Hello there,
After what is probably way too long, I have a new song that you can download. It’s called “The Secret”, after the book of the same name, and it’s essentially a cynical, sarcastic look at the book’s thesis (Though I should point out, as I do in the linked review, that the line about “Thinking fat thoughts” is actually in the book) in the style of Bad Religion. You can read more about it here, or if you’re not the literary type, you can download the song directly here. Let me know what you think!
-EE
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Here’s my thoughts on this one, some good and some bad:
First the bad (which isn’t that bad): I understand the limits of home recording sound quality, but are you playing a single string on the guitar? It sounds very thin (at least power chords would be fuller) and bereft of any chords. I would suggest thickening it up or playing bass chords, something to give a more robust sound. And also, I’m sure you know this: the drums are barely, barely audible. All I can really hear are the cymbal crashes and a whisper of the snare. I know these are pre-mixes but just letting you know.
Now the good: Your vocals are really coming along– your voice sounds more steady, confident and it seems like you’re more singing than “talking with the music” if that makes sense. You obviously can hit the notes, perhaps you should try to hold some of them longer or add some more backing vocals? Add to that your song composition is tighter; even though this is a more straight forward song, it doesn’t have any jarring time changes that sometimes can change the “feel” of a song (for better or worse).
Thicken the sound, tweak the mixing and you have a winner in my book. Keep it up!
Author
To answer your question, believe it or not, I AM playing (power chords) chords on the guitar. I guess I need some more bass or mids or something. Or, alternately, I just need to plug in my preamp (I seem to remember it making a difference when it was hooked up… ;) ). And yeah, I know about the drum thing. I’m still working out the kinks with how loud I want it, and how to make it audible without being the exact same volume all the time (Though the way most albums are produced nowadays, “one volume” may not be a bad thing as far as sounding like it came from a major label…).
As for the singing, part of it is probably increased confidence. The other part is probably that (For most of the song anyway) I’m up in a more traditional “rock singer” range vocally, as opposed to my more normal singing range, which is closer to that guy from Crash Test Dummies, or everyone’s favorite late 80’s British pop superstar, than to, I dunno, what’re all the cool kids listening to nowadays? The guy from Finger Eleven I guess?
Well, seeing as how I read the book and agree with you about that, i was just waiting for the end . . . guess what you’ll attract . . . a bunch of jackasses, because that’s what most people are who believe in that stuff. Yeah positive energy’s good, there’s just some limits to all that.
Just the same, as far as first mixes go, that didn’t go too bad. I was pretty hooked from the beginning. I’ll have to listen to it a few more times to tell you if I thought anything was missing. I’ll have to get back to you on that . . .
Okay, vocals are pretty good. As Jamie said, the drums get hidden in the wings when it comes to the vocal and the guitar tracks.
Still very catchy though. Let’s see what Tim thinks, cause he’s more objective than I am . . .