Hi folks - I am working on a project called “Come To Pecan”. It is a story about 4 friends on a road trip to Pecan Plantation, TX. The project will include about 20 songs that are intended to reinforce the story line. For example, one of the songs below “It’s So Quiet” plays when they run out of gas in the middle of the night in Pontotoc, Oklahoma. Born With A Black Heart is about a couple bad Brians they encounter on the way. The songs are still quite rough, but I would appreciate your feedback on what you like, and more importantly, what you don’t like about them. Show no mercy - I have a thick skin. Thanks very much.
-Great songs. We’ll written, and that’s the most important part!
-We’ll done on the vocals (always the weak point in my own music)!
-Guitars, bass, keys, all well played.
What could use some help in my opinion:
-Are those programmed drums? The snare is just a little too loud in the mix overall, and needs some character (crack, ring, snap, compression, something) Too many hits in parts and sounds a little like it doesn’t fit in. Was distracting at the end of the first tune.
-The first one is a solid rock tune, but those distorted rhythm guitars sound a little apologetic. Maybe turn the rhythm guitar, bass, and kick up a little.
That’s my take. Those are challenging projects! I did a bunch of original songs for a couple short films many years ago and it took way too long! Good luck!
Everything here is really good except the drums. A different (sound, licks, groove) drum track would really make a difference, you should try that I think.
Ingolee, thanks for the feedback. On the first tune the snare isn’t a good fit yet I agree. I am trying to avoid a traditional beats 2 and 4 snare. Thanks for giving the songs a listen.
Thank you for the reviews! Now your tunes: “Black Heart” is quite good, though very short. I like the audio on all 3 songs. Next song was quite good too, but it ended after it barely started. Third song was the longest, and still very short. It was good too. I have little doubt you can make the songs more engaging by making them longer, having more leads, and don’t fear some copying & pasting. Most popular songs have at least two verses and two choruses.
Holy damn @Codger you sure don’t do things half measure. What a freakin’ undertaking and I love it.
If those first 3 tunes are any indication of this 20 track epic, I can’t wait to see where this is headed.
It’s all sounding good to me so far, looking forward to hearing more to help expand on the story.
Hi hardest part is finishing. Song two…like the singer and vibe. A couple bpm’ faster might be interesting. Just a tad.
I winter about three hours from you. Might take a ride next winter. You have the chops for great song making. carry on
Musically has a sort of Green Day sensibility vibe to it, very palatable pop rock sound. Although your diction is excellent, to my old ears it sounds a tad muffled, may be the compression or something. I’m no mixing expert, Codger, so I offer no advice, only that it probably is a miniscule tweak before you would go overboard on any changes.
20 songs that tell a story could handle some 1 minute songs, and they may not leave people wanting longer, especially if many were 2-3 minutes and some 4-whatever. It may be a more difficult project than you thought, but you might have a cunning plan.
Hey Steban, thanks very much for the feedback. I think you are spot on about the muffled vocals. I am going to spend some time on that, but truth be told, I am just not a good singer. It might be better to sound muffled and ok than clear and bad. Reminds me of the saying, sometimes it is preferable to stay quiet and appear to be a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.
The project is coming along. To be clear, most of the story is told through the dialogue amongst the characters - the songs just reinforce and bring (hopefully) a bit more depth to the story. One challenge is that a lot of the dialogue recorded so far (about 70% done) is spoken more slowly than I anticipated - and it is getting dangerously close to the 80 minute limit (maximum .wav file length on standard audio CD - which is the intended medium for the project).
Thanks for the feedback Feaker. One of the things that is easy to do with a modern recording set up is to change the tempo. I will give that a try. Thanks.
Hi @Codger - cool project! I like the energy in these songs, and the melodies are very catchy. This kind of power-pop with story-songs reminds me a bit of Fountains of Wayne (probably my favourite in the genre).
In terms of the production, I think it’s a bit of a shame that the vocals are so hard-tuned. It sounds like you are using automatic pitch correction on them. I really think if you went the manual route (with, say Melodyne), you could make the tuning much more transparent, which I think would suit the genre much better. It’s more time consuming, but the results are worth it IMO.
Mixwise, the kick drum needs a little more “point” and midrange on it to be heard on smaller speaker systems. Maybe just turning up the kick a tad would help. It’s not too bad in the first tune, but in the other two, it is a bit missing in action.
Hi, I don’t know how I missed your post from all the way last May - but you may a good point. The vocal are auto-tuned – I am a terrible singer, but the fact that it is obvious to you, a trained listener, is the best indicator that I’ve overdone the auto tune. I really appreciate the feedback.
Autotune can be a finnicky thing to utilize. It’s better to be more subtle with it. It is especially helpful to keep the speed of it as slow as you can get away with. It helps make it more natural sounding.
