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You Made A Mistake
Having spent a year practicing singing, it's time to start writing and mixing - I'm still a noob in all departments, but a friend has challenged me to write and mix a song every month, and although that involves my production to ramp up by a factor of four it's a good way to start actually improving. I sing a few bum notes in this one, and my mixing skills are still very raw, but it's time to call it done and start the next one.
Personally I find that the greatest challenge when it comes to mixing is the fact that for family harmony I need to mix on headphones. I have several pairs of great headphones (Senn HD650, Focal Spirit Pro, Beyer DT770 etc...) but even so, every time I actually play a mix on speakers I get surprised, but not in a good way.
Comments
I like the idea of the 'song a month' club. Go for it. This number does sound a but muddy, but I'm not the person to comment on mixing. And, yes, you've got some warbling, bum notes, in here, but the song is recognizable as just that, a song. And that's something to work with. I love Annie Lamott's notion of 'Shitty First Drafts' which is that EVERYTHING needs to go through that stage to find out what you've got and that THAT's the hardest damn thing in a world where everything we read and see and hear seems so perfect and fully-formed as though it dropped from the womb like that. It didn't. Of course.
One trick I like to try and apply to work, especially songs, is to try and hear who might be doing this piece. Not as a template for simply being derivative, but as a measure or useful direction. In this case I started out with Morrissey but by the end could easily imagine Nico singing this in her bored and somewhat perfectly disdainful style.
Keep at it! Am putting a note in my calendar for March 5th and expect to see your next piece on or before that
Thanks for taking the time to listen
I've had the good fortune to spend the last 17 or so years working as a professional artist, so one thing I've learnt is that becoming good at stuff takes time (in my case a lot of time!), and I have also realised it's essential to detach your ego from your work, which is why I am able to evaluate my work objectively, and criticism is something I find useful rather than painful. I know that my early efforts are going to suck but it doesn't phase me because I also realise that in time things will improve.
So the song a month club is a really useful thing for me at this stage, it forces me to be productive rather than titivate something which might not be all that good for months on end. The next song might be better
You can join in if you want - deadline is the end of the month
You sure said it about the ego.
Titivate. Most unusual word really. I see that Wikipedia sends it to 'Personal Grooming'. Not right.
Anyway, I hear you. And agree. I think aspects of this are driven by personality type and need to be addressed individually. For my own part I make much, but finish little. I am not a titivator (Vicar). I am ideas and dust and noise with often no present to actually bring to the party.
So for me (me, me
the Song of the Month Club would be more about working on one thing only for more than a day at a time. Not to just get to AN end, but to get to THE end.
Just as valuable.
But, but but....(says the inner negotiator)...it's already the 5th and after all February's a short month and, but, and, but..
See you March 1st.
You know, I thought was just having a conversation about learning stuff, but maybe I was too earnest and eager. If I came across as egotistical then I am sorry
You've got a date, this should be fun, look forward to hearing what you come up with!
BTW "titivate" is idiomatic English for "endlessly fuss over something".
@richardyot my guess is you're misunderstanding @Thomas. I'm pretty sure he is was agreeing with you with a knowing wry smile/sigh etc.
As for idiomatic English, I have enough of my first 30 years in London still in me to remember some of my elderly Aunt's favorite words
Titivate is very much the kind of word your elderly aunt would use, it's a posh person's idiom.
We were indeed very posh at one time, but fell from grace. Or maybe that was just me. She is with us still, no doubt due to extra rations during the war. 94 and does country and western dancing on Thursdays at the nursing home in Brighton. Odd to think that in many ways she is more Texan (in her cultural affinities) than her nephew who now resides in Austin. Always had lace doilies. Probably still does.
Ok, so this month's song should be about JohnnyGoodyear 's Aunt and her Texas tendency to titivate towards her lace doilies. I think that's all the material I need for one month... Dont worry, it'll be sweet.
It's going to be epic.
If she don't ice her tea, she ain't there yet--but her Thursday two-steppin's a great start.
You're laughing now, but I went into a funk about writing, you know, a real, you know, song straight after I signed on (pretty much like marriage) and then decided I need to settle on a style. Country it is (or will be). Sorta.
Hardly. You're coming across honest and down-to-earth. I'm agreeing w/you about ego getting in the way of progress. This is based entirely on my own exprience of course. :0(
Well I'm sorry for getting the wrong end of the stick! Thanks for the clarification.
It's all good.
I love country, is it going to be Gram Parsons, or more like Jason Aldean?
@richardyot among the endless synonyms made by boy singers from the beginning of time as regards the relative proportion of their particularly massive appendage this is a first I've heard where someone proudly invokes their 'big green tractor'. Guess you've got to know your market...
Don't know much about Mister Aldean's habits, but my own lifestyle probably more closely resembled Mister Parsons, fortunately I survived it. However, I lack a drawl or a twang, don't play guitar hardly, have no hats, have never been out to the north forty, eschew grits, and no longer have a doggy to getalong with.
Yep. It's going to be a challenge.
I gave you some inspiration with that video though.
I lack a drawl or a twang, don't play guitar hardly, have no hats, have never been out to the north forty, eschew grits, and no longer have a doggy to getalong with.>
Anyone can buy a hat. If you shuffle around with an extra soft spot fer yer fellow man 'neath yer swagger, yer a true Texan no matter what you sound like or what you got on yer noggin. LBJ was a great one. W, not so much.
But, Johnny, it's probably time you reckoned with the difference between a dogie and a doggy. That one made me spew my iced tea on my monitor...
Have you added bacon to your grits JGY? If not, you need to revisit them!
richardyot, what mic are you using, and how is it arranged?
Using an Oktava MK310 for the vocals. As for arrangement it's straightforward: guitar recorded directly into Auria with Tonestack as an IAA, Drumperfect for the drums, bass is a guitar pitch shifted in Tonestack, and that's pretty much it. The song is very simple, there's only two sections, each in a different key.
Looks a good mic. Reduce the plosives and sibilants (the ‘t’s and ‘s’s particularly) in your vocal takes, probably by singing off-beam to the mic. That way, the mic is not directly in line with your mouth, but to one side, or even a bit below, That way, your singing is literally over the top. Of the mic. As it stands, the mic diaphragm is being hit by the higher energy of those consonants. Also, one thing I’ve recently learned about vocals is that if there’s an ‘s’ at the end of the last word in a lyric line, just omit it — leave it out. It mostly still carries the meaning, the assumption is that it was there. If it is actually there, it becomes too dominant and attention grabbing when really it’s only the tail-out of a last word of lyric.
Thanks very much for the useful practical advice, I will give it a try.
I humbly throw out my Song-of-the-Month, using this thread as the sole inspiration. Started on Fingertip Maestro and then other stuff.. remixed version per JG's instructions...
That is very, very silly. Auntie would be thrilled. She'd probably say you should move the vocals up a bit in the mix, but then she is hard of hearing, bless her.
There's an old (for Texas) dance hall just down the street from here called the Broken Spoke, a honky-tonk place. Pretty good. http://www.brokenspokeaustintx.com Your illustration isn't that dissimilar to how it looks inside and I think we could get away with playing this there.
I can't really tell you too much about country, but I can say this sounds a lot more like it than anything I've been able to come up with. AND you had to show off by getting it in with 11 days still to go. Well done that man.
I've been to the Broken Spoke. I'll also be happy to move the vocals up in the re-mix. I'm glad you were tickled by my tune. Silly just happens sometimes. Country music is like any other kind, just Think country and it'll sound country. Or silly. :-)
@NoiseHorse I hear you. My problem is that I walk often (as a man must do down these mean streets etc) with a good friend who is a long time guitar man from these parts and done more than his fair share of Broken Spokes and Continental Clubs. I was talking to him about the fact that most everything I've tried to write 'country' comes out hackneyed. His advice was, while allowing that drinking, women and fighting were the three pillars of the genre, that I should write whatever I like but be as sincere as possible. And therein lies the stopping point of my rusted pick-up truck. Take away a man's bitter whiskey and faithful dog/horse/cheatin' woman (delete etc) and what the hell's left?
Just complaining. Probably a song it.
The original lyrics for the Fingertip Maestro part was going to be a Morrisey sounding song about some guy named Reggie. This thread helped me trash that bad idea and got countryfied thanks to you. C&W is a sound not a lyrical style.