On the Count of Three

I wrote this song last week and started playing with it this weekend. I'm excited about its potential, but I would looove love love some feedback.

It's about divorce and stuff. Woooo!

The recording is really weak, my mixing and recording skillz are less than l33t.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by pazazygeek (6 comments total)

The bassline during the chorus (starting around the 1:00 mark) seems kind of random, like someone's just winging it.

The bass is also is really dominant -- almost oppressive -- during the rest of the song, especially after the 3:30 mark, when it becomes unpleasant.

Good rule of thumb: Always use less reverb on your voice than you want to use.

Overall, though, this is nice. I agree about its potential. And I like those wordless backup vocals.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:06 AM on March 24

I like the way the voice sounds, especially the slide on "mine" in the chorus.

I too think the bass should sound different -- I think maybe it wants to vary its rhythm a little bit instead of being a straight 1-2-3-4 stomp through the whole song? I feel like there's s a lot of time where the bass is playing a single repeated quarter note for a few beats -- I think this would work in a more drony song but maybe not this one.

I like the noisiness at the end.
posted by escabeche at 1:44 PM on March 24

This is great. Aside from the bass thing the guys above mention, I would just continue to mess with levels and stuff post recording. Right on!

(Really digging your vocal variations too.)
posted by snsranch at 4:11 PM on March 24

The lyrics are great, and I like the tune of the vocals. I don't much care for the bass line, but the higher guitar part is nice and light. Keep it up -- I'm interested to hear the final mix.
posted by blinks at 9:16 AM on March 25

Very nice lyrics, and great vocals. Maybe a bit too much reverb on the voices, it gets a bit washy when the backing vocals come in. I'd get rid of the effects on the guitar/ bass - is that a chorus pedal I can hear? I think I'm allergic to chorus effects. Strip it down, keep it simple,get the levels right and then think about adding effects afterwards.
posted by robotot at 3:40 PM on March 25

You guys? Are the best. Your feedback is incredibly helpful. I'm going to open up the raw file again, maybe re-record the main guitar part (which is far too bassy and gets clouded by the auxillary guitar part, I now see, or hear, as the case may be, hur hur hur), and will try some new tricks I've read about with compression, instead of reverb -- which I don't like, but have been using because the raw vox just sound muddy and icky.

Yay for learning to record! Thanks so much for your help.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:11 PM on March 25