PhonoBrainer

Inventive and cool in the lyrics department. Love that "U2" style guitar break, but your vocal compilations give it a full originality. Listening on headphones, I wanted a bit more width in the mix, especially in the first couple of minutes. Later on, the panning seems to fill out a bit wider. Perhaps that's my imagination? Just love the originality of this. Authentic songwriting methinks. cheers, -Tom

Johannes Sebastian Cottrell! Enjoyable from the get-go, nothing wrong with the composition or arrangement. You are getting some good advice on string upgrades. Welcome to spending money! There are some forum folk here who really do the symphonic stuff at a very high level, hopefully they can offer you some good advice. One idea - it's a chamber music piece, but I don't hear the chamber. Feed all of those tracks into one chamber reverb preset, don't go crazy with long decay times, and high-pass filter the reverb so that the reverb plug-in isn't returning anything below 500 - 600 hz. Worth a shot. cheers, -Tom

Duuuude! You are famous! That's way cool you sent that in. I used to subscribe to "Recording" and always liked the reviews of people's work. Judging by the studio picture up on the "Recording" website, you have invested some $$$ on room treatment, and I can really hear a clarity in your vocal track that didn't necessarily used to be there. I liked the organ filling quite a bit. The bass guitar is pretty dry, which I think generally is a good call, but here I might want just a bit of delay, room, or chorus. Or not, could go either way. The mix pretty much sparkles. I liked that buzzy panning synth, maybe louder on that when it's featured? cheers, -Tom

Oh my. Can't believe you pulled this off of cassette. Those guitars are played and mixed great. Vocal performance is way cool, I'd push it up in the mix, and for the love of god, push those cheeseball 80's synths down a little. You are frightening the millenials. Perhaps my strong reaction is because I was a keyboard player in an 80's band and I know all those satanically insipid waveforms all too well. The ending has a restart beat? Might check that. Yep, authentic warmth for days, mixed well. Very nice job saving this one! cheers, -Tom

I'm a fan. The second half of the intro, maybe add a organ/B3 noodle to make a longer intro more relevant? I like the guitar tones for their guts and realness. The mix works for me, but it's not cohesive in the reverb dept, as in "Is everyone in the same space?" - that would be not really. It's studio treatment, where the singer has slapback, the drums have a bit of natural stairwell, the guitars are up front. I'm OK with that if it's a good song and vocal performance. Which, this is. Your vocals are good, the vocal arrangement is sweet spot all the way, and the toe tapping factor is 9.9 out of 10. Ending? some beat got skipped? And the last three seconds are the noise floor being compressed up? You might look at that. Is this an album that's already baked and in the can? cheers, -Tom

I'm not watching this: . . . or am I?

Then, most likely, you're also not in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, or Southern Minnesota. Too bad, its often very nice there!

Thanks, John, appreciate the compliment. You are correct, this one was more an exercise in getting to know some new tools. As far as electronica goes, I love it but boy it usually doesn't have enough breaks or sections - for me, they usually hang on one riff waaaay too long. To each them owns. cheers, -Tom

Thanks, Noynekker! The voiceover guy is from an old 1940's movie where a professor holds forth. I hope all of his pompous condescension comes through the mix. I re-did the upload because the electric piano didn't make it into the render. many thanks! Expensive car sounds great. Actually, they are all kind of expensive these days. cheers, -Tom

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50? Welcome to the club! I can recommend several knee surgeons. For me, the chorus, the vocals are a little buried. Do you add a guitar layer in the chorus? it's the "don't wait around until you're old" section. The guitar work is really good and fits the song in the right spots. I listened on headphones. Possibly the bass could have a notch cut out in the upper mids? So the lower part of the vocal can poke its head out more? I dunno. Personal preference - on a groove jam like this, a fade-out ending is more satisfying that just . . . stopping. My .02 Zimbabwe Dollars. Very good, driving tune. Age appropriate to the max. cheers, -Tom

It's interesting. You don't often hear that combination of voices. The first 16 bars or whathaveyou are just the synth triplets? You might get us to the goods sooner. You've got the build-up covered in four bars. So what is going on while this music is playing? Video game maybe? That might be cool. Or is it the intro to a movie? I'm feeling kind of stupid, because I wanted to turn it up but the "Bandcamp" player? didn't have a volume control on it that I could see. Did you mix it softly? Is it big, loud, and epic on your end? Yeah I know I could have just turned up my system, but was curious as to how loud you mixed it originally. cheers, -Tom

To prove I listened, and read the lyrics sheet, second verse, "could" is sung "can" . . . Great song, a nice lilt all the way through. It's well mixed because I can hear the words clearly while the supporting instruments fill, dip, dive, enter, exit. Nicely conceived. It's a great listen. Between the couplet at the end, you can hear someone shifting in their chair, or rattling a paper, or? Actually, the whole thing has a pretty "recorded live" feel. So that might be okay! "...story impossibly true" / rattle creak / "A story impossibly true." I dunno, what do you make of it? Probably no big deal? It does add to the feel of the "room" which might be worth it. I've liked your other songs I've heard, you guys have a great presentation of harmonies and stripped-down arrangements. Lots of dynamics. Excellent! cheers, -Tom

Well I bet Van Halen could play reggae if they wanted to. I don't think they do, though. Plus they no longer exist as a band. So there's that. Cool tune.

I don't want to go off topic, but nice song, I dig the lyrics and the guitar arpegg riff. Maybe the kick drum is too big and crunchy in spots. Daryl's voice is killer. cheers, -Tom

First thing I did was turn it up Nice and loud! I don't usually do that. It was a great listen all the way through. Super musical, great ideas that lead somewhere. Nice changes of mood and voices. Lamb Lies Downesque. The bit around 1:30 got kind of bottom-heavy in the mix, that rhythm guitar is overpowering anything sparkly up top. For me, anyway. Drums hit all the spots very tastefully. Guitar solos and backing, just great! Oh, fantastic arrangement. The ending was super cool. This is one of your best I reckon . . . cheers, -Tom

I like it, had a Corrs vibe in spots, which I like. Some don't. But the lead synth gets out of hand (louder) in spots. 2:22, the violin. I found it worked a little better when you had slightly more openness in the mix. There's just a couple of "kitchen sink" spots that left me wondering. Perhaps I'm too old. That said, the complexity generally is quite admirable, and dare I say cohesive! Well done this! -Tom

Love it. Should be fun. Works best for me when it was more minimal, as opposed to the built-up sections. Still a toe tapper. cheers, -Tom

Yeah my first thought was "vocals please!" For your budget equipment, its really good. Mix is nice and clear on all the instruments. Nothing really masks anything else. As for choice of instruments, I liked everything except for that dipping and diving brassy lead synth patch. You know the one. That I didn't dig at all. What is Van Halen's "Jump" patch doing in this cool reggae song? To paraphrase The Dude . . . but, that's like, just my opinion, man. I think you have a good one here. cheers, -Tom

Mark Knopfler in style, what a great compliment that is! How about a combo of Paul Simon and Randy Newman on the vocals? But that's overcomparing. I liked the video and the choices you made there. Pretty mellow all the way through. The mix was bright but didn't think too much so. Don't need drum n bass for this one. Most everything about it is understated, which works. Your guitar fill work in the vocal gaps fits well. nice job! -Tom

Great tune. These ballad type deals are really where vocalists can show their chops. Such a slow pace, with no where to hide. You do a decent job of it, actually. Do you know of any killer vocalists who might like to dig into this excellent tune? I'd agree on the comments advising you to thicken. You have so many sustains in the vocal, you might shorten them? I dunno. Your vocal has a charm to it as it is. Kind of depends on what you want to do with this tune. The ending kind of bailed out on me. MAybe a fade out or something? No matter what, nice tune. cheers, -Tom

Mix is great for me. Creative arrangement, it held my interest. Guitar work is a stand out. Question, what kind of mic did the vocalist use? The pre-chorus sounds pretty good, the bigger chorus vocals come through nicely! but the verses sound a bit thin and it's not the vocals, which are quite good, I think it's the mic or the mix. Kind of muffled? Is the top-end eq'd away? Any way to push that vocal up or thicken just the top end? Might be worth a try, and again, just in the verses. super cool tune, dude. cheers, -Tom

Got any lyrics occasionally in the chorus? This is intensely creative. Love the video, and the editing. Maybe could use more that repeated shots in the second half chorus. That chorus/break with the guitar is genius. Really cool. I didn't mind the vocal distance/reverb but I thought the bass guit could come up a bit, and that snare/tambourine hit could get some treatment to make it sit better. I really liked the lyrics which didn't spell it out for you. cheers, -Tom

I didn't think the mix was too bad at all. For me, it is clear up top, and has enough "power" in the right places. But, this isn't my home-turf genre, so the true metalheads might see it differently. So, if you want, fight the power. Meanwhile, the video - that's a good effort there! Appreciate the live shots and stuff. The musicians seem to convey the message, although it's not super subtle. My observation for improvement? The lead singer needs a better camera to equal that of the other musician's. Looks like he's shot with the back-up camera on a Ford Explorer, but the rest of them look crisp, HD, with a green screen to boot. If you are going to all this trouble (and it does look good) get the lead singer something more than a webcam, if possible. Of all of your stuff that I've heard so far, I like this one the best I think. Nice job to all. -Tom

Ok, even this departure from your normal is good. A raw song and a good one. Mix-wise, I'd recommend vocal down, drums up as a start. Probably guitar down a bit, too. cheers, -Tom