Hello folks - happy Friday to you all!
Here is another original tune from me - inspired by the rush of love and loss. More like my usual ‘miserable’ style…
Please bash away!
Happy weekend to all,
Best,
Tony
3 Likes
Wow… honestly I loved this. It mixes some amazing cinematic elements with great expressive guitar playing… very Gilmour-esque tones. First listen and I legitimately emotionally connected to it. I could listen to this kinda thing all day. Well done!
Production-wise, there were some odd things, but nothing that detracted from listening enjoyment. Thank you for sharing!
B
Mmm what a cool musical journey this is… sweeping shaping and shifting with very tasty pauses and nuance… nice!!
Hard to bash so I just made a few notes that may be utterly irrelevant… lovely dreamery vibe at the beginning, a sense of wide screen credits rolling. I felt that the transition to guitar at 1.38 felt a little ‘thicker’ than I had expected… just a little overlaid and wondered about sliding it in slightly differently there? Mmm, unfolds to a lovely evocative journey, nice builds at 2.50… hmm, I wondered if the drums sounded a little ‘snappy’ where I had expected more boom and oomph. Lovely pauses and gentle shifts in the melody and musical conversations within. Chords at the end were whimsically unexpected with that gentle upbeat twist… nice.
A great cinematic vibe that maintained my interest - and I’m not easily captivated by instrumentals… Enjoyed!!
Thanks Emma - yes… I try to make the quiet as important as the drama - I suppose if you get the quiets right - the spikes take care of themselves (you are very good at creating that space - where the pushes become more effective)…
Appreciate your feedback…
I really like the writing on this. I agree with Emma that the drums are a little snappy. These huge mixes are tough to get all the elements to feel the right size. The drums end up feeling small. Making some of your other elements smaller would help make them feel bigger. I’ve had great luck using multiple channels of parallel compression to get drums to feel powerful big and cut through from the back of the mix. I use a parallel compression on everything except overheads then another separate one for toms, another parallel for just room mics and drum distortion parallel buss and then everything through a main drum buss. Its a lot to do but I end up needing way less high end to make them cut through.
1 Like
Wow what an intro voice. Heavenly:) Like when the acoustic enters at 1:40 ish Yummy. Got a really big sound going. Hard for me to even comment . Just very very good. congrats
Paul
Thanks Paul & Paul!
It is a big session - and yes, difficult to get the dynamics right. I have tried pulling everything back - but it seemed then to lack the impact I wanted from a few seconds of ‘turmoil’ that I wanted to convey… and then I wanted the low that followed to have a real peace…in comparison. There is already a lot of bottom end in this track to give it weight - the only real thing that snaps here is the snare (top miked)which is a little lower in db than the toms - they are much more prominent in the mix. I did try and narrow the stereo field a little too - but that again seemed to constrict the track… in the end I came to peace with it! I am a guitar player - so tend to bias towards those being heard too!!
@Freaker - thanks for listening bud - glad you enjoyed it…
1 Like
It’s quite a while since I did some bashing on this site, so here we go.
I’ve had quite a few hectic and stressful days, and it was lovely to hear some “chill-ax” music!
I love the haunting vocals, and the Chris Isaak/ Dave Gilmour style guitars that you have used to great effect.
Good keyboards too, with intelligent use of strings/ piano to offer the guitars good accompaniment.
If this is your miserable style then I can’t wait to hear your cheerful style, as this number certainly put a smile on my face, and that takes some doing!
1 Like
Hey Ailwyn - thanks man. Glad you liked the track and very happy that it was able to connect with you… Music is certainly a daily therapy for me - and if my work has been a therapy for you, in whatever way - then that is the greatest thing a musician could wish…
Some thoughts on my first listen:
Very pretty voice, love that sound.
You need to tame some of the resonance in the vocal reverb, it almost overpowers it especially at the beginning,
The acoustic guitar is a little boxy when it comes in.
I don’t know where that really low boom is coming from, is it a bass drum? timpani? whatever it is it sounds good, a keeper.
When the drums come in they’re completely squashed, ease off on the compression so they get room to breathe and mix in better with the epic feel of the rest of the track
There’s a little guitar lick right at the end of the track that is a little jarring.
Beautiful piece of music.
Wen’t back and listened to the vocal intro, where I felt the reverb was a bit too much, there’s a resonant peak at about 200 kHz there that doesn’t sit right with me.
I’m not convinced it’s a problem but I do think that the reverb trail may be a bit longer than necessary, It would be interesting to hear what that would sound like with a little bit of delay and a lot less reverb, maybe a bit cleaner but maybe not the vibe you’re going for either.
Damian - thanks. Great feedback. I know exactly what you are talking about with the vocal - and it happens a couple of times… there is both reverb and delay on there - I will certainly experiment with the tail and perhaps pull it back to see if it helps. Also maybe pull off a little mix there too. See what happens.
As for the kit - well there is no compression there - I don’t like it too much on drums exactly because it squeezes and pinches them. So everything you hear is eq and reverb only. It is a noisy part of the track though - perhaps the answer lies there - but as said before - the noise, chaos and anger is exactly what I wanted to convey…
Thanks for listening - let’s see what I can do with it!