Entertain Ourselves To Death

Your Mom loves your mixes, but are they really up to scratch? Post your tracks here and get the community's feedback to help with the spit and polish. Impress us! We don't bite.
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

musicturtle wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:55 pm I like this song. You have a way with hooks. I find myself singing the tag to "Take What's Free" every now and then and I can see that happening with this as well.

My only suggestion would be to try putting the harmony on the entire chorus Add it to "Entertain our-" and "Lie to ourselves" - I like it on the second half of the phrases of the pre-chorus, I just think it would set the chorus apart. This is more of an arrangement thing I know, and just a suggestion of course.

Also the singing is much better in the chorus than the verses. I know it's a little bit lower in your register for the verses, but I hear more confidence and attitude in the chorus. An exercise you might try is singing the melody of the verse on "ha." Just replace all words with "ha" and sing it. You should feel you abdomen bouncing when you do this. These are the most important muscles for singing. (if I am talking down to you on this please forgive me, not trying to be condescending just helpful.) This might help add to the rhythmic power of your singing and help it stand up better to your guitar riffs which are spot on.
Cheers mate. I find that once I've worked out my chorus hook, the song basically writes itself for me.

I wouldn't be capable of doing harmonies on the whole chorus and your advice for practising my singing is much appreciated - I'm only just learning to sing. This track and Take What's Free are my most recent and by far best efforts - lucky for you that you missed the other 10 or so songs that I've posted on this forum!
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Bubba
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Bubba »

JD01 wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:00 am
rayc wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:57 am agit
? Bit stumped by this
Agit - Short for agit-pop, using pop music to spread agitationist political ideas.
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rayc
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by rayc »

JD01 wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:00 am
rayc wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:57 am agit
? Bit stumped by this
Agit as in agit pop. Music that raises an issue of political or social import.
"
agitpop
/ˈædʒɪtˌpɒp/
noun
1.
the use of pop music to promote political propaganda"
Cheers
rayc
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Armistice
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Armistice »

See I thought of agitprop, not agitpop when i saw "agit" - i think the latter is just a modern play on the former.

REM - "Man In The Moon" - "Here's a little agit for the never believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.."

Nice tune JD - sorry, I've been a bit absent from here lately so I've missed a few of yours. I'll try to catch up! Only nit I have is that I get a sense of slight out of timeness between guitar and drums about 2 or 3 seconds in - second time the riff is played - first couple of notes - not something you'd notice deep in the song but as it's only a few seconds in, it stood out to me. Otherwise, all good!
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

Armistice wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:46 am See I thought of agitprop, not agitpop when i saw "agit" - i think the latter is just a modern play on the former.

REM - "Man In The Moon" - "Here's a little agit for the never believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.."

Nice tune JD - sorry, I've been a bit absent from here lately so I've missed a few of yours. I'll try to catch up! Only nit I have is that I get a sense of slight out of timeness between guitar and drums about 2 or 3 seconds in - second time the riff is played - first couple of notes - not something you'd notice deep in the song but as it's only a few seconds in, it stood out to me. Otherwise, all good!
Cheers, mate. I'll have a listen later. Its actually a slightly awkward riff to play, doesn't just sit under your hands nicely, so there could well be a timing error when I'm turning it around.
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Armistice
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Armistice »

JD01 wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:57 am
Armistice wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:46 am See I thought of agitprop, not agitpop when i saw "agit" - i think the latter is just a modern play on the former.

REM - "Man In The Moon" - "Here's a little agit for the never believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.."

Nice tune JD - sorry, I've been a bit absent from here lately so I've missed a few of yours. I'll try to catch up! Only nit I have is that I get a sense of slight out of timeness between guitar and drums about 2 or 3 seconds in - second time the riff is played - first couple of notes - not something you'd notice deep in the song but as it's only a few seconds in, it stood out to me. Otherwise, all good!
Cheers, mate. I'll have a listen later. Its actually a slightly awkward riff to play, doesn't just sit under your hands nicely, so there could well be a timing error when I'm turning it around.
I'm sure you could drop one in from somewhere else if it bothers you and you're not a purist! :biggrin: It's minor... and no-one else said anything so perhaps I'm being overly sensitive.
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

Here's Mix 3, this is with the replaced kick and I've messed about with the vocal a lot. Made the the EQ a bit less silly and minimised most of the double tracking - its now really quiet in the mix.
Entertain Ourselves To Death Mix 3.mp3
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rayc
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by rayc »

I like the new mix.
The vocals sound good - less processed and more "real".
The guitars now make me think of Magazine in places.
COOL.
Cheers
rayc
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:48 am I like the new mix.
The vocals sound good - less processed and more "real".
The guitars now make me think of Magazine in places.
COOL.
Cheers Ray. I'm totally undecided on the new vocal mix.

Still not familiar with magazine but they get mentioned all the time.
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Greg_L
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Greg_L »

Lol. Undecided? This new vocal mix is about a quadrillion times better than anything you'e ever done before. Absolutely forget everything you used to do and stick with this for now.
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musicturtle
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by musicturtle »

JD01 wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:10 am Here's Mix 3, this is with the replaced kick and I've messed about with the vocal a lot. Made the the EQ a bit less silly and minimised most of the double tracking - its now really quiet in the mix.

Entertain Ourselves To Death Mix 3.mp3
I like this better too. Vocals cut through better for sure.
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Bubba
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Bubba »

The vocals on this sound great, JD. What have you been fucking about at all this time? The highs are crisp, the words intelligible, just the right amount of body, no annoying and obvious doubling... You nailed this one. Keep doing it like this.
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

Haha. Ok. I'll listen to it again later. I figured I'd use the doubling like reverb. Bring it up until you're not sure it's quite there but it's obvious you're missing it when you take it away.

I removed that massive EQ cut at 3k obviously.
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Greg_L
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Greg_L »

Why are you so hung up on vocal doubling? There's nothing wrong with the idea of using it, but it's not doing anything for you.
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Bubba
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by Bubba »

JD01 wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 12:37 pm I removed that massive EQ cut at 3k obviously.
And not before time. Y' Eejit. :D
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

I think I just quite like the sound of it. It's used a lot on a few of my favourite albums. In utero particularly.

Anyway, removed it now and altered the kick. I just listened to it few times while walking to the shop. It is better like this.

Remembered too, that massive 3k cut was done before I hi passed the vocal.
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WhiskeyJack
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by WhiskeyJack »

Shit son. It sounds really really good. Vocals are breathing your guitar isn't near as thin in some spots as i used to hear it and yea man. this is a JD homerun from where i am sitting. I'm not in love with the clear a nd present cymbal seperation but i know you are using EZD and that bit of shit is pretty tricky to bury with out going down some weird reverb or boxed 'room mic' toontrack bullshit. Kudos though man this is fucking deadly.

Second listen now: you got a lightning bolt of something shooting into my ears on "a dying breath" 1:05-1:06 & 2:16-2:17 and at those lines at the end of the song.

actually now that i keep listening back that artifact is also present in the line before it when you sing the word death. when ever you say death & breath. Odd i suspect it's a reverb / compression foulded up dessser thing.

Other than all that this is brilliant JD. :like: :like: :happytrees: :coolstorybro:
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JD01
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by JD01 »

Cheers WJ, now I have the mix nailed and the vocal parts written I can go back and correct those pops easily. I want to redo the outro too so that it isn't just a cut n paste job.
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by vomitHatSteve »

Worlds of improvement! Nice work!
WhiskeyJack wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:30 pm Second listen now: you got a lightning bolt of something shooting into my ears on "a dying breath" 1:05-1:06 & 2:16-2:17 and at those lines at the end of the song.
I think when the doubling is going to tend to exacerbate the loud consonants like that d. Do you have compression on the doubled vox? It might help smooth out some of that.
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Re: Entertain Ourselves To Death

Post by muttley »

Sounds good to me JD, a real show case for the muttpups. Thanks mate... :like:
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