Please critique - "Bye-Bye"

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:47 am

Hi folks,

We're trying to put the wraps on a new song and as always, we get some
of the best feedback here. I would appreciate any comments
you could offer on the song, mix or anything else.

It's called 'Bye-Bye' and is in the 'Metal' genre. You can listen to the
'hi-fi version here:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=6367294&q=hi

You folks on dialup can listen here:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=6367294&q=lo

Lyrics and other song info available here:
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6367294

Thanks in advance. We appreciate your time!

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:18 am

The levels and placement are good, and those very heavily effected vocals are kind of manson-esque.
Definitely some original sounds in this tune. A little more air on the mix would probably go a long way though!!

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:16 pm

the_scort wrote:

The levels and placement are good, and those very heavily effected vocals are kind of manson-esque.

Thanks... Yeah, it wasn't intentional, but when it was all said and done, we noticed a Manson thing going on there too.

Quote:

Definitely some original sounds in this tune. A little more air on the mix would probably go a long way though!!

Oh yeah, that proverbial 'air'. If I only knew just exactly what that meant and how to add it. Smile

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment! It is appreciated.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:36 am

Anyone else? I'll take all the input I can get on this one.

Thanks!

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:47 am

to me i wouldnt mind hearing a little more snare. sounds a little weak in the mix. but we all have different tastes

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:33 pm

I agree with the snare being a little low as well.
I also noticed that the hats seemed to be quite a bit louder than the ride.
Vocals, guitars and drum sounds all sounded great to me!

MarkG
[/u][/i]

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:29 pm

The vox remind me of Mustaine on Sweating Bullets.

A little over the top, but to each his own.

Overall, the drums are a bit funky sounding, flat and lifeless.

But the mix itself is not bad, I give it a 7.

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:18 pm

I agree with most of what has been said to this point. I think the drums are small sounding. The playing is right-on but the sound of the kit doesnt really take the song to that next dangerous sounding level.

The voice is good and I really like the effort on the different vocal parts and the stuff going on in the backgrounds. Very nice there.

Overall it still doesnt jump out of the speakers like it should with the sound I hear you going for. Its still kind of carefull and doesnt have the 'air'..... Wink

Maybe you'll get that in a mastering....maybe not.

Those drums need some serious metallic clik and some grind to them.

I like the hihat....dont change it.

This is the hardest part of mixing metal. Getting the drums to really stick and carry while all the while allowing space for everything else.

It gets a 7 from me too.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:13 pm

Mix is good. I can hear everything clearly. I would pull the guitars and bass down a weeeeee bit though.

About the song. I dont know if I would have put all the stops in the song. It sounds too much like a young band trying to show they have good timing. I would have played through those sections and put a stop at the end of the phrase before the chorus to make it stand out in the song.

Also the arrangment is a little off for my ears too. Your pre chorus fits very well as a chorus but then you go into the Bye-Bye part of the song that simply saounds way too much like MM voice and you lose me there.. The singers voice is GREAT and I would have exploited that rather then dump a butt load of effects on top of it. But if you were to use that as a music break out of a chorus then it would be kinda cool.

I would take te pre chorus and make that your chorus and then use the Bye-Bye part of the song as a tail out from the chorus back to the verse. Just an edit really.

This coming from a metal/rock guy who loves to hear good sounding rock songs ( HOOKY ). Yours is hooky but I feel needs to polished a bit more before you print it.

One last thing before you blast me with a boot to the head =)
The song sounds WAY to clean and by this I mean it sounds as if it was recorded using V-Amps or Pods and not regular amps that were micd up. I also record this way but I make sure I add in some plug ins ( reverb ) to make it sit in the mix like the amp was in fact in a room with the drums. Not dirty but natural...

OK kick away!!!!

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:25 am

Wow! Thanks for all the feedback guys. Don't know what happened, but I never got any email notifications of new posts or I would have been back sooner. Thanks to all for taking the time to listen and offer such detail responses.

Drums... I hear ya. I'll see what I can do to 'thicken' them up. These are V-Drums triggering some pretty nice samples (I can't remember what our drummer uses at the moment). So, while they can cause some inherent problems, they can be made to rock.

Clean sounding... Yes, DRDLKS, everything was recorded using PODS and V-Drums. We're all separated around the globe and send our parts in via FTP. The electronic recording has it's advantages in this arrangement. But, as you've pointed out, it certainly has it's drawbacks. I'll see what I can do to add a bit more 'natural' to the recorded sounds. As for the arrangement, I see you're point there too. You're right, the pre-chorus does seem to have a better hook. I may do some editing on this and see if I can come up with a better overall arrangement. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks to everyone again for the replies... I'll get back to work on this one and let you know of any updates.

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