While not my favourite tune of the project, and there's still plenty of room for improvement, I think that this week's song represents a lot of growth for me. I have the lovely folks from the Middle Audio forums to thank for their comments and suggestions for things to try this week...these people are something akin to mystics when it comes to critically listening to music. They can divine quite a lot by communing with a piece of sound, and I'm grateful (and humbled!) that they would answer my call for help.
My focus this week wasn't so much on the tuneage, or even song structure (you'll notice it's a very simple, two-chord song); I more had things like dynamics, compression and eq in mind.
First of all, vocals: I tried standing up and givin'r (2nd part of the song), instead of sleepily sitting and singing (1st part). I recorded two takes, and panned both square in the middle (usually I pan about halfway left and halfway right, close to where the guitars are sitting at hard left and right). I also compressed the vocals harder than usual to try and get them to stand out better.
Dynamically, I was made aware of how 'loud' the last few tracks were. I peeled off some higher frequencies on the guitars, which I think helped. What also helped was finally finding the 'master mixer' panel in Cubase (face palm!), where I noticed the audio levels for the song happily going into the red. I dialed it down (a lot) and exported it into Cool Edit, where I could tell just by looking at the wav form that things would sound better this week (jagged, as opposed to friggin' SQUARE).
I normally have trouble hearing the bass guitar when I use it, so my bass hasn't made many appearances in this project. I was feeling pretty confident this week so I brought it in, and actually used my low B string just so I could try hearing the low, low frequencies. They're too loud in the first part, but sound a little better in the second.
In other news: bought a small, indoor faux-rock water fountain for a certain kitty this week who won't drink out of her water dish.
"What I wanted was not you
If you would be honest you'd see it too
This awful revelation is not that bad
There's a harmonic resonation that drives the past
There's no more room for our pictures on your shelf
I don't have you but I have myself
I used to have some good friends - I'll reconnect
They can help me make it through what must come next"
I think this could be the basis of a nice little tune if you wanted. It's a better start than you're giving it credit for. You got one part Girls Are Short and one part Death Cab For Cutie if you were to flesh it out a bit.
ReplyDeleteDaaaamn! You'd think I'd like it better! (actually, there's been songs that I nearly hated when I posted them, but ended up liking them a lot later on...song #8 was the most dramatic example of this)
ReplyDelete