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Following an initial crit from Ang and Son of Smawg I have remixed 'Mukai' with their suggestions in mind, in the limited time (and experience) I have. I have also uploaded the second song 'Yo!' to the NEW website.

Please give them a listen and let me know what you think. They are both c. 3Mb in file size and are both encoded at 128Kbps in stereo.

The link is http://www.angelfire.com/home/loungefoot

Jpop ain't my cup of tea, but the project was a good laugh and I learnt the ropes (all be they a bit tattered)in doing so

Here is the equipment I used:

Digi001 (PC)
PTLE 5.1
Waves Gold in RTAS shell
Roland XV3080
Roland MC307 Groovebox
Pod 2
TC Electronic M-One
SPL Vitaliser Mk2-t
RODE NT1 Mic
Joemeek SC2 compressor

Thanks for any feedback.

Send me your names in Japanese for credits!

Simon san :)

Comments

Ang1970 Wed, 06/13/2001 - 08:27

The listening room page loads fine, but doesn't download when I hit the download link. It just sits there.

The angelfire page is blank, white.

The second angelfire link you gave won't allow me to download the mp3 because it thinks I'm trying to do it from an external site.

BTW, the girl is cute... You've got a hit! :)

SonOfSmawg Thu, 06/14/2001 - 11:35

I was able to download off of the lycos site, np.
Much better! Her voice sounds great, and I really liked the placement of the reverse cymbals.
There are still things which you need to beef-up to make it more dance-able.
First of all, the dynamics. When you drop most of the instruments out and leave her singing almost on her own, you're losing it. Leave something under her to carry the song. Actually, you need a climax here instead of an anti-climax. You know...the part of the song where, on Star Search, everyone stands up and goes wild...that's what you need there.
The bass was bolder, but a little out of control. You want to either compress what you have or try a different bass sound...maybe more of a "thwap" than a "thud", and make it more steady, more driving.
You definately need a steady bass drum beat under this song...it's abscence is conspicuous.
Your snare drum sound needs to be fattened-up and livened-up. It sounds thin and hollow. Add more bottom-end to it, maybe some compression, flange and fast echo, and take the gate off of it.
Definately lose or change the trumpet-type synth sound toward the end of the song.
The end of the song kinda leaves you cold. The fade doesn't seem to work. You might want to reintroduce the big WAH sound from the beginning and escellate it to a BIG BANG end...leave em standing with their jaws open.
Love the singer, love the song, and you're almost there on the production end. Great job.

anonymous Fri, 06/15/2001 - 01:24

Ang,

She sure is a fiery cute one!

With the listenting room sometimes you have to try a few times before the save file dialog opens and there can be a short wait too, however, once the dialog opens the transfer rate is good. So if u have the time please try again, I'd love to hear your views on the 2 songs. (BTW, worst case I can mail them to you - let me know if that's an option)

SOS, thanks for the advice and encouragement. I am also nearly sick to death of it as I have been slowly working on it for months and months! Your ideas are bang on. I will try and revisit the song once again in my free time. As you know, I'll have to go back a couple of levels of mixes to before I bounced the drums to stereo etc.

Did you get a chance to listen to Yo! the second song listed there??? I'd love your opinion on that one.

Thanking you...

Simon :)

SonOfSmawg Fri, 06/15/2001 - 21:45

YO...yeah, way kewl...
love the rhytm section thing you've got going on this one. Again, you need to compress the bass a bit to even it out. The louder you play it, the more this is obvious.
I obviously have no idea what Kimu was saying/singing on this, but she doesn't seem to have her heart in it. There's no real inflection, and she never seems to get in the least bit excited about what she has to say. I could be totally wrong on this one, since I don't know Japanese, but that's what I hear. To me, it sounds like she was working too hard trying to get the tracks down, and either not enjoying herself or perhaps she was concentrating on how she was singing more than what she was singing about. Do you understand what I mean? This is REAL common. If this is the case, then this where YOU come in. It's very impotant that the person handling the technical end of recording gets the most out of the artists. Your job here is to excite or motivate the artist into getting your best take. People are all motivated differently, and how to do it is up to you. You are there, and know the artist and the situation. Usually, when recording gets to be too much like WORK for the Artist, it's best to take a break, and do something...a barbecue, a motorcycle ride, a horseback ride, lunch at a nice restaurant, a walk in a park, wild sex...whatever. When you come back to record...be ready for that Magic take.
Your rhythm section is SOLID on this one, I love it. The one thing that it cries out for is a solo instrument. I thought it needed either a flute, a saxophone, a lead guitar, or a poppin-slappin bass guitar. I had my g/f listen to it, and she liked it, but the first thing out of her mouth was that it needs a saxophone, without me ever having said a word about it. When we listened to it again, I could HEAR the sax in it...just my $.02...
I really like this one a lot. Again, you have a great start, full of potential and possibilities. Go for it man, and don't be afraid to get nutz with it, and experiment, experiment, experiment...

anonymous Sat, 06/16/2001 - 10:54

SOS,

Thanks a mill for the feedback. I think Yo is a better groove too. You're bang on again about the vocal - sounds a bit lifeless to me too, but in Japanese this could be different. I actually don't know. Also, she was in Dublin for 2 days and we had only click trax and basic guitar chords for her to sing both songs to. In any case, she is in Canada...I am in Dublin...I don't think I'll get another stab at the vox.

I am definitely gonna record a sax / geetar solo over the song for you to have a listen to. Again, it's a great idea and I'm sort of kicking myself a bit that I didn't think of that one!

Hey, maybe one of these days I'll post up some of my own stuff for you to have a listen to - when I actually get one finished that is.

I'll let you know
'bout the solo

:)Simon :)