Hi everyone,
Once in a while, it happens that I barely finish a song…this one is one of them.
I would really be happy if you could lend me your ears ans let me know what you think of it.
Thanks in advance for your help!
All the best.
Mathieu
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Overall I like it, my biggest observation is only a preference thing but I’ll point it out - I’m going to assume (right or wrong) that you have a French accent? The way you keep singing the word ‘focus’ sounds like you are saying ‘Fuck us’! I keep hearing the word ‘fuck’ and it is a little jarring and distracting. I would shoot for a more ‘Foh-cus’ sounding delivery. Very sorry to all for the vulgarity in the review 
Otherwise I like the song! just listening again and on my current crappy speakers I’m hearing a bit of ‘boom’ on the low acoustic notes in the beginning. I like the structure. It has a bit of a live feel to it to me - which is good, when things get too robotic and perfect it loses life and feeling in my opinion!
Well done
3 Likes
Hi Pirrie08,
Thanks for taking the time to listen to it. I do have an accent, that should be close to a french one…well, I’ll have to fuckus more on my diction 
Thanks for the inputs!
Regards,
K.
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Yeah man nice groove. good movement. nice edge to the vocals. On first listen i just want to say well done.
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I thought the same thing, I thought it was the F bomb. I would try to really emphasize the O sound and less of the Uh sound as in the F bomb.
Yay and double yay… a new Mask song!!
And it’s a beauty… loving the song Mathieu, so good to hear a new one from you - it gave me a big happy grin.
Love the production of the song and how it builds and swells and then settles again. Those repeated two ‘stepping notes’ (??) from around 1.38 are so cool… really intense and compelling and moving pitch at just the right time… caught me right in. Love the ‘far away’ fx and the rolling build with great guitar twists and turns that reflected the emotional journey for me as the listener, curling and carrying me away.
Great gritty and compelling vox… had to re-listen to this several times to enjoy that journey… yay…
In bash mode and looking for things to suggest, I found the mix perhaps a touch ‘hot’ at times, listening through my sweeter stereo speakers, there was a harshness with the volume some times. And yes, the ‘fuckus’ did catch my ear but I sorted it out as the song unfolded… if the word ‘focus’ had been in the song title I would have caught onto that sooner… wondered about possibly changing the name of the song to include “Focus on me…” rather than stress about the articulation? It would just give your listener a quicker clue to settle into the song. Listening again, I wondered about just tweaking your opening line… feel free to ignore me coz I can get obsessive about such things but for me, I would just subtly tweak the opening word ‘twenty’ with volume automation at the attack, maybe to shape the entry note/sound more crisply… just a little clearer? - but having said that, you still need that lovely emotional vibe to the vocal so it is a balancing act…
Love the song… so great to hear from you, there is a magic to your sounds that stirs… 
Thank you Sir!
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Thanks for your time. I will try to record it again…with more O…
Thank you so much for the nice words Emma, always glad to hear you like what I’m doing.
I chose the song name as I was posting it here, I hesitate with “focus on me”…I thought noone would take care of the title though…I’ll have to record the vocals again. I just hope I can get the emotion right while focusing more on my pronunciation. Assuming I got the right emotion when I suggested to the listener to reproduce ourself…
As for the bashing, all the comments makes sense and, since I’ll definitely have to get back to it, I will take them into account.
Thanks again for your time Emma!
Mathieu
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Mathieu, this is beautiful. I love all the things you did to build from the gentle first minute of the song. Orchestration is sweet. I wish I knew how to do that! I’m curious: how many tracks and what were they?
The balance was nice, flow was nice.
In the bashing end of the continuum, I didn’t care for the guitar in the beginning. It was close, but there were imperfections that I found distracting. It might have been purposeful, for effect, but the hammer-ons weren’t crisp and some of the strings were a little blunted. The timing seemed a little rough and I didn’t care for the EQ. However, the stereo micing (is that how you spell that?) was quite sweet. Very intimate.
That said, the harmonics at 0:52 caught me by surprise, and bang! It just took off. Nice build, and so many subtle things going on. Nice texture. A lot of power. You captured a lot of emotion with the build.
Not sure if it was maybe just before 2 min the vocals become more distant. Nice effect.
Might have had a slight vocal clip at 2:02–2:12? I’m only listening on headphones, so it could be my bad.
Anyway, nice hook. Great song! This just works. Thanks for sharing.
TB
Nice stuff, so I’ll just fuckus on that. Good work!
3 Likes
Hey Mathieu, this sounded great when I listened briefly on my headphones last night!.. I thought you were saying “focus”, but I wasn’t sure.
Anyhow, I love the way the song builds - really well thought out and executed production.
I’ll give it another listen on decent speakers when I get time.
Haha thanks a lot for your time!
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your ears and time. Glad you didn’t get distracted by my frenglish 
On the production side, I’m happy you liked the way the song is built. It has been a strungle for me, specialy the bridge…
If you could give it a second listen, I’ll be very happy.
Thanks again
Mathieu
Hi Tesgin,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to listen to my song. I’m really glad you like it.
When I started this song I had no clear view of where I wanted to end…At first, Irecorded the song with just the acoustic guitar but it was too monotone. So I started to add things as they were coming, without thinking too much.
I ended with up to 30 tracks, or something like that. Five or four vocal tracks, 8 for the drums, something like eleven different guitars tracks, one bass DI track, two virtuals instrument for the piano and the hammond. Then, some auxiliary channels for adding effects and for mixing purposses.
My finger playing is defintely not perfect during the intro, but for now I was too lazy to record it again…I’ll have to. I used only one mic on it and blend it with the DI-preamp of my guitar…I then added a strange effect, which might emphasize the nasty sounds I do when playing. I wasat first looking for a “live” feeling to contrast with the rest of the song.
I’ll look for the vocal clip at 2:02-2:12…
Thanks again for your feedback. Really apreciated.
Mathieu
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Acoustic is tight. Love your voice. Not sure of that word?? ha ha Great vibe in general. I can hear this in a movie. very powerful…congrats
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for your ears and the kind words.
Regards
Mathieu
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Ah, you tricked me. I like that little trick. It was very effective. I can use that! Thanks.
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Just wanted to drop another F bomb here: félicitations !
Love the general atmosphere and the buildup in particular. It really lifts off and that’s so satisfying. The tone of your voice is 
and I definitely empathize with the accent struggles.
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Merci!
Thanks your for listening to it and for the kind words.
Regards!
Mathieu