Listen to song here
The image above was taken at the beach in Malibu yesterday. My idea for the video is to create orbs (or rovers, for you prisoner fans), which will bounce very slowly towards the camera. Over time, more and more orbs will fill the screen, and really really huge orbs will start to appear (this was really inspired by Slava's snow show, which is a really amazing clown show I saw at UCLA a couple of months ago). I'm going to do a time lapse of the waves (I have to go back to the beach and bring a tripod this time) -- and they too will move very slowly...
What about some disco balls? Is that too LCD Soundsystem?
I've been working on this song for a little while, and it's still unfinished (for one I was too lazy to do a fade out at the end), but I want to see what you guys think of it. Specifically, I'd like to know what people think of the structure, but any comments are welcome. And, yea, I'd like to know what you think about the image and if it works for the song.
Technical info about the piece: I'm not working with the greatest equipment. I'd love to be doing this all on tape, but I've only got my laptop. So, it's an upright piano, accoustic guitar, snare drum and vocals recorded through the g4's built in Microphone. Then there is some line-in electric guitars, sequenced bass and some ambient field recording I did with my friend Zac the other day.
I'm sick and need to get some rest, but everyone's been posting really great stuff and I think this blog is rad. Ok, word.
14 comments:
One thing I forgot to mention is that the verse that repeats is most likely going to be replaced with a second set of lyrics -- just haven't gotten to that yet..
Oh, and the photo was taken in Malibu, but the orbs were done in photoshop.
i like it. the vocals sound GREAT for being recorded through the built-in mic. what software are you using? garage band?
it feels very LA, and very david lynch to me (in a good way) - also reminds me quite a bit of ariel pink. you could safely make everything more lo-fi, fuzzy and washed out, if you wanted to go that route.
the structure is a-ok, but i'd like for there to be some kind of crescendo towards the end. it's a little static (maybe thats the point?). the last chorus and the outro could have a little more impact somehow...maybe you could extend the outro a bit and have some freaky guitar solo or something ;)
oh - and NO DISCO BALLS!
I've been using Logic express for everything. Basically to make the vocals work I need to compress and limit the hell out of them (in logic that is), which means I'm sure I'm losing some of the punch, but otherwise through that mic they don't even show up in the mix. I think I'm going to buy a really cheap radioshack stereo mic, because I need something that I can stick in the piano and close mic stuff. Also, recording the vocals is a huge pain because the hard drive kicks in every fucking other second and then I have to stop the take and wait five minutes for it to stop churning because the internal mic is right next to that motherfucker.
David Lynch has been coming up a lot these days. For one, TM is getting a lot of good press and he just did that whole thing with donovan out here a few weeks ago. I probably should listen to more ariel pink, but I think I got turned off because of the excessive amounts of hype surrounding him and didn't really look at it as a result. But there have def. been a couple of times lately where I'm like, 'oh thats good, what's that', and someones like, 'oh its ariel pink'. And I have mad respect for anyone who uses real gear. Speaking of which, Ged and Caitlin should join this blog. Ok, I just sent Caitlin an email.
It's funny because, at this point I'm totally like, I want it to be fuzzy and washed out but I've got this expensive laptop and I can't get a hundred bucks together for a four track!! haha. I think I should give this to someone with a reel to reel and do the final bounce out to that and than back again.
I agree with you regarding the outro, I'm going to try a freaky guitar solo and building that whole part up more. I think it might be that it goes right from the verse straight into that outro and skips the chorus and it should probably come out of the chorus somehow.
and oh yea - NO DISCO BALLS!!!!
haha, i feel you on teh four track thing - i'm in the same boat! bouncing the track to reel-to-reel is DEFINITELY a good idea...
i should get logic...i've been only using audacity for recording - which is SUCH a bitch...the thing crashes every 35 minutes...i also would kind of like to use midi every now and then (it's nice for programming basslines)....
ariel pink is actually really really good. im totally not into most of that kinda stuff (animal collective, devendra, etc) - it all seems so calculated and forced, all that fake hippie vibe. but ariel pink is more just like, a weirdo...worth checking out...i'd probably kinda hate him if i lived in LA, tho...
Whoa! This IS some dreamy shit! I really like the reversed guitar. It totally makes the song. That and the ultra-compressed piano! I agree that is very California in a good way, but more like Beach Boys California. The sound of the piano in particular reminds me of the Beach Boys. Super compressed upright seemed to be the sound for Brian Wilson. Excellent!
The acoustic guitar is all pick sound. Maybe shortening the attack on the compressor for the acoustic, and just making it less compressed? Yes, I think less compression on the acoustic. The vocal sound is really amazing! It sits perfectly! One little thing, make sure you clean up your edits (with fades and shit) I think I heard some pops in there.
ANOTHER THING:
I have a reel-to-reel I could put this through when you're done! I think that's a really good idea. I do that all the time with masters as well as individual tracks. ANALOG!
ok...i feel a little bit out of place commenting...since i havent got the song...and i dont really too many of the references...but i have a lot of faith in both "tcd" and "chester gwazda" opinions....also...take advantage of chester...i give you permission...older brother by proxy...also i have been meaning to watch the prisoner...but the time is not right...but in terms of "stuff"...where are those crazy balls going to be coming from? it has to be explained somehow...at least visually...also when i look at them i get a feeling like really really loose...like...softer...than...umm...boobs or something....majorly....uninflated...what am i taliing about
oh, and a lttle thing about the picture. Maybe rotate it so that the horizon is going horizontal? I don't know if that was intentional or what. I guess you'd kind lose some of the edges, but it kinda threw me.
Greg- this song is fucking groovy. its so good that it is well worth perfecting the final product. In terms of structure, the songwriting is good enough to carry it all the way, but the second verse or the end section would benefit from jumping out of this unwavering sonic landscape that youve created through all instuments all at once without cutting in or out.
i would vote XYLOPHONE. ya know, bells or toy piano. not too cheesy, not to BECK SEA CHANGES, but it needs a new voice- that is still crummy sounding- in the background. I think their is just a hair too much snare for the drum sound youve got. but this is all said with the understanding that this song sounds great.
i LOVE the fact that this is a degenerate recording. I have HAD it with the "RULES" of recording... clipping can sound great! shitty mics can sound great! guitars bleeding into drum tracks sounds good! i took a class at bard called "the art of acoustic recording" (?!) and it set me back 2 years in terms of technique. it is all bullshit. i HATE the way phantom planet's theme for THE OC sounds. i dont know how we have reached the point where more money and time and isolated tracks and pitch correction is what people like to hear. WHAT THE FUCK??? i think ROOMS sound good. and CHARACTER rather than sheer clarity is what makes a recording expressive of anythign all. FUCK! anyone?
There is so much good feedback here, I think the best thing I can do is to work a bunch more on this piece, and then I'll repost once I've made some substantial progress.
Either way, I think that the Low-Fi thread should continue, because whether with Christians video stuff, or TCD's music or Henry's Flash stuff, we're all touching on similar points,
Keep the pizza hot!!
POPS NOISES AND SHIT....
So I'm getting really frustrated with this track. Mainly, i've discovered that a lot of the POpping sounds are not from eddits but rather my disk skipping as I was recording because it was overloading the harddrive.. So I was trying to re-do the individual parts that had pops in them and they weren't sounding right.
So Pizza advice dudes: Should I wait a little while on it, and then just sort of re-do things from scratch now that I've worked out the song a bit? If I do this I could sort of re-arrange the end a little bit better, add another chorus, etc... Or should I just say fuck it and call it done with the pops in the audio?
I think I already know the answer. I should give it another shot of trying to sculpt with the audio I already have recorded..
I don't really think you should re-record the audio. I think it would be better to have the pops with the performance and quality that you want than to have the pops gone and not ge thte sound you want. Usually these types of pops can be removed from sculpting the audio. You could also take the individual tracks and take a small section from right nect to the pop (like, 20ms) and copy and paste it over the pop, then put fades on either side. Basically, I don't think they are so offensive that they need to be re-recorded.
AUDIO CLONING--
Thanks for the tip Chester. It sounds like using the clone tool in photoshop.
haha, i couldn't even hear any pops
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