A couple of tunes from my band

Just wondering if anyone wanted to review one or two of our songs. You can find them here -- http://gnosh.ca/gnosh_music.html

"The Riddle" and "Cud"

These are in the hard rock genre...influenced mainly by bands like Tool, Faith No More, etc...

Thanks!!

Hey Bandomain,

a bit pushed for time so have only listened to the riddle so far...

This is a bit outside of my usual listening but I think on the whole it sounds great. Very pro and would stand up alongside most other stuff in that genre

only negative things i can think of are that kick drum sounds a little weak for that style but Ive listened on headphones so maybe thats why. also, I think the guitar playing that repetitive riff sounds a little weak at times. Maybe in the heavier sections i would have doubled it up with a 2nd one playing with a fatter heavier tone.

Positives are too many to list though. Nice mixing / panning on the vocals, nice arrangement, love the ending where it finds another gear and really starts to kick some ass!

im more into poppy catchy melodies and for me the vocal melody hasnt stuck in my head (although the guitar riff has!) but i guess thats not as important with this kind of music.

On the whole, Great work!

good luck with the album

Russ x

Thanks for listening and the great comments!

Our drummer takes the credit for the mixing, mastering, etc. He was behind all that and basically taught himself everything. We will definately take your negatives and make sure any of our future recordings are looked at closely in that aspect!

Thanks!

first tune - the riddle - first off, nice sounds - not too dirty - more textural than power-packing. i dig the second voices. production-wise, i found the beginning of the tune to be a bit too dry (i love dry, but this was a bit much for the genre) the drum sound altogether doesn't fit the genre, actually. also, i agree that the riff needs to be doubled and strengthened for the hit section and the hook is there, but not totally having the intended effect for me. although, "if god could see me now" does a pretty good job for the end crescendo, but a hook for the beginning is still missing for me. nice dissonant guitar line, though.

performance-wise, i think there are little (very little) timing issues in the drums that need to be addressed (or melodyned, since they're so minor.) the looseness in the groove is really tough to drum straight, so he's really kicking ass, but little things need work. i love when he turns it into all quarters on the snare at the end - the "if god could see me now" part - it really kicks ass there. i bet live you guys extend it and {censored}in' kill. (i'd be moved) with that in mind, the crescendo-style thing that you guys do for the whole song is great. it's a really powerful effect that you create.

cud - nice start, but a really noticeable groove shift in first five seconds; maybe straight to shuffle thing. it definitely takes away a lot for me there and the issue recurs at different points in the tune with both the slinky guitar groove and the drums. trying not to sound like an asshole here and be delicate, but the truth is, it sounds very unprofessional for a CD track. as addressed, the timing issues in this one are a bit more serious than those of the first tune and i'm surprised it got by the guy who mixed this album for you. it really shouldn't have. also, there's not very much of a hook in this one. it doesn't scream "remember me" and that is the one thing that would take a decent song, which i feel it is, and make it an iconic, memorable piece of music. i definitely feel the first one more than this, but i would rewrite or 'creatively revisit' this one a bit later on, if i were you.

so, overall, the production needs some polishing and a few little embellishments here and there; it sounds like it was produced and mixed by someone not too familiar with the hard rock genre - or at least unfamiliar with the many things asked of the mixer in that style. i'd be so curious to hear what people like sylvia massy and ron st germain would do for your work

despite the timing that i seem to be drilling you guys hard on, (hehe...hard on) i do, however, really have to commend you guys on the loose nature of the grooves (almost shuffling at times) . it's really cool for this genre - an aspect, through time-enhanced perfectificationafying (hell yeah, perfectificationafying) and more advanced and knowledgeable production - that could definitely set you apart from other hard rock bands and help you distinguish yourselves in a musical style that is already overflowing with very talented and worthy artists. you should keep on pushing that envelope; it will define your work.

good work, guys. i'm interested in the whole album.

Thanks for the input!

Actually, the CD was mixed by our drummer who taught himself everything he knows -- I'd say he did a great job considering he just taught himself as he went along -- I agree though, there's always room for improvement in every aspect! We did the entire album ourselves using just the following gear that we pooled together:

Alesis ADAT LX20 8 Track Digital

Alesis Studio24 Recording Mixer

RME/Hammerfall DIGI96/8PAD ADAT Optical Card

Alesis 3630 Compressor Limiter

2 or 3 modern Windows PC's

Cakewalk Sonar 4 Producer Edition

Numerous Plugins

Mics:

Shure SM57's

Shure SM58's

Audio-Technica ATM23HE

Audio-Technica ATM25

AKG D112

Superlux PRA-218B

Superlux PRA-228A

Superlux PRA-268A

Superlux CM-H8A

Interesting notes about Cud too.....I'm gonna sit down and give that one a few good listens again. It was one that has actually had about four versions now each with different grooves and arrangements and that was what ended up on the CD.

Oh...and we'll have a video for the Riddle coming out within a few weeks!