Please opine on 2 demo tracks of my band Strange Feels

[jh8406]

http://soundcloud.com/strange-feels/sky-unconcious-w-scratch

http://soundcloud.com/strange-feels/love-as-a-kind-of-lie-rough

[Gregg Juke]

I like the feel of the songs and overall vibe. The first one sounds a bit like 60's Texas Garage/Psychadelic, the second one has that "Rolling Stones do an R&B-groove" feel.

I know they are demos, but they might be a little long. They also are a bit short on dynamics (same volume and number of instruments playing throughout, which might tend to lose listener interest). The drums are mixed a bit bright, and I'd love a little bit of that spacey, soupy reverb to come off of the vocals and get transferred to the drums and other aspects of the track.

But that's from a first listen on Dell computer speakers, so take it for what it's worth...

GJ

[jh8406]

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated!

[Snarl 12/8]

I couldn't listen to either song all the way through. And I wanted to. The mixes sound "inverted" to me. The stuff that "should" be the loudest, is the quietest, and vice versa. The stuff that should be the least drenched in reverb has the most. The stuff that should be the least trebly is the most trebly (hi-hats), etc.

Love the band name. Go for a weirder, more pronounced vibe on the mix. Lop all the treble off the drums, put lotso reverb on them and cut the treble on that too. That'll put the drums "in the other room" so to speak. Cut a lot of verb on the vox and bring up the "air" on them. That'll put them right in your face. Put everything else somewhere "in the middle" of that sound stage. Also, move the faders around during the mix. Bring up guitars when there's no vox, etc. Pan the guitars, bg vox around. It needs some "dynamics." Not really transients, but "movement" and a pronounced and [intentional sounding] "sound stage" (L-R, Back to Front)

Other than that, I really liked it. (That's not sarcasm.)
_________________
Carl Keil

[jgimbel]

I'm pretty much in-line with the other thoughts posted. The mixes could use some work but they're nice songs. I'm curious what reverb is on the vocals in the first track, it's not a real spring is it?

The vocal level is a bit better in the first track in the second, but I agree about taking some of that reverb and moving it to the drums so they're "being heard in the same building", if that makes sense. I do love reverb-drenched vocals, as well as vocals that aren't as loud as in pop songs, this is just a little further toward the former direction than is needed for that to come across. Nice songs though!
_________________
Currently looking for mixing/mastering work - http://jessegimbel.com/studio

Free download of my last album "City Shade/Country Sun" - http://jessegimbel.bandcamp.com

[jh8406]

Thanks so much for the thoughts and advise! While the tracks aren't complete, as in, vocals redone, proper mixing, additional parts, and other misc changes, we will take all these into consideration. The main vocals on Love as.. were run through an amp, which we will probably do again, bc I really liked it, and the other Sky.. were recorded on the fly, but I really would like a fair amount of reverb on them still.