2 hours, i just made a nice prince cover
"Darling Nikki", the song that started parental advisory:)

Oh ya, I hope u dig the monster solo at the end

www.angelfire.com/music5/pop1/

if any song doesn't work or the page doesn't work, try again, or try again later. i have small bandwidth.

Jem said:

Jem - you GOTTA work on your mixing of your songs - this song and the other one both suffer from painful mixing. Ain't saying the song is bad - just saying the voice is three times as loud as anything else, the drums almost sound like an afterthought, and the guitar sounds like its coming through an A.M. radio.

NOW that I've been painfully blunt, please believe me - I'm not trying to bring you down. Your creativity is an inspiration, but I would suggest another method of mixing down your songs, what ever you're doing right now is producing very bad results.

1. Are you using headphones? Are they them super-boomy-bottom-heavy headphones that are popular now? You need some plain old headphones with NO boost whatsoever. You need to be able to hear the song without ANY cosmetic alterations, because you never know HOW anyone else will be hearing the song.

As always, I TOTALLY suggest the "Pro 35" $15 Radio Shack titanium headphones. They're cheap, and considered one of the ALL-TIME greatest set of headphones for under $100. I think they're made by Koss, who also sell the same set, named the "KTX-Pro"
( http://www.epinions.com/K...y_~reviews )

2. Are you mixing to a stereo with live speakers? If so, again, be sure your stereo does NOT have any bass or treble boosted. You want to be sure you have everything, (hi and lo) as FLAT as possible. Why? Because you never know WHAT the final source will be - a walkman or a $5000 home theatre? Therefore, you can only prepare your song to sound it's very best without cranking your bass.

When you mix down, try to keep the volume no louder than your T.V. ONCE you've mixed it down, sure, crank that mother on up and jam to your amazing talent, but when you're mixing down, the quieter you can keep it, the more accurate you will be in mixing it. When you crank it, the bass naturally increases, so you would mix the bass LOWER to compensate, which then means, when you turn the stereo back down, the bass would disappear. Make sense?

okay. LASTLY.

Back up from the mic. You're distorting and popping the thing cuz you're eating it... which is a natural habit in a live setting, but when you're recording in a studio - be it a home studio or $3000/hour studio - you want to be 4-6 inches from the mic. Any closer and you're cheating your mic from it's potential - ALL mics work better with a little air between them and the source... when you move in too close, the sound becomes too boomy, and the P's, T's, and B's will POP the mic (because of the air rushing out of your mouth). I use a pop-screen which forces me to keep that 4 inches between the mic and my mouth, AND it helpt to manage all the pops. Made it with a coat hanger and some pantyhose. (Yes my own, but that's another story...)

Don't worry - you can turn up the volume on the recording channel to compensate for the difference, or, better yet, turn all your other instruments DOWN, then turn up the overall volume, and try to get a warm recording instead of a hot one (where your voice is distorting).

Hope this doesn't bring you down man. You've got potential, definitely, but you need to polish them diamonds a little bit better.

[ edit: Alterations WAS altercations. Never heard of a cosmetic altercation, but I'm sure it happens in the ladies room all the time... "GIMME MY BLUSH BITCH!" ]
[This message was edited Mon Sep 15 9:36:56 PDT 2003 by otan]

Otan, you are so great to give such awesome details. I learned a bit there too...

I assume that Jem just does these songs on the fly and puts them up, much like PaisleyPark4. It takes a long-ass time to do the mixing. I'm learning that. My boyfriend asks me "When is your album gonna be finished?" "How long can you work on one song?" The mixing is the hard part, that's for sure.

Funny, I was going to ask you to mention those headphones again. Ah, it's good to be back.

By the way, I don't think I've ever had a cosmetic altercation. That's how you get pink eye.

Thanks Vina...

Look - I just wish somebody'd hipped me to the whole "reference speakers/phones" issue when I was mixing stuff in the beginning - I've got a library of (what I think are) cool tunes and they ALL have enough treble to cut glass ... it's very hard to listen to them now... it was the boomy headphones - I'd jack up the high end to hear it through those phones.

--

I totally understand the thrill of working all night on a song, grooving to it and wanting to share it with the world as soon as possible - but I'd say that's probably the biggest weakness I hear on a lot of songs up on here - INCLUDINGmy own ... I'll post something up in a heated excited, 4am high, and the next day think - oh - crap - I should have cut that bad intro and that bad ending (like the LAST song that I posted up here, to be specific).

The excitement is great, the creativity is something that's a great rush - ESPECIALLY when you can share it with folks - but at the same time - I'd recommend to everybody - sit on it for 12 hours, check it out again, and THEN post it.

Conversely - yes - I agree with everybody that's getting ready to rip me a new ass - this is a great community for getting solid realistic feedback on ways to improve the song... and posting something in mid-stream is a part of that amazing community we have up here. So - take what I say with a grain of salt.

And a couple of aspirin.

Thanks OTAN, i can always respect ur thoughts, sorry i can't talk much now, but ya i need to work on sound, but i'm working with little, not really an excuse.
What i need is a new mic.
the vocals are high cause i can't understand what i say if they're lower. its probably the mic. and reverb that i put in.
I would like to talk more with u persomnally, i'll send an org note or something.
Yes, these songs are done on the fly, i record a song as i'm writing it, thats how i work. Then I'll think about recording them professionally in a studio

Time sucks!
But at least i hope u like the songwriting.

I talk more later.

I can't spend too long on one song... gotta know when to say when or U could spend 4ever on it!

'dre

Jem said:

THAT sums it up man. If I had more time, I could work on getting it right. I understand what you mean.

otan said:

use a sure sm58 with a PZM lead... other than that listen to otan

Finally got a chance to listen to this. Cool guitar! I would work on the vocal. Sometimes you're not hiting the right notes, and I know you can. Maybe you didn't bother checking that, not sure. I don't know if you're trying to sing it different than Prince, i.e. different notes and rhythym.

Do you edit your vocals at all? What I do is listen to only the vocal (or the vocal and the baseline) and if I don't like something I cut it out and just record that part again. Sometimes I'll sing 3 or more takes and keep the best parts of each take. I finally realized I don't have to sing it all the way through every time.

If you're trying to match Prince's style I would maybe record the vocal first, with the song on another track as a guide. Listen to yourself singing along and notice where you go off key. Keep practicing/recording until you get it right, even if you sing different notes, they should be in the same key.

I don't know if you cared much about the vocal in this particular track. The vocal is what connects the song to the listener, so its important that it isn't tooo far off. Again, maybe you just did the vocal in one take and didnt think much about it. I guess if you did the whole thing in 2 hours maybe that was the case.