Feedback on our production (Circus Paranoia, Dutch Progressive Rock)

[CircusParanoia]

Hello!
We're a progressive rock duo from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In januari this we made our first album Defined Skies. The album was totally self-produced.
As we are now working on our new album, we could really use some profound feedback on our previous production (or on our music if you want :-) ).
Our old songs were recorded and mixed at home with Logic Studio. We did the drum with samples.
Parts of our new album will be recorded in a professional studio with a real drummer, so hopefully that's one problem out of the way. Most of the mixing etc. we would like to do ourselves though.
You can find our songs on Circus Paranoia on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos.

Thanks for the attention!

Circus Paranoia

[fHumble fHingaz]

Hey, welcome to the forum... I had a listen to your stuff, & it sounds very accomplished - Do I detect Addictive Drums? - the drums sound very familiar - like the "Startup" preset. May I suggest you check this link... Getting Started With Bash This Recording
Members prefer to bash stuff from high quality mp3's - so Myspace is a no-no. If you upload a track @ 256kb/s or 320kb/s as per that thread, I think you'll find you'll have more people willing to take a listen.

[CircusParanoia]

@ Humble Hingaz:
Thanks for the reply! I've tried to upload one of our songs in this post, let's hope it works..
And oh, the drums were just Logic samples (Ultrabeat?) Never used Addictive Drums... are they good?

[garageband]

Really big pump and breathe at :17. Organ sound is wrong, too much high end. The distorted bridge around 3:00 almost has electric guitar fizz. OK, mostly. I don't dig the sea of reverb the vocal is swimming in. The delay and flanging's OK. Guitar solo's much too low. AC guitar's a tad brite. I don't think I'd let the echo on the vocal coda go on that long before cutting it off with the reverse cymbally thingy.

[oldmusicguy]

I don't know what you're going for. What's "progressive" about it?? Lots of repetition of four chords that sounds like they might go somewhere interesting, but then it takes that cute... poppy... twist before starting again. I agree with the organ and vocal comment above. (The organ sounds like my mom's little spinet that we used to take lessons on... ) I almost could hear a Beatles -White Album quality there, but there's something missing. Maybe if you changed a chord (don't ask which one) and recorded some of the stuff flat... with no reverb, slowed it down a bit.

Who knows.. I'm just rambling.

[CircusParanoia]

Hey, thanks for the comments! We got a lot to learn so we're very happy with every observation!

This was a song that came with our album in januari, I shall post a more recent song now because my knowledge and experience in producing has improved since (I hope ).
**I don't know why I didn't think of it before... silly to post old material**

@garageband
Yeah you're right about the reverb. It doesn't sound right but I wanted to create some sort of Pink Floydish feeling. Normally I'm not a great fan of it either.
I do not get your point about the distorted bridge... is that still about the organ? Organ sound is indeed wrong though
At :17 I don't hear anything special, which point in time exactly do you mean?

@oldmusic
You're absolutly right; there's not very much progressive rock in this song. But there's lots of colours and twists so I found it very challenging to mix this song. Especially because I wanted to create this dreamy atmosphere. And well... next time I would cut most the reverb

-

So here's another Floydish song. Hope it's good..

[garageband]

At :17 I don't hear anything special

You hear the bus compression cinch down hard on the mix when the majority of the instruments come in. It's distracting and unmusical.

[fHumble fHingaz]

@ Humble Hingaz:
Thanks for the reply! I've tried to upload one of our songs in this post, let's hope it works..
And oh, the drums were just Logic samples (Ultrabeat?) Never used Addictive Drums... are they good?

Oops... Looks like I listened to the wrong song! That's the trouble with links... I assumed it was the first song that came up on your Myspace player ("Escape") - that one definately has an AD sound about the drums... I actually liked it more than the one you've posted here - it better fitted your discription of "progressive" - I can hear the David Gilmour influence in the guitars on that one... Oh, & I see you've just posted it here to be bashed...

[CircusParanoia]

Originally Posted by garageband

You hear the bus compression cinch down hard on the mix when the majority of the instruments come in. It's distracting and unmusical.

Oh yeah I hear it now! Don't find it really anoying though.. It creates some sort of illusion of all the intruments coming in a lot more overwhelming then they do in reallity. But maybe I still don't get why it is bad?

@ fhumble fhingaz
For Escape we used EZ drums Really like that kit! But for the cd we will work with a real drummer for a more dynamic feel. Seems to be a good step to take..

[garageband]

It creates some sort of illusion of all the intruments coming in a lot more overwhelming then they do in reallity. But maybe I still don't get why it is bad?

A tiny amount of that effect will communicate that (try a slower attack time, longer release, as well). This sounds like a mistake and the net effect is that actually makes the instruments that were present before seem quieter, therefore less powerful. Tracks also need to be lined better for it to be convincing as your desired effect. Old Pink Floyd records do this with remarkable mastery. Having high quality compression and not mundane plug-ins FX makes a difference in lots effectiveness, as well.