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Hey guys,

I wrote a new short background song for the movie I told you guys about. I can submit as many songs as I want, so I don't want to over-do it, but want to have a few things in there for consideration. Played around with some looping software for this one. First time I tried to use stuff like that. But, I'm kind of stuck, till I get my band on board.

Anyway, let me know what you think.


The song is called "Come"


-------------------- LYRICS --------------------

Come © 2008 Craig Maxim


Come, take this all away
Lord I pray
I am lost and torn inside
I've been sleeping with the devil
Oh, and dreaming of the light

Here inside this empty room
Morning breaks
Daylight slipping through the cracks
I watch it crawl across the floor
Ohh...oh...until it finds my face
Come, come take this away

Take it all away

Come, come,

Won't somone come

I might have missed something, but what kind of movie is it?

Shredd6 wrote:I might have missed something, but what kind of movie is it?

A hit man, is also a believer in God and struggles between the obvious contradiction. He is trying to escape his past, when he falls in love with a girl, who is the sister of one of the men he assasinated. As far as I know, she is unaware of the connection. So there are themes of choosing light verses dark.

Craig,
I Really like this one a lot. Only listened once and I was struck be the emotional level of the vocals for a demo! I've heard a lot of "polished" songs that the vocals weren't half as good. Nice and short too. (good things sometimes do come in small packages). I am curious about the recording technique that you mentioned. I am assuming that the guitar was played over some prerecorded material, or what? Anyways,"Come" is definitely a keeper. Once again, GOOD JOB.
John

HowlinJ wrote:Craig,
I Really like this one a lot. Only listened once and I was struck be the emotional level of the vocals for a demo! I've heard a lot of "polished" songs that the vocals weren't half as good. Nice and short too. (good things sometimes do come in small packages). I am curious about the recording technique that you mentioned. I am assuming that the guitar was played over some prerecorded material, or what? Anyways,"Come" is definitely a keeper. Once again, GOOD JOB.
John

Thanks for the compliment John, very much.

When are you moving to Atlanta?

Not only could I use a good creative keyboardist, but my band may be going through a reorganization the way things have been going.

yea im with howlin on this one...sounds great to me craig...nice playing and the vocal marries perfectly to the "mood" of the music...

i love the windchimes and the backing synth adds a nice warm ritchness to the texture without overpowering the whole thing..and the slight guitar licks arent to busy to distract from the feel of it.
it sounds like it should work with the movie...

goodluck with it..


nice

irish anthony wrote:yea im with howlin on this one...sounds great to me craig...nice playing and the vocal marries perfectly to the "mood" of the music...

i love the windchimes and the backing synth adds a nice warm ritchness to the texture without overpowering the whole thing..and the slight guitar licks arent to busy to distract from the feel of it.
it sounds like it should work with the movie...

goodluck with it..


nice

Thanks for the kind words Anthony!....

... ya damn terrorist sympathizer! (IRA thread - LOL )

*Whistles* Sorry I am a bit later than usual to reply to this kind of thing. Um, I.... Do not like it, lol.

Do not murder me, but uh, I must disagree with I.A. and Uncle Howlin here, I do not like how the vocals go over the melody. I also think the guitar parts are too thick, so to speak. It is like the neck pickup with absolutely no tone, or a very dampened acoustic. It still has that dark feel to it, like it belongs to some kind of Hitman piece, but yeah. Definitely not my type of song.

These are just my personal opinions, lol. I am not as fond of it as I was of the other song you did for the movie - the other song was just great. Anyhow though, good luck with it!

P.S. Sorry again for not liking it, but I think people prefer the truth than to be patronized, because where would that get us as musicians, huh? You have a free pass to hate one of my songs now, lol.

Peace out and good luck with the music to the movie, Guitaranatomy.

Speaking of late. LOL

It's different. Not my cup of tea, but as far as regular structure goes it's all there.

If I was engineering this track, I would use a filter on your vocals, as I can hear your plosive phonetics (p, t, k, n + m)

Other than that, vocal track must be louder.

That is all.

Craig,
Gave the new song a closer listen and my positive opinion still holds. I do have a sense of what G. A. may be critical of. I noticed it in "Maria's Song" as well. It does seem that the music and voice-overs are not always in sync. I believe this is inherent in quantized type recording as opposed to recording with a live band. I perceive it in my own ratty recording of "Caldonia" on my profile. All the music was preprogrammed on my yamaha sy55. I find it difficult to sing over top of "perfect time music". "I put a spell on you" was recorded live at practice and my original,"Misguided Madness" was live in studio (nearly 30 years ago). It just seems to me that a live band and a half decent singer meshes better in some way. I don't regard it as that serious on "Come" however. Still a very good demo. I hope Southern Mischief and your self can resolve your differences. In any event, Keep on rockin!(and writin').
John

I like it.

The only thing I would ditch is the chime. Either ditch it altogether, or bury it deep in the background of the track. And maybe back off the volume of the lead guitar a little. It seems to overpower the lead vocals a bit.

You've got an awesome voice for this style of music.


Damn good song there. Good job. Sounds killer.

Good info!

Thanks everyone.


John, my first impression was that computer lag (Not lag, but the slight delay that can occur - I'm forgetting the term), through USB was the issue. But if that was the case, it should only show up on "Come" because I DID have to turn the "monitor" button on the software off, because the slight echo was driving me crazy. But on Maria's Song, the headphones were in the audio interface itself, not the computer. So the delay would not have been an issue, because I was singing with the keyboard BEFORE it even went into the computer. They would have BOTH been delayed in that instance, and so, still been in time with each other.

So, I re-listened to both songs, and they seem mostly in time to me. However, in both songs, the beat leads the songs, and that could make the songs feel a little off-rhythm, almost off-beat, or syncopated. Maybe that's what you're hearing.

On the other hand, I recorded the songs immediately after writing them, because of the deadline I was up against, so there was no practice time put into it. That's probably what it is. Delaying a little where I shouldn't, here and there, because I haven't yet "learned" the song I just wrote. LOL

Well, you know what I mean, haven't perfected all the parts yet, so I am slightly unsure while I am singing, which part is coming up, and whether I am singing too long or too short, for the chord changes coming up.

But I do know what you mean. Live musicians, are feeding off the vocals along with the whole feel of the song, so they can follow wherever you go. Maria's Song has the drums coming from a keyboard, and a straight beat is going on, without changing, whereas a drummer, would have emphasized certain parts of the song along with me, which puts the whole thing in sync.

G/A I'm not offended at all, but I am surprised. "Come" has a slight latin flavor going on, that reminds some here locally, who have heard it, as Santana-esque, and knowing you like music from other cultures (well, Middle Eastern at least) I thought you were gonna dig it.

One thing I realized too late, is that the repeated guitar riff, doesn't make sense at first, because there is no beat to anchor it. Once the beat kicks in, it makes more sense, timing wise. Had I realized this, I would have put some rim clicks, brushes or something similar in the intro, to keep time before the full beat kicked in, so it was obvious that the guitar was in time and makes sense.

Maria's Song I played all the parts on keyboard. But as I mentioned before, for "Come" I played around with looping software, which is way cheating, but I tried it, cause I don't play lead guitar, only rhythm, and I thought the keyboard was not an authentic enough sounding "guitar". If I hadn't had to take my Roland Fantom x-6 back to the store, things would be different, and I could fool anybody. LOL That keyboard, like the Korg M-3 and the Yamaha Motif, all have very very good samples. The Roland GW-7 I'm using now, is a good keyboard and has some good piano and organs in it, but is weak on alot of acoustic instrument sounds. At least to me it is.

Shredd6,
Thanks for the compliments on vocals. I'm very grateful for the reassurance on my vocals, cause ashamedly, I am a lead singer that smokes like a bandit, which is classified in some religions as a bonofide "sin" for lead singers. So, I am working my way up to quitting - AGAIN- cause it is degrading my voice horribly, and I am about 65% of what I used to be vocally, and IT'S THE DAMN CIGARETTES DOING IT!!!!

Note to self...

CIGARETTES ARE BAD!!!!

Craig,

I think the song deserves a better mix. The guitar is a little out front and the vocals are buried at first. But all the parts to the song are there.

I really like your vocals and their delivery, I guess being a new song you gave it that initial emotion that lots of us get on the first couple of takes of a song. I think I like your vocals on this song better than any others you have posted.

Good Luck

Craig Maxim wrote:G/A I'm not offended at all, but I am surprised. "Come" has a slight latin flavor going on, that reminds some here locally, who have heard it, as Santana-esque, and knowing you like music from other cultures (well, Middle Eastern at least) I thought you were gonna dig it.

Yeah, I am happy you are not offended. No it is just not my type of song, lol. But I have always loved your vocals, you have great vocals man. Trust me, if I was making a band, I do not care what our age differences are, I would hire you flat out. A good vocalist like you is hard to come by.

Keep writing, you have a lot of talent.

Sign, GuitarAnatomy.

i hear what your saying about the "smoking" craig..its been the baine of my life forever...i know it f ucks up my voice and i dont sound half as good as i could but i find it is something i cant get away from...
ive quit in the past but always end up back sucking the old cancer sticks for all my life is worth....
but some of my favorite singers (kurt cobain,josh homme,tom york) are all smokers and it never seems to effect them or if it does it never shows
i dont know.... smoking will always be my crutch..i had more or less stopped smoking back home in ireland(due to the smoking ban) but here in the states its hard not to smoke when im having a few drinks etc...ive cut down alot as of late but ill never break free...and ill never stop singing so its a lession in futility.....me thinks.