sepheritoh
I added a new song to my web site today
Ghost town (reprise)
Reprise? Simply because the main theme is a revisit of the Ghost town theme of a song I did before. Why? Well, the bad news is that I have to return to the ghost town. I did a stint at the ghost town many years back. That caused some serious trauma to my personal health and forced me to abandon my musical activities for a period of about 2 years. Now, I will have to do it again. I am making plans on how to limit the adverse effects, but we will have to see how things work out. In the mean while, this will not be the last song I do, nor will it be the last song about this subject.
The song is in the same style as my previous 2 songs, i.e. ambient guitars with ambient orchestral and percussion backing.
The "album" now consist of 3 songs to date:
1. Winter long
2. Left in the dark again
3. Ghost town (reprise)
AlanRatcliffe
Some good stuff in that Seph. Overall very nice, but there's a few bad points marring the composition. I'll give you a few things that jumped out at me immediately so I don't keep you hanging on, but I want to take Rene's lead of digesting it for a day with a few listens before I respond in full.
As usual, I like the orchestration - different. I particularly like the way it's mostly quite pretty, but there are some gnarly dissonances that throw in ominous undertones in places. Love the low keys (Rhodes?) through the Leslie sound.
Some instruments are panned wrong. Try keep the lower pitched instruments closer to centre soundstage and move the higher pitched stuff out to the sides. Bass frequencies always sound like they are coming from the middle anyway, so if you pan them out, they will still smear the centre of the mix. Panned to the middle, the bassier stuff shares the load of reproducing the bass across both amp and speaker channels, keeping in a lower, more linear power range. This helps improve stereo imaging - it's one of those physical limits to the reproduction equipment you have to engineer around.
Very nice recording of the acoustics - what did you use? The picked part needs to be played with a bit more conviction though - you're playing as if you are unfamiliar or scared of the instrument. The second acoustic, playing the rhythm comes in on top of a dissonant note from the keys, which makes it immediately sound out of tune. The rhythm playing is very sloppy, with timing all over the place.
The orchestral bass drum gets a bit out of place later in the track, when the guitars come in properly and is also a bit monotonous. I'd probably bring in a conventional kit in at that point.
More later.
AlanRatcliffe
Oh yeah... If it's not too much a personal thing... what/where is the ghost town?
sepheritoh
Alan
Thanks very much. I love this kind of comments as it helps me a lot. I will take some time going through the whole mix again. Especially, I think I need to rerecord the 2nd accoustic guitar.
The gost town? It is a kinda long story, but it is not meant as offensive against the town itself. The company I work at has the headquarters in Sandon and a factory at the coast (sharks, hint, hint). I had to go down there for 3 days a week for a 2 year period, living in hotels. That issolated living in hotels created the "ghost town" image in my mind about the place. The bad news is that I have to do it again and possible relocate with my whole family by end 2009. In the mean while I am taking over responsibilities there and will have to do the hotels bit again. The good part is that I will have more chances again to visit all the live music clubs there.
sepheritoh
PS Alan. That Rhodes sound was created with guitars, using the amplitube 2 XGear. Some chorus + delay fx + flange + pitch shift. Once again my old problem of over processing just because it is easy with the software today. sometimes it turns out great, sometimes not. It is always fun experimenting though.
AlanRatcliffe
Thanks very much. I love this kind of comments as it helps me a lot.
I've been on too many forums where everyone just pumps each other's ego and says "Great!" instead of pointing out the areas that can be improved. You learn nothing without honest criticism. The comments on my recent tracks were along this line and it helped me a lot to get the honest no-holds opinions of others.
Especially, I think I need to rerecord the 2nd accoustic guitar.
Yup. And you will probably find that the first acoustic will need tightening up once the second rhythm is in time - it always works that way ☹ .
How do you record your acoustic? It sounds solid enough to be DI, but has none of the "zing" I expect to hear with a DI.
Manfred-Klose
Sounds awesome, it must have taken a long time to do?
great strereo image, where is the bass in the acoustic guitar the mids is also a bit high?
but overall it sounds kick ass, i'll give it a 8 out of 10.
what work do you do in "Ghost town", if you dont mind me asking?
AlanRatcliffe
Bump for the Monday "I shouldn't be reading this at work" folk. ?
sepheritoh
Manfred, thanks very much. It took me 3 Sundays to do this, about 3-5 hours each sunday. Last Sunday I recorded the accoustic guitars and this Sunday I added the electrics plus the percussion. I would have loved to spend more time, but I am very concious of the normal problem I sometimes develop to keep tweaking and not get anything done, so I decided to get this out in the open so to speak. I am glad I did, as the feedback gives me very specific direction on what to do now to improve.
@ Alan & Manfred:
I record my acoustic guitar using direct plus a Rhode N3 microphone. It has a valve pre-amp. I usually bring the direct in only to get the attack on the steelstings clearly, but the Rhode to get the body out. On this recording I used strings that is about 2 months old, causing a problem making it sounding too boomey. I tried to fix that with a eq low cut filter, which cause the problem Manfred described, leaving too little mids. I will change my strings before I re-record it this time.
sepheritoh
Manfred Klose wrote
what work do you do in "Ghost town", if you dont mind me asking?
Manfred I have a real boring job compared to most. I am an accountant.
Renesongs
I am an accountant.
I bet you want to be lion tamer ?
I haven't given Ghost Town my statutory 3 day rumination period to digest. I'm going to be pretty brutal because IMO that you have the seeds of a great piece there but it needs a bit of work.
High quality orchestral sound
Leslie guitar strums are good, they add a eeriness to the canvas as do those deep dark distorted strums
Tympani drum bit too prominent on the first beat per bar throughout piece
The lead riff at 0:47 sec in does nothing for me
Strum rhythm at 1:47 is out of time and doesn't work
the synth melody at 2:22 would be great on guitar
The triangle ping at the end is a bit Disney.
sepheritoh
Rene, thanks very much. I'll definitely takes your comments into account. The riff at 0.47 is difficult one. It is not an integral part of the theme, but rather as a filler. I'll decide its fate when I remix the song. I first did the final solo on guitar, but then took it out and replaced with a synth to do something different for a change. I agree on the Disney ping. I think that will go.
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Manfred-Klose
there is nothing wrong with being an accountant, ok must be a bit boring, but at least you got food to eat and a guitar to play.
When you finished your album, what do you plan to do with it?
Going to do film scoring, or are you just making an album because its fun to do?
sepheritoh
Manfred
I give away all my music for free for now. I call it an "album" just because it is all songs in a similar style. I have no specific plans to actually print any CDs.
I would have loved to get back into the music making for films, but my job commitments does not allow me to commit sufficiently. The one thing about film music - or any proffesional music job - is that you have to be able to commit your time. Being an accountant is not really that bad, but I have to always remember that it is my daytime job that makes it possible for me to make my music. It buys the pap-en-vleis and the guitars. I was lucky earlier in my life that I could take on a few jobs where the producers were willing to give me slack on deadlines, but those kinda jobs are not easy to find. Most film producers always work against deadlines. Also, as I moved along in my career, my time priorities changed. Now I am happy and comfortable with what I do. I will not exactly call my music avent garde, but I don't have to produce popular music and I have the freedom to change my mind whenever I want to.
Renesongs
I will not exactly call my music avent garde
On the contrary, IMO Ghost town is quite avant garde in that you kind of playing to your own rules 8). If you will allow me to put on my psychologist hat on, (the pointy one with the big D on it), your day job is all about following conventions, rules, conservative estimates and cautious conforming to codes, while night time is your time for being exactly the opposite. The Jeckle and Hide in all of us, Monty Python's accounting wanting to be a lion tamer ?
Manfred-Klose
Seperitoh
it's cool, at the end of the day its not about what music you compose,car you drive,house you live in,money you have or being the ALPHA male......its about your family, keeping generations coming, it is what we as humans have been doing for 1000's of years.........SURVIVAL of the fittest.
sepheritoh
he, he, he
I feel kinda analysed here. It's all cool. I am surviving and all. I just had an interesting day today. I took a trip to Sharkville to meet all the team members. Really a nice bunch of people and they all know what they are doing, so I think it will workl out fine. I just have to figure out a way that I can make music in the hotel room.
I'll post that idea in the marketplace forum for now.
sepheritoh
I've updated the mix of Ghost town after receiving these many usefull coments. The most important changes are the fixing of the guitars in the 2nd verse and then I added a last verse with a guitar solo repeating the 2nd melody.
Manfred-Klose
there is 2 ways of composing that might work in a hotel room:
old skool: do it like the classical composers did, with a pen,paper and a musical mind.
new skool: go digital.......get one of those yamaha silent guitar that works with headphones, use something like guitar rig on a laptop to jam the electric guitar, and keyboard with headphones.
(you can buy a pair of earplugs for your neighbours!!!)
here is what that yamaha looks like,it comes in a nylon and steel string:
http://www.andysmusiconline.com/categories/yamaha-silent-guitar/110.html
AlanRatcliffe
Seph. Just thinking...
Wouldn't it be better and cheaper for your company to rent a flat there for the duration? By the time you've spent 10 nights a month in hotels, you could've paid the rent on a flat and been given a small budget for food, etc.. It could also be argued that if you have a regular place to go to with a bed and a desk, a small hot plate and microwave, you'll be better set up to work and more relaxed. They could also use it for other company folk who no doubt need to visit on occasion.
