"In the Morning" - New Song

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"In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mhoffman » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:50 pm

I just uploaded a new song to my soundclick.com band page. Please give it a listen and provide feedback. It's greatly appreciated! Thank you,Song title, "In the Morning"http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... 878Matthew

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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by hummingbird » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:32 pm

Quote:I just uploaded a new song to my soundclick.com band page. Please give it a listen and provide feedback. It's greatly appreciated! Thank you,Song title, "In the Morning"http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... Matthewhey Matthew, I'm liking this a lot. Lots of textures, good rhythms, nice change-ups. Some wild guitar playing - is that you? Very cool.
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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by prez » Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:32 am

O.K. Here's my take on what I heard:1. I'd lay off the reverb on that second snare. Lessen it to bring the snare out in the mix a little more. First one two for that matter.2. I'd bring that bass drum up also. Can hardly hear it when everything is playing.3. You went sharp on the lead at around the 1:32 mark.4. Bass drum doesn't seem to have any depth to fill out the low end. Needs to be brought out more by cutting some high frequencies more than likely.The song seems a little too busy in some places. And I think you need to switch up on the percussion sounds or tweak 'em to give them some authenticity. Sounding generic.It's not too bad. Needs some fine tuning.God bless.
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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mhoffman » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:26 am

Hummingbird: Thank you for the encouragement. Yes, all guitar parts are played by me. I used an electric guitar, an accoustic guitar, and an electric 4-string bass. I run all those through my BOSS GT-8 effects processessor (with different effects of course)Prez: I really appreciate the fine-tune analysis. I can't do too much with adjusting the drums as they are Acid WAV loops from my "SmartLoops" collection I purchased. I may be able to replace them with the REV version of the files which allows me to control the individual parts of the WAV via midi.That was one of my frustrations with this song is that it has a pretty straight 4/4 beat but I don't have many basic 4/4 drum loops. Most of what I purchased (so far) are funk, groove, shuffle, swing, and a very small collection of basic 4/4. If I get the chance to diversify my loop collection I'm definately going to work on the drums for this song. And I will apply your advice too, thanks. I'll also see about tweaking the EQ for those tracks you mentioned. I'm walking a fine line between well-balanced and muddy, due to my recording equipment so I'll have to be careful. I'll also see if I can re-record that sharp lead. Most of my leads are improvised so it's can some times be tough to re-learn and recreate the parts I played.Thanks again for the input. Much abligued. God bless you all too!Matthew

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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mazz » Thu Mar 08, 2007 8:00 pm

Nice guitar playing overall. You have good chops and sound and a nice sense of melody.My feedback concerns the overall emotional and musical build of the structure.If I were producing this piece, I would start with the drum machine as is and would have the acoustic guitar melody begin sparsely. Then after one statement of the melody, the drums would transition to the big fill with the acoustic drum sound, big 2 and 4 reverb snare, etc. Then start in with the majestic electric guitar melody, possibly coming in on the B section.I would save the shredding solo work for the middle section after the second statement of the melody and then trade electric and acoustic leads over the dryer drum sound. Back to the big sound for the last statement of the them and then the gradual mellowing out of the texture. Bring the drum machine sound in earlier almost inaudibly and fade it in under the music so when the acoustic drums finish its already there even if the listener just only then notices it and then do your fade. I think that will more effectively tie the ending to the beginning.Keep up the good work.Mazz
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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mhoffman » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:26 am

Quote:Nice guitar playing overall. You have good chops and sound and a nice sense of melody.My feedback concerns the overall emotional and musical build of the structure.If I were producing this piece, I would start with the drum machine as is and would have the acoustic guitar melody begin sparsely. Then after one statement of the melody, the drums would transition to the big fill with the acoustic drum sound, big 2 and 4 reverb snare, etc. Then start in with the majestic electric guitar melody, possibly coming in on the B section.I would save the shredding solo work for the middle section after the second statement of the melody and then trade electric and acoustic leads over the dryer drum sound. Back to the big sound for the last statement of the them and then the gradual mellowing out of the texture. Bring the drum machine sound in earlier almost inaudibly and fade it in under the music so when the acoustic drums finish its already there even if the listener just only then notices it and then do your fade. I think that will more effectively tie the ending to the beginning.Keep up the good work.MazzMazz,Great detailed analysis. I can hear the musical changes in everything you're saying. I get a kick out of bringing the lead guitar melody in strong at the very beginning, but you think the song is better suited for a gradual build into the electic part?Great advice, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Matthew

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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mazz » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:31 am

Bringing in the lead strong in the beginning is another strategy. It changes the approach to the structure. In other words, where do you go after you come in with a bang? My advice was a gradual build but coming in strong and then bringing down in the middle and then back up would work as well. Your location says Oregon. Where in Oregon? I lived in Ashland for 10 years.Mazz
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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mhoffman » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:13 pm

I'm in McMinnville. I've always wanted to visit Ashland for the Shakespearean theatre. I've been studying Geology for the past year. Oregon is surely an exciting place, geologically speaking. When you mentioned Ashland I asked myself, "Now what type of rocks/tectonic history do they have down there?" I'll give some of those structural changes a try and see where they lead.Matthew

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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by prez » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:43 am

Quote:Prez: I really appreciate the fine-tune analysis. I can't do too much with adjusting the drums as they are Acid WAV loops from my "SmartLoops" collection I purchased. I may be able to replace them with the REV version of the files which allows me to control the individual parts of the WAV via midi.Ahh. Loops. The boon and bane of many a songwriter. Quote:That was one of my frustrations with this song is that it has a pretty straight 4/4 beat but I don't have many basic 4/4 drum loops. Most of what I purchased (so far) are funk, groove, shuffle, swing, and a very small collection of basic 4/4. If I get the chance to diversify my loop collection I'm definately going to work on the drums for this song. And I will apply your advice too, thanks. Yeah. That's what I mean about loops. The plus is that they're already done. The minus is that they're already done. Quote:I'll also see about tweaking the EQ for those tracks you mentioned. I'm walking a fine line between well-balanced and muddy, due to my recording equipment so I'll have to be careful. I'll also see if I can re-record that sharp lead. Most of my leads are improvised so it's can some times be tough to re-learn and recreate the parts I played.What kind of set up are you running in your computer for your music production and what's the specs of your computer system? There may be some options out there for you that you may be unaware of that can help you achieve what you really want.Blessings.
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Re: "In the Morning" - New Song

Post by mhoffman » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:23 am

Quote:What kind of set up are you running in your computer for your music production and what's the specs of your computer system? There may be some options out there for you that you may be unaware of that can help you achieve what you really want.PREZ: Here's a list of my DAW components and how I use them.Computer: Home built AMD 3500+, 1GB Ram, 160GB ATA133 7500rpm HDD (seperate from OS HDD)Software: Sonar 6 Producer Edition, Smart Loops drumloopsHardware: Presonus Firebox (Firewire audio input), BOSS GT-8 guitar effects processorInstruments: Ibanez electric guitar, Carvin Electric/Acoustic, and Ibanez bass, M-Audio Axiom 49 midi interface keyboardI'm new to DAW and audio production/engineering, in general, and so am working out track recording by trial-and-error. Here's the chain to my DAW: Guitar - BOSS GT8 - Firebox - PCI usually use the CakewalkEQ effect for track eq'ing. Otherwise I'm using basic Gain, Pan, and Volume envelopes where needed on each track.

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