New Music by Yours Truly. Please critique production quality

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Here is a couple of tracks I made recently.

Sample 1
Resolving 123 (4:56)

A friend and I made this. He made the basic drum track and I reworked it. He did the vocals. Vocals are so-so, he's begging to redo them. All in all, it took about 2 hours to build the track up, and about an hour to mix it. I used a boss VWah's univibe combined with the Line6's spyder tremelo to make the flutter sound. I really like the ending vibe that comes in at 4:20. The timing on that one is purely coincidence ;) Also, the really low bass is from a 4 string, and I ran it through my digitech whammy pedal to drop it down and octave. There are two bass parts, the main one, in normal register, then the simple one, dropped to be really low.

Sample 2
Metal Jam 2b

I made this from scratch, pretty late at night. Took about 30 minutes. Some Dream Theater fans might recognize the drum beat that comes in at about 1:30, its pretty much ripped from the center of Caught in a Web. The solo, hmmm, had a girl in mind when I played it. It was totally improvised.

Sample 3
Rain Dance

This is by far the best thing I've ever composed. I made it as a soothing, melodic, meditation track that I could chill out and space out to. Its pretty slow, smooth, and laidback. Its called rain dance, and the rain doesnt come till about half way in. I really like the texture of the "rain". You'll know it when you hear it.

I really just wanted to share this stuff, and get some fair minded criticism on what I have. Thanks for listening!
 

Kenazo

Lifer
Sep 15, 2000
10,429
1
81
I'll have to check this out when I get home.


How do you like your Spider? I'm torn between that and a Marshall MG100DFX.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
The Spyder is great. I dont ever want to get rid of it. I absolutly love the clean+chorus rythm plus the distorted lead tone you'll hear on the metaljam track.

I just wish the amp had an effects loop so I could place my wah in a different spot in the chain.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Which model do you have? I was looking @the Spider II 210.

I have the original spyder 210. Line 6 is a great company. The amp fried about a year out of the warranty. I called them. I told them I loved the amp but couldnt afford to have it fixed. So they called a local shop and told them to fix it. Never charged me.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
Went with the Spider eh? :) Good choice. Do you like The Dave Mathews Band? You seem to have an influence from them.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Originally posted by: broon
How do you like the Carvin guitar? Which model?

Its amazing. Its actually my dads, and its not the model I would have picked. I slapped a set of elixir's on it, and let me tell you, it plays like butter. I'm a carvin fanboy. I have had two carvin basses, first a fretless six string, then I sold it and bought a bunney brunel model 5 string. Id rather pay $1000 for a carvin than any brand name like Modulus, etc.

The model used in the tracks = TL60
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Went with the Spider eh? :) Good choice. Do you like The Dave Mathews Band? You seem to have an influence from them.

I love DMB. Them and Dream Theater are two of my biggest influences.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Went with the Spider eh? :) Good choice. Do you like The Dave Mathews Band? You seem to have an influence from them.

I love DMB. Them and Dream Theater are two of my biggest influences.

DAMN I'm good heheheh. I can almost always tell who someone was influenced by. It's a gift. A rather useless gift, but hey, take what you can get.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Went with the Spider eh? :) Good choice. Do you like The Dave Mathews Band? You seem to have an influence from them.

I love DMB. Them and Dream Theater are two of my biggest influences.

DAMN I'm good heheheh. I can almost always tell who someone was influenced by. It's a gift. A rather useless gift, but hey, take what you can get.

I like Yanni too. And Slayer. Go figure. ;)
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,964
17,731
136
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Went with the Spider eh? :) Good choice. Do you like The Dave Mathews Band? You seem to have an influence from them.

I love DMB. Them and Dream Theater are two of my biggest influences.

DAMN I'm good heheheh. I can almost always tell who someone was influenced by. It's a gift. A rather useless gift, but hey, take what you can get.

I'll have to record something once I get everything set up at the new house to test you.
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
You what my honest opinion?

You seem to have a handle on what you need to do. The intros are sufficiently unique to inspire curioscity.

The talent is definitely there, but it is not my style.

For example, raindance has a lot of potential in my opinion, but the lack of dyamic range between the midi-sounding instruments kind of dilutes the power that a nice bass-alto combo could have.

Perhaps keep the tenor-bass track, replace the melodic bass part with a less-80s sounding bass key, and give the alto notes more range. Perhaps use reverb for the alto notes or something.


[/opionon of a violinist on the subject] :D

 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
You what my honest opinion?

You seem to have a handle on what you need to do. The intros are sufficiently unique to inspire curioscity.

The talent is definitely there, but it is not my style.

For example, raindance has a lot of potential in my opinion, but the lack of dyamic range between the midi-sounding instruments kind of dilutes the power that a nice bass-alto combo could have.

Perhaps keep the tenor-bass track, replace the melodic bass part with a less-80s sounding bass key, and give the alto notes more range. Perhaps use reverb for the alto notes or something.


[/opionon of a violinist on the subject] :D


thanks! good criticism. regarding raindance, one of my goals has always been to find better samples for the song. Fortunately, raindance is generated from a midi sequence, with just a slight bit of randomizing in the arpegiation of some notes. I also planned to add a bit of live guitar to lessen the overly midi tone to it. I also think I would use the guitar to "fill space" in the melodies and rythm. I like "connecting the dots" in music, and I've always though I would end up using raindance as a stage for some nice, melodic and real guitar work.
 

frx218

Senior member
Apr 18, 2005
265
0
0
Originally posted by: Goosemaster

The talent is definitely there, but it is not my style.

the lack of dyamic range between the midi-sounding instruments kind of dilutes the power that a nice bass-alto combo could have.