Vocals not loud/clear enough. Didn't get the vibe of the song though. Like some kind of Sting/Police effort?
listened to 'no new tricks'. really cool tune and kudos for posting. flaming lips meet tears for fears in jamaica! that breakdown at 1:00 mark right before guitar solo is sweeeeet. nice lead guitar-work too! like cometswin said, vocals are a little buried. they could come up and maybe rhythm guitar and drums could come down. some cool textures and effects in there that could maybe be mixed a little louder too. what is your recording set-up? did you play all the instruments? are those real drums?
Agree with the sentiment in the thread. Add some depth and a bit of reverb to the vocals. Maybe turn down the rhythm guitar a notch too. The drum sounds fine to me, but my ears are trained more for guitar and string instruments so my opinion there is mostly useless. Really liked the melody and the breakdown, that lick was tasty.
The vocals really? See, that's the thing I need to know. On my setup they come through clear but everyone has something different as far as speakers. Just a home studio here, protools 10 and a simple mbox direct input. No fancy boards or rack effects so I know the sound quality will never be hifi buts it's fun to play around with. I think I'm actually getting pretty decent quality the further I go/learn. As for the tracks, everything is me. On no new tricks I believe the main drums are midi-tracks but I tend to mix in some real crashes or something when I do because I like the rawness of real drums. Gives the machine some life. That organ thing is me playing a midi controller. Bass me. Guitar me solo me. Vocals me. All me for real! Drums are really the only thing I don't track 100% because it's just easier to get away with but I do play some drums on a few. River of sorrows for one, if anybody would like to review that or any other song I'd be grateful (I might even find a way to offer these tracks to you for free.99 as thanks) Interesting to hear the comparisons too, when I write I do my best to be original. Of course the reggae influence was present on this one but I would like to know what brought sting into mind? Or tears for fears? This really does help me, being a solo and studio musician is kinda like talking to yourself a lot. Getting outside perspective like this is amazing, seriously thanks
Looks like I would have to pay myself to send it from bandcamp lol...well, if you review a track for me and put your email with it I'd be happy to include the song in an email to you as thanks. Feel free to add my social medias too @treypalmermusic on tweeter Trey palmers music page on FB Maybe something else for you if I can get you to share my stuff. Exclusive offer lol jk but I do appreciate this feedback
One thing you can do to help mixes is compare them on different speakers, for instance your car stereo.
Yeah, I always have the headphones/cheaper stereo hooked to the computer. Usually if I'm happy with it I'll go to my good speakers in the living room. By the time I make it into a car with a track I'm usually sick of it lol...I'm somewhat self taught so I'm not sure how to have a better balance in between all speakers. Usually settle when it's good on the living room
the car is the least forgiving, which is why its the best to work on mixes. if you can get a good balance in there it will sound good anywhere. as a home recorder myself, im always curious about peoples recording set-up and methods. i dont have anything fancy either. no preamps (except whats built into the interface) or fancy outboard gear. im working with a 10 year old version of sonar and a presonus firepod...ive been busy with bands and other projects and have not done any home recording in a couple years, but want to get it up and running again. or even get a new interface and program. your choice of chord progression is what reminded me of tears for fears. at the :30 mark where you do that quick turn-around C to D (?) and the middle section at the 1:00 mark (A-G-E descending)...and your lead guitar playing. i love their songs so i mean that as a compliment!
Be honest I don't remember exactly what the chords are lol...probably 2 years ago at this point. I think the base rhythm guitar is playing A-D-C or A-D-C-D (something pretty standard) but I have a background guitar jazzing It right the hell up. I got way into minimalism years ago so that influence never left. it pretty much plays with the 7ths and suspended chords where the notes don't really change with the chords the rhythm guitar plays. I'd have to isolate track to figure it out exactly. That's one of the things besides having no outside thoughts, if I don't write it down I'll forget it eventually lol
