Don't Wanna Realize - first try

[marcin]

Hi!I'm new here in this forum and still not a taxi member but as soon as I have some of my old songs recorded I'll join.I'm in a studio with some of my songs, so I think that by the end of the year I'll have a couple of them produced in broadcast quality.But just for fun and to improve my own recording skills I decided to produce Don't Wanna Realize at home. It's my first home-production and my equipment is very low-budget, but I'd like you to check it out and tell me what you think about ... well about everything... songwriting, performance, production and so on. Please give me also a feedback about the accent as I'm not a native English speaker.As I'm already a bit tired of playing live-shows I would like to place my songs with other artists or in movies and tv-shows. This one in my opinion could be nice for a movie (at least 10 sec. )Oh yes... and please imagine a nice slide-guitar playing a catchy pick-up for that song, doing some fills and replacing the keys-solo.So here's the url where you can find the song.http://www.marcinsuder.com/feedback/fee ... mByeMarcin

[mikehelms]

Hey MarcinWelcome to ahhh. the Neither Region Hey I'll leave the Production stuff alone... there are those who can advise much better on that stuff... But here's what I can give ya In my Opinion Its sounds to me like the song drags a bit... I think your tempo is running around the low 60's in BPM's.. and I think it could stand being speed up to @ at least the mid to upper 70's I don't know if that will be un comfortable for you to sing.. but check it out... try playing at say 74 to 78 BPM's.. even record it Acoustically that way and listen back see what you think..Also there is a space at the end of the song that you do an Instrumental out... I might suggest to cut the chorus in half and take the back half to repeat at the end of the song..So it'd be like chorus / instrument /2ndhalf chorus..endanyhow just a thought..Again welcome and I'llCheck ya... Laters, peaceMichael

[paulallen]

well, here's my two cents...Gee! your voice, to me, has more than a passing resemblance to the Jethro Tull singer Anderson... you are right in saying this sounds like it belongs in a TV show or movie, it sounds very atmospheric, like it'd be a perfect fit in a Harry Potter movie... As a matter of fact, it reminded me so much of Tull that... gee, you're like more than 90 percent there, so why not see if you can hire some music student college kid, put in some real flute or recorder, and go on ahead and make a straight-ahead Tull-like song? I kid you not, there's probably somebody in the listings looking for something like this right now!It sounds very professionally played to me, even for a demo... It is a song with a "down" feel (and there are places where it'd be a perfect fit!), but I hope you can also write things like uppity-mood songs or straight-on rockers/party music! But it definitely sounds okay to me!

[marcin]

HI!Thx for your comments!As I already said it's just a first try and it took me a lot of time to record it, so to be honest I don't want to rerecord all the stuff again in a faster tempo. Wow, Ian Anderson and Harry Potter - nice to here something like that! I'll wait until I have the slide-guitar on that one and then see if a flute still fits, but I like that idea.The down feel is something I use very often - too often - but I also have some funky groovy rock smashers - but for those I need a friend who can play the guitar like it's ment to be... but he's pretty bussy so it's not that easy to have him plugged to my "recording-system" .What worries me most is the mix. I listened to the song on several players and on some of them it sounds like there is to much bass and to much reverb. And sometimes I can't hear the background-vocals.What do you folks think?ByeMarcin

[mixopenta]

Hey Marcin,I liked the vibe in this track. It's definitely a candidate for Film/TV opportunities.The worries you have for the mix is somewhat correct, though there might not be too much bass, as the low-end being too muddy.I don't know what kind of resources you have at your disposal, but the first thing to check, is that the kick and bass does not share emphasis at the same frequencies. If you don't have a monitoring system that allows you to distinguish this by ear, you could have a look at a spectrum analyzer to see where you have "frequency bumps" in each respective instrument.If you don't have the gear to hear/see this, your best bet is probably to cut some low end on the bass; i.e. slightly reduce frequencies below, say 80-100Hz, whilst boosting with a narrow bandwidth at around 100Hz on the bass. Then boost the kick at around 50-60Hz, and carve a "hole" at around 100Hz, by cutting with approximately the same amount as you were boosting the bass.I say 'probably' because there are times this doesn't work, although in most cases it does.One of the hardest things about mixing/recording is to achieve a good solid, full sounding low end, without it becoming muddy, and without a proper listening environment, it's close to impossible to correct issues in that area of the frequency spectrum.To further get rid of any muddiness, you should consider putting high pass filters on everything else in the mix that doesn't need low frequencies. It's very hard to distinguish excessive low frequencies just by ear, but it's good practice to put high pass filters on just about everything except for kick and bass, and let them fight the low end battle by themselves.I can understand your reluctance of having to re-record everything in a faster tempo, although re-recording, and fixing things according to critique or requests in many cases is a necessity.In this case however, you could try to add an instrument (like a tambourine, or an additional hi-hat, shaker, or whatever), playing 16th notes, in order to create a sort of illusion that the song is faster than it really is.IMHO I don't think there's too much reverb, but that's a personal preference, so if you think it is, just back it off a little in the mixGood luck and Happy mixing!

[marcin]

Hey thx ... I'll try that. As you said it's realy muddy down there. I tried to fix that already. I'll post my new version as soon as I'm finished with that.What spectrum analyzer would you recommend for a rookie like me? Something that works fine but isn't to expensive. I know that's almost impossible but I still believe in wonders.Thx again!ByeMarcin

[paulallen]

If you put flute on it, make sure it is flute with reverb!!

[mixopenta]

I'm not familiar with any other software analyzers than the one's I have in Cool Edit, and Cubase.But if you google spectrum analyzer, I'm sure you're gonna find some free plug-ins to try. You necessarily wouldn't need a real time analyzer, you just want to scan certain areas, especially the low-end.Just make sure that the analyzer is able to display in a l graphic, logarithmic mode. It should also be possible to change resolution, so that you can see what happens in the low-end area (20-300Hz).Also be aware of that these thingy's should only be used for rough estimations, however sometimes this is sufficient. Especially if used to confirm what you think you are hearing. Look at it as a graphic representation of where your problem areas are, but deal with them by listening.Happy analyzing

[davewalton]

Quote:I'm not familiar with any other software analyzers than the one's I have in Cool Edit, and Cubase.But if you google spectrum analyzer, I'm sure you're gonna find some free plug-ins to try. You necessarily wouldn't need a real time analyzer, you just want to scan certain areas, especially the low-end.I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I can't remember who posted this the other day. Whoever did, posted what looks to be a nice, free, analyzer from a company name I recognize.http://www.voxengo.com/downloads/Scroll down to a plugin call "Span". You can download it and/or get more info.HTH,DavePS - Thanks to whoever it is that I can't remember for posting this recently.

[marcin]

Thx a lot for the links!ByeMarcin