New WIP - Power

[Tadpui]

This one started as a few different scratch ideas that got mushed into one song. My plan is to retrack from the ground up, so I wanted to throw it out here since I'll have the opportunity to change anything from the tracking and mix to the structure, lyrics, or whatever. Since it was built upon some very lazily recorded initial tracks, there are some things that I'm just not going to be able to fix, so I figure I'll retrack it now that the "feel" is pretty well set and I can track with a little more confidence going in.

Of course my follow-through is notoriously bad. My record of ever posting mix revisions is pretty abysmal. I never did get around to revising my Lonely Avenue cover. Instead, this song took my attention. I always listen to your advice, and usually I even make the changes. But by the time I've done that, I'm sick of the song and I'm off to the next thing. I'm trying to change that, if I'm ever actually going to release something.

20230206 gm extended ideas-003.mp3

[stratmonkee]

I really like how clear and well-defined bass guitar and electric guitars sound. Vocals sound cool, very nice acoustic guitar break!!! ( I'm typing while listening) great segway into guitar solo, almost Stephen Stills sounding ;>). That chorus is super catchy. I enjoyed this, great song!

[Tadpui]

Thanks @stratmonkee! I'm still breaking in a new mic (Bayerdynamic M160) for electric guitars so it's good to hear that it's sounding good on your system. I've had such mixed luck recording electric guitar amps...it's so simple on the surface but then I hear Greg and JD's guitars and realize I'm still in electric guitar grade school

Thanks for the kind words!

[Armistice]

I think the guitar sound suits what you're doing - might put a bit more high end into it next time, perhaps.

Think this will scrub up nicely if you retrack it - it's not that bad now. And it's a good song!

Remember the old saying "the perfect is the enemy of the good" - finish things. There's great satisfaction in finishing a sizable project, even if no-one ever listens to it. And a great conversation piece...

(My GF occasionally drops "David's just released his new CD" into conversations with new people, even though I ask her not to... and then the response is usually something along the lines of "Oh, you've got a CD, that's great..." to which I usually say "It's actually my 6th CD..."

Finish things.

I want to hear more Tad tunes.

[rayc]

Nice to hear a Tad song.
The higher register vocal made me think of Rami.
Nice drop to the acoustic.
The lead that started after that has elements of Neil Young in it.
I like this.

[SweetDan]

Nice tune! And doesn't sound lazily recorded.
I wonder how the bass might sound and fit in the mix with a bit of distortion added to it?

[CeeBee]

I wish I could lazily record as good as that. Good song, I enjoyed it. If it were mine I'd consider it done and dusted

[JD01]

@Tadpui I'm well behind on this section and I almost never click on WIP. I only opened it 'cos it was yours and you don't post very often.

Firstly and most importantly its a really good song, I really like the mix too. It sounds like a good piece of rock n roll.
The only critique I'd say is that the bass isn't really coming through... I'm on my reference cans which seem to lack a bit of bottom end, but this does strike me as the sort of song where you could get away with quite a dirty bass tone. Bass is great in the acoustic section, it just struggles to separate from the electric guitars.

If you do re-track this be careful... this is good as it is. Don't sanitise it, at the moment this sounds like a rock band. Don't make it sound like a guy in his home studio who's punched in everything that isn't 100% "perfect"

[Greg_L]

From a mix perspective it's fine. You know what you're doing.

For my own personal taste I think maybe you've hit the drums a little too hard with the compression. I mean it's right on the edge of being just enough or too much. When you dig in to the toms it really makes itself noticeable. The snare sounds awesome but it doesn't really punch through in the choruses. The whole drum mix is sort of flattened and that to me is telltale over-compression. I get it for a stylistic effect because it sounds cool, but maybe it's too much.

I like the tones...bass, guitars, all sound great to me. Nice bit of just-enough-dirt on the guitars. That's like the angry Fender amp sound and I dig it. Bass is clean and rumbly. I like it.

From a songwriting standpoint you totally lost me at the way-too-long acoustic breakdown solo part. It sounds fine, tracked well, performed well, all that is good, but man it's too long and it doesn't add anything to the tone of the rest of the song.

I love the lyrics. Snarky, sarcastic, I love pointing the finger at bullshit. I think you could sing them a little better. I know you can. They're a little thin and pitchy and wavery in spots. If you wanna retrack anything, do the vocals.

[vomitHatSteve]

I like the guitar and bass tone and that riff.

I don't have as competent an ear for drums as Greg, but something does sound kinda lifeless with them. I was gonna say turn up the kick and snare, but it might also be compression.

The acoustic interlude does sound generally unrelated to the rest of the song, but I think that's fine. I don't agree that it's out of place for it or too long. But the transition out of it does feel a little low energy to me. I wonder if you need an electric guitar solo there? Or something over-the-top at least until the vocals come in.

[Tadpui]

I LOVE the critique so far, fellas. This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I'll make some critical decisions about the structure. I'll give it a run-through with a half-length interlude and see if I like it. Otherwise I'll come up with something to add a little interest and sense of progression and crescendo to it.

And the toms...ugh. I've been struggling with them for a while now, on several of my last projects. Compressing the snot out of them was my attempt to make them sound less like banging on empty coffee cans. I finally got them tuned where they sound OK in the room, but that isn't translating to the recording. Maybe the 2-ply coated heads just aren't right for me or for this kit? Or maybe my mic position on the close mics isn't right? Or maybe I'm finding the exact wrong way to bang on them.

If there's anything else nagging you guys about it, definitely toss it out here!

[musicturtle]

It's really good @Tadpui.

The acoustic is well recorded, I love the breakdown in the middle.

Vocals are clear and clean. Background VOX are particularly good.

[JD01]

I like the breakdown too.

[TripleM]

I think the sounds are good. I'd keep things mostly the same when you track for real.

I wonder if a little distortion on the bass (just a little) might sound cool on a song like this?

And this is just me, but I'd double track the vocal.

Agree - the breakdown is nice.

[Tadpui]

@JD01 duly noted, thank you!

@musicturtle thanks Tony, I appreciate the feedback!

@TripleM Thanks Trips! The vocals are double tracked, but maybe I dialed back the double a little too much. I'll fiddle with it on the retrack.

Of course, life has gotten in the way of playing music this past week. Got paged for work after midnight Sunday morning, spent the next 12 hours working, and that set me off on the wrong foot for the week. It's been an exhausting one, but it's rewarding getting stuff done. And tomorrow we're making a whirlwind trip to KC tomorrow to look at some land that we're thinking about buying. We're actually thinking hard about cashing out of the Denver area and building a house out in the country on 4 acres outside of the KC area. So as soon as tomorrow, I might be a landowner in Kansas