I’ve been playing with songs from my Parking Zone… this one has rested there for a while and then I was listening to these cool NASA sounds and suddenly had this idea…
Am having some issues with my montiors/levels so have been tearing my hair out a bit with volume automation… One minute I think I’ve got it, next thing I try it on a different system and it’s all over the place… trouble is, I am playing with some quite unstable synth sounds which can be quite variable… hah… well, I don’t seem to choose the easy mix paths do I?
if you have the time it would be lovely to get some feedback!
I heard a few bass synth sounding blurbs or stabs, randomly, near the beginning. Wasn’t sure what that was. The other synth sounds are like radio static, or maybe the spacecraft equipment bleeps? When the vocal started I thought I was in for a rendition of “So looong, fare-weeeell, aufwiedersehen, good-niiii-iiight.” Not the case though, very melancholy heartfelt lamentation. I really like the vocal and piano core elements of the song.
Lovely tune and in pretty good shape mixwise IMO. The one nit I would pick is that some of the very low-pitched synths, that are sort of pulsating, are distracting. I’d dial the level of that bit back somewhat, so that they don’t step on the low-mids from the piano and cello.
Definitely time to take this out of the parking lot and out onto the highway!
The synths are ehhh, 1:40 was especially distracting. The double vocal works in some places and others it doesn’t.
The piano and main vocal are solid.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind hearing somewhere halfway this picking up to a jazz drum brush and standup bass arrangement. I think it will be super cool.
Can’t say I like the synths overall, but if it is a space tune I guess they gotta stay
Wow Emma,
Always something interesting from you! I like the song, definitely a strong hook there. The piano sounds great and I even like the bleeps and strange sounds . But I’m somehow not quite convinced about the combination. Am I ridiculous when I say that the bleeps don’t sit well in the mix? Could it be true that even blubs and bleeps have to sit nice and snug in the mix as any guitar solo would? No idea how to go about it. I don’t think ist’s just a level thing as Dave suggests. Maybe some sort of interaction between the bleeps and the piano (some side chain eq thingy with spaceverb or whatever)? Maybe some slow development where the bleeps take over and your voice is just strugling to be heard? I have a feeling you might want to chose between either a beautiful piano song (absolutely with standup base and brushes halfway through) or a convincing ‘taken over by the bleeps’ song (or something along those lines). Just some crazy ideas…
Well at least you are not leaving us. (so long… yikes) Wild intro that I just loved. Hey honey I could feel. Nice thing is that with all that is going on, I can hear your “lovely” voice perfectly. Feather following down from the clouds now. Wow… I’m torn on this one friend. I really would like to hear this without all the effects. I know you like to tinker with new stuff. Not sure if you should keep the synth’s goin the whole time. Maybe some punches here and there?? Lyric/story was great. So glad you are back at it Keep messin
@Stan_Halen@redworks@Chordwainer@Descent@holster@Aef
Ahh yay… I did get some listeners and comments - thanks so much! Very helpful…!
And as usual, a little conflicting. Thanks to @cptfiasco for dropping by… I particularly valued your input on this one.
And I hear y’all on the synth, in one way… and yet… I had this sort of idea while I was working with this song… rather than a musical piece, with its conventional structure as in instruments/bass/melody/form etc… I was getting a cobwebbing layer of sound to make a soundscape rather than a conventional ‘song’. Because of the bizarre way I’ve selected the main synth, it fluctuates and as a result, is not at all easy to edit as it varies in each play through my monitors - the more I ‘tame’ it, the more dumbed-down it feels. And I feel strangely drawn to the randomness of it all, despite its lack of control…
And I can see that’s probably annoying to bash but I needed to get straight up feedback to see if it was making any kind of sense… (if THAT makes any sense at all!! )
The original song felt quite cheesy with just piano but I liked the underlying melancholia… and I loved the genuine space sounds and their spacious panning… i will need to sit with this one for a while. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! It’s strange and a bit challenging to step away from music for a while and then find the pathway back in… I’m suspecting more rules will be broken…
I have been saddened since the time of our departure. When you announced that your were well into your training for the Mars colonization effect, we here at I.R.D. did not truly feel you would actually go through with your one last final “flight of fancy”. We assumed, at best, this was a pipe dream that could deliver several meaningful songs. Nothing could have been more real when you posted about actually achieving a spot on that fateful mission, we could not have been any prouder AND jealous at the same time (By the way, we all pitched in on a care package (with Coffee!)and @Chordwainer smuggled it on the last re-stocking rocket)
It seems the mission has been very successful and communications are speeding up greatly acrossed the vast distance between our worlds. We must hear the music of MARS! And We (Dave especially) want pictures from Aeolis Mons and Valles Marineris.
Funky and “out there”! Hat’s off to the experimentation. A very interesting take on wrapping a “traditional” song with interesting sounds. Very cinematic. I can imagine you sitting on a hilltop looking at the evening stars.
Hi @ColdRoomStudio Andrew, thanks heaps… great thoughts…
Funny, because I’d been out of the studio so long I had simply not thought of tweaking the overall eq which I usually play with. Will definitely have an explore and yes… sibilance caught my ear only once I had mixed down to mp3. Not usually an issue for me but it definitely just caught my attention in the mix down… suspect it is exacerbated by the compression layers I’ve used, thanks for your ears!!
Hi @miked - thanks!
It’s mid summer here now and have just been for a twilight ramble, such a lovely time of year/night while the alien birds twerp gently from the echoing hills…
@redworks
Hey thanks Eric… great to hear that!. It can be such a subjective thing. It’s been great for me to get such a cross-section of responses.
Dear @cptfiasco
It feels like another world here… winsome and losesome but enduringly melodic in a strange and friendly alien sort of whey.
Yes, it can be hard at times and the space winds have a haunting cry that curdles my blood sometimes but I am bravely overlooking such petty hardships. In the name of art, I baffle onwards… and almost remember you from time to time and the funny things you used to do and say…
but here, where the asteroids whirl and strange lights flicker and fade
reality is obscured by crowds of small gentle flying creatures that I am beginning to understand, in a strange and mystical way.
The care parcel was a lovely thought but alas, it was intercepted by weird wireless signals and arrived with only careless drawings of the original contents. A lovely thought though, thanks!
Good thought bud. I am with you on that. I look forward to listening to her stuff because you know it is going to be VERY interested. ha ha We love her cuz she is a " little out there"
Hey Paul,
somehow I missed your comment… oopsy sorry!!
And thanks…
hah… taking the fx out made me laugh coz I had it sitting effectless for literally years… my unadorned sounds bore me almost witless (cheesy grin)… I just found it quite a boring song on its own, a bit melancholic which I like and I was okay with the ‘takes’ but just needing another layer to it to try to express the other sense of the song from when I wrote it, that I’d somehow missed with just voice and piano… ha… waffle waffle… if that makes any sense whatsoever?
And yeah, I’m trying to work musically again… like a muscle that I’d almost forgotten how to use - how quick and scary is that??? Mid summer here, gorgeous weather and the plums and peaches are ripe for the picking… tomatoes just starting. I love this time of year, harvesting and the weeds slow right down…
More strange sounds coming from me real soon… hehe
Not the case though, very melancholy heartfelt lamentation. I really like the vocal and piano core elements of the song.
)
