"Aftermath" - Another one from Dave and Brian

[dberch]

Well, here's another tune from the upcoming demo.  I mixed this one last night.  Sorry, but I sing on this one. This is one of my orginals. I guess it falls in the Sci-Fi-Folk category. If you can stick it out to the end, you'll hear Brian rockin' out on his 'lectric. :o I played this one one my OM-05MT. 

Comments Welcome!  (guitar/harp/vocal levels oK?, etc...)

Aftermath (mp3, 8 meg)

Not our tightest performance, and, yes, I do go to the wong chord more than once. Doh! But We just need a good 20 or 30 second section for the demo...

Hey, hal537, tell your wife this ones for her, 'cuase I'm singing.  If you can call it that....

Thanks!
David 

[Fstpicker]

Very nice sounding. Quite a big sound for an OM size guitar!

[G Man]

Sounds good to me.  And your singing is not that bad, in fact, I think it needs to be rbought up a bit in the mix.

[Mr_LV19E]

Sounds good to me.  And your singing is not that bad, in fact, I think it needs to be rbought up a bit in the mix.

I have to agree, at times your voice is a little washed out by the guitar. I think your voice is fine, you need to highlight it a little more.
Good stuff keep it up.

[hal537]

Hey David

Here is the considered verdict of the south west Kent judging panel! 

Great really good!  I sat down in front of the pc, with my wife, and we both listened intently - and it really was very good.  All it needed in my opinion was a decent mix which presumably you could do with one of those inexpensive little 4 track digital mixers, but it didn't take anything away from the performance.  Which just goes to show that anyone can sing 'cause its in the head not the voice (I have to believe that 'cause you see I really cannot sing). I think I might make this whether it's in the voice or the head into another thread, but anyway....
It's good David and I hope you will come to believe that you can sing.

Ps she did have one little gripe - where's their photo?

[dberch]

OK, Hal, here's a photo... 





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[hal537]

You'll be glad to know she says you both look the part! 

[dberch]

All it needed in my opinion was a decent mix

Uh, could you be a bit more specific, Hal?  That doesn't tell me much, other than my mix is in-decent.  

[hal537]

No David certainly not in-decent! What I think I meant was this.

My wife (she seems to come into this a lot doesn't she) recently recorded a Cd of her spoken poetry.  We had this done in the studio of a young man we know who has recently graduated from a college with a degree in sound recording and studio technical stuff.  It was obvious that there is a lot more to recording than meets the eye even when in a simple voice reading session.  I feel sure that in your case, if you and your pal could record voice, guitar and harp on seperate tracks, a professional in a studio could set to work on your raw material and by tweaking the tracks - bringing parts forward, altering the treble bass adding a bit of reverb etc and doing all the things I know not much about - they could produce some CD quality material.

You guys can play, that's obvious, in my humble opinion all you need is a pro to put some recording polish on.  Hope this doesn't sound too pompous, it's all about playing and having fun but you might like to try and see what a studio session can do for you.

Hal

[dberch]

Ah, gotcha.  Yeah, that would certainly help, but unfortunately I've got no budget for pro mixing or mastering on this demo project.  I'm certainly no pro, and I've had no real training, but I can do a little mixing myself.  Just gonna do the best I can here and plow ahead.

Thanks for the feedback!
David

[topographic]

David, the lyric is pretty good, and the overall feel of the song is good, but I'd work on its dynamics and chord selection. IMO, which at times is worth a little less than  & a  , you need to arrange the song so that it has some very quiet measures. It maintains the same level throughout the whole song...a quiet section would really get the listener's attention---this includes the vocal and the guitar---and I mean get REALLY quiet....make the listener say, "What's THAT?"

On the chord progression, I'd look at maybe substituting the major 7th chords with something else occassionally. Sometimes I find that a straight major chord actually sounds a heck of a lot better than the maj 7th....and fits okay and sounds fine, but why not stick in something unexpected once in a while?

These are the only real nits that I have. The overall impression the song leaves is good because it seems to be sticking in my head a little, which is the best of all indictaors

[dberch]

Hey Topo.  Brian and I seem to do a lot more with dynamics when we play live. Not sure why that didn't happon on the recording. I know exactly what your talking about, there. It really does get folks attention.  Not sure what you main about Amaj7 chords, though.  I don't use any that I know of  in Aftermath.  I use the Asus2 quite a bit though...

Probably not going to re-record at this point, but I'll keep all this in mind for the future.

Thanks!
David

[topographic]

I thought I was hearing a major7th here or there, but I make mistakes every now and then.

We're exactly the same way-- we're definitely a live band and not a studio band, and I really admire those people who can generate energy in the studio. Ain't easy.