"Share your recordings in a non-judgmental environment-fest" - THE REVEAL!!!

thanks! I didn't realize I'd left the bass panned hard left, actually - if i did, I had done that to play with the sound, and left it there unintentionally........

By all means! :wink:

Yeah.
I caught it because I was listening on headphones, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed :)
 
Chicken Monkey is a pretty harsh, but he's harsh with everyone. I just assume he won't like my stuff from the get go, and I'm actually amused at his criticisms of my songs. Every once in a while I'll get something positive from him, and I've even agreed with him and changed some things before based on his reviews. It's good to have someone you know isn't blowing smoke up your ass.

I go to one songwriting forum that is full of "Chicken Monkey's" to have new material reviewed. They're tough - but consistent. I think reviewing other peoples songs honestly can help you become a better songwriter yourself also.

These are all ways to grow...when I first started writing songs I was fairly thin skinned about the whole thing, and I would assume that for most people they would feel somewhat similar in the beginning.

In my band Felt the other guitarist actually engineers and produces albums as part of his living (the rest is writing and editing TV music) and being in bands with him for the last 15 or so years has made me a little more thick skinned. Between how much more developed he is writing music and the fact that we've been best friends since high school means that he can be pretty blistering when we're working on stuff biggrin
 
I've got all the downloadable ones downloaded.

Punchy: I'm with Dexter...I don't get the bass being panned hard left. It's not that it doesn't work, it's just unusual. The effects at the beginning are interesting. Very well played and well recorded. It has a nice full sound. The cymbols are a little piercing, but otherwise everything is really well mixed and nothing is overbearing. Great job.

Phil: Very nice clean tone. I like the progression too. I think the drums could stand to be a little louder. I know that when using programmed drums, there's a tendency to bring them down in the mix to hide the electronicness of them, but I'd rather hear them be higher in the mix even if they do sound like a drum machine. I like the spacey atmosphere the keyboard creates.

Cfgsteak: I think a bassline would help this one out some. The guitars are done well. I like the surfy style reverb on the guitars. Vocals aren't your forte, but with some practice, I think you'd be able to pull them off no problem. You just need to say screw it and sing it out like you own it.

Johnny N: Hell of a voice. I think it's a little loud in the mix though, and they are distorting a little. Like SI said, record low enough not to clip. You can always bring up a signal that's too quiet after it's recorded, but once the input is clipped, there's no way to unclip it. Since this song has such a wide dynamic range on the vocals, compression really would help to keep the louder parts from being so overpowering. Guitar solo and distorted rhythm guitar sound good. Overall, it's a really good recording. I do think bringing the vocals down a few db would help it tremendously though.

Aahzz: Nice intro. Bouncy. Again, I think some compression on the vocals would keep them from being so overpowering in places. They are well mixed on the verses, but the chorus gets a little overpowering. I really like the song. And again, it's well recorded.

RonK: Really great guitar tone and super nice playing. You said that it was a backing track and you just did the lead guitar, right? If you did everything, then you did a super job on everything. If you just did the guitars, you did a super job on them. :grin:

Suhnton: Yeah, this doesn't belong in the beginner's thread. It sounds really good. A bit bass heavy, but still very good. Kind of reminds me of Collective Soul. Reminds me a LOT of Collective Soul, actually. I like it a lot.

Hobo Uncle Sam: Really nice playing. There's some buzz in the recording. Were you right in front of a CRT monitor when you did the recording? CRT monitors cause a lot of buzz. There's not really much to comment on recording wise, but the playing is great.

Jay Hitz: Really nice. I might have tried a little different tone for the rhythm and lead guitar parts. The fuzz on the lead works fine for me, but I'd rather hear a more defined almost clean rhythm part. Recording sounds good though, and again, the playing is really good.

Tyoc: Way too short. Again, not much to comment on as far as the recording. The tone sounds good and there's no noise. That's about as much as I can say. The playing was good, and I wanted to hear more.

I'll go back and the get the few that were streaming only now.
 
Punchy - Cool progression, definatly needs some vocals thats a great start to a catchy tune, nice bass line too.
Phil - nice tone, and I dig when the keys come in too.
CfgSteak - nice playing - good song too
JohnyN - Nice voice, nice solo too
Aahzz - Nice all around... good progression, singing and the drums sound great too
Suhnton - Nice tune you got there... Vocals could have been a little louder. Good tone and playing.
Hobo Uncle Sam - Nice tone and playing.
Jay Hitz - Nice Jam. I like the twin guitars
Stinkymommasboy - very nice ... great playing
Tyoc - nice intro, where's the rest?? sounds good
Baron85 - I liked the singing and the goove
Ferdinandstrat - nice playing
Chihlidog - I liked it all around and the first riff @ :48 i smiled and thought, hell yeah! :)
telecaster911 - Good stuff.... solid playing, tone and great mix!
 
Ronk - Very tasty. I really liked that groove. What guitar/amp are you playing? I like the tone a lot.

Thats a Am Std strat -> Fender HR Deville... and modded TS9 in front.


The only criticism I could think of is it seemed to end too quickly. I was wanting to hear more!

I figured short and sweet - vs. wanking for 3 min... I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Ronk - lovely tone and playing. What is this from?
How a strat should sound imo.

Really great guitar tone and super nice playing. You said that it was a backing track and you just did the lead guitar, right? If you did everything, then you did a super job on everything. If you just did the guitars, you did a super job on them.

It's mine... crappy drumming and all :)

Its a little progression that i just can seem to find anything to go with. So if it ever turns into a song, the solo is done :lol:...

Thanks again for all the nice words. And thanks for hosting this Mark... It forced me to learn a little about recording and I think my playing has improved as a result. Looking forward to the next one!
 
I'm having trouble getting the streaming stuff to work. I'll try those again maybe in the morning.
 
It's mine... crappy drumming and all :)

Its a little progression that i just can seem to find anything to go with. So if it ever turns into a song, the solo is done :lol:...

Well hell...this belongs in the experience guys thread too. The recording sounds great.
 
Dexter, I just used a backing track that had the drums/bass/clean guitar already all together. I just did the dirty rhythm and the 2 lead parts. I have no real recording setup, so I went out of my preamp into the soundcard with an adapter. I used a little bit of reverb off the amp, but was afraid of overdoing it. No effects after the recording, that is something I want to try next time, and again was afraid of overprocessing it.

Prages, I think I agree with you about the rhythm part. Really appreciate the kind words, I've heard some of your stuff, and it means a lot coming from you.

Ronk-thanks.

I was planning on seeing what advice I got from everyone, and going back and applying the suggestions to see how much I can improve things. I really thought I needed to redo the rhythm part anyway, but decided to take what I had and go from there.

The input is much appreciated, all you guys. Thanks again!
 
Chihili - Nice delay lick at the beginning. I like the kick sound too. Nice and tight. Rhythm guitar is nice. I think I'd like to hear it with a little more presence. It sounds good as is, but I would expect to be rattling the speakers, but instead, it sounds a little distant. Is there any bass in there? I think I hear it on the sustained chords, but I'm not entirely sure it's not the low end of the guitar.

I really like the idea you've got there though. And the recording does sound really good.
 
First of all thanks for the comments. Tamoore, yes, the song I submitted is one of my own. My voice is shiite, so I try to bury it in the mix. I've heard some of your stuff here, and really like it (a lot).
I'm going to try listen to all the other submissions (in order). With 15 in total, it may take some time. So far I've ony heard Punchy's.

Punchy - I like this kind of music (do people still call it "alternative"?). Nice bassline and progression. I think once the vocals are done, you'll have a really good song.
 
Chihili - Nice delay lick at the beginning. I like the kick sound too. Nice and tight. Rhythm guitar is nice. I think I'd like to hear it with a little more presence. It sounds good as is, but I would expect to be rattling the speakers, but instead, it sounds a little distant. Is there any bass in there? I think I hear it on the sustained chords, but I'm not entirely sure it's not the low end of the guitar.

I really like the idea you've got there though. And the recording does sound really good.

On the ryhthm, do you mean presence as in volume? Or tone? I tried not to be as chunky as I normally would be, I used a Marshall setting instead of my normal dual rec/soldano double tracking that I use for real heavy stuff.

For the "bass" track I ran the guitar through an octave effect to get some low end in there, and played it like a bass but it wasnt a great substitute. I would have liked a little more of a "froggy" bass tone but just dont have a bass :embarrassed:

Thanks for checking it out.

Overall, I have my own criticisms of my submission. I wish I knew what to do to make it a little longer, but I am not a great lead player by any means and the licks I was able to do cleanly got boring real fast if they were dragged on any longer than I already did. I also think I should have used a heavier sound on the heavier riff at the end now that Ive heard it back a bunch of times.
 
I almost forgot to make good on my promise to the forum. When this first started, I told you guys I would share whatever I managed to get done of the original cover project I wanted to do. I never finished it, I was in over my head, but this is as far as I got. I was trying for Satch's Summer Song. :embarrassed: I know the harmonics in the beginning are wrong, I never went far enough to fix them.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=759189&songID=7481223
 
Dexter and Prages, thanks very much. That is exactly the feedback I needed. I dont know where the noise is coming from but it drives me crazy.

I agree on the vocals. I think it happened becuase it was early in the process and the first time using the mic with the toneport. At first I couldnt hear the mic. I got the hang of it later.

I also tried to play with compression a little but it was so late in the game, I just didnt have enough time to learn it. Whatever I was doing was wrong because it was totally screwing up the sound. Maybe I'll play around with it some more now.

Thanks again, very good advice.
 
Punchy -Nice groove! The bass is a Tele? Consider me fooled. I love the phaser in and out tone!

Phil - First off - you are not allowed to use the word suck attached to your playing anymore. I really like the keyboard in the song - a very nice melody. Very cool!

CFG - Tele heaven! Brad would be proud. A nice arrangement too! I like it!

Johnny N - Nice vocals, nice guitar tone, great solo. Two thumbs up!!

I'll have to continue tomorrow evening - I was gone most of the night tonight.
 
Yes, the contribution was very short in fact, I wanted only to say hello to the party or some like that, I will like to continue or extend the song but havent transcribed... so Im on trouble and the little thing have gone... hehe, perhaps will be nice if I can transcribe it like an exersise. And yea, I liked the tone and I say "that is nice" just let it go :).

So yes, I hope to be in the next one and who know?, perhaps this time is more than 28 seconds or so :grin:, perhaps a extended version or a new thing.

To all :thu:, keep it going!


PD: by the way, I accept anything you want to say, for example a girl that listed to it say me that it sound a little shy/fear playing :grin:... so yes (and I think if the case, feet in the interpretation), is the first time I do some like this sort of thing... and I think if that can be feeled here nice! because Im somewhat shy.
 
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Well, and since we all unzipped our flys here, i'll go ahead and put this up for any suggestions.

This was the song with distortion that i kept struggling with in that other thread, if anybody has any advice, i'd like to hear it. Cause i'd like to record some ballsier stuff. Its only 2 minutes long.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=930031&songID=7473801

Thanks.

That's a nice distortion sound, how'd you get it?
For the "chorus part" where you go C-D x3 then F-G-A-Ab-G, I'd probably write something like (C-D) (F-C) (F-G -A-Ab-G) - each bracketted part being 2 measures. I'm not trying to tell you how you should write songs though. I like the outro part too. BTW I think 2 minutes is a good length (The Ramones and Bad Brains come to mind).
 
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On the ryhthm, do you mean presence as in volume? Or tone?

I'm really not sure. Maybe a little of both. I just kind of expected it to come bursting out of the speakers, and instead, it's kind of subdued. Almost as if it were a mic'd amp, but mic'd from a few feet away.
 
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