need your honest opinion on this recording..

[bobbydj]

(2min. soundbyte of a song)

what do you think?

i've not mastered it yet - just set the faders to zero in this clip.

thanks for your honest opinion.

- ced

Love the drums. Would like to hear more of the 'conventional' vocal and slightly less of the death-rattle voice, maybe. Some great chord changes/progressions - whatever. Good diseased, maimed, ghosts of the eastern front vibe thang goin' down. Always nice to hear, of course.

I liked the general hideous mutant creatures of the night vibe, and the disconcerting "I've just discovered I can probe my own rotting aorta" angle. Good good. Gimmie a wav of them drums comrade!

[bobbydj]

The death rattle one is the backwards one. I dunno - is it backwards?? The damn whispery one.

I can't expand on the other shit without getting totally Edgar Allan Poe on yr ass. Would you like that, I wonder?

[bobbydj]

It's simply that I'm hearing a slightly more conventional vocal 'beneath' (?) the nutty one. And I'd like the balance of them reversed. I dunno - I'm not saying I'd prefer it that way ultimately, just that I'd like to hear it that way before deciding.

Dish a bit more dirt on that drum sound now!! What comp did you use (if any)? What was the room like?

[Professor]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't foresee the big FM stations beating down your door to give it airplay.

Initial gut reactions (and I was listening on cans, not speakers):
- Interesting vibe for sort of a background/art music genre.
- If there was a message to be had from the vocals it didn't come through, at least not consciously - though I do have the strangest urge to go kill some small furry animals. Just kidding, but if it is meant to have a message delivered other than subliminally, you should rework it so that message comes through. If the voice is meant to be purely textural then make that more obvious by building on that texture or keeping it below the more important elements (guitar perhaps?).
- I couldn't here the cymbal sound through the MP3 encoding, it had that sort of key-jingling effect of low bandwidth conversion. It sounded like they were quite present, but I couldn't comment on their balance or equalization in that format.
- I liked the snare sound and the kick sound though it seemed I was only hearing kick on the right side which isn't bad, but also isn't as common as the center. Some people will find that terribly creative on your part and others will find it 'wrong'.
- The first part of the intro is cool, though there is a space from about 0:21-0:29 seconds where the texture drops to just the sort of high cricket sounding synth and the low voice. It is a bit too long and the low voice part sounds too exposed. It's a weird sounding voice part that sounds more cheesey than creepy and should either be supported or thinned, especially if that gap is going to stay that long - if nothing else, just taking out that huge pitch-shifted breath might help it.
- The drums seem like they slow down or at least get sluggish by about 2/3rds of the way through the song. It's a short song at less than two minutes so it is strange that it should feel lethargic and dragging along the way. Adding to the subtle triplet feel in the pattern could help, almost like a triplet swing feel on one or two beats out of each measure will help to keep the drive going underneath without damaging the slow and brooding vibe. Now I don't mean to turn it into a jazz swing but adding a few 1/4 - 1/8 triplet patterns into or on top of the existing ride pattern will help add a little push to the feel rather than just dragging. The triplet feel is already there in the other parts so it would only be supporting what is underlying the music.
- The guitar and bass sounds are very nice, though here again they may be too sparce. Consider adding another 'voice' to the guitar line and having a little bit of extra texture in places to give it some ear candy. The whole piece is more of a textural, mood music kind of work, so give it a bit more.

It really is some very nice work though - I'd be interested to hear more sometime.

-Jeremy

[inverseroom]

Lyrics are extremely important to me--I think they're the place where a lot of otherwise good bands/songwriters feel they can slack off--so I'll say that I think the vocals have to be clearer. They sound...drunk, rather than creepy. Disingenuous. Let the listener hear what you're saying, but do try to maintain the mood, and keep the effects. And the separation, on the musical scale, of the two vocal lines.

The rest of it I think is actually pretty great. I love the drums too, and the way the keyboards swell and then stop. I would introduce something very different right after that, though--the return to the same motifs disappointed me a little.

I'm impressed! This doesn't sound like anything. Well, Kid A of course, but not so that you'd think you were trying to rip it off.

Thanks for posting it...
John.

[chemicalpink]

this song sounds the way I feel, so "good" is not a word I would use around
it, kind of sparkle horse- on homemade drugsish. the recording sounds
like shit. I think it would be cool if you could re-record it with a studer A80
and a neve console or maybe a bunch of grace pre-amps with some
elam 251's or b+k tube mics, mix it on a api legacy or the new neve,
onto 1" 2 track. maybe with tom waits(or a life or 1/2 size dummy) in the closet and eraserhead always playing, we could work on it for a year
or so make it sound like it was recorded on the moon.
FUCK, maybe this is why I don't make the big bucks.
but I do like it. or somthing.

[bobbydj]

the drums would sound neat more dirty i'm sure - but i'm not gonna hassle with that now.

no compression - funny... people ask me that all the time.
the room is as dead as can be. it's my small 3 mtrs by 5 mtrs room.
everything's packed in here, my bed, clothes, equipment (geez!!....)
it's not like it's done in a studio. but that's a no-no in my book.

When I said 'dish the dirt' on the drums I didn't mean 'make the drums more distorted', I meant 'please provide further expatation with respect to the methods employed in creating the recording of the rhthym tracks'. I was under the impression that the afore mentioned euphemism was rather more demotic.

[PDXJamie]

I thought it fucken jammed! Thanks for posting it. It was a treat to listen to.

[bobbydj]

wow pink - thanks for the critique.. i think. not sure i follow you.

demonic-bobby:
dishin' the dirt right here then:
one 'Tandberg TM6' was used for the BD.
and one 'phillips el 3757/00' - stereo yes, but only one side was used. straight to the the recorder. that's it.

"Demotic" bobby. But thanks. Appreciated. Actually I've got a Tandberg reel-to-reel. Anyway, those old mics of yours definitely seem to have done something interesting!