The Song Fight Bulletin Board

ken wrote:

Caravan Ray wrote:If the title is "Half a Stone" and I add an 'r' to sing "half a stoner" - am I guilty of Title Abuse?

Please reference Octothorpe's Been to China.

Ken

Yes but, although you are too young to remember , the optional challenge that week was to "emphasize a mistake."

pigpen - the music behind the rap should be more consistent. it's jumping all over the place. the rap isn't very exciting, either. i think i'm getting burned out on songfight raps.

johnny c - i think something needs to pick up more for the chorus. like get a buncha people to sing it with you all in the brit accent. that would suit it. good of you to fix the kilo thing i think this is improved over the live one, it sounds more on-balance if you know what i mean.

ryan r - pretty good, but i'm not really getting into it. i think it's a good song but i'd like to hear somebody else sing it (sorry).

frankie b - this really comes alive when the background singers come in on the chorus. and the instrumental part after is nice. not as fond of the part around 2:15 tho.

pookah - nice vocal sound. i also like the guitars. hey, this is very cool. this is not what i expect from somebody named pookah. this is way better.

aaa - i find myself less interested in songs with only one instrument, but this one has some very nice piano playing. definitely points in its favor. it feels like you repeat yourself a bit. anyway, nice.

ken - ah, here are some more instruments. i think your vocals sound very good here. good song.

bellgreen - kind of odd edge to the recording. a little harsh on the top end, maybe? the city/pretty rhyme reminds me in an odd way of guns & roses. anyway. the vocal cadence is only ok, the synth solo is pretty nice, but we should be hearing synth elsewhere too. also i think the guitar line should vary more.

gripz - what's a bezacca? wow those bg vox at 2:00 are weird. i think i hear the j$ in there. this is pretty cool.

ron - i like the little coffee steam plume on your avatar. there are a lot of guy and something songs in this fight. it's pretty good. the guitar is basically doing the same thing over and over. need more variety.

stubby - vocal lines seem out of time with the rest. something like "collection of half stones" sounds bad sung that way. the music's pretty neat. but i don't hear the two working together very well.

caravan - this is good. vocals sound good to me. i don't care that much about the title mangling... it's minor. i feel like this needs something but i'm not sure what.

15yrs - wait, this is lonbobby, right? sounds like his piano playing. nice. i like this woman's voice. the "breathe" section is particularly nice.

likely - this is pretty good. pretty raunchy sound. very 70's.

kapitano - very cool music. the vocals are kind of strange. the two different vocal styles provide an interesting contrast. ok, i think the spoken vox should be more upfront. i wasn't sure at first, but i'm on board with this. cool song.

1: johnny, pookah, ken, 15yrs, kapitano.
2: fbf, aaace, bellgreen, gripz, ron, caravan, likely

vote, vote, vote... not quite as important as the one i made earlier today, but since that one doesn't seem to be swinging in my favor ... i vote for ... pookah!
-bill

Lonbobby wrote:

Andy Balham wrote: Fifteen Years
the bit rate is bad

What do you mean?

<soapbox>192kbps is good for sound quality, but not so good for dial-up. Sticking to 128kbps also gives a level playing field.</soapbox>

HeuristicsInc wrote:gripzwhat's a bezacca?

The Bezacca is a cheap maracca once operated on stage by the legendary Bez of Madchester scallies The Happy Mondays.

A. A. Ace - Nice playing, singing and song but you keep trying to fit too many syllables into your lines and so they come out slightly clunky everynow and then as you rush and drag to attempt to get them to fit. take some more time over your lyrics with the piano and you'll be onto something. Very nice.

Bell Green - The double tracking vocals really annoyed me for some reason. the random (accidental?) harmony on "girls" 2/3rds through was nice. Nice picking but you mixed the guitar kind of upfront and the vocals and all, it was just kind of busy and scary, which is a shame, because you've got talent.

Caravan Ray - Argh! Bring the drums up in the mix! If you're gonna put them in then have them audible, I find myself straining to listen to them in the background. You've nicked the main hook (half a saint) that you harmonise from a Who or a Kinks song, I forget which, it may have been subliminal but it's definitely the same notes and backing vocals. Overall I like it though, I wish the drums were more forthright though, the snare is almost inaudible. Good work, catchy and nice backing vocals.

Fifteen Years - I like the motif you took on the Half A Stone title. Pretty piano and arrangement. the backing vocals are nice and well placed. Overall I really like it. Well done! So far my vote goes for you. Nice outro, but I'd drop the echo on the last vocal line.

Frankie Big Face - This one made me laugh, and sad, because eating disorders suck. I'm sure you mean well though. Funny lyrics, and your voice on the "giving yourself away" lines is topnotch. You sound great singing in that register. Quality ben foldsesque backing vocals too. You're so close to getting my vote. 2nd place so far... even though you don't like our song

Johnny Cashpoint - A nice take on the title, I'm with the person who mentioned Monty Python. Goes on a little long for the same jokes, quite entertaining though. Why does everyone double track vocals so much?

Kapitano - Oooh atmospheric. Bedroom techno. Hmm. I'm sorry it does nothing for me really, but I can tell you put a reasonably amount of effort into it.

Ken's Super Duper Band And Stuff - Yay! Awesome. F**king top notch bouncy poppy intro. Great voice, I love this. You steal the vote from Fifteen Years (sorry). The harmonies are really well placed and catchy. NICE! You're going to win. If you don't it's been rigged by someone with a mailing list.

The Likely Lads - Our song has boxing and gorillas, synchopated bass and guitar lines, and a wah wah. It's the best song ever written.

The Masters Of Grip - hahaha that's one hell of an ass? Brilliant. The song has a big hole in the mid range where that guitar should sit. Good effort though.

PigPen - dear god no.

Pookah - quite nice, I like the handclaps. The guitar seems to meander quite a lot though. Goes on for quite a long time.

Ron AmoriM - Nice atmospherics and vocals. I kinda liked what you were doing with the off kilter backing vocals and stuff.

Ryan Rickenbacch - The chorus is pretty, and a nice contrast to the verse. I liked it, but I think it went on a little long.

Stubby Phillips - Crazy Jazz beats and stuff. I kinda see where you were going with this but unfortunately I missed the bus so I'll see you on the flipside. Good playing from everyone, but there's times I'm not sure it's all on the same song.

Overall lots of good stuff. I'd say:

1) Ken
2) Fifteen Years
3) Frankie Big Face

A_Likely_Mike wrote: Johnny Cashpoint - Goes on a little long for the same jokes, quite entertaining though.

It's not a joke. It's a 'transcript' of a conversation with six american 19-20 year olds.

j$

Ah, the British invasion! (and some Americans and an Antipodean too, of course)

Bell Green – pretty. Nice voice as always. Doesn’t ring true for me. The lyric seems a bit empty? Could do with more variation around the third minute. Not screaming ‘half a stone’ at me.

Likely Lads – I don’t like the name, personally. Reminds me of crap sitcom or Libertines too much Anyway … ‘betwitched by her ear’? This reminds me of a slightly folkier Sabbath or something. There’s an unneccessary American twang to this. I like ‘Bigger / Gorilla’. Negative points for Size-ism.

Ken – Strokes-esque with some nice Cheap Trick touches and cute Weezer-esque harmonies. I like it. Not sure I am following the lyric on first listen but I imagine I will be listening several times more so there’s plenty of time to figure it out. Yea, I like it a lot. Poss vote.

Kapitano – I voted for this in the live fight and it has translated well to a 'recorded' version. I like your electro-poppyness, something which I hadn’t really noticed before hearing you play. This would fit lovely on a Felix Da Housecat / Adult. Album. So another possible vote. (Although voting for the same song twice is frowned upon, no?

Pigpen – So when did you become a player? I must have been out of the forum when that motion was passed. I must admit that in a community of 100-150 people, the idea that someone thinks in terms of players strikes me as a little ludicrous. Anyway that’s by-the-by – your song - Pleasant enough groove. I like your rap-voice although the stream-of-consciousness / cut-up lyric doesn’t really fit the style of its aggressive content. OK - I have no genre bias here - I’ve just heard better and worse rap elsewhere on Songfight.

Masters of Grip - featuring me. I like this song a lot (or I wouldn't be playing on it, natch) and would probably have voted for it if I wasn't on it, if only for pleasing anti-sizeism content. Starts off Breeder-ish then goes cool garage. So some observations - I think I can only fairly comment on the production as I was not involved in it in any way.
I think I agree with Leaf there's too much squished in the mid. Everything the guitar is playing is very very cool, but there's possibly too-much-of-a-good-thing going on there. The bass could be louder (and not just because I played it!) You really can't make it out in the verses (it may be that it's not there, even). It's OK in the choruses but it could stand to be a smidgen louder. I really like the guitar part for the chorus (that's changed from the live version). A smidgen less reverb on the lead voc? The end, while really cool for the build, is probably one loop too long. Overall this is a brilliant 3 minute song that goes on for 3.30 if you see what I mean?

Ron Anagram that I can’t Figure Out – Nice guitar playing. That’s almost Dylan-esque in overall impression. Only with a bit of Paul Simon World Music thrown in. Too long for what it is, I guess, but pleasing on the ear.

Caravan Ray – oh, ‘dull’ means something on more than two continents, obviously Nah, only joking. Actually the garagey vibe leaves me a bit cold and in my book, this is cheating. If the challenge is ‘write a song to a title’ writing it to a different title however close, is no better/worse than writing an instrumental. Just my opinion, mind, but it would not have materially affected the overall result even if it had been on-topic.

Frankie Big-Face - this really sounds like pared-down acoustic John Lennon to me. This lyric is pretty fantastic. I love the child-like pursual of the concept to its logical conclusion and 'She was home' works very well for me. One minor minor quibble, 'assumed' doesn't fit very comfortably in that line. Especially as the image of the ampersand is a good one. I can't think of what to take its place, but it makes the line a bit trip-over-the-tongue. Yeah very good. And therefore poss.vote.

Ryan Rickenbach - suffers from coming right after mr Big Face. On cheap speakers there's very little audible difference on the surface but it doesn't resonate for me in the same way. Don't why that is. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but my mp3 player stuttered at the start of the song, which gave the promise of something avant-garde that it never became.

Pookah - Beatlesy, obviously. The guitar in the verse needs a bit more reverb on it, imo. Way way too long. Well-performed and (bar the reverby thing) good production. Just seems, a little, aaaahh, relaxed, to me. Like there's all this frenetic energy in the rhythm being expanded on a mid-tempo song. Maybe that's how you like it.

15 Years - not for me. Pretty, professional, lovely female voice, slightly spectral feeling which I like, but maybe it's just my prejudice (or speakers) but there is not enough bass-end here for me. Or if you want ethereal maybe you should dampen down that strict drum machine tempo. It's caught between dance music and piano ballad at the moment. Needs to be more fluid. imo.

AA Stone - jaunty piano. Good voice. The ragged production on the vocal track against the piano works well. This sounds like an American Kamakura to me. But another sizeist one gettin' negative points from me.

Stubby Phillips - oh that's sloppy bass action! Nice inconsequential groove. Not a fan of 'wacky' lyrics. I kept coming back to that stuttering bass and very occasional rhythymless guitar. Serving no purpose is a purpose in itself, I guess.

Well, checking my list it's FBF, Kapitano and Ken. Having voted for Kap once, it's down to FBF or Ken. It's tricky as I like both songs very much. Ken.

You know, it's not a bad bunch of songfighters over here in the UK. Maybe we should cecede from the land of Bush-voters or something

j$ wrote:Likely Lads – I don’t like the name, personally. Reminds me of crap sitcom or Libertines too much Anyway … ‘betwitched by her ear’? This reminds me of a slightly folkier Sabbath or something. There’s an unneccessary American twang to this. I like ‘Bigger / Gorilla’. Size-ist.

Firstly if you think it's size-ist to find larger girls attractive, that's your issue and not ours. the fact of the matter is that our song isn't offensive in the slightest, it celebrates it if anything. Oh, and that's "Bewitched by her rear" not "ear". She's a boxer anyway, how'd you figure we were poking fun at size?

A_Likely_Mike wrote:

j$ wrote:Likely Lads – I don’t like the name, personally. Reminds me of crap sitcom or Libertines too much Anyway … ‘betwitched by her ear’? This reminds me of a slightly folkier Sabbath or something. There’s an unneccessary American twang to this. I like ‘Bigger / Gorilla’. Size-ist.

Firstly if you think it's size-ist to find larger girls attractive, that's your issue and not ours. the fact of the matter is that our song isn't offensive in the slightest, it celebrates it if anything.

Yeah, right. (ps I was joking, ya big dummy.)

frankie big face wrote:<b>PiGPEN</b>
"please your so trife"? what does that mean? i don't think trife is a word, dude. brilliant concept and the four lines that generated the song are quite good. unfortunately the concept in practice makes this almost unlistenable. but damn, it was a good idea.

Trife is slang, an adjective of trifle meaning: Something of little importance or value. (Song for refrence to prove i didnt just make this up: 'Trife Thieves'). My slanguage is impeccable.

PiGPEN wrote:

frankie big face wrote:<b>PiGPEN</b>
"please your so trife"? what does that mean? i don't think trife is a word, dude. brilliant concept and the four lines that generated the song are quite good. unfortunately the concept in practice makes this almost unlistenable. but damn, it was a good idea.

Trife is slang, an adjective of trifle meaning: Something of little importance or value. (Song for refrence to prove i didnt just make this up: 'Trife Thieves'). My slanguage is impeccable.

Yeah, I figured it was something like that. I'm not so up on the slang.

A_Likely_Mike wrote:Frankie Big Face - This one made me laugh, and sad, because eating disorders suck. I'm sure you mean well though. Funny lyrics, and your voice on the "giving yourself away" lines is topnotch. You sound great singing in that register. Quality ben foldsesque backing vocals too. You're so close to getting my vote. 2nd place so far... even though you don't like our song

Good call on the Ben Folds backing vocal reference--I stole those almost note for note. Lyrics really weren't meant to be funny or literal, but sad, yes. Thank you for the compliments--sorry I didn't like your song, but I will listen to future entries with an open mind. I promise!

Favorites in <font color=blue>blue</font>

AA Stone
Good start. Lots of sloppy lyric writing. Things like "My sweet girl/She is a gonna cry" sound like they're in there to fill the syllables. You wouldn't really talk like that. What you want to say is "My girl's gonna cry". And lines like "with extra large fries" doesn't really fit the tune. It comes out "extra lajfries". "Dog with an old dog bone" is also weak. What you want to say is "dog with a bone", (a tired cliché in the first place) but you needed extra syllables. I think you were trying to go for some sort of back woods ragtime feel, but it doesn't really play that way. Also, if you're using Midi to record the keyboard, try using the quantize feature to clean up some of your rhythmic problems.

Bell Green
Nice and simple. A little too simple for my taste. The synth strings are really not needed, and that whole break seems really confused.

Caravan Ray
Fine. I like the authentic 60's band sound. The vocals seem too echoed.

Fifteen Years
Pretty.

<font color=blue>Frankie Big Face
One of my favorites of yours. Very solid and enjoyable</font>

Johnny Cashpoint
Kind of amusing. I'm really not in the mood for diatribes on what is American, cuz I'm not feeling really good about being one today, so I'm just going to move on here. Not your fault.

Kapitano
This one doesn't do a lot for me. The synth patches you're using are too overused, so the whole thing kind of washes over me. But it's certainly well-produced.

<font color=blue>Ken's Super Duper Band n Stuff
This is pretty great. Very nice balance in the production. I especially like how cleanly the vocals are recorded. Perhaps the chorus is a little under-produced, I might have gotten a little more creative there, but that's a nitpick. Good job. Possible vote.</font>

Likely Lads
This definitely has a confident rock attitude. A little weird, but so what. I like the growly lead vocal. It's lacking something, perhaps it's too repetitive, but pretty nice work.

Masters of Grip
Doesn't do much for me, but I think it's probably pretty good.

Pigpen
I don't understand this, nor do I like it at all. Lasted about halfway through. Why is it that the rap entries on Songfight are always among the worst?

Pookah
Nice. Competent, though it doesn't grab my attention very much. Nothing really bad about it, just doesn't really get me very excited. Kind of dull, unless you're really into fuzz guitar, which I'm not.

Ron AmoriM
Pretty nice. The songwriting is really solid. I'm having a LOT of trouble understanding your lyrics, partly because of the recording quality, which is not so great. The engineering gurus here can give you pointers on improving your recording. Take their advice, because it sounds like it's worth the effort, with good musicianship like this to record.

<font color=blue>Ryan Rickenbach
This is a catchy tune. I wish you were singing with a lot more conviction. I also wish the lyrics were a little cleaner. A few squishes and stretches there. But this is a favorite of the fight purely because of the catchiness of the tune. Possible vote.</font>

Stubby Phillips
Very strange. Enjoyed it, but not keeping it.

A_Likely_Mike wrote: Caravan Ray - You've nicked the main hook from a Who or a Kinks song,

!!??!!
..Pot calling Kettle..Pot calling Kettle....come in Kettle...
Just kidding....

Yeah I probably did nick something from the Who or the Kinks - no shame in that, I've done it before and I'll do it again. Wasn't intentional here - can't think what you're thinking of..'Substitute' maybe?

Actually Bell Green picked the real theft in his review. Once again - I'm guilty as charged - this song started as The Monkees 'Stepping Stone' - then I changed it a little bit. Give Bell Green a cigar.

In today's society (meaning people that I've spoken to or heard on tv or read in the papers), originality seems very important to people. But it wasn't always like that. Writers, composers and poets would strictly adhere to certain known forms, and were greatly respected for doing. In fact, deviating from those forms was not considered de rigeur as it is in today's society. The critics of the day would have demolished you.

In 1800, in his preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote "Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished". But did the notion of originality begin with the Romantics in the 18th century, or has society always valued originality? Should we consider Shakespeare an innovator or a plagiarist? To what extent is originality about perception rather than conception and is originality a concept without meaning today?

Anyway, just a thought. And if this sparks off any discussion, then of course move it to another thread.

Bell Green wrote:In today's society (meaning people that I've spoken to or heard on tv or read in the papers), originality seems very important to people. But it wasn't always like that. Writers, composers and poets would strictly adhere to certain known forms, and were greatly respected for doing. In fact, deviating from those forms was not considered de rigeur as it is in today's society. The critics of the day would have demolished you.

In 1800, in his preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote "Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished". But did the notion of originality begin with the Romantics in the 18th century, or has society always valued originality? Should we consider Shakespeare an innovator or a plagiarist? To what extent is originality about perception rather than conception and is originality a concept without meaning today?

Anyway, just a thought. And if this sparks off any discussion, then of course move it to another thread.

Hmmm... can't follow all the fancy words - all I know is when you only know 3 chords - you're always going to be nicking something off somebody.

Well, Bell Green, the whole history of music is (rightly or wrongly) measured by who managed to shake up the status quo. Beethoven is famous for dicking with classical structure, Debussy is famous for introducing 20th century music, Chopin for finding new ways to play the piano, etc., etc., etc. In academia, anyway, I think there's a disproportionate amount of attention paid to composers who refused to follow the rules, because they ushered in a bigh new era. So I think a lot of people have come to the conclusion that their music is only worthwhile if they are doing something brand new, breaking some sort of new ground.

Bell Green wrote: Kapitano - Nice effect on the voice, but needs to be louder in some parts. This is very well done and reminds me of the eighties. Quite well structured and arranged. Just push them vocals up lad.

Ah yes, the mixing of vocals. Always tricky. The thing about finding a level for your own singing, so the listener can understand the lyrics but also hear the backing...is that you already understand the lyrics because you wrote them . So, you can 'get' the singing with a lower vocal mix.

I use one of two tricks. The first is to find a vocal level that sounds good for me, and increase it slightly. The second - used here - is to distort them, which seems to somehow fool the ear into registering them as louder. It didn't work this time though, it seems.

ken wrote: That's some synth. Excellent.

<kapitano decides he likes ken quite a lot>

Caravan Ray wrote: Didn’t like it on first listen, but I think I’m coming around to it. Reminds me of Severed Heads. I don’t like the vocals on the chorus, where you use the higher voice – that’s spoiling it a bit for me – I like the synth though. Not sure about the lyrics. Interesting – well worth a listen.

Ah, Severed Heads. Another band I keep hearing about and never get around to hearing. The lyrics are indeed not the strongest. I generally sing higher because the notes are easier to get right, and because singing low can sound muddy in a bass heavy mix. The downside of course is that singing towards the top of your range gives a weedier voice.

TVsKyle wrote: Kapitano- This sounds very similar to Asymmetic by Dirty Sanchez. This loses a lot when you start singing, sadly. The sound in itself isn't the worst, but it's very derivative. As the song progresses, the music really starts burying your vocals.

I don't know the Dirty Sanchez track, but I found some of their other material, and I see what you mean. (BTW, in my researches I stumbled across the 'Dirty Sanchez' album by Zeke - so, thanks for introducing me to a hardcore guitar band with no songs over two minutes.)

As for being derivative, my actual inspiration was the work of DJ Infiniti, who has an unashamedly retro 80s synthpop sound.

I think you're right about the vocals, at least on the spoken verses. For this track, on the advice of J$, I applied no compression at all to my voice. Although the verses are tripple tracked.

Ron wrote: Kapitano: Musically, I like it. I dig the seperate vocals and the drive of the whole thing. I enjoyed it very much lyrically, too. My only criticism is that the broken relationship hinted to at the end is kind of dwarfed by the size of the ideas in the other verses.

Hmmm. I usually avoid writing songs about things that matter to me, but made an exception for the verses here. The idea was for to juxtapose an unmystical, hardnosed view of the outside world with an inability to think clearly about one's own life and emotions.

The narrator can easily deal with there being no god, afterlife or magic, but can't deal with losing love.

Andy Balham wrote: Kapitano
I’m enjoying the overall sound and the gentle build throughout the song. Good track.

Thank you, Mr B. We must talk about collaboration sometime.

Frankie Big Face wrote: You sort of used the title. I like the song and the sounds you use. Vocals are buried much of the times, but your lyrics post helped. The chorus could have come from a Bowie song on one of his weirder late-period albums. Pretty decent.

As regards using the title - it seems to me the challenge of SF is to write a good song in a week, not to shoehorn a stupid phrase into some lyrics. If it comes to a choice between the two, a decent song is worth more than some verbal gynmastics.

I've <i>never</i> been compared to David Bowie before. And I <i>think</i> I'm flattered. .

Jim of Seattle wrote: This one doesn't do a lot for me. The synth patches you're using are too overused, so the whole thing kind of washes over me. But it's certainly well-produced.

Fair enough that its not your scene. I don't use preprogrammed patches - I program almost all the sounds I use (including drums) from basic waves and filters.

That's the second time I've seen people doing a full response to all their reviews. I think it's a good thing. It shows they are being read by the composer. Keep 'em coming.

Kapitano wrote:Thank you, Mr B. We must talk about collaboration sometime.

More than happy to. Just let me know when you require my 'talents'.

<b>Frankie Big Face:</b> My favorite part is the "vocals" solo. Kinda like Sigur Ros, "lyrically," anyway. Really, the vocals all around are quite awesome--those ba-ba's towards the end are wonderful. You have quite a talent for emotive singing. I'd be interested in hearing more of your quirkier side, too, as your "Crinkle Binkle" far surpasses everything else I've ever heard from you (that's not to say that most everything else wasn't very good). This is clearly a contender.

<b>Ken et al:</b> Solid. This coulda been done by Weezer, almost. The electric guitar sorta stabs out a little more than it should, when it does those four downwardly cascading notes. Just a nitpick, though. This song's quite good.

<b>PiGPEN:</b> It's not you, it's me. I'm too close-minded. Try as I might, I cannot like this.

<b>Ryan Rickenbach:</b> No need to slap the guitar rhythmically like that--I think that just takes away from this. This started out boring me with the first few bars but then became likeable. There are some silly and unlikeable parts in the lyrics delivery--the way you say "rainBOW," "ha-ha-hollow," and other stuff like that. But still, this is nice. You'd get away (maybe) with the "ha-ha-..." stuff if you sang more like Jack Johnson.

<b>Stubby Phillips:</b> I like your bluesy singing and guitar soloing, but this is a little too ploddy. It'd be a lot cooler if you picked it up eventually and started rockin'. The bass ain't half bad either. The cymbal crashes are a little too loud and crunchy. This is fairly decent.

<b>Pookah:</b> This grows on me after a few listens. The vocals oughta be crisper though--less watery. Nice job on the guitar soloing--that's what finally pulled me in. The drums could use a hi-hat or ride to carry this along, as well. It's nice when the tambourine comes in, but without that, each cymbal crash is jarring in a bad way.

<b>The Likely Lads:</b> Drums! Get louder drums! Make this rock! Without strong drums, even the best rock songs become limp--and these drums are <i>weak</i>. Could be the recording, or maybe you're just not hitting them hard enough. As for the rest of the song, it's quite good--the singing is especially cool. So's the line "Roxeanne, she barks like a gorilla." If you re-recorded this with kick-ass, bang-up, fuckin' raucous drumming, it would be really good.

<b>Johnny Cashpoint:</b> Nice lyrics. There's a badly distracting staticy shuffling sound behind the entire song--what's up with that? Other than that, this is good for sparsely occasional amusement.

<b>Caravan Ray:</b> Your voice is too loud, and the drums might as well just not be there. Ignoring the bad production, your vocals would be appropriate if you stood back and yelled them--that would suit the rock feel better. But anyway, the super-quiet drums and slightly overbearing vocals really kill this. The song could be decent, given a better production/performance.

<b>Bell Green:</b> The tune ain't half bad, but your singing has way too much cheesy enthusiasm in it. Know what I mean? Rather than being sorta laid back and soft like this tune begs for (see c hack and Forty Second Songs), you're singing like this is a really upbeat 80's song or something. But like I said, the tune itself ain't bad. Now, the bridge of strings is just plain boring.

<b>A.A. Stone:</b> Quaint and vaguely pleaing. Sometimes, the rhythm of the lyrics wrenches away from the piano's rhythm. Also, cut down on the static. In general, this decent.

<b>Fifteen Years:</b> Great production, though the melody sorta just bores me. Nothing to push my buttons, really. But anyway, good singing, too.

<b>Kapitano:</b> The drums need to be more impacting--I have no trouble ignoring them altogether. This lacks a distinct melody, which means it oughta have a kick-ass beat, which it doesn't. It's just sorta sleepy all around.

<b>Masters Of Grip:</b> It doesn't seem like the vocals are close to being in tune with the music. That really kills this. The music ain't bad.

<b>Ron AmoriM:</b> Pretty good. And while it doesn't exactly blow my mind, I can't find anything wrong with it. Nice job.

So....

8. <b>Johnny Cashpoint</b>
7. <b>Ryan Richenbach</b>
6. <b>A.A. Stoe</b>
5. <b>Stubby Phillips</b>
4. <b>Ron AmoriM</b>
3. <b>Pookah</b>
2. <b>Ken's Super Duper Band 'n' Stuff</b>
1. <b>Frankie Big Face</b>

Frankie Big Face wrote: I don't sigh impatiently at electronic dance music. Are you surmising this as the result of some comment I made on somsongs about bad electronic dance

music?

I've done some checking and...it wasn't you I was thinking of. Just not sure which songfighter I was thinking of. Maybe it's just the general
impression of SF I get on the boards.

Andy Balham wrote: <soapbox>192kbps is good for sound quality, but not so good for dial-up.
Sticking to 128kbps also gives a level playing field.</soapbox>

I've been doing some experimenting with bitrates and different kinds of VBR. I may get around to posting the full results, but the short version is:

* Most forms of VBR, if ranged between 32 and 160kbps, produce a file 10% larger than CBR at 128.

* VBR-ABR set between 32 and 192kbps, with the ABR set to 128, produces a file the same size as CBR 128, to within 2%. The sound quality is noicably better, though not as good as CBR at 192.

Andy Balham wrote: Kapitano wrote:
Thank you, Mr B. We must talk about collaboration sometime.

More than happy to. Just let me know when you require my 'talents'.

It's been ages since a married man said that to me. Well, actually its three weeks but anyway...
For the next fight, I have a surprise collab lined up, hopefully. After that...it'd be good to sing over instruments you pluck and hit instead of program.

user wrote: Drums! Get louder drums!
the drums might as well just not be there
The drums need to be more impacting

I'm just guessing, but do you like drums?

Lots of drums comming up in Kapitano's next collaboration.