please lend me your ears

[pabloaugustus]

The drums... It's all midi actually , EZdrummer for the most and some other samples, but furiously edited, took me hours and hours!

And I played all the other instruments myself, guitar and bass were plugged directly into my ultralite. I used a Røde NT2000 mic for the vocals as well as a SE2200A I borrowed from a buddy, and everything was done in Live.

dude that is so good to hear!! I was starting to feel real crappy about my brushwork....incredible brush samples, reminded me of Brian Blade's work on the Norah Jones album...

That Rode captures vocals very nicely.

Ok, since you are begging for criticism....your song is almost perfect to my ears but there is something about the bass that doesn't always blend with the rest of the tracks...like its too boomy and almost synthy at times...I'm talking about the long notes in the second section only. super minor. The moving lines with less sustain don't bug me in that way.

[bicarbone]

awesome song, i liked it a lot! worked perfectly with morning sunshine and a cup of coffee. only one minor thing that bothered me was a little hiss, you should get rid of it or put some more
loved the drum editing work

When you say hiss, you mean sibilance in the vocals, right? Well, I've tried to reduce it, but then the song tends to lose that "airy" feeling... Shit, I don't know how to do it properly, what frequencies should I reduce?

Ok, since you are begging for criticism....your song is almost perfect to my ears but there is something about the bass that doesn't always blend with the rest of the tracks...like its too boomy and almost synthy at times...I'm talking about the long notes in the second section only. super minor. The moving lines with less sustain don't bug me in that way.

Good point, I think the boominess of the bass is due to the fact that the first section is played with a mediator and the second one is played with fingers, while keeping the same eq settings all through the track. That said, I'm always struggling with the low end conflicts between kick and bass, and don't really know how to get it sorted.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, much appreciated!

[Moody]

awesome song, i liked it a lot! worked perfectly with morning sunshine and a cup of coffee. only one minor thing that bothered me was a little hiss, you should get rid of it or put some more
loved the drum editing work

When you say hiss, you mean sibilance in the vocals, right? Well, I've tried to reduce it, but then the song tends to lose that "airy" feeling... Shit, I don't know how to do it properly, what frequencies should I reduce?

Ok, since you are begging for criticism....your song is almost perfect to my ears but there is something about the bass that doesn't always blend with the rest of the tracks...like its too boomy and almost synthy at times...I'm talking about the long notes in the second section only. super minor. The moving lines with less sustain don't bug me in that way.

Good point, I think the boominess of the bass is due to the fact that the first section is played with a mediator and the second one is played with fingers, while keeping the same eq settings all through the track. That said, I'm always struggling with the low end conflicts between kick and bass, and don't really know how to get it sorted.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, much appreciated!

EQ, Sidechain Compression, Octave Selection and Syncopation can cure your bass woes. You can watch what the differences due in Spectrum or even source out a multi-channel frequency analyzer to watch how the waves work with (or against) each other. Also, you could post the stems of your track and allow people to freely try mixing and mastering it for some different approaches. Possibly request the Set from the ones that you like for learning purposes. People around here are generally liberal about those things.

[barry tone]

as has been said - great track! totally different to the music i make - but hey, i like music and its good music.

seeing as you are asking for criticism (of the constructive kind) there was one thing that grated a little - the layered flute sound for the solo at around 120 on your flash player.

i thought one of the layers sounded a too kind of 'casio preset' (maybe a harmonium sound?). given the nature of the rest of the production, this sound was neither real enough, nor willfully fake enough. if you're going for a bit of retro preset fun on it (which i like) then push it a bit further.

edit : forget it ... sounds great as it is!

[bicarbone]

seeing as you are asking for criticism (of the constructive kind) there was one thing that grated a little - the layered flute sound for the solo at around 120 on your flash player.

i thought one of the layers sounded a too kind of 'casio preset' (maybe a harmonium sound?). given the nature of the rest of the production, this sound was neither real enough, nor willfully fake enough. if you're going for a bit of retro preset fun on it (which i like) then push it a bit further.

edit : forget it ... sounds great as it is!

it's a sort of bontempi electric wind organ from the seventies that I sampled a while ago. Funny how real instruments can sound fake sometimes...

[Martyn]

Good tune! Well produced.

Keep doing what you're doing.

[bicarbone]

EQ, Sidechain Compression, Octave Selection and Syncopation can cure your bass woes. You can watch what the differences due in Spectrum or even source out a multi-channel frequency analyzer to watch how the waves work with (or against) each other. Also, you could post the stems of your track and allow people to freely try mixing and mastering it for some different approaches. Possibly request the Set from the ones that you like for learning purposes. People around here are generally liberal about those things.

I have to admit I'm a bit afraid of sidechain compression, well, you know, the Daft Punk Syndrome, but I guess I could do it sparingly...

I'll first try to apply your good pieces of advice until I feel hopeless, and then I'll consider posting all the tracks for whoever wants to mix it (are you interested btw, or is it just a general idea?).

Thanks again.

Martin

[Moody]

Always interested in mixing a piece that already appeals to me. There are a few guys on here that do it as a service as well.

Try using the precise compressor preset on your bass channel with the sidechain reacting to the kick. Adjust the threshold hold up or down slightly to get the desired feel. I have found this setting tends to work very well with natural sounding bass parts. Good luck and have fun with it!

[evernaut]

So instead of fighting to get that professional sound, I thought it would be more fun pushing it into the home made direction.




Anyway, such encouraging comments mean a lot to me, cheers!

Martin

Hey martin..

the home-made vibe is what we need in the current glut of soundalike pop/rock...I much prefer recordings with character and distinction to the over-quantised, pitch-corrected, super-compressed slurry that pours over the airwaves on a daily basis...gimme a good song, performed well, recorded well-enough and mixed imaginatively on basic gear any day

Here's a quick first mix of a new song of mine btw, if you wanna listen

http://boomp3.com/listen/biv2bfl/distan ... sation-mix

It really is a 'put all the faders up and see' mix

[Moody]

So instead of fighting to get that professional sound, I thought it would be more fun pushing it into the home made direction.




Anyway, such encouraging comments mean a lot to me, cheers!

Martin

Hey martin..

the home-made vibe is what we need in the current glut of soundalike pop/rock...I much prefer recordings with character and distinction to the over-quantised, pitch-corrected, super-compressed slurry that pours over the airwaves on a daily basis...gimme a good song, performed well, recorded well-enough and mixed imaginatively on basic gear any day

Here's a quick first mix of a new song of mine btw, if you wanna listen

http://boomp3.com/listen/biv2bfl/distan ... sation-mix

It really is a 'put all the faders up and see' mix

Very nice as well! I am ready to go chill now!

[bicarbone]

Hey martin..

the home-made vibe is what we need in the current glut of soundalike pop/rock...I much prefer recordings with character and distinction to the over-quantised, pitch-corrected, super-compressed slurry that pours over the airwaves on a daily basis...gimme a good song, performed well, recorded well-enough and mixed imaginatively on basic gear any day

Here's a quick first mix of a new song of mine btw, if you wanna listen

http://boomp3.com/listen/biv2bfl/distan ... sation-mix

It really is a 'put all the faders up and see' mix

Hey exactly! Very nice song you have here
Reminds me of Elliot Smith, is it you singing?

[bicarbone]

Funny, I've always wondered how many people on this board were into a more traditionnal songwriting style, as opposed to pure electronic dance minimal techno kind of stuff (which I also love btw).

Anyone please feel free to hijack this thread if you want to post some home-baked songs, with or without icing.

Or shall we rather start a new one?

I'm off to Paris for a few days, we'll see...

[porfiry]

There's definitely an electronica slant amongst Ableton users, it seems. Which is not bad by any means, and I make plenty of demented beats myself, but I've always been more into straight songwriting. For years I made 60s-sounding rock songs with a 4-track, then some time making Big Rock with Cubase, and now with the help of my little Ableton laboratory, I've made it up to about 1987. Example:

http://www.coffeeemergency.com/fuzz/gravity_miner.html

As for the song that started off this thread, I think it's great...the chord changes are pretty twisted, while remaining musical. I like that it's all MIDI'd together, and that such natural sounding things are possible with modern software. The song I posted might not be the best example, but I've been into that idea lately - MIDI-faked-yet-organic-sounding songs that are just the slightest bit glitched with electronica mentality. As far as this one goes, I didn't touch a single real instrument, which is unusual...I've almost always put in some real guitars, at least.

[muthafunka]

Lovely and laid-back, a treat! I'd say the scratchy mute/strummed guitar on the right obscures the vocals a wee bit much sometimes, esp. in the first half, which is a shame as the vocals are so well done and deserve their place. As it is I felt like they were fighting that guitar occasionally. Good to hear you getting good results with the NT2000, got one here too and like it a lot!
Back in the kitchen, knock out some more, get on myspace/facebook or whatever it is now and get it out there, adventures await! Can see that going down big here in Japan

[ausgeno]

Anyone please feel free to hijack this thread if you want to post some home-baked songs, with or without icing.

I'm only a noob but here's a little something I started working on a couple of days ago:

http://users.tpg.com.au/djfusion//Dirtybass.mp3

I know I have a long way to go so any feedback would be ace, and I'll check out the other tunes in this thread tonight once I'm out from behind my work firewall.