Hi guys, my first post here, just to see what you musicians think about these songs. I compose and record on my own in my homestudio, playing and singing the whole thing.
Please let me know of any mixing, composing, recording issues that you hear. I haven't posted this songs anywhere else.
Two of them in English, one in Spanish.

Thanks a lot for your feedback and letting me know what you think!


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Hey, I don't have time to listen to it all, but at least you are a normal real musician, unlike many or most here! And you certainly sound far better in Spanish! Good melodies, just lacking confidence. Everything seems too strict - maybe because it's vsti drums and bass without any breathing. Keep rocking, but don't get disappointed by this place - this is electroprogrammers' playground!!!

 

Everything is rock these days...

major thing, for me, is that vocal is not well defined in songs (i'm speaking from the side of production)

 

In two English songs, yes, but much better in the Spanish song.

 

@Moonlight.. started out sounded a bit 70's , in a good way,
.. then the vocal took on a "Lou Reed" sort of sound... nice beat and swing on that one.. like the ska-ish elements
yeah.. Lou Reed does rock Ska...

Agree with above.. the voice sounds better in Spanish... nice pop feel to it.. is this type of sound popular in your country?
Spain or SA ?

 

Nicely done. I love the breakdown in the first song "The Fault in Our Stars".

Here are my thoughts: They sound good the way they are, But might be more memorable if they built more dynamically. Meaning, Start off with limited instruments, then add more parts as the song progresses. Maybe on your next song you could have a verse of Drums, Bass, Guitar, and Vocal. Let your vocal stand out and shine. Then Get BIG on the Chorus or bridge, Next verse add a keyboard. Another thing that works well is to raise your vocal register during the choruses then drop it back in the verses.

Hope I left you with something to think about, Your talent and abilities are sounding great.

 

Well, I'm by no means a professional audio expert. Despite the fact that I've been at it for about 10 years. Ha! Also, my chosen style of music typically has a much harder edge. All of that crap aside though, I'm really impressed with your'e three tunes here. All the way around man. Great musicianship, songwriting, vocals and just overall sound. I noticed specifically on songs 1 & 3 how the choruses really burst forth from the phones that I was wearing. Did you raise/attenuate the gain on those parts slightly or did that simply happen from the orchestration done on the parts? It was powerful. I'm also curious how you did your'e drum tracks. Drums have been of specific interest for me lately and I enjoyed the sounds of yours.

Thanks for sharing these with us. I dig it.

After reading everyone else's posts, I agree strongly with what ddocter had to say. Its very refreshing to hear an artist who is actual playing instruments and writing what I call music. I fear that we are a dying breed. Ha!

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2016

@ddoctor if you want to quote me, then quote full statment... :P

nevertheless I wasn't talking about performance of vocals, I was talking about production... vocals are muffled, somehow weak and in most parts quiet... they simply got lost in music... if it's thing to have vocals like some sort of a backing instrument in song, then it's ok... if that is not the case, then he should take care of that...

 

Did you listen to the song in Spanish? You are right about the English songs but maybe it is because of his intention to cover for the bad English that he 'muffled' the vocals; OP - please resolved this by telling us how it was...

 

(I assumed that you are talking about performance and for that I'm sry, 'cause, indeed He's more comfortable with his native languge and performance is solid)

but still, for me*, vocal is sounding weak (this time is louder) but is still out of song (in therms of production)...

*for me; means that statment that I made is purely subjective and is up to OP to decide to take that as it is or leave it.
(or in this case anyone who doesn't agree with me... I don't want to be right, I just want to point out things from my point of view)

 

Thanks for the “real musician” bit. I try my best and I did study music for a few years.
Yeah, I need to get more confidence when singing, not easy when you can’t sing like Freddie Mercury or Bono
And yes, the drums are done with EZdrummer and a Roland electronic Kit, and they are not my strength. On the bass, it is me playing a real one, I guess I need to mix it better, it's very hard when not having and acoustically treated room, lots of try and error.
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

 

Yeah I know, we should just call it commercial music maybe, hard to define “rock music” these days. I need to try harder with the vocals. Thanks!

 

Yes, I did try to get that 70s reggae/ska sound, I just like to try as many different styles as my musicianship allows in my music. I’m from Mexico actually, living in the US for many years. Thanks a lot for the input!

 

Thankyou! I do try to do those “dynamics” and build troughout the song, I just need to get bettar at it. Easier said than done.
About the vocals, I try my best with my limited range, I have to be careful with the notes I try to song or risk sounding like Alvin the chipmunk if I go too high. ...I appreciate your comments!

 

Thanks for the great feedback!
I did not raise the volume or something like that for the chorus, I just try to make it sound bigger with the instrumentation/arrangement and adding more background vocals, usually hard panned. I use a lot of tracks per song, about a hundred, so I have to be careful when mixing so that is not just a bunch of muffled noise in the end.
About the drums, I use Ezdrummer and a Roland electric kit which I play mostly for fills and a lot of tweaking with the patterns. But is not easy to make them sound good with the stock presets. Lots of EQ, compression and other effects go into them after I set them up with multi-outputs. And I usually add NI Battery just for the kick, the ezdrummer ones sound real bad to me, so I layer them. I also use Soundtoys Decapitator on the drums buss, and that really does magic for them.
I really appreciate your comments a lot, thanks again!

 

the song in spanish sounds like the Traveling Wilburghys in spinach very Jeff Lynn/George Harrison type song I dig it

 

@aderivas wauwww... and not one accordion to be found in these...!! kidding man

wouldn't worry too much about the singing.. just need to tighten up the production a bit..
you will polish the singing in due course... any way Lou Reed seemingly couldn't sing at all
but was good at talking in key... look where he ended up..

keep up the good work...sounds like you got some good chops to build on..

 

I reckon I prefer the first track, The Fault in our Stars.......kinda has an upbeat Sparklehorse vibe, if there is such a thing...........I think its mainly the intro that has me hearing that.

I think I hear your voice much stronger in the low registers, you've got a little of that Ralph McTell scoop down there which you might want to build on.......sounds fine when you're pushing higher up as well, not so strong in the mid register when you're coasting. It'd be interesting to hear what you'd sound like writing a song specifically aimed at bringing out the lower range of your vox............maybe with a bit more space around it?