General Music Chat

Ok, I just got the go ahead from my cohort.

So this is our latest project say, 99% complete.
Definitely enough to let you people stomp and grind it some.
I could tell you where I think it needs improvement, but why take that from you guys? I mean, you must be so busy you have no time to work on your own materials, right? Only time to talk politics. (faq YOU and then faq YOU again)

"Invisible Light", it'll be the only one on my player so y'all don't get confused now. We'll keep it simple..

"Shag my pink ass, you little bitches".
If you can..a big if on this one.

Not really my style, needs more guitar, singing
sounds good, no bass?, Kinda floating Alan
Parsonish, like I said not my thing. I liked the
talking part, kinda tied the whole song together,
for me with the ocean reference.

Sounds well recorded> I'm kinda a novice
at recording, but needs more guitar.

Pretty cool! Sounds like NIN and Pink Floyd infused together. A definite second listening on this one.

Dispite your insulting invitation to crtique. I believe you are only 80% finished.
Above all I think you need instument seperation and volume control through
Mastering. Your vocal is imperfect but appropriate. Guitar work is good.
I want to hear lyricly something that hooks or grabs my attention but it's not there.
Intro - outro sounds are a good touch. But old school.

Over all pretty good job, Chip.[/b]

LOL Chip? Chippy?

No, he's the guy playing that Genesis thing.



The vocals will always be a work in progress, as I am only a small starfish in a very big sea.

I am working into a magnum opus, I thought it might have been this one but it's agreed it's not this one. Th guitar made me think maybe, but I have a ways to go yet.

The old school is where I live, musically. It's a magical place where anything can happen. Expect to revisit that place often, the modern music has no appeal to me at all. And I'd rather die than rap, ever.

Updated version up with vocals boosted a little.
I didn't ask for it, but my cohort felt it was appropriate so I listened to it and I like it.

It's now on the player instead of IL_1.

I like it ... I think perhaps the the balance or "mix" of the instrumentation & vocals vs what extrinsic sound effects I'm hearing could be shifted towards the instrumentation / vocals.
I like the feel and balance where the "solo" starts @ 3:00.

Hard to say for sure ( cheap a## speakers you know ) but maybe it's the synth that could be pulled back ... just a scoche.

I like it a lot. I really like the vocals on this Cap, A few notes are off pitch but it has a VERY nice feel! The lead solo fits the song PERFECTLY! However it would be nice to hear some lead fills between the vocal lines! Very cool song!

Great tune Scotty. Very "Dark side of the moon".

If I were producing this as the title track for your next album I would:
1. Work on the lead vocal phrasing until it was confident and effortless.
2. Add some electric guitar throughout.
3. Craft the solo to create a coherent story that ties into the song. (David Gilmour is a master at this). A great guitar solo is like great sex. It has a beginning, a buildup, a fevered climax, and an ending. The notes and phrasing you are doing now work well. Crafting it a little more so it takes you to a new place would make this tune really knock people out.

Actually Scott, all the music you have shared is very stylistic in your own way. VERY COOL!!!!!

Thanks for whatever anyone has to say.

I don't need praise and I don't seek it.
I do seek advice from those that really know on how to make things better because I am not as sharp as I would truly like to be and no man is an island.

I know I get surprised more and more or so it would seem.
It speaks of validity and the caliber of musicians here.

This facet I reaaallllly like.

Lynard - more guitar? lol The whole thing is guitar with the rotary speaker. The bass sounds like a tuba, I was afraid I would get Beatles/George Harrison shots to the midsection.

JSantos - glad you liked it. NIN? You'll have to explain that to me sometime..

Klugmo - Didn't really want a hook in here..not that type of material.
Would love to disregard you altogether, but your stuff is so flawlessly recorded. Will go back and look for what you are saying about it.

Sans - You like this? I am happy you do, albeit surprised.
That synth line was the first part to be laid and structured the entire song.
I like the feel of this whole tune, but in truth I am not really the guy who controls what's loud and what's not. I am merely creative content only.
I do love that synth though, without that crazy stuff there would be no tune.

J-HALEY - Yeah my voice is what I work on the most. If I had control of my voice as well as I had control of my guitar, I'd really be ready to do some damage. AS it is, in music as in life, I am a student and always will be.

Funny you like the solo, that piece came from a magic (yes magic) effects channel on a effects item I hastily dismissed as crap.
Les actually was the one that chose it and oddly enough on the first take we got enough to figure out the rest of the tune, musically speaking.

More fills? Wow, I thought I overplayed as it is. I am a "sum of the parts" type of guy. I don't dominate anything, I think you stifle your other musicians when you do.

Johnny7 - Dark Side of the moon? Wow, please do not inflate my head.
I need it to finish what I started. No room for ego in here..Les is the real magician. I'm merely creative dept.

The vocals (alone) were done in 12 hours, from lyric creation to implementation. We just did what we were sure of and it went like a puzzle. Bridge at end with organ, then chorus and then the verse. We wrote the lyrics for each piece right before we needed them. Then we just tried to see how the song sounded melodically and tried to mix and match to give us the best of it. Luck plays a factor as well.

Les mastered for about 48 hours and then we one revision for volume and ear candy at end. In short, we didn't panic (well maybe I did) and we took it slowly. The song though, like the vocals, is very young and not like I have done before, so I felt confused. I realized after we recorded it that I could have done better and that bothers me, but I asked my cohort what he thought and he felt differently so we went with it. Nobody is more surprised that anyone liked the vocals than myself. It makes one wonder if you couldn't go back and rerecord everything you ever wrote and get something better.
(ooh that makes my stomach hurt)

Evidently the lyrics aren't coming through as well as possible. I thought that this tune might be called "Fisherman's Anthem", but I think we did ok by "invisible light" considering we had that as a title before we wrote anything or even knew what the tune was about.. I'll take a slew of hokey names if they give me what this tune did, artistically.

There is a story about a fisherman overboard, we had more but the time factor removes the non-essential.
The fisherman goes overboard and as he sinks through the water he has a hallucination about Poseidon as he starves for oxygen. The solo really lead me to it, as it cried on me and I was shocked as tormented as it originally made me feel.

GLEN J _ I am glad you like my music. It's an acquired taste, kind of like myself. I don't get along with everyone and I don't expect people to love me in general. They can love your work, and still dislike you. In the long run, I am fine with that. I'm just happy that I can write the way I want to and collaborate with someone as talented as Les. Fact is I have played with a bunch of people and I can easily say I don't work well with most musicians. They are way too structured and classically trained, thus entirely too tight when I have to be loose in the pocket to get what I am after.

I'm late to the party, but I gotta add my two cents. I think it's very good! I like the mix, and I think vocally you add quite a bit to the song. There are several points where you make drastic vocal moves (high to low, for example) that gives the performance a lot of character. I can feel the bass rather than hear it, but sometimes that's better-and I personally think this is one of those times.
Klugmo made a reference to hooks, and that would probably be my only suggestion. The solo comes in at 3:00, and other than vocal breaks, there isn't anything before that time to "break it up", so to speak. That's a LONG time to ask your listener to hang on to the vocals. Subtle musical changes here and there ("hooks") will help to hold the listeners attention. You have obviously put a lot of work into the song, and it would be a shame for the listener to turn it off after the first minute.
Just my opinion.

Not as much work went into it as I thought it would take. (oddly enough)

Les and I are in "conveyor belt" mode now, no problem to construct these puppies out of thin air in about (3) 5-8 hour sessions.

And it's only getting faster, stronger and easier.
I just pray the quality will hold up.
I can't be turning out crap....I just won't do it and Les is more stringent than I am. (shrugs)

And you aren't late to the party, you're just in time for booze, I mean punch. lol (clink-clink)

Have some nachos !!! lol Don't eat the deviled eggs, my mother made them!!! (she even burns water)

Chief, when you say, "rotary speaker" does that mean a Leslie spkr?. sounds like a Leslie but just want to be sure I'm not talking out of line..

Is that an anti-fishing song?

The bedrock of that sea needs to be steady and natural - organic percusion. You might want to experiment with a few different rythms.

What is on top of that bedrock is as it should be already - watery.

I listened to this thing 4 times in a row. Not because of some emotional tug, but because of a mental tug.
"Whats going on here?"

I thought, Pink Floyd meets Marcy Playground.
If you don't know who Marcy Playground is, youtube search: Marcy Playground sex and candy.

I think you have something with that hybrid, and Alt Rock is going to be your target demographic. Or, it should be with what you guys are doing.
In my 'opinion'.

The solo was adequate. It's the right effect for sure.
(If you want some missle fire, you can pretend that I said, "Is that all you got?")


The vocals are a work in progress but the tone and 'style' are there.

I cant bash it too much. I set out to give you a good lashing but its just so stylistic, that I can't.

I willl say... that the right balance between organic and synthetic might be the eureka spot for you guys.
It might not happen, but keep experimenting.

Really I thought it sucked, you call that guitar
playing? I don't give a f#ck about your studio
tricks, I found the song boring and undanceable.
The vocals were kind of a thorazine whine, you can
make sh#t sound well produced but its still boring sh*t.