Daddy-O, your song is boss. (Lava Lamp Reviews)

[Spud]

I dig it.

[Hat_man-RioMondo]

LAVA LAMPY Mc PAMPY SAUCE!
Good job every one!
Hope to see you next week!


-Chicky Chicky – D+

-Ok (for me) Falsetto is a big turn off,
unless you are doing it behind rock-metal ballad madness,
or you’re Prince.
-I like the organ sound, oh now it’s gone and there some noise instead, damn.
-Well crap. I’m not to sure I know what, to give this one: D+!
Yay! You passed! Nice you submitted an entry!
That’s better than 99% of the Earth’s population!
Keep on keep’n on guy!

-Glen of Dust Pipe – C+

-Ok dude, put down the dust pipe, I feel like I need to use it to understand your verse lyrics and the mix is pretty O.K.

-The chorus is coherent and heard, but the verse is so muddy I can’t care about what is being said.
-I like what is going on in the back ground with guitar and ambience, but I can’t hear it until the chorus is waiting to go into the verse and at the end.
-Nice job on music but the mix and the vocals are a little muddy. Thanks for submitting! C+

-Evil-E – B

-Nice! I love the 60’s sound. Really put together well with a full band. Balanced.
-Vocals are a little too light and inaudible, verse is lost in mix, but choruses stand out well.
-A little redundant, but good! I liked it and actually listened to it! Nice work guys! B Thanks!

-Wages- B+

-OH MY GOD! Actual guitar skill and craft points!
-Good clean mix. Yes very nice!
-Lyrics are clean, and have presence but they aren’t making sense. Are you improving the lyrics?
-Damn, I really like this sound and your voice, but the lyrics are too random and hard to follow. Hey those lyrics are making more sense at the end here.
-Oh it’s over. Nice work and great sound! Wtf is with the lyrics? B+

-Jacob Lynn- A+

-OH MY GOD! Actual guitar skill and craft points!
-Verses make sense, AND I can hear them!
- HOLY SHIT! The mix is well balanced, levels are nice across the board, and I can hear every part and each verse and chorus, And the lyrics are coherent!!! WINNER!!! DING DING DING!!!
-Thank you for the breath of fresh air with your great mix and song. A+

-Rio Mondo- N/A

-Thank god we got our shit together again and submitted another fight!
-Like Chicky Chicky we are better than 99% of Earth by actually getting a song up!
-Thanks Jason for calling! Next week! BUDDY! Next week!

[a bebop a rebop]

Chicky Chicky - The sounds are cool, but the complete lack of rhythm isn't doing it for me.

Evil-E - Nice bass at the beginning, and the guitar is pretty. The drums are distressingly fake (the snare drum hits are what kill it for me), but I have recently gained an appreciation for how difficult it is to make realistic-sounding MIDI drums. These are perfectly serviceable anyway. The singing is really nicely hazy, although I'd like it a little louder, and whatever effects you're putting on there make it sound like you're underwater, and the rest of the instrumentation doesn't have that sound. I like the big full sound you're getting overall anyway. Great harmonies on the chorus. Solid guitar solo, maybe unnecessary but it works. Like the organ breakdown. Negative points for the fadeout and for I can't tell what you're saying most of the way through at all, but nice groovy song.

Glen - I like your voice, but is it panned all the way over to the left? I like what you did with the "lava lamp" ostinato, and that bass line is swell. Nice drum programming, although the wide panning on different parts of the kit is a little annoying too. The transition to the relative major for the chorus is a nice move, and I like the pad ending. Nice song.

Jacob Lynn - This one's me. I'm sorry about the tuning on the one guitar part, but I like the song.

Rio Mondo - The way you fall into the song out of that intro is really smooth. The panning on the voices is pretty harsh. The talking, you know, it's kinda funny. The 70s music was a cool idea but it would have been cooler had the song come back in in tempo.

Wages - Still like your voice. But your voice is swinging, a little and your guitar isn't at all, it's a little unsettling. The guitar sound is really pretty though. I don't like the nerdiness of most of it, it doesn't fit the rootsy mood of the rest of the song. Nice overall effect though, it's really raw.

This fight is really tight at the top, I don't really have any idea who I'm voting for.

[a bebop a rebop]

Hat_man, are you sure you're not switching mine and Wages' songs up? Because my lyrics were pretty incoherent, I guess, and I felt his were fairly straight-forward. Also, "actual guitar skill" re: my song is a bit of a stretch. Thanks for the review and the high marks though!

[Thanks For The Frisbee]

listened to them all, liked a few voted for one
wages got my vote for best song and most improved

[Wages]

-Wages- B+
-Wtf is with the lyrics? B+

Thanks for all the great comments! The lyrics (and chords)... can be found at <a href="http://www.thoughtconspiracy.com/songfight/Lava_Lamp.txt">Lava Lamp lyrics</a>. It's more or less a memory lane "Wish List" (see Pearl Jam)....that didn't occur to me till just now. Perhaps if you can read it, it will make sense. Then again, I just try to be obscure, sometimes coy, and and always a bit strange with my lyrical intent.

Wages - your voice is swinging, a little and your guitar isn't at all, it's a little unsettling. The guitar sound is really pretty though. I don't like the nerdiness of most of it, it doesn't fit the rootsy mood of the rest of the song. Nice overall effect though, it's really raw.

What do you mean by "swinging" vocals? Also, how would the guitar swing?

It does have a lot of nerdiness, doesn't it?

Otherwise, I fully intended to get drums added (by a friend who is a drummer), but I couldn't get the tune to him quick enough. The first verse would be pretty much exactly the same though (no other instruments). Perhaps next week....

[a bebop a rebop]

What do you mean by "swinging" vocals? Also, how would the guitar swing?

Swinging is when you don't play the 8th notes straight. In other words, the eighth notes that aren't on the beats (1-2-3-4) are slightly held-back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_rhythm

It's most noticeable in your song on the line "I found a box labeled 96," and a little bit in the rest of that verse, but not really in the rest of the song. It's no big deal.

[tomdg]

Chicky Chicky – I like the ABA structure. Other than that, I can’t comment on this 2/10

Evil-E - Nice groove, but an even more 60’s feel would work really well. Odd gap in the middle, it feels like the song has stopped. 7/10

Glenn of Dust Pipe – the short lines of lyrics break up the verse too much for me. Don’t like the background guitar either, but that’s just me. Not a bad song though – and nice ending. 6/10

Jacob Lynn – Nice simple song. Piano feels a bit too fast – doesn’t quite work for me. Verse tune gets a little repetitive. Love your voice though. Nice song, just good enough to get my vote. 7/10

Rio Mondo – I was wondering if this was going to go musical or not. Nice drum part. Seems to use a lot of musical ideas in a small amount of space. I like the two perspectives in the two verses, it would be nice to differentiate the two voices more. A bit too much gratuitous swearing for me. I like the keyboardy intermission bit. 6/10

Wages – A long folk song about the good old lava lamp? Starts slowly. Rhythm / bar structure / lyrics could be a bit tighter, it sounds very improvised like you don’t know where you’re going next. Like the reminiscing theme. Bit rambling. 5/10

My opinions - useless, ill-educated and subjective, 0/10

[Wages]

What do you mean by "swinging" vocals? Also, how would the guitar swing?

Swinging is when you don't play the 8th notes straight. In other words, the eighth notes that aren't on the beats (1-2-3-4) are slightly held-back.

Ahhh! That's kinda what I thought swing was... it was the "ing" on the end that threw me. I see what you mean when you cite that lyric. Thx!

[Rone Rivendale]

Man, I wish I had submitted to this song. So little amount of entries.

[glennny]

Wages- You have a great voice! You're a great singer. However every submission the guitar playing ruins it for me. Can you track the guitar with a click track? Then sing solidly as you do over it? Anyway, it's particularly upsetting because there's soooo much potential , but the execution of your entire back up band (the guitar) brings it down. A good song, you should sell it.

Chicky Chicky- I love little quirky gems like this. This would make a really good "filler" track on an album. It's nice weird and short.

Evil E- This is solid and very 60's. The mood and music of this song may evoke the splendor of a Lava Lamp best of all of us. This is a contender for sure.

Jacob Lynn- This is the most well crafted song of the lot. It's pretty straight. Frankly I'm a little dissappointed because last weeks submission of Nothing Day was by far my favorite of any fight. However, this is very good tune. I adore the piano. Great vocals too.

Rio Mondo- OK this is my favorite of the tunes I can be objective about. The opening skit ad-lib thingy is hilarious. The tune doesn't dissappoint, and the hook is my favorite of all the submissions. The disco breakdown gives me the heartiest laugh.

Glen of Dust Pipe- This is me. Nobody could jam on jam night, so I was left to a solo effort. I'm still trying to figure out my software too, so my drums and piano were arranged on my PC, and because I'm an idiot I couldn't figure out how to convert the file to a wav, so I ended up miking the PC speakers on to one ADAT track. I'm nut sure how the drums can be anything but centered in the mix, however I am guilty of 2 vocal tracks that are panned, but they were supposed to be 10 and 2o'clock. Anyway, it was fun and i hope you enjoyed, I'll be working on my mixing for sure.

[Wages]

Wages- You have a great voice! You're a great singer. However every submission the guitar playing ruins it for me. Can you track the guitar with a click track? Then sing solidly as you do over it? Anyway, it's particularly upsetting because there's soooo much potential , but the execution of your entire back up band (the guitar) brings it down. A good song, you should sell it.

Wow! Thanks! I am working hard to get a decent overall tune for next week. I've already written the tune and given it to the drummer from our newly formed band. He's gunna dick around in garageband and send me back the rhythm, so I just need to add guitar and vox. My fingers are proverbial-ly crossed.

[Hat_man-RioMondo]

Hat_man, are you sure you're not switching mine and Wages' songs up? Because my lyrics were pretty incoherent, I guess, and I felt his were fairly straight-forward. Also, "actual guitar skill" re: my song is a bit of a stretch. Thanks for the review and the high marks though!

I'm not confusing the two. Your song is great and so is Wages', it's just a little less put togeather in my personal taste than your song. but it is still good, and I love anyone who plays guitar well, and uses that skill. Your and Wages' songs were my favorite. Thank you guys and I will listen to your music next week!

[pegor]

I know its bad form for an almost non-contributor to delurk with a bitch but ahh the FMs<A HREF="http://songfight.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1664"> 80 pixel avatar restriction</A> helps me hide the fact that Im goofing off at work.
...please thanks.......

[blue]

Evil E: This is smooooooth. My only complaints are the bass is really growly and could use some compression - it sounds like you have a bad impedance mismatch on your input there. Are you using a DI? The whole mix is a little whacky, but the vocals sound great and everything is well-played. Definately my favorite conceptual take on the title.

Jacob Lyn: So much reverb.. I think you may have a tuning issue between right and left instruments, as well - or maybe you just need to scoop the bass out of those guitars. The center of the mix is this giant wash of mud and goo, and the piano really suffers for it. But, all that aside, way cool song. Excellent vox on the little dip in the chorus as well. Lots of potential.

Wages: Well, not sure why I'm reviewing this, other than to say "wtf?" This sounds fairly ad-libbed, or at least failed in various places.

Other people: How about using winlame (http://winlame.sourceforge.net/) to encode your songs to 128ABR? That way your 6 bit nintendo piano patch / barely audible comedy sketch that you have submitted to songfight at >200kb fixed-rate doesn't take up several megs of my hard-earned bandwidth. That'd be sweet.

[Hat_man-RioMondo]

Wow...still Bitter.

[a bebop a rebop]

I think you may have a tuning issue between right and left instruments, as well

Yep, I retardly failed to retune the guitar when I added the finger-picked bit the next morning. My bad.

The center of the mix is this giant wash of mud and goo, and the piano really suffers for it.

I was trying to cover up the piano to some extent because I don't like the sound of the patch at all. But theoretically speaking, what exactly are you referring to, like the center panning-wise or frequency-wise? And how would you go about fixing it?

Thanks a lot for the comments, I am greatly in your debt.

[blue]

bebop,

when your second guitar comes in, listen to what the middle sounds like. it's all sort of hummy and weird, and you can hear the tuning dissonance. if you take some of the mid-bass, maybe 110hz or so, out of each guitar, it'll clean that whole area up. by some, i mean a lot. like, all of it. it's really freakin' hard to get a good bassy acoustic guitar sound without an extremely nice mic and preamp setup - or four or five, in most pro cases.

your reverb isn't helping - if it has an internal EQ, try just taking all of the bass out of the reverb itself.


the piano doesn't sound bad, just muted.

hat dude: bitter? was that directed at me? i've been rude to hundreds of people and thousands, literally, of songs. it's not bitterness, it's my love for good music.

[Hat_man-RioMondo]

hat dude: bitter? was that directed at me? i've been rude to hundreds of people and thousands, literally, of songs. it's not bitterness, it's my love for good music.

Thanks blue,

I was just wondering if your indepth suggestion is on the "how to submit a song at songfight" page. If not, it should be. (If it is... I stand corrected.)


No but really, I aprecitate the advice if it is. But the sarcasm about my band can go. It's not "other people, or "hat dude" We are Rio Mondo ,and my name is Alan.

I just want to submit a good fight like everyone else and have fun doing it. Without drama on the forum, so for what ever (if any hard feelings) no worries, and we can move on.

Thanks buddy!

[Spud]

Blue seems to be tied up at the moment, so I will link you to fluffy's handy-dandy page on LAME encoding...

http://beesbuzz.biz/music/tutorials/sfencode.php

SPUD

[Hat_man-RioMondo]

thank you spud

[EightLeggedOedipus]

Chicky Chicky
--- Um, what is this? Someone imitating Rogue Retard? ---
+++ Kind of cool, though. +++

Evil-E
/// After school special!!! I can't make out the words but I imagine
it's soem cheesy anti-drug message, while also carrying a silly plot
line about some young teen boy in love with a girl etc. Not sure why
I get that vibe here, but I do. ///

Glen of Dust Pipe
---Your backing vocals are out of tune. The sound
like eerie groaning in the background. I hate the
way you say "quicksilver".---
+++ Warm pad sounds. Low-mixed guitar solo. +++

Jacob Lynn
--- Your guitar is out of tune. ---
+++ Otherwise, a decent tune +++
/// Ending is abrupt ///

Rio Mondo
--- Your guitar is WAY out of tune. Intro
is LONG, LAME, and BORING. ---
+++ The beat would be good if you didn't
add anything else on it. +++
--- Song is MEDIUM LENGTH, LAME, and BORING ---

Wages
+++ Great voice +++
--- The words seem to be pushed into the song where they
don't really fit. ---
/// I went to the SD Comic Con two years of my life, and it
was probably ages 13 & 14. Were you at the one where
Green Jello had a booth? I brought home their hand painted
back drop. They gave it to us. Frickin' awesome. ///

If I could vote... hmm. I don't know. I think Chicky Chicky is
the only one that makes me want to hear it again. Curiosity
factor?

Oh well, congrats on the effort, everyone.