Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

JERICHO MARCH Recorded in the METALSHOP, mixed and mastered by a good friend with him appearing as the guest guitarist playing the solos.

Now on my player.

George, you know I love you. I'm not gonna say it's bad.... It's awful.
You guys have come so far it's ridiculous that I should even have to point this out. The recording is GREAT, most of the playing is GREAT. The song has some GREAT heartfelt impact.
But you have to go back and redo those vocals. Give your guy a chance to work with them. I am definitely not picking on you, I love you bro...

Vocals make or break a song. Please go back and work on them and you will put a BIG smile on my face. I would only tell this to someone I call friend.

I don't think it is that bad. The music sounds great! It sounds as though the song was written then recorded too soon, before everyone had a chance to work out there parts. The singer is flat throughout a large portion of the song. The guy playing lead has some nice idea's such as the arpegiatted part during the third verse. The only part I am not fond of is when the lead guitar part comes in the intro. I like the way you start the song off, the feel and message. It is a good song just needs some tweaking definately a keeper!

I had to go back and listen again George. That's a Great song!
Go back and take the time to get the vocals right.
I think Dawg would understand what I'm saying next. You have some great lyrics but you have tell your singer it is not a poem. Interpret those lyrics, bring them to life. ADD some soul like you mean it.
Give your guy some encouragement, he has a good voice. Pitch has to be there though. You guys are playing some great music,,,, That is an opportunity to take it over the top.

Let me know when it's closer to done and post it, I'll rip it and run it through my mastering,,,, I bet it will SMOKE!

J-HALEY wrote:I don't think it is that bad. The music sounds great! It sounds as though the song was written then recorded too soon, before everyone had a chance to work out there parts. The singer is flat throughout a large portion of the song. The guy playing lead has some nice idea's such as the arpegiatted part during the third verse. The only part I am not fond of is when the lead guitar part comes in the intro. I like the way you start the song off, the feel and message. It is a good song just needs some tweaking definately a keeper!

Thanks for filling in all the details Jeff... I wasn't going to get into that.
I think the big thing is Sans got a new system,,,,
I really wish I was there when he said WOOOOW.
I'm trying not to pick on him because you pointed out the RUSH. The ENTHUSIASM, and you are prolly right.
Sorry, I like that guy from Kilgore.

Exactly the" Musician level" type input I was looking for and it's much appreciated.

And it's amazing how accurate you guys are . . . this might have been the second or third time we ran through this song in it's entirety. The lyrics were written to a totally different melody. Jax's vocal interpretation was a new twist and was recorded just as an experiment by my wife whom was on the ZOOM for her first time..
He shot us the chord progression he was thinking for the re-do and we just ran with it.

Keep the input coming.
It will help when we put together the draft and " storyboard it " for production

Sans
I'm digging it.
The vocal issues can be corrected. Nice feel the way it moves it has a touch of country about it, but more like southern rock... the intro had a more modern sound was interesting almost a surprise. Was cool.
It's a keeper worth spending more time on for sure... the song is pretty strong imo.

Much thanks for the input Jahva.
In a telephone conversation with our drummer and our vocalist today I discussed all the points made thus far.

First let me say they also appreciate the input. It can be difficult as an artist to know what to drop and what to run with.

We'll be running with this one while the idea remains hot in our minds.
Main reason for the rehearsal recordings is not to loose the stuff that develops spontaneously as it is often, for us, by far the best.

Were thinking it may even fit into the story board for our first CD.

sanshouheil wrote:Much thanks for the input Jahva.
In a telephone conversation with our drummer and our vocalist today I discussed all the points made thus far.

First let me say they also appreciate the input. It can be difficult as an artist to know what to drop and what to run with.

We'll be running with this one while the idea remains hot in our minds.
Main reason for the rehearsal recordings is not to loose the stuff that develops spontaneously as it is often, for us, by far the best.

Were thinking it may even fit into the story board for our first CD.

Sans your words made me think of this documentary i recently saw about the band U2 and what they went through to record the album Achtung Baby.
They struggled to the near point of breaking up but they cared for one another as friends and stuck it out. No one could figure out what to do or why things just weren't happening. Then one day... Bono started playing the Chords to what would eventually become the song "One" it was all they needed. They found their inspiration the rest is... well a big piece of their History.

The last thing Bono said in the documentary was " You have to reject one expression of the band first Before you can get to the next expression and in between... you have nothing... you have to risk it all"

Well something like that.
You've been through a lot trying to make this work. I hope you find or have found your "One"

Hey George, its a soulful, good song. I agree with Glen and Jeff, the vocals do need some work... The vocal elocution is pretty good, but there is a pitch and tone problem. For the sake of recording:

SOme tricks to try:
1) Go back into the studio and set up a scaffolding track. This consists of a lead guitar playing single-note melody in place of the intended vocal. Doing this will provide the guidefor the singer (Think of it like a temporary training wheel) .

2) Sing Vocal Left track: Take it in sections Phrase by phrase, and try to sing as close to the melody that you hear in the tmp guitar track. Capture that and then:

3) Sing right vocal track. Repeat sections phrase by phrase.

4) Drop the tmp track...(Off of production copy)

5)Mix the L & R vocal track and blend together. Note: where one track might sound a little off, just de-emphasisz its level and emphasize the opposite track's level. Leap-frog between them , adjusting accordingly.

This will make a ton of difference for your production of the demo .

Then use that to rehears with (Vocals for performance) .

The good news is that the singer has the melody working inside. Now its just aligning the vocal chords to match up... and all that takes is focus and practice...
IMHO

Thanks Dog.

Good info right there.

Jax is training with his mother in voice. I'm going to suggest at our next meeting that he utilizes this song as the basis for that coaching until he can get a grip of it. I'm confident it wont take too long.
His Mom, with her Masters in Music is quite accomplished and like most moms won't bullshit him either . . . we also get the straight skinny here.

That is the way it should be on a musicians forum.

George I messed up my computor and am using a sub and cant listen, please leave the song on your player for a couple of days , so I can listen to it.

jw123 wrote:George I messed up my computor and am using a sub and cant listen, please leave the song on your player for a couple of days , so I can listen to it.

OK JW ... glad I saw this I was going to pull it down today as it was never really intended as a public release copy.

I'd appreciate your input as available.

George if you want to pull it down then go ahead, I always like hearing you guys progress, and for the life of me dont know why I cant pull it up to listen to it, maybe once you get it fleshed out better you can put up a better version, it seems that you got some good advice on here.

Keep on Rockin!

I can't add much, not a bad tune, the vocals are weak but might be able to be fixed. The lead guitar is cool. A bridge might help too.