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A few home-grown tunes

Printed From: Progarchives.com
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Forum Name: Music and Musicians Exchange
Forum Description: Talk with and get feedback from other musicians on the site
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=69386
Printed Date: November 23 2024 at 03:50
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Topic: A few home-grown tunes

Posted By: Kazza3
Subject: A few home-grown tunes
Date Posted: July 20 2010 at 01:50

I've been recording a few of my compositions at home, and I'd be really grateful to hear some feedback. The setup is extremely amateur, quality average, but it's the music that counts.

EDIT: I don't want this on the net anymore.

Replies:

Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: July 20 2010 at 03:42

Good stuff here, I particularly liked Europa.

Also your stuff with Radio Shock Therapy is pretty good, it's just not my cup of tea at this particular moment.

Funny enough, both of these projects remind me of post rock in a way, so I'm eager to hear what you do there.

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"WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!"

-The Great Gig in the Sky

Posted By: Kazza3
Date Posted: July 20 2010 at 16:45

Tarquin Underspoon wrote:

Good stuff here, I particularly liked Europa.

Also your stuff with Radio Shock Therapy is pretty good, it's just not my cup of tea at this particular moment.

Funny enough, both of these projects remind me of post rock in a way, so I'm eager to hear what you do there.

Thanks for the kind words, and especially for the quick reply!
Hmm, yeah I think I can see what you're saying about the post rock influence, there's a tad.

Seeing as my friend hasn't his bow/ebow yet, it's probably going to be a number of weeks before we complete that. But I have a good feeling about it.

Posted By: mono
Date Posted: July 21 2010 at 03:46

had to stop listenning at 2:00 in Europa... the track is fully clipping! unbearable.
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=810829europa.jpg">

Please export this correctly and upload again.

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https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence
https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects
https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else

Posted By: mono
Date Posted: July 21 2010 at 04:14

Concerning the apiary:
1- there is no clipping!
2- Working @ 32kHz?? why?

Mix: (is it fully mixed?)
- Everything is in the lows and low-mid. Missing LOTS of highs and high-mid. (only the flute goes there!)
- The guitars are not audible.
- lots of compression and EQing to be done, especially on drums and guitars...

Content:
Personnally, the song didn't appeal much to me. I find the chords quite common and a 4/4 all along gets a bit boring. This looks like a quick attempt at the 70's prog sound.
I would suggest you try more instruments, and especially the use of synths!! This would give much more body to your songs. For now, I find the sound to be quite dull.
Your voice is actually not bad at all. I think you just need to sing in a slightly higher register.

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https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence
https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects
https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else

Posted By: Kazza3
Date Posted: July 21 2010 at 05:33

And of course thankyou so much for the response and analysis!

Posted By: mono
Date Posted: July 21 2010 at 07:40

Kazza3 wrote:

Alright, http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IX1L9Q0B - this version of Europa should be better. Sorry about that.

Firstly, with both of them, these aren't intended to be audiophile recordings, I have a very small amount of knowledge where mixing is concerned. I'm more interested in thoughts on the composition (which I know you also did, and will get to it in a minute).

I figured, but there's a limit where you start losing content because of bad/no mixing, which makes it necessary to appreciate the composition... (long debate).

Kazza3 wrote:

32kHz? Uh, it was done at 44.1. I don't know what's going on there.

There is no (zero, nothing) frequency content above 16kHz. It is indeed encoded at 44,1kHZ, but 32kHz would've been the same.
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=90132apiary_tf.jpg">

Kazza3 wrote:

I certainly didn't eq to it to remove the highs, so then, do you know why this would be? Also, clarinet, not flute. Clarinet, not flute.

Rhythm guitar level should be better on the updated version.

Sorry for the Clarinet confusion, my mistake :)
I don't know how you lost your highs, but I also don't know how you ended up with no content above 16kHz (never happened to me by accident or mistake...)

Kazza3 wrote:

The basic idea with writing this song was to write something fairly simple, more normal rock, but with a prog influence, because previous recording attempts have never been finished and so I didn't want to attempt something more complicated right now and run the risk of it reaching the same fate. Was not aimed at being a quick attempt at 70s prog.

Chords being quite common, 4/4 time the whole way- part of attempting to write a simpler song, as I just mentioned.

In my opinion, the main goal in composition is to be able to write what you imagine, rather than finish a song after much compromize... too bad.

Kazza3 wrote:

And I would absolutely love to add some synths, but I unfortunately I don't have access to any at the moment.

If you're using Windows: http://www.vst4free.com/ (lots more for free out there).

Kazza3 wrote:

And thankyou. I know what you mean about higher register, but if you'll listen to the beginning of the line just before the second chorus ("too high to see the plan unfurl"), that's as high as my chest voice comfortably goes. I could use falsetto, but it's not very strong.

And of course thankyou so much for the response and analysis!

You're welcome! Thank you for sharing! It's fresh air in my long day of work...
I'll listen to the new version and tell you about it.

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https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence
https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects
https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else

Posted By: mono
Date Posted: July 21 2010 at 08:45

Ah... much better (even if there's still some clipping!).
I like "Europa" more than "The Apiary".

I like:
- The end
- The development from 3:40
- The general mood (darkness with the mellow sound of clarinet)

I don't like:
- The development from 2:30 til 3:40. I find it a bit erratic and not very useful to the song.
- The drums: there is so much to do with 7/8 on the drums... It also justifies the mention just above. I think you need more diversity on the drums with a bit more subtile playing.
- Feels like a déjà-vu. The sound, the chords, the scale changes are a bit too familiar... (at least for a prog/symph prog fan).

PS: still no content above 16kHz...

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https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence
https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects
https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else

Posted By: Kazza3
Date Posted: July 24 2010 at 20:04

Again, thankyou. It's interesting that you like the end more, that was always my least favourite bit.

Yes, the drums could do with work, I'm not a drummer and while I don't think I do a bad job, it needs more.

And I have no idea why the hell there is nothing above 16kHz on either of them. I'll go fishing around through the settings on my computer, maybe there's something.

Oh, and I tried that VST website, looks good, but my computer won't open/register the files.

Posted By: mono
Date Posted: July 25 2010 at 05:10

you're welcome.
concerning the 32kHz, it should be your soundcard setting. But it must have a 44,1 setting at least.
For the vst website, can't help much, different OS.

If you need knowledge on how VSTs work, you can start http://www.rhythmcreation.com/Beginners-Guide-To-Using-VSTi-Instruments-aka-Softsynths - here .

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https://soundcloud.com/why-music Prog trio, from ambiant to violence
https://soundcloud.com/m0n0-film Film music and production projects
https://soundcloud.com/fadisaliba (almost) everything else