Original: Highway of Your Soul

[borocks]

Hey folks,

I've finally managed to make a proper recording (at least as far as my standards are concerned ) of one of my original songs. It's called Highway of Your Soul.

Have a listen at MySpace.com - Boris Kaiser - CH - Acoustic / Rock - www.myspace.com/boriskaiser

I used my Takamine EG530, a Studio Projects B1 mic and ran it through my M-Audio Moblie PreUSB. I used Adobe Auditon for multitracking.

Any feedback, be it criticism, suggestions, bashing, praise, or questions, are welcome

Cheers, Bo

[rimshot28]

I like the vibe you've got going . . . we're both Matthews fans, I can hear it in your music two. Are there a lot of Matthews fans in your part of the world?

One thing I'd try with this tune is doubling the rhythm guitar and then panning them left and right. Reverb does a good job of filling the stereo field, but I've found playing the part twice or even writing a more simple form of what you have and playing that with what you have helps the ears.

Well done!

RS

[brandondrury]

I can't help with Myspace.

http://forum.recordingreview.com/f11...-reviews-3510/

Brandon

[borocks]

@Brandon:

I have added the song as an attachment!

[Manny]

Great acoustic sound on the recording. I'd agree with rimshot on the rhythm guitar though, could do with 2 tracks panned either side.
Using 2 mics, say one on the bridge and one on the neck, and recording the rhythm in stereo is a nice easy way of doing it.

[brandondrury]

Well, you lose 10 points for using the word "soul" in the song. That's my own rule.

I'm not sure if the vocal performance is just tentative or if you need to squash those vocals with some compression. The pitch on this vocal recording could be quite a bit better. This could be an issue of skill, but I expect that much of it is a lack of comfort when recording. This is the "tentative" part I was talking about.

The engineering is fine at this point.

The song is a good start. There are some good pieces, but I think a little arranging could improve this dramatically.

[borocks]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Well, you lose 10 points for using the word "soul" in the song. That's my own rule.

I'm not sure if the vocal performance is just tentative or if you need to squash those vocals with some compression. The pitch on this vocal recording could be quite a bit better. This could be an issue of skill, but I expect that much of it is a lack of comfort when recording. This is the "tentative" part I was talking about.

The engineering is fine at this point.

The song is a good start. There are some good pieces, but I think a little arranging could improve this dramatically.

Thanks a lot for responding Brandon

Thanks for your advice on the vocals. I've already gathered some ideas as to how I can improve it. I agree that pitch is an issue here.

What I wanted to ask you though,
what exactly do you mean with your first line? What about the word 'soul'? Sorry I didn't quite get that.

[brandondrury]

What about the word 'soul'?

It was really a joke, but I seriously do take off "points" for use of the word "soul" in a song. A song has to be REALLY good to be able to use the 4 letter word that starts with "s" and get away with it.

It could be the fact that I've been told by multiple people that I'm the most non-spiritual person they've ever met. It could be that "soul" shows up in way too many song lyric cliches. It could just be that I've randomly chosen to hate the word "soul" in order to deal with X problem in my life. I did the same thing with metal spoons about a year and a half ago and switched to plastic spoons. It could be that I'm 27 years old, have a decent vocabulary, and still have absolutely no idea what a soul is. A buddy of mine sold his soul for $5 to some dude. I've never noticed a difference in my buddy since. Maybe the dude sold the soul back to him and no one bothered to tell me.

Brandon

[Manny]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

It was really a joke, but I seriously do take off "points" for use of the word "soul" in a song. A song has to be REALLY good to be able to use the 4 letter word that starts with "s" and get away with it.

I have the same rule about the word "love". It's just way over used, so as a protest I refuse to use it in any of my songs.

[Briza]

What if he spelled it SOLE?