I put 2 songs in my music website: “Sitting On The Fence” is the song on top, and “Something to Gain 2” is the next song down. Please tell me how you like the music and how they can be improved, and I will return the favor (leave me a link). Here is my link:
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Hi aaron First off, thanks much for your comments on my tracks. It is sad for me tho that I don’t have the chops to reciprocate/regurgitate helpful feedback O(
Both intro’s are awesome. Once again, the first screams movie/expected suspense.
I know what to expect from your singing style and it always fits the vibe. The only thing that comes to mind would be you singing in a more solemn haunting style ??? (depending on the track)
I was wondering if you post for feedback on other sites and get hints there. best to you ole friend
feaker,
Thank you for checking out both of my songs and commenting, I appreciate it! Solemn haunting style vocals? Can you think of any famous male rock/pop singers that fit that description? I am sincerely curious. Since I am a church goer, I think of non-rock traditional church music when I hear the word solemn. Yes, I post my music on other forums, and get a wide range of comments and opinions.
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I’m late on the scene, Aaron, so I also see 2 even newer songs, which I first listened to.
“Make the Right Choice” is in spots difficult for me to make out the words, but a little clearer already on just a second listen. Strong bass, drums and lead guitar carrying out a very strong melody/arrangement. I wonder about the female background vocal, All good. It is a very generalized suggested lyrically; however, I find all four most recent titles all feel very much inspired by the current slew of indictments in the news. As always, too, your synth/special effects are outstanding and almost subtle in this track.
“House of the Leader 3” again is politicalish but hard to follow completely. I listened 2 1/2 times, the line that stuck out- will you be a leader or just be senile- is a comment on such old leaders we have because that’s all the choices we’ve had recently. I don’t find it refers to just Joe as Donald is not much younger, and poor Mitch is freezing in mid sentence and being led off the stage by his aides. And there many more oldies in power, not to overshadow the ridiculousness of the younger leaders as well. In my mind you are asking a great question, will they be leaders/statesmen or idiots. Alas, a democracy elects both, and we vote them in and often over and over.
Now getting to “Sitting on the Fence”, I really like the intro vocal. Cool echoey effect. Again, such a strong rock song. Again, I can’t hear all the lyrics, although the closing line- the evidence/ fence rhyme.- seems to pose the question of refusing to look at all the evidence and therefore should not be just sitting on the fence. I agree. It is exacerbating how in an age of massive information access this phenomenon is so prevalent. Society pays a hefty price for this…
“Something to Gain 2” has a likable riff of a melody, love the tremelo guitar. Again, Aaron, I’m not following the words on the first listen, as much as I like the music. I know I am pretty guilty of this as well, believing I can count on some repetition in the song to fill in some of the blanks, and maybe multiple listens. Alas, the busyness of your music, as impactful as it is, too often drowns out the message here.
steban,
Thank you for reviewing my music, I appreciate it! I have noticed for years you really like to analyze the lyrics, which is fine by me. Actually, “House of The Leader 3” was recorded well before Biden became president, though I don’t think I have ever posted it on this forum before. That song doesn’t use the word senile, it was some other insult, haha. I would have to dig up the lyric sheet to know for certain (no small task since I have completed 418 original songs). The song lyrics were actually aimed at corrupt politicians in general. I would rather not say if I lean more to the Left or Right, because then I will annoy at least half of the people here. Yes, I use a lot of effects on my vocals, partially because my vocals sound pretty thin without all of those effects. The female vocals on “Making The Right Choice” were a sampled thing from EastWest: one of the 3 Black women on that product sang for Pink Floyd on some tour. This song was meant to be more vaguely spiritual lyrically.
That’s a quality I appreciate about you, Aaron, that I too often can’t manage to do! I will use current events frivolously to make more general points that I hope don’t get pinned just to one thing or one side. Senile would be a fair word, though! I completely understand how one can lose the real lyrics and simply forget.
You have a reasonably good voice, my friend, and you have tried a lot of cool effects on all your songs. I can tell how you are still experimenting for the perfect combo, and I think you are close to discovering what checks off all the boxes. When I first started posting songs on Garageband around the year 2000, I had no confidence in my singing, and combined with my mic and set of effects and total mixing ignorance, I often used a lot of reverb and echo. A lot! Reviewers were not all kind to me. For one thing, I like effected vocals such as you do so well. I also like and respect those who use effects to achieve clean vocals that bolster thin vocals. You could thicken up your voice if you ever so desire for a new song or part of a song. I actually nowadays like to use several Boz Digital effects on all my vocals to magically get enough thickening, a bit of verb, cut out some low end, add some clarity, and I always record my voice with two mics to create a subtle random stereo effect when I move my head around. That is probably all for my imagination, the two mics, but I do it religiously.
I’ve always thought about using the EastWest voices, or something like it, and occasionally have. Not easy. Maybe a female AI one day… Worked well here.
steban,
Thank you for your further comments. With you using 2 mics: interesting. I vaguely remember seeing someone (I think it was Roger Daltry of The Who) using 2 mics while singing live. I believe this was in the 70’s; I guessed that they had different effects on different mics? I don’t know. I am not a real drummer, but heard sometimes drummers get weird phase cancellation issues with using multiple mics on their one drum kit. But I have not noticed you having issues with that on your vocals.