hearing it in your head. It's extremely frustrating because I hear arrangements in my head that I can't even begin to put together. So what I put down is usually "close enough". Anyhow, I'm actually re-recording this song so I'll have a better version up soon. Thanks again for listening! [ Reply to This ]
Cool! &mdash 05/26/08 - 08:24:47 AM
Thanks &mdash 05/26/08 - 11:28:29 AM
I'm revisiting this one every now and then. One I start working on new projects I start losing interest in older ones so it's taking long than it should. Someday... :) [ Reply to This ]
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sounding cool
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