Members dbd1963 Posted July 15, 2009 Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Here's something new from me. I seem to be on a "one song a year" pace right now.. Song page: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7835307 w/ Justin Herdman's drums: Song page: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7864004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Danley Posted July 15, 2009 Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Well, the opening guitar took be by surprise. First, it shocked my ears, but then, hearing it at other choruses, it absolutly fit and rocked. Maybe just the abrubtness of the start. Very nice song. Good lyrics. The first two verses lead right into "All because of you". The song moves well, and kept my foot bouncing. Is this just you? I love the overall sound you have. The harmonies are great too. Thanks for the listen! Danley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 15, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Thanks! Yes, that's just me; well except the drums are loops. I'm glad you think it rocked. I don't know where it came from, honestly.. I hope there are more like it in here somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Matximus Posted July 15, 2009 Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Your song has a drunken, happy charm to it. The playing could be tighter. And I'm not the biggest fan of the canned drums, but I can understand how hard it is to find a live drummer. I really like the opening. Lots of action with the bleeps and baubles in the background. That acoustic riff over the versus is cool. There are some cool changes in there (I especially like the chord change going into "I don't know what I"m going to do) and you sound like you're having a helluva good time. Write more songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 15, 2009 Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 The intro makes a strong impression -- like jumping into the middle of a big Neil Young guitar feak out -- but it's a little train-wrecky, some rhythmic conflicts. (Part of it seems to be the gating on the snare sample. When you have such a regular gated sound, that becomes part of the rhythm, whether you want it to, or not -- the gate cutting off is unavoidably rhythmic, but in this case, it's problematic, seems to me, because it's not the right duration/rhythm.) I like the Bowie-esque quality of your vocal in places, but with this big, modern rock sound, a sound favored by Bowie, himself, for a number of years, it might seem too Bowie-esque. I don't normally comment on lyrics unless they're posted, but I'll say this: I also have a song titled "It's All Because of You," and, of the ~150 songs I have in various podcast folkie forms out of my blog (actually 400 different recordings/versions), two of my three versions of that song are in the top 3 most DL'd of my tracks. (The other one being an original song titled "Happy Birthday, Baby.") There's apparently some hit also titled "It's All Because of You," I strongly suspect and, so, that title apparently becomes link-bait. (I actually added notes to the Internet Archive hosting pages for those versions that say, basically, This probably isn't the song you think it is... We'll see if that slows down the DLs. (I know, other people welcome DLs like that, go out of their way to trick people into DLing. Call me a self-saboteur, I guess.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 15, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Thanks Matximus, I appreciate your comments. My sister-in-law is a very good guitarist and has promised to redo the guitars for me next time she's over, so that should take care of the tightness issues in the guitars at least. As for the drums, I can't afford to rent a drummer right now, so I'm stuck with the loops. At my present pace, you can expect to see another song from me next July.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 15, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Thanks B2B. I think my sis-in-law can probably help with a lot of the wrecking trains. I found the guitar line difficult to play, because there are riffs and chords in sequence, and I can't get my fingers to behave. (See, on the bass, we don't have to do that sort of thing.) If I run into some money, I'll see about getting some real drums recorded for the song, with no gating. These loops are pretty tightly processed. I don't hear the rhythm hiccuping you are hearing but I trust it's there. I miss a lot of that sort of stuff.. my brain is so accommodating, it fixes duff notes and rhythm parts so that I don't perceive them until someone points them out to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 15, 2009 Members Share Posted July 15, 2009 Thanks B2B. I think my sis-in-law can probably help with a lot of the wrecking trains. I found the guitar line difficult to play, because there are riffs and chords in sequence, and I can't get my fingers to behave. (See, on the bass, we don't have to do that sort of thing.) If I run into some money, I'll see about getting some real drums recorded for the song, with no gating. These loops are pretty tightly processed. I don't hear the rhythm hiccuping you are hearing but I trust it's there. I miss a lot of that sort of stuff.. my brain is so accommodating, it fixes duff notes and rhythm parts so that I don't perceive them until someone points them out to me. You're the perfect listener for me then, 'cause I sure make my share of splurfs, duffs, and muffs. Me, I wouldn't spend dough on real drummers for now. I think you can get what you need with robotic drums/samples. It's just that that particular, heavily defined gate sound is a bit off-time in duration (to my ear). Just as you hold a note for a certain, hopefully musical amount of time, something like that pronounced cut-off on the snare reverb gating has an implicit rhythmic value in where it suddenly cuts out, if you get my drift. (Now, that said, I must say I'm really, really over gated verb snare and toms. Very 80s. I know there's an 80s revival rumbling around, so maybe that's not a deal-killer for most folks. But I was around in the 80s and have no desire to go back! heh ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cheesy Posted July 17, 2009 Members Share Posted July 17, 2009 My volume was up quite high, the starting scared the crap out of me. But i like the song overall, the vocal is nice, the flow of the song is also very nice Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 17, 2009 It's like a sneak attack!! Thanks for the words of support. Now some meandering thoughts. I was thinking about what B2B said earlier, and also that thread "Do you sound like you think you sound" is on the same point -- but anyway, that I sounded to him like David Bowie, and I was thinking, hmm.. I was really going for Benjamin Orr. (And now that I've said that, it'll be easier to pick up, in a sort of "Oh, so THAT'S what you were trying to do.." way.) But I'm not a perfect vocal impersonator, and it strikes me that Ric Ocasek really does sound a bit like Bowie, though I had not thought about it before. So there, in three easy steps.. I also wondered if anyone was going to nail me for the extra-scalar F#m at the end of the bridge. Some times that bugs me more than other times, but it always sticks out. I was thinking that might increase tension, and boy does it, but a tension headache is not a good thing in a song.. And I'm a little bummed because rsadasiv hasn't come to tell me my guitar playing sucks. What's up with that, man? I'm only posting about once a year now, it's not a big time commitment or anything.. :poke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members speierg Posted July 17, 2009 Members Share Posted July 17, 2009 I liked the F#m in the bridge by the way. You've got a LOT going on here and everything seems to have found its niche for the most part (I bet mixing this took some doing). I agree with B2B about the drums...the snare hits are like HIT---REVERB----SILENCE with that gated verb. Do you have any options for something a little drier there? The bass also had a touch too much fuzz for my taste, but that's a totally subjective thing. I think the "train-wreck" comment from B2B may be due to the bass and drums (and guitar at times) not being totally locked together rythmically, but as you said, try re-tracking the guitar first with your sis-in-law to see if that smooths it out. Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Boydog Posted July 17, 2009 Members Share Posted July 17, 2009 If my ears were up to par I "might" could find something wrong with it. I'm sure B2B knows what he's hearing and is right on the money, so take his info to heart. I like the song and while there is a little work could be done IMHO you've done an outstanding job. Actually I didn't even notice the drums until after reading the replies. I knew there was "something" but couldn't put my finger on it.. Nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rockinrobby Posted July 17, 2009 Members Share Posted July 17, 2009 You have a pretty cool sound there. A couple of comments. I like the sound of the backup vox with the lead. Seems like a nice mix, something about the snare is bugging me a little, maybe a little boost around 200hz? And I would tear that lead guitar up a little harder for this style. But those are minor :-) Nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 18, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2009 Thanks Speierg, Boydog and rockinrobby. I have been re-tracking the tune. I simplified the acoustic chords so that I could play them and I don't hear any difference myself, so that might do the trick there. With the bass, I just have to play it through a couple of times. I'm not in a band so my timing is rusty. I have actually tried three different basses on it, but unfortunately, I don't own a proper recording bass anymore. I keep fiddling with it though because I think the bass sound has to be right on. And, well, I'm a bassist. rockinrobby, I can't really play the lead guitar any better than I just did. Thrustin recorded some drums for the song and they are great, but I'm having trouble with the mix. I'll work on that a bit tonight and maybe I'll have a revision to show a little later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members speierg Posted July 18, 2009 Members Share Posted July 18, 2009 Cool! I look forward to hearing the updated version with Thrustin's drums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rockinrobby Posted July 18, 2009 Members Share Posted July 18, 2009 Thanks Speierg, Boydog and rockinrobby.I don't own a proper recording bass anymore. Oh man, you need to check out my Alembic Stanley Clark Brown Bass :-) It's better than good sex... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 19, 2009 Oh man, you need to check out my Alembic Stanley Clark Brown Bass :-) It's better than good sex... I have had some great basses over the years, but you get to a certain age and you realize your kids need things, and it's hard to justify. But I have not had a Stanley Clark Alembic. (He has humongous hands and I have tiny hobbit hands, so I'm sure I couldn't have used it.) My favorites were a Rickenbacker 4001c64s and a Warwick Corvette 5 string. That Corvette could do anything, never should have sold it. If you wonder how I could have played it with my "tiny hobbit hands," those strings were pretty close together.. You know what got me sour on it was other bass players tended to sneer at it. I shouldn't have cared, it sounded awesome. The Rick was pure butter to play, but it cost so dang much I was afraid I'd ruin it. Finally I sold it for exactly what I had paid for it. So I rented it for a year for nothing. Now I'm flat broke and all I have is an old Korean made Tobias with f'd up electronics, and a Jay Turser Hofner copy.. On the plus side, I'm writing better songs than I used to. I think I'll take that trade, but I don't think one followed the other. I just saw that this song is #6 in Alternative Powerpop. I have never had a song chart that high, but there really haven't been that many listens -- I guess it's easier to chart on Soundclick now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted July 20, 2009 Members Share Posted July 20, 2009 Cool - I like the song. Lots of stuff going on, most of the time it works but occasionally it does get that rhythmic train wreck thing starting to happen. I'd be interested to hear what Thrustin and your sister-in-law can bring to it, but right now I think the song is plenty hooky and varied to stand on it's own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 20, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 20, 2009 Thanks man! I appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 22, 2009 Here's the song with Thrustin's drums on it. I am not the mixmaster of Northern Virginia, by any stretch, so there are undoubtedly problems with the mix, but you can hear the drums. Song page: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7864004 I think Thrustin did a great job on the song. Thanks a million, Thrustin! EDIT: Now that I've A/B'd this with the other mix, I see that I've cut the high end too much. I'll have a revision at some point restoring the highs. Until then, you can hear Thrustin's drums here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fenderbender66 Posted July 23, 2009 Members Share Posted July 23, 2009 agree with the Bowie-esque quality. also agree with B2B about not spending $$$ on a drummer, these sound fine to me.really like the acoustic work on top of the electric...so many layers to this song...every listen I'm hearing something else going on.nice vocal harmonies.I would like to hear another effect on the third/last guitar solo to make it sound a bigger to carry the song out, but other than that, great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbd1963 Posted July 24, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 24, 2009 Thanks, fenderbender66, I appreciate the comments. I think you are right about the last iteration of the lead. When I did it, I had myself convinced it'd eventually be replaced, but now I'm used to it. I need to do something to set that one off. There is a new version a couple of posts up with Thrustin on drums. It's pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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