late June 2021 MY solo playing ...eek

[rayc]

Here's one I'm working on at present:

29JUNE2021.mp3

It's pretty busy in the chord change world in some spots.
I did a demo using an amp in a box but decided to retrack now that my Marshall has been set up & tested.
I have the master fairly low on this so far because, whilst the walls are brick on both levels, the floors are time as are the ceiling so noise travels easily & well.
I'll retrack when I'm not disturbing anyone if needed.
Squire Mustang to Marshall with my ancient Ibanez Renometer #95 on the way in - on one side a bit of a cocked wah tone and on the flip it's more a pushed Vox thing.
A 57 & a 609 blended for each guitar. There's still a remnant of the pedal amp up the centre fleshing out the minor chords.
Bass - vantage into the interface.
Solo is just the 609 mic PLUS a doubled version I did with the pedal when demoing...it may stay or be tossed.
The solo was easy enough to play but I had to use a computer to help work it out. I don't know any scales besides C and get VERY hung up on sticking to chord tones when I try to "write" a part. The computer surprised me with it's choices for that reason.
I do have a melody - which does more than ride the root - but nothing worth recording yet.
Thoughts, suggestions etc most welcome.
Thanks for the comments of draft one.
I've retracked the guitars...just Mustang -> BOSS overdrive, (only a smidgen of dirt), into the Marshall.
I did add 12 string to the verse but it doesn't seem to sit well.


Vocal melody sorted, scratch vocal to draft lyric done.
Needs what (besides a singer)?

Okay, thanks for the input folks here's a mix somewhere between fizzy as all get out and blanket over the amp.
Can't really do anything about my voice but any ideas to improve the music gleefully anticipated.

I've tried to follow Greg's suggestions version a has the earlier guitars with a "dark" one added b has new guitars across the board but, again, trying to fit the suggestions.


New mix with new guitars tracks on one and a combo of new n old on the other.



Tidier guitars (I hope) and tidier BVox including the wife & sister-in-law.

stingingeyes1307 all bvoxhi.mp3

[JD01]

Yeah, those guitars sound pretty small and buzzy. When you say pedal amp in the centre fleshing out minor chords? You mean there's three guitars in there? I'd probably lose the centre one and you might be able to bring the bass down a bit - its well prominent now.

The solo is pretty cool actually, its probably a bit loud as it stands and sticks forward a bit much - I normally give my lead a little extra reverb.

[vomitHatSteve]

Are the drums BiaB? They're sounding a little canned right now.

I'm cool with the guitar tone, but thin guitars that only serve to fill up the middle are one of my usual choices.

Solo does pop out, but I assume when you get vocals in they'll similarly pop out, so it won't sound unbalanced?

[stratmonkee]

I like it, the solo fits nicely, pretty upbeat vibe . Really like your bass guitar tone, look forward to hearing this develop, good start!

[rayc]

@JD01, @vomitHatSteve & @stratmonkee,
Thanks for the comments & observations.
Retracked guitars as mentioned in the OP.
Pulled the bass back a bit and changed the compression on the drum file to liven it a little.
The added 12 string may have to go.
I tried to replace the solo with one one the 12 string but they extra strings made for messy droning.

[Greg_L]

Vocal melody sorted, scratch vocal to draft lyric done.
Needs what (besides a singer)?
stingingeyes0507vox.mp3

I like this song Ray. Nice job getting a vocal melody to meander around the chord changes.

There's a cloud kind of hanging over the whole mix. The guitars are fuzzy and dark like the the tone knob is rolled off. There's a mucky resonance in the vocals. Everything just needs a brightening up. Maybe less fuzz on the guitars, get more of a power jangle. The guitars do unfortunately sound like an amp turned down too low.

[rayc]

I like this song Ray. Nice job getting a vocal melody to meander around the chord changes.
There's a cloud kind of hanging over the whole mix. The guitars are fuzzy and dark like the the tone knob is rolled off. There's a mucky resonance in the vocals. Everything just needs a brightening up. Maybe less fuzz on the guitars, get more of a power jangle. The guitars do unfortunately sound like an amp turned down too low.

Thanks @Greg_L ,
I was trying to a) record my amp in a new, brighter, smaller room and trying to address the comments about it being too fizzy - seems I went too far.
above's a mix much closer to my original demo & original idea for this one and, I think, closer to your description...less hammering and more jangle/power pop ishness. Mustang throughout and 12 string on the "choruses".
The vocals...yeah, I know. I had to TUNE quite a few notes here and there as it was a 1st run at singing it and the intervals were a bit much until, hopefully, I get a chance to belt it out properly, (sung quietly at present as the wife was asleep upstairs). My interface is creating several peaks of noise above 10K so, while trying to isolate the problem, I've been throwing a low pass onto things...mind you I'm told I can't hear above 8k so it's probably a silly thing to do.
Thanks for the feedback...If this mix sounds better I'll try to do the guitars with the same tone again but play better - I almost know the song now.

[Greg_L]

Thanks @Greg_L ,
I was trying to a) record my amp in a new, brighter, smaller room and trying to address the comments about it being too fizzy - seems I went too far.
above's a mix much closer to my original demo & original idea for this one and, I think, closer to your description...less hammering and more jangle/power pop ishness. Mustang throughout and 12 string on the "choruses".
The vocals...yeah, I know. I had to TUNE quite a few notes here and there as it was a 1st run at singing it and the intervals were a bit much until, hopefully, I get a chance to belt it out properly, (sung quietly at present as the wife was asleep upstairs). My interface is creating several peaks of noise above 10K so, while trying to isolate the problem, I've been throwing a low pass onto things...mind you I'm told I can't hear above 8k so it's probably a silly thing to do.
Thanks for the feedback...If this mix sounds better I'll try to do the guitars with the same tone again but play better - I almost know the song now.

Yeah that's getting better.

Couple o' things....the room won't matter if you're close miking the amp...to a degree. Sure a bathroom or closet might have some effect, but a small to regular sized bedroom or living room is fine for close miking. Won't matter. And turning a big loud amp like that down to don't-disturb-anyone levels can yield a fizz problem. You might wanna try a combo of the master volume and your attenuator. Turn the amp up a little more in the amp and then knock it down a little with the attenuator. I bet you could find a happy spot where the amp can push some signal without being deafening.

And I don't usually like to give songwriting/arrangements ideas, but something struck me that might work well for this song. Use the janglier guitars in the verses and introduce some overdriven guitrars in the choruses. Like right now, the left channel guitar is still pretty dark. Replace that one with a cleaner guitar and then in the choruses layer in some dirtier guitars. The 12-string is a nice touch, maybe move it to the middle to make room for the dirty guitars.

[rayc]

And I don't usually like to give songwriting/arrangements ideas, but something struck me that might work well for this song. Use the janglier guitars in the verses and introduce some overdriven guitrars in the choruses. Like right now, the left channel guitar is still pretty dark. Replace that one with a cleaner guitar and then in the choruses layer in some dirtier guitars. The 12-string is a nice touch, maybe move it to the middle to make room for the dirty guitars.

THANKS for the amp suggestions and for the arrangement stuff too.
I'll try those tomorrow...someone in the house is down with a migraine this morning so I'll have to hold until it's safe to blast.
I was thinking about repeating the "You don't care" section a couple of times before the outro as well.
Thanks again.

[rayc]

@Greg_L
do either 1007 a or b comes closer to what you were suggesting?

[Greg_L]

@Greg_L
do either 1007 a or b comes closer to what you were suggesting?

I like B better. That's more like what I had in mind. The left channel overdriven track in the chorus is still very dark so the transition from verse to chorus and back is very abrupt.

It doesn't need to be a huge change from clean to dirty guitars. You're not going from Jazz to Metallica. Just a little bump in intensity from the guitars from verse to chorus. Think like...you're playing clean and jangly and then you hit an overdrive pedal. It's just a pushed version of what you were already doing.

Also, just to be clear, in my mind the cleaner jangly guitars should run throughout the whole song nonstop. The dirtier guitars would only get layered in during the choruses. The dirty guitars don't replace the clean guitars in the chorus, they just sit in there with the clean guitars.

[Alison]

Cool song! Really interesting chord progression. Did you conjure up the chord progression first, then the melody? Like the ending. . .very fitting. I just came in on the last edit you did and really don't have anything to add. I enjoyed listening!

[rayc]

I like B better. That's more like what I had in mind. The left channel overdriven track in the chorus is still very dark so the transition from verse to chorus and back is very abrupt.
It doesn't need to be a huge change from clean to dirty guitars. You're not going from Jazz to Metallica. Just a little bump in intensity from the guitars from verse to chorus. Think like...you're playing clean and jangly and then you hit an overdrive pedal. It's just a pushed version of what you were already doing.
Also, just to be clear, in my mind the cleaner jangly guitars should run throughout the whole song nonstop. The dirtier guitars would only get layered in during the choruses. The dirty guitars don't replace the clean guitars in the chorus, they just sit in there with the clean guitars.

Okay,
In these versions I was mainly concerned about chorus/verse as, in my original plan, the short parts were the choruses - starting with one after the elongated intro. That's not how it worked out but I wanted to be certain...I have the right V versus C structure so can proceed.
Yes, dark isn't it? But it marks the place well enough. I can get on with it now THANKS!

[rayc]

Cool song! Really interesting chord progression. Did you conjure up the chord progression first, then the melody? Like the ending. . .very fitting. I just came in on the last edit you did and really don't have anything to add. I enjoyed listening!

Chords 1st, as always with me, Alison.
Originally it had those fast changes all the way through but it was hard to play fast and needed dynamics (well, dynamics is my excuse for simplifying sections).
Thanks

[rayc]

Updated mixes with new guitars parts &/or combo of old ones with them.

[rayc]

Updated b vox. How're the guitars?

[JD01]

Weird - I know I've heard this before. But it sounds totally different, this version is much better than the last one that I heard.

After it comes out the solo (I like your solo by the way), there's a bit click! Sounds like a lip-smack.

There's some strange tuning artifacts on the vocal in a few places. Are you using Reatune? maybe ease it off a bit - keep it above about 30ms.

[JD01]

Weird - I know I've heard this before. But it sounds totally different, this version is much better than the last one that I heard.

After it comes out the solo (I like your solo by the way), there's a bit click! Sounds like a lip-smack.

There's some strange tuning artifacts on the vocal in a few places. Are you using Reatune? maybe ease it off a bit - keep it above about 30ms.

[vomitHatSteve]

Jumping back in on mix 1307. The drums sound more natural.

The artifacting on your voice is really egregious in this one. (e.g. "light" at 0:52 and "now you" at 1:26)

The bgvox sound nice.

[rayc]

@JD01 & @vomitHatSteve ,
thanks for the listen & response.
I've not done anything with the lead vocal as it'll be replaced by a REAL singer so I've left mine as a melody guide and not bothered with retracking. It was a 1st go recording and needed to be aggressively tweaked to match the melody.
Yes, new drums, new backing vox and new guitars - not much left of the 1st one.
I swapped the drums a couple of mixes ago - I had some heavy EQ on the previous as the open hihat was REALLY loud. I selected a different variation in BIAB, regenerated and bam...more natural.
THANKS.