Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

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Treachjuris
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by Treachjuris »

Scrotean Hydra wrote: OMFG Your post looks too spamy for a new user, please remove off-site URLs.
That's SPAMMY.

Love,
Fish der Grammar Fuhrer.
"Electro-Mindscaping Nightmare music, gets me up and leaves me begging for more" ---sp00n
"If I were a rift in time right now, I would totally have a crush on this song" --- EightLeggedOedipus's friend INTOXICATED
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jast
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jast »

Scrotean Hydra wrote:We're trying to improve not only our songwriting and musical skills, but our mixing abilities as well...
Sounds good to me! Here's an idea that has served me well in mixing: you have to make a decision on what should serve as the foreground in the mix. Generally only a few tracks at a time, typically two or three, can play that kind of role. Everything else needs to end up in the background. Otherwise you just get mishmash. Once I've decided on what the foreground should be like (even if it's as unimaginative as drums-bass-vocals), I find it much easier to find appropriate spots in the mix for all the other tracks.
Specifically in your mix, I believe the picked guitar is a little overrepresented to the detriment of everything else... though, of course, to some extent it's a matter of taste.
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Treachjuris
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by Treachjuris »

Your message contains too many smilies. The maximum number of smilies allowed is 4.
This has to stop. 21 entries but only 4 smilies? Come on, admins...

Votes to Big Crouton, glennny and the Chocolate Chips

*I spent 6 hours on this review and need to get to the competition now...

Airlines
"breathing fire - blazed the night..woke up on this bed of ash...we burned too bright for it to last - oh, open your eyes to the harsh light of day -"

Percussion: I like the shaker...nice, minimalist – I like the the sustained rattle towards the end (3:47) at the repeated chorus
Lead guitar: Diggin' the light reverb, the downward slide at the end note, good sustain – nice riffs during the instrumental between chorus (3:04), and I like how it follows the vocals during, an octave lower - haunting
Rhythm Guitar: generally clean! You've been at this for awhile, my friend...
Chorus Guitar: at the end – that's a real nice touch – adds a Flamenco feel – why is this the only place I hear this? I listened like, 12 times through; did I miss it elsewhere? It's real nice.
Vocals: diggin' the quasi-gated effect – but you do have a nice voice and I would like to hear you get more comfortable with it (I know, easier said than done). The whispered "Open your eyes" at the bridge is a very nice touch...I'd like to hear you in a bit of a lower range – you have some raw power hiding in there...
Lyrical content: nice story about a relationship and love unrequited
Production:I'd have cleaned up the ending – squeaks and things. But the levels overall are great. Good job!
Structure: Nice, classic 4/4 interesting pre-bridge; is that 14 measure chorus with a pick-up? I like the interesting rhythm of the pre-bridge and chorus; definititely owning this song.
Overall: Sounds like you're in a tunnel, and the Fish likes that.

Berkeley Social Scene
In the first two seconds, I "Named That Tune" as Tom Petty's Won't Back Down.
Vocals: Clean, clear. Interesting change-up in volume at the chorus. Diggin' the bgv's at the chorus. Overwhelmed often by the rest of the mix; generally when your vocals hit the low frequency range (50-75 hz) they get washed out by the bass/kick drums. I'm sayin' it. Perry Farrell. You know your range, and you don't overreach.
Percussion: Not having a real kit, this sounds fuckin' good.
Structure: Interesting deviation at the chorus.
Lead guitar: Sweet little riffs here and there. Not overwhelmed by reverb. No need!
Rhythm Guitar: a bit overwhelming in the chorus. Clean during the verses; a bit grungy on the fx.
Bass: Smooth.
Lyrical contents: something about ghosts of your memory – please post lyrics next time; or hell, now! "keep the darkness away...keep the d-bags at bay?" (2:23)
Overall: Supertight, but the overall composition drowns out the vocalist, and that disturbs me from a listening perspective.

Big Crouton
Well, well – what have we here?
My heart IS overused!
Vocals: Rich, deep, harmonies are tight – impressive.
Guitars: woah – comin' in strong – but damn –
This track is reminiscent of Winter Hours/Joe Rodriguez out of Jersey in the 80's.
NOTE – You guys are talented as fuck. I just listened to City of Fog. I am literally crying right now. Barbershop quartet meets oscillating machete.
PREDICTION: Win.

Burnzi
Your mix is way too hot – honestly – pull it back to like, -.02 db
Lyrics: A+
Vocals: Nice, confident, rich! Not too much reverb, but a little warm/damp for your range; you have a good tenor sound – highlight it! You could easily pull a Neil Diamond/Peter Murphy if you dropped a bit...
Bass: Holds it together nicely -
Structure: Nice ballad – I am holding my lighter up with one hand... (the drum fill in the "it's always..." I could have gone either way, right? I always struggle with fill placement in transitional phrases - )
Guitar: Very sweet intro, clean, nice amount of flange
Production: Vocals drop out as soon as the music comes in; no sweat – a common problem
Overall: I see there's only Suitcase in the archives – This was a good piece of work, and you show great promise as a studio artist - I look forward to hearing more from you!

The Chocolate Chips
What CAN you wrap your lips around? I don't give a fuck, either.
Lyrics: A+
Vocals: A+ Pure. On key, strong, talented, confident. Brad Sucks meets They Might be Giants meets Mount Sims. Lovin' the delay in "messed up"
Production: A+ No complaints. None.
Guitar: Nice riffs – I can't tell if you are using loops or playing, and that's okay!
Percussion: Nice hi-hats – not overwheming, good call.
Synthpads: Excellent use, holds it together well without overwhelming.
Structure: Neat, atmospheric, yet dancey
Wait – what is that – vo-codey – mandoliny ending? Ha!

Fish Sausage
I don't like to review my own stuff. I made like, 8 tunes before settling in on this one.
The glass harp staccato riff was OK. The chain-saw was better. Pulled in some old Jack Dark plug-ins for the mix, and the old-school gated reverb on the kids at play. "Get 'em offa me!" "I help!"

Future Boy
Aw, yeah. Brings me back.
Tha mix: No complaints.
Vocals: Always pleasant. So nice to hear the raw talent unmasked by effects.
Lyrics: :) Don't cover your shame, baby. Real men cry. NOT THE FRIEND-ZONE!!! Love the reality that we can all relate to. Well done!
Structure: Nice transition into a smooth chorus...Nice work!
This song was so old-skool organ-based, A+. Diggin' the bass-line.
Overall: Very sweet tune, man. Heart-felt. Interesting transition at the end.

glennny
Aw, yeah. Ska-BOOM!
Structure: Wtf? Yea-yeah! Mix that shit up! F#ck dat 4/4! Got me tappin' my feet and wantin' to sing along...
Vocals/Harms: The vocoded harms were kinda off; the "bawdawm-bawm-bawm-bawmps" just made me want to sing along EVEN MORE. Falsetto; sweet – nice showcase of range – and courage. Good job. Like that the horns follow along.
Horns: CLASSIC. Herb Alpert ain't got nothin' on you.
Piano: Well dayum, son. Is there any instrument you DIDN'T incorporate? Wait, I don't hear no damned didgeridoo...
Strings: Added a nice bit of tenor, perhaps a bit too busy, but hey, I'm the Queen of "too busy..." - How many tracks did you lay, by the way, out of curiosity?
Bear Food is also nice.

Inflatable vegetables
Doughy hands? HAHAHAHA!!! Once a whiney phoetus?
Now it's diabetes? We keep on eating sugar 'til we're dead? LYRICS PLEASE!
Structure: Always like me a march, makes me feel patriotic.
Vocals: Appropriately harsh/pirate-y. Diggin' the Exene Cervenka-style harms at the first chorus.
Mix: Um, yeah, a bit sloppy and overwhelmed by drums and metal but, meh.

It's Chris
Vocals: Off-key, not cool.
Guitar: Good at high-velocity.
Lyrics: Good! Say something, dammit! Loves me some angsty message. WITCH HUNT! LET'S KILL EVERYONE THAT ISN'T BEAUTIFUL!
Overall: I want to hear more! Have you submitted previously under other names? I could only find "Her" – get you a band, son, your anger and passion will take you far...I'm feelin' old school Angry Samoans – brutal, raw, could easily turn into something brilliant and enduring

Jan Krueger
Vocals: Clearly enunciated, comforting range to listen to.
Piano: Lovely, if a bit overwhelming at times (3:01)
Accompaniment: Nice creeping strings, vocal harms....The crescendo into chorus is brilliant -
Structure: Ending is beautiful.
Overall: I hate to say it, but it sounds like an autobiography. Something we would each likely write about ourselves, you know? How we struggle so hard to fit in to the constraints of "societal acceptance" keeping our sacred selves hidden away for fear of rejection...

Jeebas Jones
Welly-well!
This is a very nice piece.
Lyrics: Classic blues – been drinkin', defeated, but gonna keep keepin' on
Vocals: Perfect for this tune.
Extras: Some interesting things going on in the background. Care to elaborate? Sounds like the brakes of a train (:35) then someone's calling (and you start laughing) but it WORKS ("alarm bell's ringin'") and the nice break where the dial tone is.
"What a wonderful day to be dead" Ha!
Fill in the Blank is my fave by you. I think if you haven't already, you should listen to some Jesse Dee, specifically, Boundary Line.

Johnny Cashpoint
Bassline: Tight. Better than I could ever do.
Lyrics: I always love a good story. And a sad one, too.
Vocals: I've always admired j$. Strong, enunciates well, always does really good harmonies.
Keys: Like how they bounce with the bass, keeps the song active and moving.
"I realized you're 'cray cray'" Ha!
Overall: Good job, as usual. Classic Cashpoint sound. :)

Kevin Mellows
Bassline: Nice, soft enough to support without overtaking the song.
Percussion: appropriate to the mix – lots of cymbals and high-end going on, but the bass compensates well
Piano: just enough in the verse – super-fine in the intsrumental fill
Guitar: a bit sparse in the verses – beautiful in the chorus – nice fill at 2:45 (you, or loops?)
Vocals: wow – this is really a nice build in the chorus – very dramatic "I won't give uuuup..." is especially nice, and "repaay..." - good use of the ol' pipes! At times, it sounds like the back of your throat closes up, and you kinda sound like Kermit the Frog. But that's okay. :)
Lyrics: Looking for redemption; nice, glimmer of hope!

Klownhole
Percussion: YES. Plodding. Methodical.
Female robot voice/CPU: YES. Repeat stuff. Repeat stuff.
Who is that proud and handsome man in the image?
What is this reference to the cleft donkey?
Is this the "K-hole" I've heard so much about? Ahhhhhhh.....
"Something travels deep inside of me...when I see the rising sun..."
This is beautiful noise...I wish you would post the lyrics...
There is a special, special place for those who enjoy the Klownhole...and that's...the Klownhole...

Lightning Shark
Brevity is beautiful.
40 seconds of sweet, sweet acoustic sweetness. Good job!
Lyrics: Classic Americana.
Guitar: Sweet, quality.
Production: I can hear you squeak in your chair, which adds to the "hometown charm" feel elicited by this tune.
Vocals: Wouldn't change a thing. You sound a little tired, but it fits. Harms are a bit muted, but, meh.

The Magnetic Letters
Lyrics: Woop! Story time!
Vocals: The reverb adds an amount of creepiness that reminds me, oddly enough of the Cheshire Cat as he vanishes, leaving naught but his eerie grin...
Structure: Samba? Bossa Nova? Sweet! Get me outta the norm ANY day!
I totally feel the need to have some Vics and grapefruit juice and wander the highway in some desert while listening to this tune...wasn't this part of the soundtrack to Rubin and Ed? If not, it should be...
(OMFG – hahahaha! "I don't give an F U C K anymore - anyway – it was dark, she was warm...")
And – wtf – a tiajuana zebra? HAHAHAHAHA FTW!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA

The Moonshine Lullabies
This is a very nice, sweet, tune. Very Sarah MacLaughlin-ey.
It's good, nothing wrong with any of it, I have nothing else to say about it. :)

R. Mosquito
This is abrasive as fuck. But nice, in a dark, Fields of the Nephilim kind of way. I wish your vocals weren't so muddied. Next time.
*Always curious to see what you'll come up with – Hollywood Fantasy, Quentin Tarantino, Get a Life, Shoelace Soup were good stylings for you, and I liked the glitch in Pink Ribbon for sure – but this holds great promise, to be honest! I hope you enjoyed doing it, because I'd really like to hear more!

Scrotean Hydra
Again, reluctant to remark on my own work. Sounds a helluva lot like the old Yummy Bug stuff (shocking)
This song is about those spring days when winter has gone but spring has not yet arrived and the grass is still a shitty shade of brownish-black and the sky is overcast. My daughter and I will look at each other and say, "Damn. Everything looks like a prison today." Particularly here, in the Detroit metro area, where our major city has been in bankruptcy for over a year and most of the businesses are all boarded up (after having changed owners a half dozen times) and many of the neighborhoods have burned out and boarded up houses. The latest round of high school graduates have been raised up in the unique "one-state" recession (which began here circa 2004, when our GDP when from up 3.1% in '02 to down -.08 and just kept on sliding) and subsequent national recession – there are no jobs for them – NONE. Industry here has come to a grinding halt, where once were had the "Big Three" providing for all the factory jobs and virtually everyone was guaranteed a job somewhere – a subsidiary, affiliate, supplier – now, nuthin.' Because after all the billions made, they decided to declare bankruptcy, fire everyone, and move all the production overseas and dramatically reduced wages, keeping the rate of pay for the CEOs steady. Then the banks. Now the homes here are worthless, everyone earns less money, works fewer hours, and income levels have decreased to levels that are 16% lower than pre-recession. What that means is, degreed professionals are earning today what they were earning 10 years ago without a degree as an entry-level clerk. So yeah, it's a very depressing tune, but hey. Things will look better in the harsh light of day?

WreckdoM
Awww, yeah, let's get that's old school 70's vinyl spinnin'
Percussion: Nice use of hand claps and rubber duckie
Lyrics: This may actually be...one of my favorites. What *is* her job? Wow – good job! Please post the lyrics.
Pads: Good levels, works well with the bass-line (sooo glad it's not a buzz bass)
Vocals: Nicely creepy, in a Yello kinda way – diggin' the female bgvs

"Wreckdom? Damn near killed 'em!"
"Electro-Mindscaping Nightmare music, gets me up and leaves me begging for more" ---sp00n
"If I were a rift in time right now, I would totally have a crush on this song" --- EightLeggedOedipus's friend INTOXICATED
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big crouton
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by big crouton »

Alright, I gave these a listen around the time they went up, and now I'll review whilst listening through again. So here's my second impressions.


Airlines - cool acoustic riff, and the lead works nicely too. Vox don't fit at all due to the excessive verb. Fairly catchy chorus. I dug the percussion at the start, but it's getting old for me. Nice harmonized guitar at the end there.

Berkley Social Scene - This is nice and chill. Vox aren't bad in the verses, but they really fall apart in the chorus (though I really like the bgvs that come in for "you'll see all of your mistakes") Nice E-Bow solo (at least I'm assuming that's an E-Bow). Decently done, but forgettable aside from the bgvs.

Burnzi - Fascinating tone off the bat, but holy christ is it obnoxious once the vocals come in way too loud and drive the compression into oblivion. Vox seem better balanced once the drums are in, but everything is still a bit painful to listen to. Hearing a lot of Bob Dylan in your voice, and I think the song is quite good overall, the clusterfuck of compression really kills it though. Solo is a bit too generic minor pentatonic for my liking. Actually, not the whole solo, just those couple runs you do that sound like every hack guitarist whose just learned the minor pentatonic scale. Rest of the solo is cool enough.

The Chocolate Chips - No interest in this style, but you won me over with the chorus. Cool production, interesting sound on the vocals. I feel like you could've built up the last chorus a fair bit more with swelling strings or something. Anyways, your chorus transcends genres and left me happy to have listened to your song. You're probably getting a vote for that chorus.

Fish Sausage - interesting piece. Don't have much to say about it. Cool production and pretty neat overall, though I don't see any tie to the title.

Future Boy - lovely. You've got a nice voice, and have written a really good song. I'd like to hear this with a band behind it, but it holds up really well on it's own.

Glenny - Cool song. The pitch correction is killing it though. I like the bgvs in the second verse, but they need to be a bit tighter timing wise to not sound like a bit of a mess. Oooh, loving this solo section. Nothing about this seems coherent, but there's a lot of cool parts to it. Bonus points for the solo section. I'd really like to hear this without severe pitch correction though.

It's Chris - It was probably intentional, but the lyrics are a bit too caricatury for me. That said, it can be enjoyable every now and again to indulge in some good ol' republican mocking. Got a bit of a punk aesthetic. Not a fan, but it's short enough and fun enough.

Inflatable Vegetables - this is a bunch of fun. I can't fathom what you did while mixing or recording this to get this thoroughly fucked up beyond lo-fi sound. I don't know if it was intentional, but it seems weirdly appropriate for this tune. I feel like this song was made by the clowns of childrens nightmares.

Jan Krueger - Bit too slow and not enough going on to really keep my attention. Chorus is nice, but I really can't get behind the bouncy chorus at the end. I think this song is pretty good at being emotional and stuff, but it just doesn't interest me.

Jeebas Jones - nice standard bluesy song. Solid guitaring, and your voice works well for this. Can't tell if the phone interuption was intentional or not. If not intentional, the pause is played perfectly. Also, if not intentional, would it have killed you to do another take without the phone ringing in the middle?

Johnny Cashpoint - Nice sparse arrangement. Reasonably catchy. Pre-chorus and chorus do nothing for me, but I really dig the verses. Short enough that I don't get bored. Not bad guitar solo, but like everything but the verses it does nothing for me.

Kevin Mellows - I can't figure out who this reminds me of, but I dig it. Vocals are a good bit too far forward, especially in the chorus, which is too bad, cause it's a pretty sick chorus and song in general but the vocals keep me from fully getting into it. Sweet piano solo. Guitar solo isn't bad, but seems a bit aimless. This is a killer song, and you did it justice, but I would love to hear this song made by what I imagine you to be a couple years from now, if that makes any sense. You've clearly got plenty o' talent, and I look forward to seeing what comes out of you in the future. Side note, you probably don't need 10 seconds of silence at the end of your song.

Klownhole - At about 30 seconds in I was pretty sure I hated this, but by god has it grown on me. I'm getting some Strapping Young Lad vibes here, minus the frantic shit that I really don't like about Strapping Young Lad. You've got a really cool voice that works perfectly in this style. It's not my cup o' tea, but it's a pretty neat song. Also, the picture that comes up in WMP for your artwork is fantastic.

Lightning Shark - mighty short. Nice little tune. I like your voice. I don't know that this actually needs to be any longer. I like what it is. Straight to the point, and it feels like it should end when it does. This would be a nice transitional track on an album.

Magnetic Letters - while not as bad as some midi horns I've heard, I still can't get behind the midi brass at all. As someone who's never listened to Jimmy Buffet, this is what I expect all of his music sounds like, and I don't think the world needs more of it. Vocals could do with less reverb. I like that you call for violins that never come in, and the "so sad" quote cracked me up, which I hope was the intention. Ah, there's the aforementioned violins, ushering in a confused key change. Midi horns, excessive reverb, and key change aside, this is well done for what you're going for. I just don't like what you're going for.

Moonlight Lullabies - Nice voice. I am a sucker for Mixoyldian, which you toy with every now and again in this song. What happens at 2:03? This is a nice song, though it drags a bit.

R Mosquito - Massive tone at the start. I like the entrance of the band. Very drony throughout, which gives the 2 times when chords change in the song a fair bit of impact, though the second progression of chords feels a bit aimless to me. Not really something I'm into, but pretty cool.

Scrotean Hydra - Interesting music, but I'm not really sure what to make of it. Though the vocals are done perfectly well, I find they get annoying over time, but I appreciate the breaks that come with the 'in the light of day' line.

WreckdoM - You do creepy quite well. Really like the strings that come in. The whole song is really unsettling. Love the effect on daylight. I feel like the main vox are a bit too dry. They just don't quite fit into the song, which might be part of the whole uncomfortable vibe you were going for. Weird, creepy, and well done.
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jast
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jast »

jb wrote:You know it doesn't HAVE to remove the soul from your vox, right? Elle said "subtle", which is a handy word. [...] I think for your harmonies, Elle has a point.
Here's a "subtly autotuned" version. Aside from actually making the intonation worse in several places and adding artifacts (all of which we're going to disregard for now), do you think this is an improvement? I don't.

http://static.music-jk.net/songfight/20 ... -tuned.mp3
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jast »

Treachjuris wrote:[...] Overall: I hate to say it, but it sounds like an autobiography. Something we would each likely write about ourselves, you know?
Thanks for your comments. I suppose it'd actually be more like an autobiography of an alternative me. I'm not actually building amazing things when nobody is looking, I just like to think I could if I really wanted to. ;)
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by chocolatechips »

Really great in depth reviews above ... makes me want to add my own but I'm on a trip posting on my phone. Might give a round of good late reviews when I get back.

In response to review - I don't use loops . The ending sound is just a very effected harmony vocal ( I think that's what you're referring to )
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jb
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jb »

jast wrote:
jb wrote:You know it doesn't HAVE to remove the soul from your vox, right? Elle said "subtle", which is a handy word. [...] I think for your harmonies, Elle has a point.
Here's a "subtly autotuned" version. Aside from actually making the intonation worse in several places and adding artifacts (all of which we're going to disregard for now), do you think this is an improvement? I don't.

http://static.music-jk.net/songfight/20 ... -tuned.mp3
Well, I haven't listened to it but based on your post, it kind of seems like somebody recommended EQ and you yanked freqs around randomly and said "see? EQ is terrible."

If you don't want to actually try, and just want to argue, I'll go look at some cat pictures or something. Your mixes are brilliant and perfect, so never mind everything that was said.

JB
blippity blop ya don’t stop heyyyyyyyyy
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jast
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jast »

jb wrote:Well, I haven't listened to it but based on your post, it kind of seems like somebody recommended EQ and you yanked freqs around randomly and said "see? EQ is terrible."
So you want to argue based on what you think I think? That's going to be worthwhile for sure.
I mentioned there were some artifacts and detrimental changes to the pitch, and I don't even want to talk about those. To some extent they're because I didn't bother manually adjusting anything like automating parameter changes in the plugin and stuff like that. I just set it to its "subtle" preset (125 ms attack, yadda yadda) and made a mixdown. Additionally I'm not using a $1k plugin, so I'm not going to blame it for its altering the characteristics of the sound... though in my opinion all the well-known pitch correction products (Autotune and Melodyne are the ones I notice the most often, though plugins that alter the sound like Elastique does are fairly intrusive, too) noticeably alter the sound even when the changes to intonation are minimal and, for instance, you leave Melodyne's phrasing envelopes well alone. Even pitch shifters that do complex non-realtime processing do it. That's beside the point, though. I totally don't mind if you disagree with me on this.

I want to focus not on how the automatic correction failed to do a perfect job when I put basically zero effort into avoiding that, and not even on how it alters the character of the sound. Let's pretend all of that doesn't matter. I want to know whether you think that the way the intonation has changed in the sections you were referring to improves the song, ignoring all trills and any other undesirables from pitch correction. That's all.
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jb »

I think I misread your post as obnoxious when you didn't intend to be so, and I apologize for that. I'll take a listen for whether anything good happened in there, but in general I feel like it would be more of a targeted approach-- find the problematic notes and modify them specifically to bring them to where they should be. In the original recording the last harmony bit sounds tossed off to me, not necessarily out of tune, so I'd just do more takes on that one.

[EDIT: just listened, and I think that the "subtle" auto tuning has helped (as you say, setting any artifacts aside)-- by making the backing vox come into line with the accompaniment, it lets the lead vox stand out. Previously, the harmonies clashed with the lead vox causing the harmony sections to detract from the song. I didn't listen on headphones and it's been a couple days, but I do think that for this song you could make those tracks hit right on point if you worked them over. I still think the last harmony lick is out of place and doesn't sound composed like I think you want it to.]

I don't know what capability Reaper has, but LogicX would let me move those notes to be in rhythm and pitch exactly where I want them. Though if I couldn't get them there in 15 minutes of fiddling I'd probably just re-record.

Often if I'm doing backing vox (assuming I'm doing a track that I want to pay attention to in such a minute way) I'll deliberately use no vibrato so that they're open to adjustment in this way. I rarely mess with the lead vox, since that's what I want to sound the most authentic.

It sounded to me like you put a lot of work into that song, by the way, so that the spirit in which I'm trying to write. If it sounded like a quick toss-off I don't think either of us would bother.

JB
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jast
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by jast »

It's all good. :) Thanks for your input.

I'll readily admit that I have a strong anti-quantization base sentiment. I don't do a lot of time quantization (though I did fix the piano track in a few places), and pitch is no different. I guess I value the human element much more than technical correctness, even if the performance isn't all that awesome. The original vocal tracks clear my threshold of 'worth publishing', and I find the difference in the processed version small enough to not really affect my own sense of the song. On the other hand I hate noticeable quantization with a passion -- be it as obvious as in, say, the Hobbit title song "The Misty Mountains Far", or as subtle as in, say, Naughty Boy's "La La La" (from the sound it's probably not Autotune or Melodyne, btw ;)). In the latter song I can only stand it because it works with the genre and style. By the way, interestingly "La La La"'s individual tracks aren't perfectly in tune, either...

Some notes on how much work I put into this: well I suppose I did put some work into it, over the course of three days. Maybe 15 hours total. I don't often spend a lot more time than that, partly because I'm impatient and partly because I kind of think that too much production takes away from the song. In addition, any time I spend not on production but on performing is time that goes into my performance skills, and I care more about those. Even if I never get to a point where I can impress a wide audience... :)
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by Miss Moonshine »

Hello all,

favourites this week included Big Crouton, Jan Krugar, and, and Lightning Shark.

Thanks for the reviews and compliments. ;)

Hope to be participating again soon.
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by Mr. Moonshine »

2:03 was caused by the brown mountain lights. Nice tunes guys, Big Crouton is my favorite. nice rock and roll ending!
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by glennny »

Congrats Chocolate Chips! Well deserved!
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by chocolatechips »

Just checked in on my smartphone - still on trip - and did double take... then "holy shit- I won?!" Really wasn't expecting that .. but really cool anyway. Thanks for the votes and I'll be adding my own reviews when I finally get back tomorrow.
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Re: Not suitable for vampires (Harsh Light of Day reviews)

Post by Treachjuris »

Congrats!!
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