Lord of the Flies Day - New VHS song

[vomitHatSteve]

Hello, you lovely people! I've got a new mix that I'd love some feedback on.

Lord of the Flies Day - Regdar and the Fighters

So it's technically two songs,* but they're meant to flow into each other. That's the big part that I'm concerned about. Around 2:55 is when the switch happens. The second song is meant to be much heavier. To that effect, there is more distortion on some of the rhythm instruments, it's a completely different (metal rather than rock) drum kit, and the vocals are more buried and simpler.

Does it work? Do they flow while still contrasting?

Thank you!

* In case any of you were confused by me suddenly uploading a 4 minute song!

[rayc]

Steve,
The kick drum in the intro/1st song sounds very metal - all click and no meat.
I'd rather the distorted guitar in 1 were a little cleaner.
TRANSITION to 2?
No problem.
The snare & kick sound the same though.
The snare is too far forward in the mix all the way through.
I enjoyed part 1 more - probably because I had time to hear the lyrics.
I like the theme and the songs are quite good...

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks for the feedback, Ray.

New mix at the same link with massively altered drums.

[JD01]

Thanks for the feedback, Ray.

New mix at the same link with massively altered drums.

Listening to Mix 2.
The drums sound really thin and electronicy and the guitar sounds fuzzy and indistinct to me... but, all your music sounds like this and think its what you're after. Kind of 8Bity.

I think the kick could be thicker and heavier throughout, it sounds heavier in the heavy bit towards the end.

I think the vocal on this sounds great.

Aside from its being weird and 8bity I can't really spot any obvious problems with this mix other than it being a bit dark and muddy with the dark, fuzzy guitar tone and the bass.

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks, JD. Fuzzy and indistinct is generally what I'm going for with rhythm guits, and 8-bitty on some elements.
I like the core kick and snare to sound full tho, so I'll revisit that today.

[vomitHatSteve]

Mix 3: http://www.regdarandthefighters.com/dow ... d/SG9wcGVy

Slightly tweaked drums. Fixed a programming issue on synths.

[JD01]

I think this is better, Steve.

The fuzz guitar is still totally lost in this though. For the first half of the song I'm just hearing it as a kind of rumble in my right ear. Someone like Greg or Bubba might be more help about what to do about this. I suppose I would start by hi-passing it and then maybe turning it up a bit.

Also, have you heard this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3xFmN8sYig
I reckon you'd be a fan!

[vomitHatSteve]

Also, have you heard this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3xFmN8sYig
I reckon you'd be a fan!

I liked it better when it was called the Doom soundtrack!

[Armistice]

I'm listening to mix 3 - interesting tune - I think the segue between the two parts works fine. The guitar sound in the first section is not to my taste, but you're clearly going for a particular sound and you know what it is, so I'll leave that alone. I think the kick's OK but the snare is a bit cardboardy for me - but again, I'm not sure what you're actually going for here.

Nice to hear stuff again from you though VHS!

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks, Armistice.
I'm doing minimum one song a month these days over on the patreon (And then the album will come out in July)

[Bubba]

I've listened to this a couple of times Steve and I have to say it's a bit weird, even for me. I think it's so idiosyncratic that I'm going to find it almost impossible to offer anything useful, but here goes! The vocals are great and come over really well. The drums are, well, odd. They're not really a kit, are they? Pretty mono and leaning over to the left and strangely crispy. They are what they are I suppose, and I guess that you want them that way. For me, the kick could be a lot beefier to add more weight to the bottom end. It has quite an epic poem feel about it like a saga or a literal translation of a video platform game journey.

I've listened to it three times now, and I'm still none the wiser.

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks, Bubba.

The drums are a mix of fairly conventional VSTi drums and randomly-generated loops. (e.g. at the beginning, the 3 kicks on 2 off pattern is sequenced; everything else is randomized.)
The plot is probably a tad incoherent because it's tracks 4 and 5 from a rock opera!

I've done two passes of trying to beef up the kick, but I may do a third today. (Tho technically, I'm supposed to release it today...)

[Greg_L]

This is classic Regdar!

It's about as I'd expect. Weird and choppy. That's a good thing. Don't go throwing me any curveballs. For all the weirdness, the production is actually much improved over your earlier stuff - the vocals in particular in the first half. The second half could use a little volume boost on the vocals. They're harder to make out. But the vocal quality is good. This better production let's your weirdness sound good instead of just being weird and not as good. Nice job overall!

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks Gerg.

Classic Regdar indeed since I wrote this one back in high school. (I don't think Regdar the character had even been invented yet!)

[vomitHatSteve]

Alright. I'mma stick a fork in it for now.

I'll probably tweak it slightly for the album release in July (retracked one instrument and I'm hoping to have guest vocalists), but this is good for this version.

[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1xk3m5uZXA[/BBvideo]

[JD01]

Cool. Well done mate.

What did you use to make the video?

[rayc]

Solidly your own vision. The final mix sounds good.

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks.

The video is done with Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. And some of the most basic tools it has (which, even then, is kind of a hassle)

Pig/snake fight footage is from the prellinger archives.

[JD01]

Thanks.

The video is done with Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. And some of the most basic tools it has (which, even then, is kind of a hassle)

Pig/snake fight footage is from the prellinger archives.

That's actually relatively pricey. Not crazy though I suppose.

[vomitHatSteve]

Yeah, I've yet to find a video editor I actually like.

Avidemux is unsupported.
Windows movie maker is weak and buggy
Movie Studio/vegas has pretty mediocre user interface and is kinda expensive.
Adobe products are universally terrible.
Reaper has never worked for video for me.