I am torn with what first to expose this community to, lol.
My weirdest? Most popular to date? My favourite?
I decided to go with my latest creation which was inspired by a separate community, Drooble.
I am most concerned with mix and master but all comments are appreciated and very much welcomed and, I have formed some “thick skin” so, if in the event you all grab your pitchforks and torches and try to run me outta town, lol, I’ll understand, lol
Bass, Guitars, Drums and Vocals mix
No classical strings attached
In response to the perceived loose feel on this track, I’ve uploaded 2 separate versions. No mix nor master settings were altered in these editions just the dropping out of different instruments. I do this because, if I make any major edits, I want to be certain of them. In the very beginning with my very first song, I decided to take the advice from a guitarist I once worked with and I sliced and diced this song. It died in my arms right before me and as a result, I don’t go rushing in on the plastic surgery blindfolded anymore, lol.
I am really digging what i am hearing. I do find though that is needs to be tightened up. some judicious eq on the horns, piano, and well all the instruments to allow them to play together better in a chaotic but controlled fashion.
Anthony, strongly suggest that you just drag and drop the mp3 into the text edit box, which allows members to just click and listen to the native file. Soundcloud down-samples to lower res, and it is super easy to just incorporate the file into a post. Just a helpful tip.
Thank you,
I was wondering and I should have asked first.
The text edit box, is what you mean when saying, in the body of the message, not in the title section, correct?
Should I just delete this thread and begin again?
Thank you
I wasn’t aware that a more standard practice of sharing was the mp3 drag n drop from the desktop.
It might sound a touch different if I begin this thread anew.
I am well pleased you’ve added chaotic to your feedback, lol, it’s one of my favourite.
No need, you can just edit your original post by using the little “pencil” icon, and then drag and drop into the box where you are typing text (not the title). Just position the cursor where you want the file to go-- you may have to hit Enter a couple of times to generate some blank space. You’ll get the hang of it right away after you do it a time or two.
Hey Devyn, I really like the adventurous arrangement and the ambitious production ideas here. The combination of melodic and rhythmic ideas sound very original, and the tension and release created by the use of dissonance in the song structure appeals to my sense of something a bit out of the ordinary, a bit of “tanginess”, if you will…
A couple of things I feel could do with some attention:
The vocals are very difficult to understand. Correct me if I’m wrong, but to my ear, it sounds like you might even be deliberately obscuring the vocal by mixing them quite low in comparison to the instruments. Additionally, the looseness of the timing of the multiple/double-tracking (?) of the vocal parts between themselves tends to obfuscate the translation of the lyrics further (which is a bit frustrating for me as a listener, because I’m always keen to hear the message behind the song).
As Eric mentioned above, the instrumental parts could use some tightening. I totally get that this style might call for a slightly “looser” delivery, but this perhaps feels just a little too loose.
Overall, a cool and different musical vision - It’s good to hear something out of the ordinary.
For audio, yes. There are a handful of file formats the site’s software will accept, and I don’t remember what they all are. I know that wav and flac aren’t accepted though. To see the list of accepted formats, try dragging a wav in there, and the error message will list the acceptable formats.
We all use 320 kbps mp3s here, and those are plenty good enough for our bashing purposes…
I love it when I have to consult the dictionary, lol, awesome word, obfuscate!
These are the types of comments I went looking in all the wrong places for.
Most excellent, thanks.
HI Anthony,
I join the ranks of those that enjoy a bit of originality! Very interesting indeed. I’m listening on laptop speakers, so that might have some influence on what I’m hearing. Given that: in the mix I find the distorted guitar a little too much up front and in your face, while the vocals are more to the back of the spectrum. Maybe panning the guitar (stereo) to the sides with a bit more delay and/or reverb would let the vocals stand out some more?
Oh and I agree with the ‘tightening’ comments. The (synth) horns are great, but seem to float outside somewhere, to my ears maybe not quite on the beat. In fact, I find it confusing which beat to follow: the drums (with an interesting, but also somewhat erratic pattern), the guitar which isn’t quite following the drums, or the horn stabs? I would suggest taking the drumbeat as the basis, and align the other tracks to that. I don’t know which DAW you use. In Reaper you can ‘nudge’ a track forward or backward by milliseconds (just hit ‘N’ on your keyboard to open it up). I would expect other DAWs have something similar? It’s great for aligning tracks.
Cheers,
Evert
I’m listening from my iPhone speaker, so I can’t really speak to the quality of the mix other than to say it translates great!
Also, this song gives me the kind of vibe of a modern Frank Zappa. Clearly not afraid to stretch boundaries and color outside the lines. Great job!
Hi Anthony I like this track a lot! I think for me anyway the looseness is appealing and the track is tight when it needs to be. I suppose the vocals could come up a bit or be clearer but I’m not sure that would be better, that’s up to you.
The only thing I’d like to hear different is the horn stabs, they work great but having some variation in the length of the notes, a few long notes here and there, would be better for me anyway,
Speaking just to originality, I reviewed a song on another platform just days ago. Engineering and Production were top notch, exemplary to says the least. It was a very catchy pop tune built from the blueprint of pop tunes. I appreciated the song and lyrics but was let down by its unoriginality.
Thank you for your thoughts on my song. I had been blasted for a crappy guitar sound in other formal reviews and decided to punch this one up to try and prove a point.
I have been considering all the comments on the loose instrumentation. I think much is due to the brass and the classical strings surging in and out at varying and seemingly out of sync times. I am considering updating a version here guitar, bass, drum and vocals only, and, maybe not, lol, I’ll have to double check but I think the groove these parts laid down is pretty solid, lol, I just like the chaos my ears hear in wonderment in what I do to fill up dead air.
I am able to nudge audio sections on each track as well as each note individually if so needed. My laptop speakers are pretty much useless, although, with the experience in mix and mastering that I have been gaining, the sound coming out of them when I preview a song this way has gotten extremely better since first beginning.
When it comes to music creation, I don’t see any boundaries and didn’t know there are lines to colour inside of, lol.
ATM, until I figure how best to guess what mastering of my song will sound good across all devices, I always suggest using headphones.
Thank you for the comparison and the feedback.
Cheers!
