Home Studio: Recording fully-orchestraed demos

[amayzlin]

Hey Alex, I really enjoyed this song! From the text of your initial post, I totally wasn't expecting this! Keep doing your thang, it's pretty obvious that you're moving in the right direction. Let your ear be your guide, sign up for online classes when you have some spare time, and you'll find that every production will be better than the previous. But from where you are right now, you're ready to jump in the ring and play with the rest of us here at Taxi. Do you have any more songs?

~~Matt

Hey Matt

Thank you so much for your kind words. Do you know of any online classes you can recommend? I'd love to check them out. Yes, I have a few more songs I've recorded right here: http://bit.ly/1iRk0hS

Thanks a lot for taking the time to give feedback, I really appreciate that.

Best regards,
Alex

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Alex, no sweat man! We're all here to help.

Here are some awesome (and free!) online courses. They're taught by the staff at Berklee School of Music, so these are teachers at the top of their game:

https://www.coursera.org/berklee

I've taken the Songwriting course, as well as the Intro to Music Production. Both hugely valuable.

While you're at the Coursera website, try surfing around to see what you can find. They have class on seemingly every topic you could think of. So while you're learning about music production, you could dabble in astrophysics as well.

~~Matt

[amayzlin]

Hey Alex, no sweat man! We're all here to help.

Here are some awesome (and free!) online courses. They're taught by the staff at Berklee School of Music, so these are teachers at the top of their game:

https://www.coursera.org/berklee

I've taken the Songwriting course, as well as the Intro to Music Production. Both hugely valuable.

While you're at the Coursera website, try surfing around to see what you can find. They have class on seemingly every topic you could think of. So while you're learning about music production, you could dabble in astrophysics as well.

~~Matt

Great, Matt, thanks! I'll be sure to check it out.

Alex

[mojobone]

Welcome to the forum, Amayzlin! You asked for production and engineering notes, and I don't have any; everything's cleanly recorded, clear and well-balanced and the mix is powerful. (plenty loud, too)

There are always a few nits that can be picked, and with this track, I'd say they're miniscule to the point of microscopic. I can't speak for your (or the singer/rapper's, if that's the case) diction in the rapped sections, cuz whatever language that is, I don't speak it. However, there's a very slight nasal/cartoony quality to the vocal in certain upper portions of the range that I didn't hear in some of your other tracks, and this quality is having a slightly comedic effect, whether intentional or not. It could be a head cold, it might be the wrong mic or mic distance, something goofy in the processing/EQ or vocal tuning, it might just be a quality that's totally unique to you. (it sounds as if the vocal has been pitch shifted upwards, by a few notches, to my ear) Maybe you played around with the tempo, after the fact? Regardless, it's noticeable.

The other thing that leaps to mind is style; it sounds European, which makes it perfect for some intents and purposes, useless for others, for good or ill. If that's what you were going for, you nailed it. Are you from Little Odessa, by any chance?