Song Of The Month Club - October 2024

tahiche

@klownshed said:

Oh man this is gooood!. I love the sounds, specially the feedback stuff going on, very musical and powerful.
Contrary to @JanKun ’s opinion I love the vocals, I think they fit the song really well and the vocoder isn’t cheesy at all.
There’s just one thing I’d change… The snare sound, it’s good at the beginning but I find it fills too much space, the distorted reverb and sound in general makes it very long and stand out too much. IMO it sticks out too much and maybe a dryer snare on the parts where you’re singing would provide more dynamics and let the song breath more.
Again, outstanding 🙌

klownshed

@JanKun said:

show previous quotes

@klownshed said:

Lyrics:

Spoiler

CHANGE x 4

Give me all your spare change
Give him a career change

Now we need a sea change
Switch it up a gear change

Hold the front page
Put it up on centre stage

Now we need a sea change
Switch it up a gear change

CHANGE x 8

Last stop
All change
Keep them off the main stage

Landslide
New Page
Rip it up and
Start again

Now we need a sea change
Switch it up a gear change

Hold the front page
Put it up on centre stage

CHANGE x 5

I like everything about this track except the treatment on the vocals. I personally think you overdid it a bit to the point it is difficult to grasp the lyrics. These are great and would deserve to be more catchable for the listener. I know you don't like to hear your voice, but there might be a middle way...
Other than that it is a great track. I like the change and 2'50. You could have stayed there a bit longer and develop that a tad bit (maybe a break with the rhythm section and some of your secret feedback layers to make an unexpected bridge).
Anyway, it is a great work!

Thank you :-)

The vocals are processed to sound like speak n spell style vocals. I knew that’s what I wanted and didn’t really try them any other way. And yes, I have an irrational phobia of hearing my voice!

klownshed

@tahiche said:

show previous quotes

@klownshed said:

Oh man this is gooood!. I love the sounds, specially the feedback stuff going on, very musical and powerful.
Contrary to @JanKun ’s opinion I love the vocals, I think they fit the song really well and the vocoder isn’t cheesy at all.
There’s just one thing I’d change… The snare sound, it’s good at the beginning but I find it fills too much space, the distorted reverb and sound in general makes it very long and stand out too much. IMO it sticks out too much and maybe a dryer snare on the parts where you’re singing would provide more dynamics and let the song breath more.
Again, outstanding 🙌

Wow; Thank you, I’m glad you like it. :-)

The snare changes quite a bit throughout but I know what you mean. I deliberately made the beat incredibly simple and sparse to make room for a too-big snare, but didn’t think to reign it in for the vocals bits. I used a ton of automation on the drums — mostly morphing between two synth drums per hit — but wasn’t listening for how much they overpowered other aspects. It’s easy to get caught up in small details and miss the big picture when mixing. When I made the drums I wasn’t thinking about vocals of any kind… and when I added the vocals I didn’t think to modify the drums.

If I make the extended remix i mentioned to fruitbat, I’ll definitely try making the snare less wet for the vocal sections, that’s a good point. I did use a side chained dynamic EQ to carve out space from the synths for the vocals but didn’t think to reduce the reverb sends too…

JanKun

@klownshed said:

show previous quotes

@JanKun said:
My entry for this month is a Collab with the great and too rare @tahiche. This was released at the beginning of the year but I don't think it has been shared in the SOTMC.

This is really good. I like the stutter percussion and the vocals are perfectly judged and recorded. I like the non-obvious chords too.

I like the way it builds, the overdriven guitars could be a bit fatter, but the song isn't the worse for that either. It's a good song with interesting production which elevates it and makes me want to listen again. Great stuff.

🙏

JanKun

@Fruitbat1919 said:

show previous quotes

@JanKun said:

@Fruitbat1919 said:
I think this may be the first time I’ve posted something in the SOTMC, even though I’ve been on this site since 2015 on and off.

The middle section came about by accidentally moving a drum section of midi on to a bass track. I then added another bass track and somehow it worked for me.

It is great! I
From reading here and there on the forum, you always seemed to imply that you are a beginner, but you're clearly not. There's a lot going on in this track in terms of composition, arrangements and production! The break in the middle works well and helps keeping the track interesting. Even after getting back to the original idea, you manage to bring dynamic and variation. Certainly not the work of a beginner!
hope you'll become a regular here!

Kind words. I pretty much consider myself perpetually ‘in the learning phase’, but I suppose many of us here are continually looking to learn something new - possibly? I still feel on cloud nine when I even try to take in all the wonderful tools we have in a little box. One thing that has helped me recently though is getting Logic Pro on iPad. I had spent an age trying to make other iOS tools work for me when going back to a linear timeline DAW is what I’ve really needed to start calling a few tracks ‘finished’.

Same here. Coming from Auria Pro And Cubasis, buying a more powerful device and getting LP4i considerably boosted my motivation and creative output. Many people on this forum disagree, but to me, it is the best fully featured timeline based DAW on the platform (at least for now).

richardyot

@JanKun said:

show previous quotes

@Fruitbat1919 said:

@JanKun said:

@Fruitbat1919 said:
I think this may be the first time I’ve posted something in the SOTMC, even though I’ve been on this site since 2015 on and off.

The middle section came about by accidentally moving a drum section of midi on to a bass track. I then added another bass track and somehow it worked for me.

It is great! I
From reading here and there on the forum, you always seemed to imply that you are a beginner, but you're clearly not. There's a lot going on in this track in terms of composition, arrangements and production! The break in the middle works well and helps keeping the track interesting. Even after getting back to the original idea, you manage to bring dynamic and variation. Certainly not the work of a beginner!
hope you'll become a regular here!

Kind words. I pretty much consider myself perpetually ‘in the learning phase’, but I suppose many of us here are continually looking to learn something new - possibly? I still feel on cloud nine when I even try to take in all the wonderful tools we have in a little box. One thing that has helped me recently though is getting Logic Pro on iPad. I had spent an age trying to make other iOS tools work for me when going back to a linear timeline DAW is what I’ve really needed to start calling a few tracks ‘finished’.

Same here. Coming from Auria Pro And Cubasis, buying a more powerful device and getting LP4i considerably boosted my motivation and creative output. Many people on this forum disagree, but to me, it is the best fully featured timeline based DAW on the platform (at least for now).

Couldn't agree more. Logic is the best thing to happen on iOS ever. It's so much more productive having a full-featured DAW that is so powerful and reliable. I work a lot faster now that I use it, and it's really inspirational as well.

BillS

@richardyot said:

show previous quotes

@JanKun said:

@Fruitbat1919 said:

@JanKun said:

@Fruitbat1919 said:
I think this may be the first time I’ve posted something in the SOTMC, even though I’ve been on this site since 2015 on and off.

The middle section came about by accidentally moving a drum section of midi on to a bass track. I then added another bass track and somehow it worked for me.

It is great! I
From reading here and there on the forum, you always seemed to imply that you are a beginner, but you're clearly not. There's a lot going on in this track in terms of composition, arrangements and production! The break in the middle works well and helps keeping the track interesting. Even after getting back to the original idea, you manage to bring dynamic and variation. Certainly not the work of a beginner!
hope you'll become a regular here!

Kind words. I pretty much consider myself perpetually ‘in the learning phase’, but I suppose many of us here are continually looking to learn something new - possibly? I still feel on cloud nine when I even try to take in all the wonderful tools we have in a little box. One thing that has helped me recently though is getting Logic Pro on iPad. I had spent an age trying to make other iOS tools work for me when going back to a linear timeline DAW is what I’ve really needed to start calling a few tracks ‘finished’.

Same here. Coming from Auria Pro And Cubasis, buying a more powerful device and getting LP4i considerably boosted my motivation and creative output. Many people on this forum disagree, but to me, it is the best fully featured timeline based DAW on the platform (at least for now).

Couldn't agree more. Logic is the best thing to happen on iOS ever. It's so much more productive having a full-featured DAW that is so powerful and reliable. I work a lot faster now that I use it, and it's really inspirational as well.

100% - total game changer for iOS

Fruitbat1919

The new forum colour must have spurred me on, as I now have SOTMC tracks for November and December finished!

richardyot

@Fruitbat1919 said:
The new forum colour must have spurred me on, as I now have SOTMC tracks for November and December finished!

Awesome 👍

DavidEnglish

@klownshed said:
And PCM80! Nice. I'd have loved one of those in 1994. I had a (very) cheap ART Multiverb preset box reverb back then and a BOSS SE-70 for reverbs.

Do you still have it?

I do still have it, though I haven't figured out a way to effectively use it with what I'm doing now.

@JanKun said:
Any pictures of the location taken back then, or is the title only inspired by the music?

Sadly, I’ve never been to India, except in my mind. I did take two-years of Hindustani back in college as an undergraduate (previously taking Latin in high school, and later taking French in graduate school). I was listening to a fair amount of Ali Akbar Khan in the 1990s. And of course, there are the films directed by Satyajit Ray, especially the Apu trilogy.

DavidEnglish

@richardyot
Terrific singing on this one -- both in solo and in harmony. Strong guitar riffs that soar and sail in-between. Love how it seems almost to fade into a series of reverb-like echoes at the end. My favorite from you so far.

@klownshed
Opening is wonderfully screechy and other worldly. Feels like the intro for a futuristic noir movie. Cool tone and quality of voice. Very engaging song that defies expectations, but still feels familiar. I really like this one.

@BillS
Superb acoustic guitar playing. I think the less somber tone helps to remind us of the better moments in the life of our beleaguered Stan. He once had a mission and a love in his life.

@Fruitbat1919
Really enjoy the mix of instruments throughout, as well as the sudden veer into another direction at the 1:27 mark. Almost a rock-to-jazz compendium of musical motifs and ideas. Quite inventive for a five-minute tune. Well done.

@JanKun
Another super-compelling piece of music. You have such an incredible range. This one, just in itself, covers a lot of ground. Epic in its scope, and deeply reflective in its message. The stock footage helps to visually illustrate the lyrics. Almost as proof of a postulated theorem.