Jun 02, 2008 09:47 pm I'll try and give them a listen tomorrow evening.
13 of my songs freely available for your comments
Posted on Jun 02, 2008 07:01 am
soundman
Member Since: Apr 24, 2007
Hi,
I recorded 13 of my own songs in my home studio a while ago. Not sure what's the next step. I would like some comments on the work if anyone want to take a listen.Find it here:
www.afrijam.co.za/eben
You can find the lyrics for each song there as well.
Appreciated,
Eben
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Jun 02, 2008 09:47 pm I'll try and give them a listen tomorrow evening.
Jun 20, 2008 04:17 am Tanx. No feedback yet, it must suck then..he he. Anyone?
Eben
Jun 20, 2008 07:45 pm OK, listening now. Sorry it took so long. Life throws some curves at times and I just got about 10 of em in a row.
Listening to the first track now. Dude, that is awesome. If the rest are like that you have a nack for mixing indeed. Did you actually record these in a home studio? The production is killer for sure.
Bluez Bike really was great, that one surely had a harder feel to it, loved the organ in that one.
Loved the synthes you used in Faith in You as well.
Are you using a real piano or a software piano? Either way it sounds very good.
All the samples of the tracks are great. Nicely done for sure.
Hopefully you will get a few more takers, but I really enjoyed that and was amazed by the production quality of your work indeed.
When time permits I will surely go and sign up for the down loadable version's. Are they full length?
Jul 11, 2008 08:21 am Hey,
tanx for the nice comments! Nice surprise indeed.
All done in my little studio yeah.Manually made in Cakewalk & Cubase and the sounds are from 2 of my old Roland sound modules, except for the Sax and acoustic guit, they're real.
I was a bit in a hurry and still want to clean some of the tracks at some point.
All full length and free from that site. Didn't realize you had to sign up to get the whole thing...let me know and I mail it to you if you want.
I'm not much of a singer so I don't know where to from here.
Maybe someone want to use the tracks/music/lyrics in a band?
Thanks again for responding and for inspiring me.
Eben
Jul 11, 2008 09:13 pm Your welcome indeed. Cakewalk you say. Good choice there. I've been using their software for years and am now on Sonar 7 PE with Project 5 version 2 as well. I have several of their software synths as well and love em. I still keep about 6 or 7 hardware synths though as I can't part with them just yet.
Which Roland synths do you have then? They sound great.
Jul 14, 2008 04:05 am An old SC880 (this was the rack mount version of the SC88 Pro although it has a couple of extra features like 4 line outs and 2 analog line ins) and then I also use my favourate XV2020. The SC880 is much focused on GM/GS where the XV works well as a synth. Good old work horses, very reliable. Hooked up to a Roland A37 controler.
Jul 14, 2008 09:11 pm I will comment soundman if you want my opinion. I assume that you do. I listened briefly to your songs. This is what I hear. I will be brutal if you don't mind. :) You may know most of this stuff already, so please forgive me. You are quite brilliant in many ways.
First off, you usually lose me the very moment I hear the very first note or the very first sound. This is because of texture. Texture is a collaboration of tones. This is more important than any musical idea, notes, or rhythms that you may have. Texture is the color an artist puts on his pallet before he even considers what it is he is going to paint. Texture is an art form all to it's own and very separate from music in so many ways, but still so important to music as well. Analog,(IMO)is usually the ticket here. For instance: you could take your digital music, run it through a boom box or a car stereo, record that, and combine the tones to what you have digitally, even if the analog is recorded digitally. Maybe, put a boom box in a bathroom and record that? The trick is to combine harmonic frequencies. Like I said, it is an art form all of its own.
Next, I would say I hear a conflict between some very clever ideas rhythmically and melodically speaking, with garbage on top that conflicts rhythmically and melodically. I think this is because on one hand you engineer something that makes really good sense, but then jam band guitar or whatever, fake fake, and that good idea is quickly lost. My ear hears something that is good, and wants more, then all of a sudden, that idea is gone and it is something else that does not continue flow of the music. Music should be like a paragraph of words, for instance. Even if there is contrast, it should still be one topic, basically. The human brain can only process one thing at a time. Even though there may be many instruments playing different parts , it is still just one thing. Think of women driving while they use cell phones. That is two things and look what happens. lol
The next thing is what I call a bag of tricks. You clearly have many many already, but are still lacking a few important ones. The most important is a trick I call "talk one talk two". If a bass has my attention on the 1+2+ beat, then something else may take over the 3+4+ beat. This can be done using instruments, or it can be done using the power of melody and only one instrument. You may be in E for the one beat, but switch to G on the upbeat between the 2 and 3 beats, thereby actually creating a new voice using melody. It is basically an idea of creating interest. It would be as if a man is talking to his wife. He says something, then she something else. In music theory is is called phrasing. I am sure you know about this already, but this kind of goes back to what I was saying before about conflict. I hear a call, but no response. "Call and response", (talk one talk two) is critical for movement in music.
Ok, thats it for now. Honestly, I am a nut because I study music with an obsessive passion. I grew up with an AM radio in the days of Motown an music of that era. My ear is quite spoiled. I am only here because you are very very good dear sir, and a TRUE composer of music. I wish I had you as a band mate. Take care, and good luck. :)
Jul 14, 2008 10:17 pm It's kinda dangerous posting after Clutz. LOL
Nevertheless, here are my $0.02:
I listened to your songs several times the past few days and I like them very much. The recordings are very clean and I can tell that you put much effort into the mastering. You have definitely created a number of songs with your own sound.
Several times I hear a touch of African culture in your songs and that's very attractive to me.
The only minus, there's always a minus, is the time limit... ;-)
Jul 15, 2008 05:03 am Thanks for your honest feedback guys. Clutz - I think I am going to start by choosing a song and rework it with some of the things you mentioned. This is really my first album (and I turned 40 last month). Since it did'nt have much exposure I did'nt get much feedback and I kinda left it there and wondered: But is it art? You guys answered that and even if this is the only album I ever make I think it's time to go back and inriched it a little using your help.
Nightcap - tanx man. Do you know if I can post the songs on here somewhere? I would love it if you can listen to the complete track.
Greets,
Eben
Jul 15, 2008 02:03 pm Hi Eben, concerning your question about uploading a song. In "My account" (top of every page) select "Manage your songs". It's very simple from there on. I'm already looking forward listening to a complete song!
It will be interesting to hear what the songs will be like after "clutzing" them. :-)
Jul 15, 2008 02:26 pm holy, what ever happened to "if it sounds good, it is good" and "stay true to yourself". That's my advice.
Jul 15, 2008 03:22 pm Dang, I wish I could get clutz to listen and critique some of my stuff.
Jul 16, 2008 10:17 am Thanks - I am going to upload the songs. I had a quick look and it seems a 10Meg limit on the upload page. Is that per song or in total?
Chow.
Jul 16, 2008 02:05 pm That's the total available space for songs, Eben. You can consider rotating if there's not enough room.
Jul 18, 2008 09:37 pm Personally I can't wait to hear the full tunes. I enjoyed them greatly and thought they were all well done and sounded fine. Different is good. We don't all need to sound just like the crap on the radio.
Jul 22, 2008 02:54 am OK, I tried to upload a song a couple of times now. I keep getting the same error eventually, even if I rename the file:"A file by that name already exists, please change file name".
Ideas?
Cheers,
Eben
Jul 22, 2008 11:55 am Any strange characters in the file name? I just uploaded an MP3 as a test without any problem.
Maybe Noize can be of help here?
Jul 28, 2008 06:28 am Nope..the file name is:
Your heart.mp3, even renamed it to Your_Heart.mp3 - no joy...
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