PhonoBrainer

This song has a lot of feel, and your instrument choices are fresh and interesting. It seems to offer a unique take on the well-travelled territory "love song". I like how your lyrics actually say something. Vocals are for me a tad too forward,ŷ perhaps, and sibilant in spots, but that's a tough one to fix if compressors are required for the vocal. Soothe is great but even better is to zoom in on the audio wave, find the "footballs" that are almost always preceding your s word, and volume automate the guts out of that football. I fully realize that what I just wrote is very nearly incomprehensible, but on the off chance it isn't, there we go. Very good song! I also enjoyed the others on Soundcloud . . . you are a good writer!

Floaty! The upright bass gives it the jazz touch, really elevates things. Love the blends of pianos, horns, and eerie pads. Great combination. cheers, -Tom

What's not to like about this??? Sweet piano chords, nice unique pattern in the arrangement. You live in a beautiful area! Bonus! Maybe when the drum kit comes on, it might have a bit more reverb on, to match up with the chill piano? Just a thought, might be worth the experiment. It's the composition that sells it, very nice composing! cheers, -Tom

The tone on the guitars is great, I think you are all set there! I look forward to hearing your country polish on the vocals/effects. I agree, the drums need some punch added, kick particularly. I liked the lyrics a lot! I'll keep my ears open for future remixes, good one!

The background synth/pads are super hi res! Great background for this. Those pads "really tie the song together" because the girls get weird! In a good way. I appreciate the panning and rotary-type effects. A cool listen! cheers, -Tom

Simeon, nice work!!! In the basic patch, the bass register seemed pretty light, compared to the upper mids which were ultra clear and loud. Were the lower mids and bass really that suppressed, or would you say that's a YouTube recording anomaly? Thanks, I enjoy your reviews very much. Cheers, -Tom

I bought two of these to sit on top of my studio monitors. About $50 bucks each. Audio reactive if you want them to be, or subtle, or bright AF. Love 'em!

What, you're telling me DAW's have built-in instruments and effects??? Next thing you'll try tellin' me that credit card companies charge exorbitant interest.

Also, generally of course you want the vocal up front, but maybe it's just a bit too forward here? IDK, tough call. Great tune, though. Guitars and piano have great clarity.

The second version addresses what I heard in the first version, pulling some low mid out of the vocal. This version is much cleaner down low! I'd also be tempted to add a bit of tight delay to the vocal, or maybe a reverb with a lot of the low end return cut away. Dig the structure of that riff after "Disappearing Man". Version #2 is soooo much better! Cool tune!

Lyrics are fun and the bass guitar part is 100% great. Feels live. During the lead guitar solo, I found myself wanting the levels of the drums to come up a bit in the mix. Ending was way cool. This is a keeper. cheers, -Tom

cool sonic pallette, with maybe glass harmonium? reversed piano as well? nice! I was waiting for the Jesse poetry but that's on me. Chill can be the thrill.

Shout out for Zynaptiq's free Subspace reverb. I have paid for many other good verbs but I use that one all the time. https://www.zynaptiq.com/subspace/

Thanks so much Tim! Three pianos, all eq'd out of each other's way. PITA. Thanks for the listen! Thanks Ramscapri, I appreciate that. Thanks Steve, glad you felt that and it's very gratifying to hear, to say the least. I appreciate your response. Words would be an fun experiment - but we'd lose the "thoughts in your head while you listen" part. In another life, who knows? Go for it if you'd like, let me know what you come up with? Thanks again! Kevin, that's awesome! Very happy it might get spun once in a while. Cheers!

Yeah! I couldn't wait to hit play on this one. Awesome chords, unexpected arrangement moves, funky emphasized punctuated hits, and awesome chops in an awesome mix. One thought might be, in the very intro / first minute, and a lot throughout the piece, you have a unison sax and guitar - the sax gets buried by the guitar (for me) and I don't know that the clean sax/dirty crunch guitar works that amazing in unison? Maybe a bit more sax brightens that up when they are together? But I trust your judgment 100x more than mine! Great tune, dug the ending too, it sticks the landing! cheers, -Tom

Hi David! Many thanks, and I guess it's a combo of still images (with pans and zooms) and some video/graphic animations in there as well. A mix. I appreciate the comments! And "phonobrainer" is just another silly music name I seem to keep coming up with . . . Bjorn, "adjusting yourself to the season" and straining to make human connections are exactly what I was going for, nice to know you read those things! I appreciate it very much. Thanks a lot Kurt!

I bet you're a singer. Typical.

If these voices are half off, I'd definitely be using Melodyne.

IDK, "Jaguar" sounds quote stylish, it suits you! ?

Thanks Mark, I sweated the intro to the vid quite a bit, glad it went over well. Chilly, indeed, friggin' freezin! Thanks for the time and the listen . . . Thanks Douglas! I appreciate the kudos, put as I listen to the mix I can still hear things I'd shake up or try to improve! Gotta let it go, life's to short to split that 99th hair out of 100. Thanks for the comments! Really appreciate that, Tom! Many thanks!

Vibe is quality, song is a mover, and the mixing down low would definitely be worth some time . . . Vocal performance is spot on!

Another fun ride and I appreciate your mentioning the synths and effects you use, I have zero Arturia anything and I'm getting interested the more of your examples I get to hear. Nice fade at the end to boot.

I'd start off by saying cool tune, love the loose attitude towards the end, and your vocal performance totally works! the mix struck me as having these potential issues . . . 1. The vocals are too loud. Processing is just fine, really, maybe just drop em 1-2 db at least? 2. The guitars sound thin, a bit jangly. Jangly guitars can sound very cool, but often the parts are doubled or chorused to give it some thickness. 3. Bass guitar brought up some unfortunate questions about how it was recorded and what equipment you have. How did you record the bass, what audio interface, what preamp, did you actually mic an amp, is there a clean DI blended in, those sort of questions. Just a total guess but it sounds like you stuck an sm57 in front of a mediocre amp that had seen a few years on the road? And ran the mic line into a not awesome preamp or audio interface? Not trying to be harsh, because we all work with the means and the tools we have. But if you were looking to redo and improve the sonic quality dramatically, I'd start with the bass recording. If you solo just your bass track, how does it sound all by itself? Does it have the kind of presence, clarity, and tonality you'd want to bring into any mix? From experience, I'd say one of the hardest turd-polishing efforts is making a bad bass guitar recording sound decent. EQ can only do so much down there. If you had a clean DI bass track recorded as well, I'd go with that alone, which would increase clarity I think. You've got both singing and songwriting talent, and I dig the attitude of the song! It's very much worth the effort to improve! cheers, -Tom

totally worth some polish - I really liked the energy, I thought it would make a cool background to a chase scene, or something with animation. The vocal shouts and adds were excellent touches. Maybe just a "fade in" beginning and a "fade out" ending? the part around 2:20 got really good, and I noticed the non-lead piano at that point had a pretty strong theme going. You might take ideas from what is working in this section, and apply it to the overall piece? there is a lot of information coming at the listener at times, with lead piano noodles over most everything. Here's a question - if someone asked you to sit at the piano and play the main theme of your piece for 15 seconds, could you? What's the main riff / melody over bass? there is a lot of hecka cool stuff going on at all times, but you might centralize it and build it all off one one or two definable melodies / themes. Sorry if I'm not making sense, it's a hard idea to get across in text, but I did like what you have going here! cheers, -Tom