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This is the first draft of a brand new song that my brother and I have written. I am super excited about it and think it has a lot of potential. I trust you all to give it to me straight, so please let us know what to fix. I don't have the lyric sheet (forgot to get it from my bro), so I can't post them up, but I think they are pretty easily heard on the track. Looking forward to your comments!

It is called "Open the Sky" and you can hear it on my TAXI page:

http://www.taxi.com/laplante

Not at all in my wheelhouse so grain of salt and all that. The production somehow sounds muffled to me, and very "in the box". Wish I could tell you how to fix that. Maybe some strummed acoustic, mic'ed up. I just wanted to hear something other than the vocals that sounded a bit more "real". The keyboard patches you chose give it quite an 80's feel as well, not saying that's a bad thing, just an observation. eo.

Thanks eeoo. I was wondering if this song needed guitars. I guess you just answered my question. I might have also rushed the mix and master, which is causing the muffled / in the box sound. About the 80s synths...aren't those sounds making a comeback ala Phoeniz, Owl City, Postal Service, etc? We were really trying to be modern, for once.


-Jeff

I think this is some of the most modern I've heard from you!

The new stuff coming out on MTV is really stripped down and very much done in the box, just layers and layers of drums, synths and vocals. And I think you should go for that sound here too - maybe using "Fireflies" by Owl City as a reference track (if you don't already).

IMO if you add guitars, you'll move in the opposite direction of a modern sound. There's just no guitars in top 20 at all, and guitars hasn't been in in hot ac for years! I even thought you should get rid of the bass in this one, as it has no function to the target audience, listening on iPod's and iPhones! The drums you had on here didn't sound as modern as the synth stuff you dressed it up with to me, so I'd suggest you at least add some layers of electronic drums, or maybe just use electronic drums (but a mix of acoustic and electronic would probably give more punch, especially if you get rid of the bass).

The synths you had now sounded mostly like pad's, so I was hoping to hear more interesting layers of leads too, to have more to hook me in. The vocals sounded really good, and I would also have liked more layers of background vocals.

I definately think you're on to something here.. you just need to stick with the MTV references and get a little more aggressive approach to mixing it, IMO.

justmy2c

Jeff

Sounds very contemporary for sure. Your voice really draws you in.

Man did you hit "sky". Can you put a sprinkle of vibrato on that at just the very end

I have a temp of 101 right now so i might not be right on, but this sounds like a real winner.

That chorus is a killer.

I love it all

Paul

I agree with freaker, it has nice sound and the vocals are very nice. A guit could make it happen too..Also I want to thank you for your review you gave on one of mine. If you have time I would like for you to listen to one I just rebuilt [Riches to Rags Blues] Thanks, lockload....LeMoine

thesongcabinet wrote:
IMO if you add guitars, you'll move in the opposite direction of a modern sound. There's just no guitars in top 20 at all, and guitars hasn't been in in hot ac for years! I even thought you should get rid of the bass in this one, as it has no function to the target audience, listening on iPod's and iPhones! The drums you had on here didn't sound as modern as the synth stuff you dressed it up with to me, so I'd suggest you at least add some layers of electronic drums, or maybe just use electronic drums (but a mix of acoustic and electronic would probably give more punch, especially if you get rid of the bass).

I disagree that "guitars haven't been in Hot AC for years". The current taxi listings mention Hot AC artists ala Lifehouse, Train, Colby Caillat and Kelly Clarkson. All of those artists use a lot of guitar in their songs. Even Phoenix does as well, I believe. I'd maybe add some guitar and try different, more "current" sounding synth pads. I could see this track sounding similar to Lifehouse if it was produced differently. But that may not be what you're going for, so just my opinion. I agree with eeoo that it sounds a little 80's. Listen to the artists mentioned in the listings and disect the instrumentation.

Good luck!

Gregg

I like this song. I agree it sounds very contemporary compared to your other songs. The only thing I noticed was the pitch on "mind" at 1:13 goes a little flat.

Good Luck!

Dorothy

DorothyWallace wrote:The only thing I noticed was the pitch on "mind" at 1:13 goes a little flat.

Yup. Already noticed that one. You have a good ear. Thanks everyone for listening. I am still on the fence about adding guitar. This is the first song I have ever done where I haven't picked up at least my acoustic. I think it sounds more modern without guitar. I was also thinking of going all out with the auto-tune here. Right now it doesn't have any and I have no idea how to use it, but I think it will make it sound more modern. Anybody have experience using auto-tune, melodyne, etc? Would this track benefit from any?

-Jeff

jefflaplante wrote: I am still on the fence about adding guitar. This is the first song I have ever done where I haven't picked up at least my acoustic. I think it sounds more modern without guitar. I was also thinking of going all out with the auto-tune here. Right now it doesn't have any and I have no idea how to use it, but I think it will make it sound more modern. Anybody have experience using auto-tune, melodyne, etc? Would this track benefit from any?
-Jeff

I might have been too categorical, as I don't think Gregg is far of with those examples. I just thought more of hot ac as the MTV stuff (that and 'urban'). And even if I'm not right, I still hear this as a song with layers of (electronic) drums, synths and vocals. I certainly understand the urge to play the guitar, though, that being my main instrument, but I personally get that enjoyment from playing my midi guitar, so the sound coming from a guitar doesn't always HAVE to be a guitar tone

I have that auto-tune effect in my TC Helicon VoiceLive, as well as an option to produce it in Melodyne, and I do plan to use it sometime soon (not for country, though)

To me it's important to use effects to improve prosody in a song, regardless the particular effect.

There might be many interpretations of this, but to me it makes sense to use it where the lyrics are speaking of another dimension, another world, an imaginary world, a dreamscape or similar.

You didn't provide the lyrics for this, but it sounds like there could be phrases in here where the auto-tune effect could make sense IMO