At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

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hillbilly

Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by hillbilly »

BatP---- good job, love the bass.DJ all most sounded sexy. :o
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mc3p0
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by mc3p0 »

An excellent fight - there are too many excellent entries for just one specific win.

Berkeley Social Scene - WOW, this is really good. I love it, love it, looove it. Creative and harmonic, the lyrics are great. That is a perfect ending point.

bgm - Gee, another awesome production, very catchy lyrics. The tambourine shakes are perfectly shameless! Too good.

Billy and the Psychotics - That bass is spiffy, your vocals are so well-matched. Damned, I need to drive around and listen to this production. Illuminati suck ass.:]

Dejected Motives - The detuning is awesome. The vocals are so forward in the mix, I think your compression is overpowering them with the bass/chord.

DJ Ranger Jon - Unexpected lullaby. Sarcastic and lovely.

The Economy Biscuits - HAHA! The freakin' cool vocals need a line delay. This reminds me of early Janes Addiction.

Foobar - Okay, this starts like a SouthPark Christian parody. Nice rhythmic growth with those ominous lyrics.

g_rock - Harmonica is strangely rare nowadays. I like that it's used minimally with those breathy vocals - quite rock.

Havarti on Rye - The computer kept locking up every 30 minutes, so I quickly splorped this out before work. It was far funnier (and totally disco) in my head. I don't really rank with these fighters, but my next piece will be longer.:]

The Hell Yeahs - I like the treatment on the drums - that extra swip is really nice. Woah - those vocals are kung-fu and freaking me out. Sodium nitrate pirate captains of the world UNITE! This is lovely. More of is that ghostly synth behind "what's the word?".

Jeebas Jones - This is by far the best fight in YEARS. That voice, so cool. This piece seems so short. Strumming is perfecto.

My Social Uniform - Another awesome lyricist. That sub-sound has got a lot of room - nice production! The pick guitar for rhythm makes me pay close attention. Damned good piece. All that I might recommend is singing a harmony too. Perfect ending.

Paco del Stinko - Harmonic and punky! Your vocals are totally original, very credible. Tight drums.
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Dejected_Motives »

Alright, it looks like there are a couple of good ones this week! I'm just going to call it right now, if My Social Uniform doesn't take this fight, I will most certainly perish of shock! Hands-down, that's my personal favorite entry this week! But, there were a few other good ones as well. So, I guess...

Berkeley Social Scene: The melodies and guitar riffs make this song in my opinion. And the lyrical content isn't too shabby either! Very well done.

bgm: If Blue Oyster Cult and Jimmie Eat World formed a super-group, this song would be on their first album! I like it!

Billy and the Psychotics:This song would mix right in on a 90's college radio station. It's not my favorite song by you guys, but it's pretty decent.

Dejected Motives: I hope somebody remixes this song for me, haha. This was the first fight entry that I've submitted where my main vocal wasn't vocoded whatsoever. But, apparently, I'm addicted to the vocoder sound. Because I just HAD to put some vocoded lyrics in it. Oh well, maybe next song will be less effected. It could have been much better, but I suppose I can vote for myself for the sake of voting for myself..

DJ Ranger Jon: The lyrics have a lot of meaning and it is a very powerful song towards the end. But the song in general is a bit too slow for my tastes. Sorry.

The Economy Biscuits: Did you write this song while touring with Rage Against the Machine and Cold? You could have.. I happen to like both of those bands..

Foobar: A bit repetitive, but I didn't hate it.

g_rock: I can't decide if you sound like Dave Wyndorf or Glenn Danzig, but, I can dig this!

Havarti on Rye: House music is a welcome change of pace. Short and sweet and not too drawn-out like some of the slower house songs can tend to be.

The Hell Yeahs: I didn't think it was bad, per se. But it sounded a bit too much like a hundred songs I've already heard and I think that turned me off on this one. Sorry about that, it's not your fault.

Jeebas Jones: I actually like this guitar riff a lot. Nicely done.

My Social Uniform: I actually turned this song UP! This song... I think it's my favorite one this fight! Are you signed by anyone? I suggest you get this song on iTunes ASAP!

Paco del Stinko: The synth part at 1:40 and the ending are my favorite parts. I didn't care much for most of the beginning though. It's not my favorite song of yours either.

Votes: My Social Uniform, bgm, Berkeley Social Scene, the Economy Biscuits, g_rock, Havarti on Rye, Jeebas Jones, and, of course, myself.
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Dejected_Motives »

pauley g wrote:
Dejected Motives
it's all about the vocoding for me. I've tried and tried but just can't get what I look for...this is what I look for. Teach me. The only other thing is that it feels a little out of time in places and it shuts down the groove..

My secret really isn't that difficult. See, there's this wonderful little stomp box made by TC-HELICON called the VoiceTone Synth (check it out on YouTube if you want.) It's all kinds of fun, and then some! haha! I'm actually trying to get away from using it though because I want to work on cleaner vocals. But, if you want to cover songs by Dirty Vegas, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Akon, Chris Brown, or the Black Eyed Peas, this pedal is awesome to have! I can't seem to figure out a sweet Daft Punk or Pendulum sound yet, but I'm working on it.. But anyway, I hope this helps!
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Heather. Redmon. »

Dejected_Motives wrote: The Hell Yeahs: I didn't think it was bad, per se. But it sounded a bit too much like a hundred songs I've already heard and I think that turned me off on this one. Sorry about that, it's not your fault.
Interesting :roll: Can you please provide some examples of these hundred songs you've already heard?
jack wrote:heather is the hardest working mom on songfight (in addition to being arguably the rockinist chick....).
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

mc3p0 wrote: Billy and the Psychotics - That bass is spiffy, your vocals are so well-matched. Damned, I need to drive around and listen to this production. Illuminati suck ass.:]
Thanks mc! I love doing music like this and Dee seems to really come up with interesting vocal methods to give these songs a life of their own.
Dejected_Motives wrote: Billy and the Psychotics:This song would mix right in on a 90's college radio station. It's not my favorite song by you guys, but it's pretty decent.
Yeah, it may fit a certain "genre", but I think it's unique enough to it's self and fresh. If we actually set goals when making songs, I'm sure it would be to make unique and fresh music that doesn't suck, lol. But you know how that goes, you can't make all the people happy all of the time, I guess. But we'll gladly take "decent". Thanks, DM. ;)
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by g_rock »

The Scribbler wrote:G Rock - Raw and gritty rock. Liked it a lot.
pauley g wrote:This is probably my favorite...had me at harmonica.
Dejected_Motives wrote:g_rock: I can't decide if you sound like Dave Wyndorf or Glenn Danzig, but, I can dig this!
Glad you guys like it.
g_rock
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by g_rock »

Billy's Little Trip wrote: I might not be telling you anything new, but just in case I'll tell you what "I'd" do to your kick track.
1. I'd solo all the drum tracks to get them perfectly dialed in together.
After all the other tracks are recorded in mixed in.
2. I'd duplicate the kick track. (paralleling is the term, but it depends on your DAW) I simply duplicate the track.
3. Now I solo the duplicated track and use a 4 band. EQ (you can use a high pass, but multi-band EQ is best in my opinion in this case)
4. Pull the lowest freq. all the way down and sweep it across until all you hear is a horrible tick tick tick of the kick.
5. Then to make it worse, take the 1k'ish - 5k'ish point and push it up about 5db and sweep it back and forth until you find the sweet spot of the awful click of the beater.
6. Now that you have this tick sound making you want to puke, compress the hell out of it so it's pretty consistent with every tick.
7. Now go back to your mix with the copied beater tick track fader all the way down. Loop a loud part of the song and let your ears adjust to the mix. After your ears are readjusted from all those tick tick track settings, go ahead and start bringing the beater tick track up in the mix.

Basically by adding that beater tick sound, it crosses over frequencies with the drum boom sound and fills in between. You just need to find the sweet spot between the tick and the boom.
The beauty is that you can lower the boom, yet still hear the kick shine through in the mix. Probably one of the best kick tricks I've learned.

PLUS, that beater tick is so different from the bass guitar frequencies, that it automatically adds separation and quite often you don't even need to carve kick/bass frequencies. But carving is the way to get huge separation from the kick and bass if your mix is asking for it.

cliffs: tick tick tick goes the kick :)
Billy
great advice...love learning new shit. But how do you separate your kick track to begin with? It says you use a presonus firebox. That is a 2 channel interface right? So your not tracking them live. Is that a real kit or is that software?

g_rock
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by RangerDenni »

am working on reviews. great songs. thanks for comments. hope to get them up (the reviews) before next title. you know the drill.
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

g_rock wrote:
Billy's Little Trip wrote: I might not be telling you anything new, but just in case I'll tell you what "I'd" do to your kick track.
1. I'd solo all the drum tracks to get them perfectly dialed in together.
After all the other tracks are recorded in mixed in.
2. I'd duplicate the kick track. (paralleling is the term, but it depends on your DAW) I simply duplicate the track.
3. Now I solo the duplicated track and use a 4 band. EQ (you can use a high pass, but multi-band EQ is best in my opinion in this case)
4. Pull the lowest freq. all the way down and sweep it across until all you hear is a horrible tick tick tick of the kick.
5. Then to make it worse, take the 1k'ish - 5k'ish point and push it up about 5db and sweep it back and forth until you find the sweet spot of the awful click of the beater.
6. Now that you have this tick sound making you want to puke, compress the hell out of it so it's pretty consistent with every tick.
7. Now go back to your mix with the copied beater tick track fader all the way down. Loop a loud part of the song and let your ears adjust to the mix. After your ears are readjusted from all those tick tick track settings, go ahead and start bringing the beater tick track up in the mix.

Basically by adding that beater tick sound, it crosses over frequencies with the drum boom sound and fills in between. You just need to find the sweet spot between the tick and the boom.
The beauty is that you can lower the boom, yet still hear the kick shine through in the mix. Probably one of the best kick tricks I've learned.

PLUS, that beater tick is so different from the bass guitar frequencies, that it automatically adds separation and quite often you don't even need to carve kick/bass frequencies. But carving is the way to get huge separation from the kick and bass if your mix is asking for it.

cliffs: tick tick tick goes the kick :)
Billy
great advice...love learning new shit. But how do you separate your kick track to begin with? It says you use a presonus firebox. That is a 2 channel interface right? So your not tracking them live. Is that a real kit or is that software?

g_rock
I need to update my info, my interface is a focusrite now.
I don't separate the kick track. I have one kick track, then I simply duplicate it or copy/pasta it to a new track. Thus giving me two identical kick tracks to work on. The reason for two kick tracks is because the track I use to get the beater hitting the skin needs a shit ton of compression. I wouldn't want to use the shit ton of compression on my main kick track.
In fact, I also use a gate on the kick tick track to get rid of as much mic bleed as possible. I noticed I didn't mention that above. I just updated that. ;)
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by JakeDeLorey »

I'm putting the beats to my beater tonight. That did not sound good. Working on the mix to "It's about time" tonight. I doubt the best mix in the world will save this submission, but god dammit that bass drum is gonna kick (and beat). The tune went kicking an screaming. Everything that was supposed to go smothly did not. I once again crafted juvenile vocals for the tune. It was supposed to be a tongue and cheek cockrock tune along the lines of theory of a deadman or some stupid shit like that. Unfortunately I didnt make the lyrics tungue and cheek enough to sell it as a Joke. Now it just sounds like I'm a bar fly frat boy singing about getting drunk and looking to bang chicks. I really could have parlayed that same sentiment with smarter lyrics, and hide the fact that I'm a late 30's something parent who misses going out, getting plasterd, and looking to pick up chicks.

On a an off topic note, are there any other websites that are similar in concept to Songfight?
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by g_rock »

It doesnt sound like your trying to pick up other chicks as much as other songfights.
(just dont let your first songfight know!)
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Spud »

JakeDeLorey wrote:On a an off topic note, are there any other websites that are similar in concept to Songfight?
Well, there's this guy, who advertises here for free: http://spintunes.blogspot.com/ , but can't be bothered to actually purchase a domain...
Beyond that, you could always search the web...
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Re: At Gene Rayburns request- Fill in the Blank reviews

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

Spud wrote:
JakeDeLorey wrote:On a an off topic note, are there any other websites that are similar in concept to Songfight?
Well, there's this guy, who advertises here for free: http://spintunes.blogspot.com/ , but can't be bothered to actually purchase a domain...
Beyond that, you could always search the web...
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