Ulukai on 19/3/2010 at 18:08
Very nice. Have you got it textured and lit too?
I used to find I ended up with a whole load of models that I never got around to texturing or setting up properly in a scene.
ANTSHODAN on 19/3/2010 at 20:13
Totally ace thread!
Am really digging your stuff as I type Aja, and looking forward to hearing everyone elses when I get the time! I have a terrible tendency to ignore new music and stick with stuff I know and like, but go through phases of suddenly being open to new musics - like now (discovered animal collective last week. Amazing!)
Anyway, I'll chip in. (
http://www.myspace.com/progrobsnoises) http://www.myspace.com/progrobsnoises - There is only one song on there because I'm extremely lazy about recording. Hopefully record some more stuff during uni holidays. This is admittedly music designed from the start for stoned people. Sorry :/
Also (
http://www.myspace.com/splitbrainmonkey) http://www.myspace.com/splitbrainmonkey - my band. simpler stuff. Just a thing to distract me and my mates from silly ambient nonsense. Success Flakes and Wilderness are my favourites on there.
Again - Cool thread!
Fingernail on 19/3/2010 at 20:42
Yeah, I quite like the vibe of your band Aja. In fact, I think there should be actual vibes. As in a virbraphone. Well, maybe not.
And Piglick, I was quite amused by some of your stuff, particularly "Girls". I feel like the idea could do with a bit more development, though. I mean, I know looking at girls can be captivating, but perhaps you could focus on, for instance, what exactly it is about girls that make them nice to look at? Or perhaps some are better to look at than others? Just some lyrical ideas... :p
Anyway, (
www.myspace.com/familyfriendly01) now features two new tracks, the first a classical guitar version of an Elizabethan lute piece (also known as a song, Flow my tears), by John Dowland. And the second is just another song I had lying around for now, "Jesus Ring", a very gothic number - is it about a piece of iconographical jewellery or is it about my anus? Only time can tell.
Stitch on 19/3/2010 at 21:25
Quote Posted by Fingernail
YAnd Piglick, I was quite amused by some of your stuff, particularly "Girls". I feel like the idea could do with a bit more development, though. I mean, I know looking at girls can be captivating, but perhaps you could focus on, for instance, what exactly it is about girls that make them nice to look at? Or perhaps some are better to look at than others? Just some lyrical ideas... :p
Actually, I'd argue that the strength of "Girls" is its simplicity. It starts, does its thing, and then gets the fuck out. It could be developed a bit with additional production, perhaps, but any expansion of the lyrics or running time would just dilute it.
I like listening to "Girls" :)
I also like listening to Fingernail's stuff, which is some solid shit. The weakness right now is the vocals, but that could be sorted out with additional, more professional takes. Your voice is just fine, but it needs to be developed a bit more (and not in a traditional sense--I like the roughness, but some of the off notes sound like flubs as opposed to stylistic choices). But enough criticism, what really shines with the two songs is your fantastic penchant for melody. You write the kind of music I would listen to even if I didn't know you.
I only gave Aja a cursory listen due to time constraints and it is accomplished and impressive and heavily indebted to its obvious influences. No shame in that, you guys are just starting out and you're aiming pretty high. Good stuff, I can't wait to hear it recorded on something other than a Radioshack tape recorder.
I'll get to the rest of the stuff posted later!
This thread does have me thinking it might be time for me to come out of musical retirement. I've been writing songs on guitar and have plenty of ideas, but I haven't taken the time to sort out actually committing this shit to hard drive.
Aja on 19/3/2010 at 22:15
We went back to the files, increased the volume significantly, and adjusted a few of the individual levels, which needed to be done anyway. They should sound better now. I know it's probably bad practice to keep replacing the files with new versions, but Pig was right, they were waaay too quiet. And volume tends to make a lot more of a difference in one's overall impressions of a sound than you'd think.
Piglick - thanks for your feedback. You might be right about the instrumental section in Endeavour—the idea was that it would build up to the final chorus, but we might not have done enough to make it climactic and all (also there was an erroneous syllable that we sliced out just now :o). The part you call sublime (we call it the waltz part) is definitely indicative of the kind of direction we want to take, so I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed it.
Fingernail - I have mellotron vibraphone samples loaded up. Sounds like 70s department store music; I'm pretty excited.
Stitch - you don't have wait at all—nothing in these tracks was recorded with Radioshack gear, I assure you. In fact we have relatively expensive (pro-sumer?) equipment—whether we're using it properly is another story. Apart from the vocals, I'm pretty satisfied with the mixes in general, but of course it'll all improve the more we do it. We don't need more gear though, I know that.
I don't have the speakers right now to listen to everything else posted here, but I certainly will later on, and I'll be sure to comment :)
PigLick on 20/3/2010 at 09:29
Fingernail, love the Pavane, really wish I had spent more time on my classical technique when I was younger and actually still practised. Also, get yourself a drum machine or something, would fill out those tracks a lot(unless thats the sound you want)
'Girls' was a quick one take thing, I just did it after I heard a Calvin Harris tune a couple of years ago "I get all the Girls" or something, but yeh turned out a bit of a banger.
Fingernail on 20/3/2010 at 11:12
Thanks, Stitch. Get some of your stuff out there! I know the voice is the most important part of it, and I do spend longer on it than the rest, but in general everything about these demos is a bit rough, and there are little mistakes blah blah in the guitar parts, so whatever I do in the singing, these are never going to feel "complete" for me. And that's also because they're without drums.
The plan is to band them again; I actually have a line-up, we just haven't quite got it together yet.
And Aja, I know exactly what Piglick means about you sounding like a proper band, and actually I think the recording quality is pretty good... perhaps a little more stereo space, but if you're going for a certain Beach Boys vibe, perhaps not! It's got a sound of musicians playing together that I certainly never accomplished on record with my previous band - well, because it was all multitracked separately for one thing - did you record these "live" as such? And it's even better with the volume boosted a bit!
And yeah, I was being ironic about "girls"; it certainly doesn't need anything else!
This thread rocks so far, still need to give frozenman and ANTSHODAN a listen. I already know what Renz and demagogue can do from the Dark Mod! I have a lot of respect for anyone who has the patience for 3D modeling and level design; they're both things I tried when I was younger and could never see anything to completion.
Jackablade on 20/3/2010 at 15:05
Fingernail, we actually recorded everything separately as well and for a long time the mixes weren't sounding right but we just kept at it and got them to the point they're at now through careful mixing and mastering. Took us way too long but we hadn't done too much serious recording until now. We're fiercely devouring books and forum posts about proper recording technique right now so hopefully the next songs will sound a little better. I think we're planning on trying a "live" recording as well to see how that sounds.
Edit: Also, is that you singing on the family friendly tracks or is it the same singer as your previous band? Either way it's sounding good. These songs are sounding pretty together, I like them. Drums would probably help though, yeah.
ANTSHODAN on 20/3/2010 at 15:32
Piglick, I really like some of the sounds you've got out of your guitar, particularly on When Aliens Attack. There's a really cool variety going on there, each guitar part sounding distinct effects wise, yet they all work together really well. There's parts in there sounding like Portishead ft. Hank Marvin (thats a good thing)! Can we have a 'post your pedalboard' thread next?:D
If i was going to be critical, I'd say the repetition of samples on Graverobbers grated on me, though I'm entirely willing to chalk that up to personal taste. Musically it's still solid!
Aja, I'm totally loving the two songs on your myspace. Its got a nice bright sound to it; the melodies and chord progressions are interesting, in general, the only way I can think to describe it as a whole is just damn pleasant to listen to.
Listening to Frozenman's stuff right now. There is some interesting things going with these, it certainly keeps you on your toes. To be honest I find it hard to comment on it, because I'm pretty unfamiliar with this kind of stuff, but Paragruel is really cool, and I like the relatively minimalist trippy ambience of cable. I don't really connect with Raptor Attack - and I wish I could figure out why. I think in places it lacks cohesion, but I'm inclined to suspect that is intentional and again, chalk it up to personal taste. :D
Aja on 20/3/2010 at 18:06
Listening to prog-rob now; it's kind of smoother version of the sort of slow-burn jams Earth always records. In fact I really like that smoothness, it's soothing.
Split Brain Monkey is rough but it's got this loose, hazy quality that's actually really appealing. Like almost an ambient aspect? I like the trading off between vocalists, and the little touches like the rainstick and accordion. Make an EP, I'd buy it. Split-Brain Monkey might not be the most appropriate name, though.
Family Friendly - Stitch is right, you've got a penchant for melody. Some kind of percussion might fill out the sound, but I wouldn't touch a drum-machine if I were you, it'd ruin the organic feeling you've got going. My favourite part was the ending of Chip Pan Fire.
As for our own recording, I'm not sure we have enough mics to record a live performance properly. One idea we were thinking about was to record a basic performance, like say drums and bass or piano and guitar and then use that track as a basis for overdubbing and playing to. And we'd hopefully get that "together" feeling, since much of the sense of it in our current tracks is the result of painstaking editing and mixing—like jackablade said (he played the bass, btw), we had a tough time getting this stuff to sound like songs, and even now I think it's still more rigid than it could be.
