Band Website Officially launched. AND we're done our Demo - by Volitions Advocate
Stitch on 11/5/2009 at 16:28
Yeah, I don't really want to be part of the board musician advice tsunami but goddamn that song sounds terrible. Badly recorded, poorly mixed, plus a shit arrangement and occasional tuning issues.
None of which reflects too poorly upon your band, however, as the performances are solid and the song itself is written well (despite not even coming close to justifying its five minutes-plus duration). Get someone with decent engineering/mixing/production skills in there and you guys will ride the cutting edge of six years ago!
Enchantermon on 11/5/2009 at 18:21
Jotting a few ideas down as I listen:
Chorus sounds good and the singer's voice is excellent, but I have to concur with a lot of the opinions on here; you need someone to mix it better.
Louder drums and vocals.
Not a fan of those tom fills, either, but it might be because they just sound hollow and dead.
Snare also sounds flat and dead, like PigLick said.
Volitions Advocate on 12/5/2009 at 03:42
Heh... turns out they gave me the wrong file to upload. I hadn't actually listened to it online yet and I just did.
Our drummer is doing the mixing and he put an older file on my flash drive by accident. So this is a pre-mixdown track... sorry about that.
Although piglick. your idea with the vocals is interesting and we're going to try that, since we have a couple days before we start burning it all to disc.
Also with the vocals, we're trying to keep them a little lower in the mix. My exprerience with most indie bands is the opposite of what you described. They push the vocals so much because the want it to be crisp and clear and the band ends up sounding miles away.
june gloom on 12/5/2009 at 04:54
Please refer to Battle of Mice for an example where a band and its (female) share equal prominence in the music's mixdown. Your problem is that your vocalist absolutely has no impact whatsoever on the song- she doesn't have the right voice for that "faraway" feeling.
Toxicfluff on 12/5/2009 at 12:03
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Please refer to Battle of Mice for an example where a band and its (female) share equal prominence in the music's mixdown. Your problem is that your vocalist absolutely has no impact whatsoever on the song- she doesn't have the right voice for that "faraway" feeling.
I disagree. Her voice reminds me of that Evanescence girl, and I remember they had a similar chorus soaring on slabs of guitar thing going on.
Sulphur on 12/5/2009 at 13:04
Evanescence is exactly what I was thinking the moment her vocals popped in. But I agree with dethtoll that the vocals don't have quite as much of an impact as they should.
Stitch on 12/5/2009 at 14:42
It's just mixing and production. Sharpen her vocals, maybe layer some overdubs and pull them back a bit to thicken the main take without making it sound like a chorus of her.
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
Also with the vocals, we're trying to keep them a little lower in the mix. My exprerience with most indie bands is the opposite of what you described. They push the vocals so much because the want it to be crisp and clear and the band ends up sounding miles away.
While vocals obviously shouldn't be mixed too loud, they are the main song component that people connect with, and burying them consequently does you no favors.
Scots Taffer on 12/5/2009 at 14:58
Quote Posted by Stitch
I'm having trouble determining whether or not the chick in your band is hot and therefore on the sliding scale of so good/no good I find your site NO GOOD
also: HOLLOW EMBRACE
the chick on the left with the mass of curls? shit yeh she's hot
and every embrace you give me is hollow, like your empty kisses and shallow promises and airy words and fuck if dethtoll half likes it I'M OUTTA HERE
snauty on 12/5/2009 at 15:12
My 5 cents:
I can't say too much about the song and the arrangement due to bad mixing. The guitars are waaaay too loud in the loud parts. Sure it's supposed to sound "metal" but the overall mix is out of balance. The tomtoms are painfully meek in the breaks. The voice is ok (it just needs better production) but it's the balance thing again. It lacks what the guitars have too much. And please tune your guitars, the intro sounds quite off. But from the 5" mark on the mix is quite ok, also the voice.
Don't make the beginner's error by making the guitars as fat as can be. And don't master the whole shebang too hot. It just sounds flat and annoying to the ear. And take the amateur rehearsal room pics off your website and the bio text is longer than interesting.
About the gearlist: you're endorsed by them all?
Sorry for being harsh, but I know the ways of the beginners. ;)
Enchantermon on 16/5/2009 at 00:22
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
Heh... turns out they gave me the wrong file to upload. I hadn't actually listened to it online yet and I just did.
Ah. Will you upload the proper version so we can hear it? :)