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pcrecord Sat, 01/24/2015 - 05:19

The whole mix needs better balance.

Since the lead guitar is the only solo instrument, it would make sens for it to be the center of attention.
You could reduce the reverb a bit and/or use a longer pre-delay and add a bit of volume to it to place it a bit more in front of the other instruments.

Also, work the brass ; its masking the guitar at numerous places and please stop it from going left and right. No trumpet player is runing on stage with his mic. Even the melody it plays is kind of annoying. This 'tatata, tatata' do not support the lead, it's just distracting. At minimum ; less volume ! (honestly I would live without)

The bass is a kind of keyboard sound is it ? Anyway, it's kind of lost in there, just creating mud, I'd choose a more strait foward sound.

There is an organ poping some chords.. It sound a bit too dry, not at all in a room with the band.

The drums are not really convincing. The parts seems not to be played at the same time in the same room. The kit would be helped if put in a common room reverb.
Also the playing is kind of un-natural. To make it become a groove, the drums need to share some timing hits with other instruments (the bass and maybe some others)

In general, the song need to be polish, I understand that you tried to show some skills and the lead guitar playing is very good but there is a lot of distractions and not enough support for it.

This may sound a bit harsh but its my humble opinion. You could keep it as is, if you think it's the best you can do. Or rework things.
Feel free to post any other versions, I'd be glad to comment on your progress.

Jathon Delsy Sat, 01/24/2015 - 06:03

There's a lot of clever stuff going on here, but it all sounds a bit cluttered and unfocused. The whole rhythm section sounds a bit stop-start, it never really gets going into a groove. The lack of bass line doesn't help- one of the functions of bass parts is they act as a kind of aural glue, making everything else sit together. Without this the disparate parts sound too separate.
You have an overabundance of great ideas here lacking organisation and arrangement. The lead guitar playing is simply excellent, but it needs a more clear cutting sound to be more distinct. I would recommend simplifying everything, making it more direct and punchy and catchy, as a vehicle for your obviously consummate guitar talent. You clearly have a great talent for music overall, but things need to be arranged and presented clearly.

audiokid Sat, 01/24/2015 - 09:49

I'm with my colleagues on this so rather than repeat I will share some production and performance thoughts.

Technically Speaking: From mix to performance, it wouldn't take much to go from pretty good to excellent.
I would kill the video because its boring and distracting. However, from a workshop POV, the video is revealing why I am bored.

I'd say it's time to start thinning out all the busy stuff and look for hooks.

I'm a guitarist so here's my pov on your performance. You are an excellent player! But, being excellent is also knowing how to keep the listener engaged when you are jamming. Its no more than a guy jamming alone to a program like a million other guitarists. There are NO dynamics to this. You need to get a volume pedal and learn how to add dynamics to a compressed Electric guitar. I never play without one and cannot do it well, sitting down.
I'd also rather see you standing and moving. I mean, you aren't playing Jazz. I'd also be having a bit more than one tone in here as well. Break it up!
The song was a reflection of the image. It shows excellent roots but lacks fineness and experience. What is the song telling us? What is it about?

Kudo's on skill, I think you can go a long way in music. But skill is only a small part of musical success. In fact, its the least that ends up mattering at the end of the day. Without it, you can't make it happen, but to sell it, you must be engaging.

This is the hard part now.
The title of this is about Nagging.
Where is the energy, tears, excitement and pause... ? I don't believe you enough.

Hope this helps.

pcrecord Mon, 01/26/2015 - 03:09

In your next video ?? So this one will stay like this...:unsure:
That is very sad that many artists post their work and ask for opinion on versions they are not willing to (or can't) revisit to correct things.
I understand that once posted on Youtube, you start to have views and likes and you don't want to loose them by posting a new version.
I'm not pointing at Zaknbou here, I'm talking in general...

Do anyone know if we can adjust security on youtube channel ? A bit like on google drive on which you can say acces only to people who have the link.
Or is there any other place to put a video that could be secure from being seen by everybody to take time to ask comments here first ?
Thinking about it, I'm gonna start a new Thread about that ;)^

zaknbou Mon, 01/26/2015 - 03:31

I will try tonight the following:

-reduce trumpet level
- change bass sound and line
- implement some eq ( mainly cutting the bass frq)
- increase volume on guitar solo and cutting the reverb and delay fx

It is worth noting that all the sounds including the drums are played from my synth midi guitar with the roland gr-55 guitar processor ,

Please inform me if there any else i might amend.

Thx

pcrecord Mon, 01/26/2015 - 05:35

You are not forced to do anything Zaknbou. You asked for comments and you got some. You get to decide it they are following your goals about the song and if it is worth anything to you to rework the song. ;)

The playing of instruments through the gr-55 is quite admirable and it explains a bit why the drums feels like they are not played by a drummer.
Since the video et and description in your post didn't indicate this, we all listened to the song without that information. This is a good thing because some of us could have excused a few things and refrain from honnest comments.

How ever you create your music, you need to place the results against what everybody are exposed to (on the radio and other sources).
Unless you demonstrate the process on the video, everyone will expect it to be played by real musicians. (well except us who are used to the process of vst and programming)

It is very hard to place ourself in the skin of other instrument's players when you never played the actual instrument.
A thing that can help is that many Drum VSTi have a bank of midi files that covers many style.
Those midi files are usually very well programmed to make the vsti sound natural.

Please posts updates and new versions, I'd like to follow your progress ;)

DonnyThompson Tue, 01/27/2015 - 03:28

My two cents...

I'm not going to comment about the video; personally, I don't care about that, at least not for this type pf presentation, so I'll stick to musical, arrangement and production comments.

Are you able to hear your drum track well? The reason I ask is that there are spots where you're falling out of pocket, coming in too early, or late... understanding that this in itself is okay - as long as he other instruments are also doing that, but there are times where you have a definitive down-beat happening and you are hitting it early... and, sometimes late. I thought that perhaps your rhythm track wasn't loud enough, and your timing might be drifting because of this.

The tone is pretty generic, it's that 'eee-oww" distortion thing that has been used countless times, from guys like Satch to Yngwie, to, well, every other rock-fusion guitar player out there... It would be nice to hear a guitarist of your style shake things up a bit and go against the grain tone-wise, because there are already so many other guitar players that use this kind of tone, and, well, it just gets a bit old after awhile.

As Chris mentioned, I'd also like to hear some dynamics, everything is the same volume all the time... even a tonal change in your guitar could improve the overall dynamics. There's a section at :40 where you have a "Rhodesy" sounding piano that comes in, and I was really hoping you'd clean upand turn down at that section, perhaps switch to a more mellow, jazzy kinda tone, and play through that section dynamically, maybe something similar to a Wes Montgomery style... You're already doing some octave riffs - which is really what Montgomery did - and if you cleaned up your tone during that "softer" section that starts at :40, it would be more engaging to the listener, because it wouldn't be the same tone and volume level as the rest of the song.

Many of my suggestions are performance and tone based, and I'm not sure if that's what you were after - I'm just telling you what I hear as a musician. As Marco mentioned, when you post something and ask for critique, you're likely to get suggestions that you may personally find to be ridiculous. It's up to you to determine which suggestions you feel are helpful or appropriate. You are a very good player - I'd just like to hear you explore some tones other than what has already been done so much by so many.

IMHO of course.

pcrecord Fri, 03/06/2015 - 19:05

zaknbou : I'm sorry I didn't see your last post sooner (jan 26)
Honestly, this new video, is kind of like the other one isn't it ?
I'll try to be constructive here, there is a few reasons I can't relate to your song. Other than the guitar, the instrumentation is very unnatural to what a musician would do. If I remember, you said you were playing them through a midi controler with your guitar. I think I said I respected the approach and courage to do so.
But In the end, it's too far off of the real thing for me. Give me a standard 4/4 or a blues line with a nice melody. I'm sure you can do that !

If your goal was to show your playing skills you could make a far better impression just playing to a click track.
I hope I didn't offend you and look foward listening to more of craft ! ;)