a few of my songs

[marqueemoon]

http://www.mp3.com/sethhoward

- not the best recording quality, but hopefully the songs come across ok.

[eeldip]

the recording quality is good enough... downloading my second right now. at first i thought.. not really my cup of tea. but the song won me over. enough so that i am back for more..

i would cut back on the reverb on your voice...

[zoetrope]

"lemon chiffon" is pleasant. I like the vocals. Overall has a Smiths feel to it. How did you record this.

[marqueemoon]

the recording quality is good enough... downloading my second right now. at first i thought.. not really my cup of tea. but the song won me over. enough so that i am back for more..

i would cut back on the reverb on your voice...

Yeah. That reverb can be tricky. I think the mp3 encoding tends to make the vocal pop a little more than the original version. I'm toying with the idea of doing my next project with no reverb on anything, just as a challenge. I'm glad you like it though. I can see it not being some folks' cup o' tea for sure.

If there's one thing I'd change on "Lemon Chiffon", it's the tuning on the snare - it sounds like ass to me, but the whole kit was recorded with a single mic, so I'm pretty much stuck with it.

[eeldip]

yep. you got some lo-fi, not greatly tuned drums...

but it works. they allow for the voice and the guitar to stand out...

[marqueemoon]

"lemon chiffon" is pleasant. I like the vocals. Overall has a Smiths feel to it. How did you record this.

Thanks! I was definitely going for the heavily layered Johnny Marr thing with the guitars.

I recorded these three songs on my BR-8. On "Lemon Chiffon" That's 6 tracks of rhythm guitar (acoustic and unplugged electric 12 string heavily compressed). Typically. I like to record 6 tracks, bounce to 2, then record 6 more. The two electric guitars are direct, with effects patches I wrote. Bass is direct. Drums were done with a C1000s about 5 feet in front of the kit. The vocals are a Pacific Pro Audio LD-1 into my Mackie 1202 with just a touch of boost to the high end, and the bass cut engaged, straight into the BR-8, with a stock compression setting.

I've got better gear now, but the BR-8 does have an odd, crappy charm.

[marqueemoon]

yep. you got some lo-fi, not greatly tuned drums...

but it works. they allow for the voice and the guitar to stand out...

I'm glad you think it works. I'm much better at tuning drums now, but that snare is a weird one.

[eeldip]

some snares just arent worth it.

[marqueemoon]

some snares just arent worth it.

Indeed. It's a purty one though. It's a 60's 6 lug Slingerland. The edges are really rounded (not damaged, just cut that way). It was my first drum purchase, so I have a strong sentimental attachment to it.

I've since gotten a cheap Premier bop kit, which I love. It has a great sounding snare. You can hear that here, with the band I play drums in:

http://www.feyray.com/sounds.html

[trashy]

Lemon Chiffon (esp.) is really nice. These are my cup of tea. I liked the snare sound; I thought you were going for that knocky sound. You shouldn't tell people you don't like the sound unless they say they don't like it first. Most people will think that's what you were going for, and hopefully, like me, like it.
These are really nice sounding recordings for a BR-8. Most people produce crap on those things. Actually, these are really nice recordings regardless of what you recorded on.
How did you get that sustained chord sound on the verses of Lemon? Is it a guitar? I love that; totally won me over with that sound.
You could have pulled the strings in par avion up a bit. Whatever: it sounds nice.
I'll stop now.

[marqueemoon]

Lemon Chiffon (esp.) is really nice. These are my cup of tea. I liked the snare sound; I thought you were going for that knocky sound. You shouldn't tell people you don't like the sound unless they say they don't like it first. Most people will think that's what you were going for, and hopefully, like me, like it.
These are really nice sounding recordings for a BR-8. Most people produce crap on those things. Actually, these are really nice recordings regardless of what you recorded on.
How did you get that sustained chord sound on the verses of Lemon? Is it a guitar? I love that; totally won me over with that sound.
You could have pulled the strings in par avion up a bit. Whatever: it sounds nice.
I'll stop now.

Thanks. You're right. I've got to learn to take a more Bob Rock approach to apologizing for the shortcomings of my recordings

The washy sound on Lemon Chiffon is a guitar. I used an effects patch I wrote on the BR-8. I think it's a combination of distortion, auto wah, heavy compression, and a little detune-chorus. The stock patches on the BR-8 suck ass, but if you tweak the hell out of them, they can sound pretty cool. You can even apply

I went back and forth a lot with the strings level on Par Avion, but I thought they'd be a little too cheesy if they were up louder, as it's already a pretty sappy song. My intonation on the main viola part is not too hot. Oops. There I go pointing out flaws again

[kristopher612]

this stuff is awesome. perfect for when you're just about to go to work. which im about to do...don't they know it's a holiday?anyway. i really like the percussion on fragments. i can't tell what it is though. i'd definitely like to hear the strings pulled up in par avion some too. not enough to overpower, just to compliment. and i kinda dig the 'verb, but that's just me and it's not my project. but everything is really cool.

ps- does anyone else feel like this part of the board is a bit of a show and tell?