Guitar/Indie'ish sort of tune

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Thanks Tricky-Loops! I'll give it a go when I get home tonight. The guitars are always the hardest part sound-wise for me. It's easy to hear "bad" guitar sounds (which I hear a lot of whenever I record) and easy enough to recognize "good" guitar sounds, but near impossible it usually seems for me to actually produce good guitar sounds in practice. I appreciate the link and will check it out!

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chrisby wrote:Thanks Tricky-Loops! I'll give it a go when I get home tonight. The guitars are always the hardest part sound-wise for me. It's easy to hear "bad" guitar sounds (which I hear a lot of whenever I record) and easy enough to recognize "good" guitar sounds, but near impossible it usually seems for me to actually produce good guitar sounds in practice. I appreciate the link and will check it out!
ELECTRIC guitars are killer instruments, that's why I don't play guitar.

They're able to kill...err...fill the whole frequency spectrum, and it's hard to integrate them in the mix. I think there surely are some experienced people here who could tell you exactly where to notch the frequencies...

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Ahhh, then maybe that's my problem (well, one of them)..... I'm starting with the hardest nut to crack!

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chrisby wrote: I posted the post below just before the forum freeze a few weeks ago so I got stuck near the top of the music cafe for that whole time. During that time I got hundreds of hits on the post (300+)
Actually, I think something went wrong during that time as far as the counter. I saw another thing which couldn't have been getting the rate of views it was.
Beyond that I guess people idly drop in from the topic title or who knows what. I wouldn't be too disappointed about actual hits, there is a lot of stuff vying for attention. I'm not likely to click on much myself. 'Burning question' is why I even clicked on the post.

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jancivil wrote:
chrisby wrote: I posted the post below just before the forum freeze a few weeks ago so I got stuck near the top of the music cafe for that whole time. During that time I got hundreds of hits on the post (300+)
Actually, I think something went wrong during that time as far as the counter. I saw another thing which couldn't have been getting the rate of views it was.
Beyond that I guess people idly drop in from the topic title or who knows what. I wouldn't be too disappointed about actual hits, there is a lot of stuff vying for attention. I'm not likely to click on much myself. 'Burning question' is why I even clicked on the post.
Yeah, that could be... it went from 300 back to 200 when it got unlocked so who knows (though that's still about 20 to 1). My own MO is I click based on the title as well but usually that's due to a music genre or band mentioned in the title that interests me. Once I've done that I'll pretty much always click the song link and then if I have something positive or constructive to say I'll comment.
Last edited by chrisby on Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Also, if one clicks on the embedded player here, it doesn't count.

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jancivil wrote:Also, if one clicks on the embedded player here, it doesn't count.
Hmmm, that would totally explain it but... I just clicked the embedded player a few times in the post and it incremented on the "number of plays" count on my soundcloud page pretty much immediately. Though maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean or doing it wrong. I just clicked the big orange play button on the forum post (not the link)...

edit - okay, now I think I see what you mean... the little number in the lower right hand corner of the player seems slow to increment, but on my soundcloud page it does seem to be pretty much instantaneous...

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you got it to count? I should have said 'in my experience'. I checked it before asserting that; I clicked on one of mine (from an account other than the one it's on) embedded here at Music Cafe, and it didn't count. It never has. It does when I'm at the actual SC page. However one of these times it added one and instantly removed it. :x It (clicking on my own track) never counts for me even once if I'm logged into the account that's hosting the track.

Your track embedded here has the same 10 plays before and after me clicking on it. Maybe it's me that doesn't count. That would be consistent with my experience in life.

EDIT: I think what it is is the counter's behavior is different as it appears here. Now you have 12 plays after I went to your link to Soundcloud. But for me it reads 10 here.

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Exactly... the little counter just seems to lag and get updated in bulk for some reason....

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:? Soundcloud has become so flaky that even the flakes are flaky :(
It wasn't me! (well, actually, it probably was) - apparently now an 'elderly' so maybe I forgot!

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I just played this on the main system here - LOUD. It may be that you just need to cut the EQ a little on the Jag, or maybe a simple volume cut would do the trick.

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I like the guitar sounds quite a lot. The effect as a whole is kind of 'raw rehearsal tape', here. Very much in your face for a rhythm guitar bit.

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Liked your track! funny, I just clicked on it because I just posted an indie-flavor song myself with the disclaimer of recognizing that the kvr cafe' seems to get utilized, predominately, by artists in the 'electronic hemisphere' (whatever the flavor - IDM, EDM, industrial, dubstep, etc)...i'd hoped my inclusion would be tolerated;-)

So after reading your post, I, particularly, would be remiss not to investigate further

But on to your song - So the guitar line is great, I love the chime, ringing and the color of the chords in the verse. The effects in the bridge are good too. I don't at all mind the amount of space the guitars take up, in this genre, they well should! I like the vocals too - the treatment, the occasional squawk of distortion. I'd like to hear the main vox supported with more prevalent back-up's - maybe falsetto mults (like during the 'do-do-do-do-do').

The drums seem a little back to my ears, or the guitars and vox a touch too forward. I'd like to hear a more present snare and a little bit of a low end thump on the kik drum, that said those toms may be a little too forward, or maybe if you haven't yet, try carving a little out of them at around 330 hz, maybe try hpass them at 30-40 hz too. only suggestions

Bass is pretty good. You could add a little more low end if you wanted, fill up that space. actually, maybe the cumulative low end can be added in your mastering session to give both the bass and kik more ooomph. ...which then begs the question - during mastering, did you put a highpass filter on your entire mix to carve a away the low end so you could achieve a 'louder' finished master? I am listening to the mix and its perceived loudness is above and beyond most, so I had to ask.

A well placed tambourine hit layered over the snare during the louder - vamp sections might help show delineation in your arrangement too.

Overall, good song - makes me want to pull out my Abandoned Pools and Sunny Day Real Estate CD's, pretty good production and good on ya!

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folderol wrote::? Soundcloud has become so flaky that even the flakes are flaky :(
Wow, a lot of activity this morning, I'm at work so will have to reply slowly but...

Yeah, though honestly I'm wondering if (as Jancivil pointed out) it wasn't an inflated count on the forum. I've never used soundcloud before so didn't know what to expect or that it was particularly flaky... or it's rep in general, just seemed like it was what a lot of people use,,,,

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seismic1 wrote:I just played this on the main system here - LOUD. It may be that you just need to cut the EQ a little on the Jag, or maybe a simple volume cut would do the trick.
Hmmm, so, if it's not painfully obvious (and I suspect it is) I really don't know a lot about mixing/mastering. I've read a bunch, watched tutorial vids, and try to hear it all (which may be part of the problem, I have some hearing loss from a life of surfing in cold water) but it seems the more I change sometimes the worse things get.

For it being too loud, first it was really quiet, then I used IK T-Racks and a preset and it got super loud with all the dynamics squashed to nothing (wav file just basically filled the screen when viewed). The limiter at the end of the chain was at -.2db (which is where I left it) but the gain coming out of the other components in the chain were set pretty high. I dialed them back until the wav file looked normal and that's where it ended up. So...

Would your suggestion then be to dial back the limiter from -.2db or to work more with the gain from the other components (or just dial back the Jag)? It all feels like a house of cards!

And thanks for the input...

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