Fragile Gods - "Jagged Lines" (new mix Aug 4)

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dark water wrote:Excellent stuff Mr Frantz. I enjoyed it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for giving it a listen. :)

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camsr wrote:Very snappy, but sounds too "roomy" in the mids especially.
I guess by "roomy" you mean too much reverb. I am pretty happy with the mix but it is interesting to hear different opinions.
camsr wrote:I think it could benefit from some movement like a flanger somewhere.
The hi hats do have some subtle processing but this was lost in the Soundcloud transcoding. I agree some flanging could spice things up.

Thanks for the feedback.

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aaron aardvark wrote:Now your tune: instrumentally it reminds me of Kraftwerk at times (good). Audio tone is very good on the vocals. Most of the time the singing is good, though at times it sounds pitchy (I recommend Melodyne). I've had a dream within a dream more than once (while asleep). Drums sound very good, as are all of the synth sounds. I like most all of the melodies. Overall, pretty cool! :)
Glad you enjoyed the melodies and synths.

Yes, pitch is a challenge for me. Sometimes I try Melodyne but I don't like the sound of extreme auto-tuning which would be required to put everthing perfectly in tune. At least you liked the vocal tone. :)

I had a dream within a dream too. I kept waking up only to discover I was still dreaming. It was more of a nightmare. :-o

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seismic1 wrote:I sit down hoping to work on some music, but just can't seem to get my affairs in order and let something else distract me. A few days later, while I'm on the computer messing around with something in a half-hearted way, I can suddenly I find that I'm in the middle of writing something that I find quite intriguing and fulfilling. These moments usually occur at 1:30 AM, which means that I have to work fast if it's a weekday.
Exactly! And sometimes figuring out where to go with a track is real work. It's easier to binge watch an entire TV series. :clown:

seismic1 wrote:I've listened to Jagged Lines five or six times now and I keep thinking of the "Human League", both in terms of the overall vibe and specific synth sounds. It's definitely got an '80s synthpop vibe and works very well in that context. It's lighter in style than a lot of your other songs, almost cheerful, if I'm allowed to say that.
The shouty vocal parts of my last track, "All Systems Burn," were exhausting to record so I decided to do something a bit smoother this time. It wasn't meant to be cheerful but certainly accessible. I wasn't thinking of the Human League or trying to sound 80s but I guess it just comes out that way given the amount of electronic music I absorbed in the 80s.
seismic1 wrote: The vocals generally work well and I like the little harmonies that you snuck on - "half truths", "grapevine" are nice touches. The only part of the vocals that I'm not sure of is when you sing "jagged lines". I think "lines" doesn't harmonise that well with the synth.
The vocals are always hit or miss for me. I'm glad they hit more often than not here. I usually have specific ideas for vocals in mind before creating the backing track. Then I build an arrangement hoping the vocals will fit. Sometimes, when I try to record them, the vocals don't exactly fit and I can't seem to adjust my original vocal idea. :-o To avoid this on the next song, I am starting to record the vocals earlier in the process before finalizing the arrangement.

Thanks for your comments on the mix and the great feedback overall. :)

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markkuja wrote:Good stuff. Nice rhythm and sounds.
Thank you, sir. :)

A general comment - the MP3 version of this sounds better than the Soundcloud version so please listen to the MP3 if you can.

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This is a perfect example of something that could get some rough edges sorted out (synth lines etc.) BUT in my experience it's going to take more than just a teacher to do it. Actually I've learnt on my friends' skin that you should avoid any teacher unless it's going to be a really good one. I am saying that because the vibe in the track and the approach you took really ROCK. I think I can clearly hear you have things to say and you don't care how you're putting them into. Which makes it for a lot of attitude in one single bunch of tracks. That's a long-gone thing today where most people know how to do many things, but all they do is not worth listening to.

You're the opposite in some way..you should yes take a look in smoothing some edges in the arranging but hey, kudos kudos kudos for the vibe and ideas. The biggest and most rare thing to have in a production is there already! The rest is easier!
Markus
Studio manager by day..sound engineer by night!

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good funky beats. i dug the bass, stabs, vocals were good too but the panning on it sounded kind of strange on headphones.
(panned to the left) i don't know if you did it to stray from the norm. it has the same odd effect as the kick and snare or bass being off center. no matter, great tune. :tu:
HW SYNTHS [KORG T2EX - AKAI AX80 - YAMAHA SY77 - ENSONIQ VFX]
HW MODULES [OBi M1000 - ROLAND MKS-50 - ROLAND JV880 - KURZ 1000PX]
SW [CHARLATAN - OBXD - OXE - ELEKTRO - MICROTERA - M1 - SURGE - RMiV]
DAW [ENERGY XT2/1U RACK WINXP / MAUDIO 1010LT PCI]

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Excellent. Nice work.

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nineofkings wrote:The dry synth leads remind me of the earlier/darker side of Human League. Mix sounds very good, except the vocal panning, which strikes me as an odd choice. Other than that no complaints here!
I really like the first Human League album "Reproduction" although it wasn't something I was trying to emulate here.

Good point on the vocal mix. I processed the vocals through The Drop filter and probably used the stereo spread too aggressively. I will do another mix to correct this when I have a moment.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

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davidstiles wrote:Made me think a bit about Depeche Mode, and a bit about Bowie. And some other stuff, too. Overall, it's really good. Personally, if I was going to complain about something, it would be that I wanted a bit more low frequency presence, but I may just have an unhealthy fixation on bass.
I seem to get a lot of Bowie+Depeche comparisons. Not a bad thing I guess.

I did make adjustments to the bass by listening on speakers with subwoofers and earphones. I thought the balance was OK although I can tell from discussions here that bass response varies a lot on different systems.

Glad you liked it. Thanks for commenting.

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I like it a lot.
Very catchy.

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Puppi wrote:This is a perfect example of something that could get some rough edges sorted out (synth lines etc.) BUT in my experience it's going to take more than just a teacher to do it. Actually I've learnt on my friends' skin that you should avoid any teacher unless it's going to be a really good one. I am saying that because the vibe in the track and the approach you took really ROCK. I think I can clearly hear you have things to say and you don't care how you're putting them into. Which makes it for a lot of attitude in one single bunch of tracks.
Thanks for the detailed and enthusiastic comments! I'm glad you enjoyed the vibe and attitude. :)

I did get into a little trouble when it came time to sing over the backing given the somewhat chaotic harmonies in the arrangement. With this song, I felt like being a little unpredictable. I am going to make the arrangement of my next song a little smoother as you suggested.

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layzer wrote:good funky beats. i dug the bass, stabs, vocals were good too but the panning on it sounded kind of strange on headphones.
(panned to the left) i don't know if you did it to stray from the norm. it has the same odd effect as the kick and snare or bass being off center. no matter, great tune. :tu:
Thanks layzer. Glad you liked the tune. :)

I used The Drop's stereo spread on the vox which gives them a panned sound. I would like to revisit the vocal treatment when I have a spare moment. I am in the middle of another track now and I'm finding it hard to tear myself away from it.

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accelerator wrote:Excellent. Nice work.
Thank you. :D

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fergusonbbb wrote:I like it a lot.
Very catchy.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback. 8)

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