acoustic rock/ iaincowley/ diamonds on your windowsill

[LazyE]

this is my new song i`m working on,

the audio conversion to m3 looses a bit of quality for some reason (windows audio converter at 256mb conversion rate)

also i know i stuffed up the guitar solo at the end, there`s LOADS of bum notes, and i`m going to structure ne and rehearse it for final version, but i put this solo in for now to give an idea of the dynamice etc.


i really want to do well on this its a song i`ve been writing for a while, its an epic battle!

please bash and help me make this a BEAST!!!


thanks so much

E

[kakeux]

Hi,

I think this is good.

The cymbals are hurting a bit and sound harsh.

There is something strange happening in the low mid...don't know if it's the bass or something else.

The acoustic guitars sounds a bit weak, I would suggest bringing down hi freq on it...but might be wrong...

The song is definitely interesting. I feel that some drums pattern or fill aren't the best choices. Mostly during transition parts.

[Stan_Halen]

Up to 3:36 I really like the song. I mean REALLY! There might be some low-mids from the Acoustic Guitar that could be pulled out, but not too much as that is most of what's happening during that part of the song. There might be a little Bass Guitar fighting Kick Drum that you could EQ. The Tubular Bells or whatever that is in the background is really cool! I really like your Vocal on the song!

When the tempo changes and becomes fast I don't like things as much. The crash cymbals at that point sound artificially gated or something. I like the harmony vocals during that part, but everything seems too rushed in tempo. I actually like the guitar solo, it is a bit rough but has good emotion which compensates and gives a feeling to the energy. I sounds like you "patched in" the fast part from another recording. The very end of the song sounds good like most of the earlier part.

I would concentrate on doing something with the fast part 3:36-4:55 in terms of arrangement or tempo. Make it more of a step-up rather than a Bi-Polar radical shift. If you can slowly ramp the tempo before the guitar solo, and then hit that same tempo during the guitar solo, then ramp it down again before hitting the slow end, I thing everything would fit together better.

[Houstonhart11]

On a positive note, I listened to it twice straight through. I didn't think I would do that just from the intro. Cool song. Definitely got songwriting talent.

[Emma]

This DEFINITELY has

BEAST!!!

potential!!
Very cool song and singing. I love the imagery and the way you've reflected that with the instrumentation - it really has a diamond shimmer/twink to it
Coupla things for me to add... I wondered about shaping the verse/chorus structure a little more with perhaps volume automation to just add a touch more distinction between? I heard some guitar tuning things at around 1.00 that just tickled my ear hairs (I'm in full technical analysis mode today!) in a slight questioning way. Love the idea of the speed up, but it did feel a bit awkward to me, particularly through the transition. This could really work though and add a great point-of-difference, love the way the diamonds and crooning came back to round it off. You could play around with even more fuller and darker bits in that running phase... even some distortion... shadows... (oopsy.. I'm reading The Dark Tower sequence again and my imagination tends to run away with me)

I know what you mean about losing quality when you transfer to MP3... am guessing it is a practice thing as there seem to be a heap of tricks, it's just working out what is in your arsenal and how to best use it.

I really like this song!

[garageband]

Vocals are a little bottom heavy and now, relatively too low and somewhat out of character for the rest. Taylor the vocal a little tighter at the bottom and think it'll all fall into place.

[LazyE]

thanks for your input.
yep looks like i`ve still got a lot of of work to do here!

the speeded up section just goes into 148bpm, its played live alng with the drum paterns but i may have used a different arrangement of drums in that patch which is why it may seem to be drafted in from somewhere else. but its not, its real time.

i am having trouble deciding on the correct tempo for it?
the idea is it hits double time at the end. which means the verses prior have to be half the speed.

stan he
this was becoming vertually impossible to get right so i settled for 80bpm in the verses and 148bpm at the end (about as fast as i could play the twiddly guitar riff)

do you think i need to slow the ending down?
do you sugest eqing the guitars diffently? its got a 6 string acoustic panned 10 o clock left and a 12 string acoustic panned 2 o clock.

i have severe difficulty getting the vocals sound good from my berringer b1 and untreated spare room lol, am working on this! (convincing wife that i need new mic and sound treatent)

how do i make the vocal `tighter` garageband? sorry i`m new to the whle mixing thing

stan halen- really like your idea of playing with the tempo, it definately need something.

yeah i`m not sure about some f the drum patches either and definately some nasty cymbols in there.

i`m finding this really hard to mix thanks for your help everyone

[Stan_Halen]

I like the sound you have for guitars and vocals. Drums are working okay too, except those crash cymbals when the tempo speeds up sounds like a Noise Gate is cutting them off abruptly. And as I said the tubular bells or whatever the chiming in the background is works wonderfully for the mood. I'm just guessing as to what Garageband recommended, but if you don't already have a High Pass EQ on your vocal maybe try that and just cut some low end.

The tempo is a tricky question. A faster pace in that section of the song seems to fit, I just would not rush it so much or even better ... transition from slow to fast gradually over a few measures to build up to it. Kind of like a Pre-Chorus or something ... let us know its coming so there is a little suspense. I think you already did that to some degree as there are about 4 measures where you shift between sections, I just think the transition is needing more smoothness. At the end of the song where it goes from fast back to slow the transition works much better.

I like the guitar solo, as I said before, the energy and feeling is good even if you're playing a bit like a wild man (I've been known to do the same myself). Tone-wise you could maybe cut some of the lows (use High Pass EQ) on the lead guitar to clean it up and make it more shiny/bright.

[fHumble fHingaz]

LazyE, you are obviously one very talented dude... This tune is immediately accessible, yet original-sounding.

Believe me, with material like this, & your obvious musicality, the songs are king, & shine through any issues you might have with your mic or your room. That said, I'd suggest checking out a reflexion filter or similar device to cut down your room reflections (I made my own). Check out some of the information about treating your room on the cheap in Sound On Sound mag. You can use simple, readily available things like duvets & pillows to get pro results from even modest gear.

Arrangement-wise, everybody seems to be focusing in on the drums as the weak point in this... I agree - they seem to make the song drag. For the slower section, I would suggest dividing the beat up more into swung 16ths to move things along more briskly & lighten the groove with a more "skittering" type beat. The speeding up part is an excellent device - it just needs a little more finesse - I'm a sucker for a "train"-style country beat - I reckon it would fit extremely well there. The guitar solo is awesome - the tone is boxy (that could easily be remedied with judicious eq) , but the feeling is fantastic.

Nice stuff!

[bobbybovine]

I really like the song but there are a few issues that stick out to me. The kicks in the beginning before the drums come in seem out of place, I would get rid of those and come in on the roll. The drums feel to quiet in the mix, I know it is a soft gentle song but I think turn up the drums just a touch and ad some verb or really fast delay to give it a feeling of space. It seems to be lacking low end as well, doesn't feel balanced. The cymbals are very harsh in the fast part and the drums need to cut through more for sure. But on a positive note the vocals are great and it is a beautiful song.

[LazyE]

wow!

some really nice coments, cheers!
but id say i`m more determined and stubborn and refuse to give up than talanted ll, once i get a song in my head i litterally hammer it till it can take no mre and lies down and submits.
not to try and do the same with mixing! l, yeah right, audio engineering is far more difficult than i ever imagined, and it seems to go on forever, its like the ocean!
you think you know it, then oops we`ve discovered something else!...and oh shit! look another continent, this ones called compression! going to take some investigating, then over ther is the island of EQ! that looks a fucker! , well, best get cracking...

yes i`ve had a beer :-)

[LazyE]

on a more sensible note i am seriously taking all your advice and will remix and tweak the song how i see relevent asa. thanks ever so much guys n gals, really appreciate it

[Emma]

audio engineering is far more difficult than i ever imagined, and it seems to go on forever, its like the ocean!
you think you know it, then oops we`ve discovered something else!...and oh shit! look another continent,

ha ha... I LIKE that analogy... fits exactly into my experience!

Plus there are sharks and icebergs and then..
it does help if you learn to swim

[LazyE]

ok,

i`ve done another mix of this now after listening to your advice and hamering the song to death lol

i`ve decided to stay with the tempo changes and leave the origional guitar slo in it, i dont think it sounds all that bad and its spontaniously recorded so i suppose it holds true to what a guitar soo is rather than a mathematically worked out scale run which i would have probably turned it into if i thought about it too much. i just boosted the mid and the levels on it , slightly widened it and added a little verb to sit it into the song

i have removed the drums from the verse parts completely.
i had trouble getting rid of that nasty gated cymbol and that peircing hign cymbol as for some reason i had recorded it on the same track as one of the toms! (school boy error) so i kept sweeping the eq to find the `nasty` frequency and then more a less cut it out completely.

i added some limiters here and there and lots of eq on individual tracks.
i fiddled with the sound of the acoustic and also brought the 12 string up mre i slightly reduced the synth `chimes type effect` as i felt it was taking over from the acoustic riff which the song is based around.

i also added some subtle reverb to the drums and vcals as well as spending hours twaeking the EQ n vocals and drums.

i hope you like it, please let me know if i have drastically made it worse or am i heading in the right direction,

many thanks

E

here`s the new mix below:

[LazyE]

thats it finnished as far as i`m concerned, i dont think i can possibly do any better at the moment with the gear i have.
cheers