Here we go! Listening on the same headphones I mix with. All told, I think I spent about 7 hours writing these up, which is probably something I should see a therapist about.
Berni Armstrong: Upon first listen, I was put off by the low-string-tension-induced wonky tuning. By the end of that first listen, and again now, it's all just so goddamn charming. I can't really ask for more here - it's competently recorded in a good-sounding space, and getting crazy with production wouldn't add anything of value. I'm reminded of some of the
funny tunes that Gaelic Storm do. Lovely, and almost certain to be covered at the end of all this.
Bubba & The Ghost of the Kraken: Kazoo intro is fun. This is reminiscent of
something Good technique with the pan expansion on the chorus. Bass feels ever so slightly staccato - many of the hits feel like they ought to sustain until the snare hit cuts it off. Could also be compressed more, or ride the fader, as it drops here and there, particularly on the chorus. Solid effort.
Daniel Sitler: Something about this evokes
Undertale for me. Not sure I love the tuning clash between the piano and the strings, and the rhythmic misses in the piano. Great job building to that chorus. It does feel throughout that we lose the pulse - when it's there, it's awesome. Time correction would pull this together and make it punch like crazy. Great work.
The Pannacotta Army: Vocals feel slightly up front before the drums come in. Maybe automate a bit to keep the sense of balance that you have once the beat comes in. The arrangement is lovely - so much cool stuff happening that all supports your voice. The synth line in the right channel feels a bit naked when it hits its monophonic notes. Lovely.
Balance Lost: This feels like... maybe
Deathcab? If Ben Gibbard's voice was on this, I'd just be like "oh he's back in his 80's pop groove." You do a great job weaving guitars and synths and voice in and out, and your panning/space work is impressive. That ending tutti riff is super fun, would love to hear more moments like that.
The Single Pint of Failure: The III against IV resolving to the I is really cool. I'm sure you've gotten the
Mike Ness comparison before. Your voice is awesome - would love to hear a lighter touch on the tuning (I have similar difficulties). Band sounds great - everything sits well, though the vocals might be a bit hot. The doubled vocals being panned and otherwise treated the same as the lead has them fighting at times, especially when the tuning has them pushing against each other. Might be fun to try an oi-style gang vocal on the chorus. Well-executed for the genre overall; wo
uld have had this on my skate mix in high school for sure.
Weiner: It's tough working with 100% virtual instruments. I feel like you might as well lean into that, and embrace some instruments that don't call attention to their lack of organic touch. The bass programming is fun, but feels a bit high in the mix. The vocal is a bit buried. There are so many interesting sounds and melodic ideas here - would love to hear you working with some different tools.
Sober: With the move from Texas to Maine, building my studio with my own hands, and rehabbing our 1830's house, this is the first song I've recorded in over a year. Felt great to knock the rust off, though I definitely have some adjustments to make. My tuning is painfully obvious to me. I lazily slapped my last presets on, not accounting for the different microphones and space I'm working in now. I'll try to be better next time. I will say I'm happy with my guitar and mandolin work - the major breaks for each are only comped from two takes (not that I only did two takes, just that it didn't require note-by-note surgery). Playing a ton of jams has paid off for sure.
Tunes by LJ: Love this groove. The push is so satisfying and
evocative. The bass sound and the work you put into programming little details in is
Feels like we get a tiny plosive punch on "opportunity." Quadruple points for a short song in this field.
Stacking Theory: Another fun bass patch. Lots of fun effects bouncing around. You do a good job walking the ringmod line - can quickly become obnoxious, but you give us just enough. Vocal tuning is a bit strong at times. The guitar break feels a bit out of place until the vocal wash comes in. Goddamn that vocal out is just amazing. You could build a whole song off that. Reminds me a bit of the melodica line in that
Gorillaz tune. Very fun.
Hot Pink Halo: You have a sense of hook writing that I wish I had. Bass and drums get a bit lost in the back - wish they were as well-defined in the mix as that guitar. The final chorus is a satisfying wash with everything coming together. Fun!
Jeff Walker: The name had me hoping Jerry Jeff was still alive, the intro had me thinking I was getting
Marc Broussard, and the full song is giving me golden age country vocals over a mix of Willie Nelson and maybe Caribbean country? I'm a native Texan, but I admit I have some blind spots in my country history. The accordion is tasteful, as is the nylon guitar. Love the pedal steel-style swells with the electric. If I were producing you, I'd push you to give me as much grit as you can. It seems you're sometimes trying to deliver a really clean, "good" performance. There are thousands of singers who can sing a song like this "better" than you - only
you can sing it like you, so stop trying to sing well and just put your whole chest into it. Anyway, that's what I'd say, but this is the authentic you, and that's why I'm not a bigtime record producer. Anyway, I am always happy to hear country 'round these parts, and you clearly know what you're doing. Looking forward to hearing more.
The Evil Genius formerly known as Timmy: This feels like classic SongFight. Mix lacks punch, and synths feel pretty stock. Vocals and guitars rush frequently. Chorus is fun and hooky in a
Flight of the Conchords kind of way. Put in some mix study/practice time, and you'll be kicking ass.
Huge Shark: Backing track has flashes of
wonderful retro chiptune vibes. Your voice has a striking quality to it, I'm reminded of the way
Vashti Bunyan's voice makes me feel, even though I don't think you necessarily sound alike. Are you playing the bass in by hand? It frequently feels like it's anticipating the beat a bit. Would love to hear this arranged sparsely, with perhaps just piano or guitar. Looking forward to hearing more
Profestriga: Like the groove once it gets going. You put a lot of spin on "fucking" in a way that reminds me of the way
Marcus Mumford does. There was a funny tweet saying that the way he says it feels sus, like it's a giveaway that he's a narc or something. Anyway, whatever. You can just swear and it'll stand on its own merit. The triplet feel is fun, and the times where you briefly duple and otherwise play with the beat is nice. Generally speaking, I am not a person who notices lyrics until my 40th listen. However, some things jumped out at me. I read your lyrics and song bio, and perhaps a lot of this is beyond my personal cultural experience to effectively parse, but suffice it to say that a casual listener to this will be missing a lot of important context that could lead them to think wrong things about where your heart is. We're all friends and creators trying to improve, so I give you the benefit of the doubt and simultaneously assume that I'm ignorant and wrong (always a safe bet). Track sounds great, performance is great.
Mandrake: Lots of interesting sounds here. Very mumblecore - would love to hear your vocal delivered with the same confidence and execution as your mix. Really interesting arrangement and form, I'm just not getting anything from the timid delivery. Also, trim your out-point to where we don't get a full 10 seconds of silence at the end of your track.
The Practitioners: Strong
Spose vibes. Sample use is skillful, beat programming and attention to detail is killer. This might be the best execution of the genre I've heard around here since Frontalot. In the interest of providing something other than useless praise, it would be cool perhaps to tune the bass drum, give it some movement. Also, no bassline? Lots of opportunity to reinforce the groove and the harmonic environment there. Look forward to hearing more.
The Popped Hearts: The vocal feels like it's not in the same space as the guitars. My ears want to hear the switch from hihat to ride happen right when we get to the chorus, and not a few bars into it. Drums overall feel a bit busy in a midi kind of way, though the ending build is really satisfying and well done. A guitar solo and a key change in a song this short? Feels like you were showing off your arranging chops (which is fine!). It feels like you want to get
down in the dirt, but I understand that's hard with the inherent sterility of virtual drums. Spending a little more time humanizing those, and sitting them back just a touch in the mix might lead you somewhere nice. Fun track!
Phlub: Oh Phlub
You obviously had fun doing this, and it's fun to listen to. Try side-chain compressing the band while your lady (I'm assuming here) is speaking, and then boost and compress the hell out of her voice. Car commercial VO is the single most compressed genre of VO, with the possible exception of radio imaging. I'm gonna say something to you that I said to Pigfarmer Jr. years ago - you're having fun playing in the country space, but you have all of the ingredients you need to genuinely do it really well. Pls Phlub, give me country
Susan Veit Heslin: Great sounds. Is that a resonator? There's a midrange resonance that sounds unnatural for a standard acoustic. There's a liveness to the sound when it's just one voice and guitar. The harmonies break that illusion, not just because they're obviously the same voice, but because they're sitting right in the same spot in the mix. Using reverb and/or pan to push them back in the room could be effective. Would love to hear a stereo capture of that guitar, but the mono sound gives it an old school charm I suppose. Lovely track.
Siebass: There's something that grates on me with picking an "organic" patch like organ, and then doing things with it that are impossible on the real instrument. This is super fun, and your voice is well-suited to this. The bass sustain/dropout during the 3rd verse is a really nice change. Lots of great arrangement decisions all around, keeping things interesting. Fun!
The Dutch Widows: Feels like the drums could use a bit more programming work - like, the kick hits all seem to be the same velocity. Some variation to humanize a bit could help this breathe a bit more. The chorus progression is just wonderful. Love the sonic atmosphere these synths create, and there's a lot of charming detail happening. I feel like some really aggressive automation of your vocal could help to keep it in the pocket that you seem to find by the end of the track - early, it feels like the level peaks and drops off a bit at times. Enjoyable listen as always.
Loren Kyoshi Dempster: Piezo pickups always hurt my ears. Pretty narrow mix up til the too-delayed chorus. I don't know about that, uh, "drum" sound. Old, unseasoned bodhran with a dynamic on it? Obviously the chorus is where things come together really nicely. This is something I could hear some 90's swing band doing while Mormons lose their absolute shit. Others have commented on the length - I do feel that it takes a long time to get to the good stuff, and we don't get enough of it throughout the song. Like a really big salad with too few croutons. The croutons are really nice, though.
Roddy: Nice stereo sound on that piano. Compression on it is way squashy; pi
ano is exceedingly susceptible to audible compression artefacts. I appreciate you not rolling off all your highs - I'd rather hear the hiss than a muddy mess. This is fun, and you could perhaps lean even more into the Newman-ity of it all. Get a handle on your use of compression, and perhaps of your eq situation so that you're not having to make that choice of hiss/mud, and you'll be in great shape.
Governing Dynamics: Great sense of space. Part of me really wants the guitar bit in the intro to stand out a little more - maybe by boosting it and cutting the reverb entirely just for that part? Anyway, the octave riff action has me
feeling nostalgic. Vocal might need a touch more compression to help it sit with the mix a little better - there are times where it bounces up just a bit. Fun bridge, the panned bass is kinda retro there I guess. It might be fun to try a trick from, who else but CKY - double the lead vocal an octave lower, way back in the mix to be almost inaudible, but enough to fill it out just a bit. Or don't, because this sounds really great
Yeslessness: Nice, Cake-y groove. Feel like we're meandering a bit tonally - if you're having locking into the pitch, lean into the more spoken tone, 'cause that seems to work well. Hook is fun, though "someone else would try to control themselves" feels a bit crammed, and the harmonies all not perfectly being aligned with that rhythm calls further attention to it. Having the lyric simply be "someone else would control themselves" would alleviate that, and there would be a fun opportunity for a bit of a lift between "else" and "would" that could be nice and punchy. Nice track, reminds me of the more accessible
Starfinger tunes.
James Young: Nice guitar sound, would love to hear everything a bit drier. Might be worth automating a little midrange out of it once the bass comes in. Great execution of the grunge sound overall - it does seem like you're singing a bit crisply and precise for the genre. Many of my notes for Jeff Walker apply here - you have a killer voice, and you ought to lean into it and not care so much about "sounding good." Guitar solo is perfect in terms of tone, melodic choices, and duration. These four minutes went by fast. Well done!
thanks, brain: Fun wash of sound. Easy note here: when you have harmonies on a long note, especially one that ends with a consonant, the harmonies either need to A: cut off without enunciating that closing consonant or B: sustain and cut off exactly with the lead vocal. "A" has been a choral technique since forever, and "B" is achieved easily enough for us home producers with time correction tools (I admit that I did not do this on my own track this round, so
). The way the harmonies weave in and out, and the panning work - all very nice and effective. Great sound to the kit, really love the attention to detail with ghost notes on snare and hihat. The bridge descending line is
. Really great sounds all around.
JW Hanberry: Oof, lots of mouth noise. I appreciate that we're being off the wall Bowie here, and I'm not in the "eliminate breaths" camp, but the lip smacking as you prepare for some of these lines really ought to be trimmed. Really fun track, love how much variety there is here; h
ow there's undeniably 80's elements put up against more modern sounds and techniques. Look forward to hearing more.
Cavedwellers: I love panning, but it feels like the only things dead center are the bass and drums. The split-double lead vocal thing isn't my personal favorite, but it's well-executed. When the center vocal comes in during the bridge, I'm made to feel much more comfortable, if that makes sense. Anyway, slide solo is great, and doesn't try to do anything it shouldn't (as slide solos frequently do). Really nice interplay between the bass and guitars on the chorus, nice and punchy. Great stuff from Cavedwellers as usual.
chewmeupspitmeout: I'm a sucker for tremolo guitar. Would love to hear it played with more drunken mojo, and more on the beat. Definitely feels like the vocal could use some perhaps-occasional hard tube burn. This has a very fun old Radiohead vibe. Could use more bass punch throughout. Love a... what is that, a 3-over-2 polyrhythm? Fun track, lots of cool sounds.
Brother Baker feat. Father: Really nice job getting the kick to punch through in such a full mix. Vocals seem slightly dry for this - a bit of tube burn on the "cleaner" vocal, and more aggressive compression on the gritty vocal. Excellent execution of the genre - all of the sounds are just right. Well done.
The Alleviators: Feels like this wants a different kick sound. This is a snappy, slappy sound, and I'd like to hear a round, focused low-end punch. Bass doesn't have much low end to it, which can be a nice to automate to for some moments, but we're lacking the foundational element that it should be providing through much of this. Some of the vocal lines sound a bit hesitant, and perhaps unsure of where to take breaths, etc. - A few more takes with confidence should solve this. Great sounds, and always nice to hear a well-executed duet.
Simon Purchase James: The intro had me hoping for a joke song. It's so hard to walk the line in a political song. I know there's an audience for overt messages, but I've always tended more toward subtlety and plausible deniability, perhaps because I am a giant coward. Anyway, you obviously have a great voice and know what you're doing. I'll say that if the conceit of this recording i.e. the ambient noise and interruption are fake, then this is cringe level 5000
. Anyway, I hope you got to where you were going, and I look forward to hearing you in a more controlled environment in round 2.
‘Buckethat’ Bobby Matheson: I'd back off the doubled/tripled vocal lines. It's a good technique, but it'll do the job you're wanting it to do when it's barely perceptible, with the bonus of not being distracting for the listener (moments of "which voice should I be paying attention to?"). This is nice, bouncy fun in a very Buckethat kind of way that I've come to look forward to. I do believe you've written a Barenaked Ladies song here, and that's just fine. The electric guitar feels a little out of place... you know you don't have to turn the gain knob up to 10, right?
Jealous Brother: Solid, straight-ahead garage rock. The lead guitar is fun, though at times
seemingly out of place. Rather than having that back off though, I'd rather the rest of the band come up to that energy level. Overall nice execution of the sound.
Also In Blue: *CJ voice - Aw shit. Here we go again. Ok, I'm going to try to do more than just say "this good." So yeah: On the vocal, it sounds like there's some variation in proximity effect happening - like you're moving a lot during your takes. Or maybe the threshold on an aggressive compressor is set slightly off. Something happens right at 1:59 that sounds like a stumble on the snare, but I'm not a drummer and have terrible rhythm so
. Ooh, and it seems like when you do your jump beat at ~3:06, you fooled yourself as much as the rest of us, as the bass preempts the downbeat by just a hair. I do feel like we could use a bit more rhythm section throughout - it'd be nice to hear the bass throughout at the same level as it is during the riff, and the drums are pretty far back in general. Maybe the mix is a little hot overall? Like you're pushing a limiter just a touch hard, maybe? Or I just have loudness envy. Masterclass of songwriting, arrangement, and structure as usual.
Phantom Woes: Classic songfight sound. Having a hard time really feeling a steady pulse - having some kind of element giving us a steady quarter or eighth note, even way way back in the mix, would be really helpful. I know a producer who will drop a simple 4-bar drum loop on 95% of tracks at like -60db, just to glue things together rhythmically. Great job building a big sound with those horns. Interesting how they're really dry, but your layering of them helps contribute to the big wet wall of sound. Cool!
Ominous Ride: A bit muddy overall. Like, yeah there's a lack of high end, but it really seems like we have a buildup of low-mids. I think scooping 100-400hz on nearly every instrument would really clear this mix up. Also probably a high pass on the vocal reverb. Love the
Mandalorian slide sound, and the descending background vocal stuff. Would love to hear more impactful shifts when you go from section to section - System of a Down are
masters of this. I think you should trust in your abilities, and peel back some of the reverb wash that's covering a lot of interesting nuance. Look forward to hearing more.
Jocko Homomorphism: That's quite an intro. Also long; 4
0 seconds in a 3 minute song. The hard pan jumps are jarring. It seems like you're going for a musical theater kind of presentation, and perhaps you're using panning to separate your character's inner monologue/asides from the rest of the storytelling?
Modern musical theater doesn't tend to use hard panning to separate characters. That percussive click is very "iphone typing"
. Great performance by Cybronica! Nice work creating a genuine cave-like atmosphere with all those synth sounds. Fun track!
Night Sky: Would love to hear the rhodes pushed back a little bit in the space via some room reverb. Lots of
opportunities for noodling in between these vocal lines. As a hammond player, if I were in this band I don't think I could keep myself from doing some runs in those spaces. Horns are great as always. I do think panning them against the hammond instead of against the rhodes would have been my decision, as they're basically doing the same job as the hammond (texture, rather than rhythm). At 2:10, that downbeat feels delayed - does the drum fill rush, or am I feeling the pulse wrong? Anyway, you keep getting better and better.
Ironbark: As much as I love a good hammond sound, given the funny nature of this story and the delivery, I kind of want to hear the hammond swapped for something like a
farfisa or starcaster (even turning the leslie amp modeling off + Chorus 3 on a hammond would have a similar effect). Likewise, I think a
TR 606 (or cheaper!) drum sound could be fun. All that said, you've created a very fun Conchords-esque sound here, and there's some deceptively deep chord work here. Lovely outtro. Excited to hear more stuff from you.
Tenmere: Fuckin' Tenmere here we fuckin' go. Goddamn that gallop sounds great, and holy shit those string runs. I have A/B'ed this against
The Trooper a dozen times, and the only thing I can come up with is that your voice sounds like it's coming up a bit thin, but not just in a normal eq way. It makes me think of the way a harmonic resonance plugin's telephone preset sounds, but at like 10% wet (and maybe it's 90% wet during the rainy bridge?). You know? Anyway, as a long-time fan of Iron Maiden and basically no other bands in the genre, I can't really provide a lot of valuable critique. Oh, the string patch, while fine in the fuller portions of the song, is a bit transparent as a virtual instrument in the bridge. Maybe let a clean guitar pick up that part? Whatever, this is fuckin' awesome. Tenmere rules.
Menage a Tune: Levels are peaking a bit, and we're getting a lot of plosives and mouth noise. Looking at the song bio, I can see you were away from home when you recorded this. Still, even if you're recording this into a phone or what have you, some adjustments to the microphone placement, etc. could help with a lot of this. Whether we know the limiting circumstances of the recording or not, it's pretty clear as a listener that this is intended to have instrumentation, and we feel the lack. Would love to hear you produce this up and share it with us!
Jerkatorium: Fun vibe as always. Audible tuning artefacts at times (I have them too). Cool progressions, really liking vi to flat VII thing (I used that too!). Solid execution - I feel like I'd be hard pressed to ID your songs vs anything by
Paco Del Stinko. It sounds like y'all have fun doing this, and it comes through.
Good Niche Gracious: Enjoying how the bass pushes the swing. By the second verse, I'd identified
where the lead line takes me. For what sounds like 100% virtual instruments, it seems like we're losing the pulse in a few spots. The switches between the swing and straight feel are fine, but within those sections, it feels like some elements aren't quite in the pocket. Overall, the mix could use a lot of punching up and separation of various elements. The vocal performance is very nice, and some good compression etc. would help it shine. Fun track!
Mandibles: Guitar and bass sound nice. Not a big fan of the piano sound - sounds mono and sterile compared to these really clean guitar sounds. Drums could likewise use a bit more attention programming-wise, to humanize and fit them into the broader performance a little better. Likewise, a little more work on the vocal would really make this. As it is, the guitars (particularly the big lead when it comes in) really outshine everything else due to their more aggressive, modern-sounding compression. If the vocal had that same level of punch in the mix, we'd have a totally different song here. Feels very much like the same deal as Jealous Brother's tune - bring everything else up to match the energy of that lead guitar, and we're golden.
Weiner [Shadow]: Feels like we have different tracks entirely playing against each other in the left and right channels. Left channel feels very Earthbound, and the right channel feels like different Earthbound. Vocal feels Starfinger. Now that I think of it, I guess I'm saying that
all of this feels Starfinger.
Hutch [Shadow]: This is cozy. Classic songfight sound, charming in its own way.
_____
That was a lot of music. To me, I have to give best in show to
Tenmere, with top marks to
Also In Blue and
The Practitioners.