good effort 

hi Steve and guys
would anybody be interested in having a look at my website:  www.youarethemusic.net

Brian inspired tunes

its still in progress but any comments welcome as ever

all the best
Mike

hello Matt - just voted you a 10

I find it very difficult to listen to BWPS in one go - I've always found it very 'noisy'

Mike

[COMMENT TO MIKE:None of the vocals have offending intonation probems to my ears. I can hear what you are talking about, but I think you are too close to the production. Put it aside for a week and then listen with fresh ears. In order to correct any slight tonal violations I would try reducing the amount of (or eliiminating) the way the trail end of the echo effect turns into a sawtooth waveform or gets treblie (high frequency emphasis). If you can, try to make the re-entry of the original sound back into the echo loop to first go through a low-pass filter (cut off of highs). When the singer says the word "miss," the "s" sound gets put into the loop and, frankly, is not musical sounding. Nice effect, but no musical merit is added by having it there. Further on the word "gona" the "o" of that word gets caught in the loop also. I think that is the offensive "virtual" vocal you may be hearing. I still think it all relates back to this sawtooth sound in the echo effect. I did not hear any of the "answer" background vocals sounding out-of-tune.If we ever had that kind of problem, it would have been solved by re-singing the track. All three songs had good production values. I enjoyed listening to them with my morning coffee, especially "code." Hope that helps,]

Here's my problem:  the first lot of lead vocals sound slightly out of tune to me (the section where the lead vocal comes in . . . did you ever have this problem,and if so how did you get out of it..?

COMMENT TO MIKE:
None of the vocals have offending intonation probems to my ears. I can hear what you are talking about, but I think you are too close to the production.  Put it aside for a week and then listen with fresh ears. 

In order to correct any slight tonal violations I would try reducing the amount of (or eliiminating) the way the trail end of the echo effect turns into a sawtooth waveform or gets treblie (high frequency emphasis).  If you can, try to make the re-entry of the original sound back into the echo loop to first go through a low-pass filter (cut off of highs).  When the singer says the word "miss," the "s" sound gets put into the loop and, frankly, is not musical sounding.  Nice effect, but no musical merit is added by having it there. Further on the word "gona" the "o" of that word gets caught in the loop also.  I think that is the offensive "virtual" vocal you may be hearing.  I still think it all relates back to this sawtooth sound in the echo effect.  I did not hear any of the "answer" background vocals sounding out-of-tune.

If we ever had that kind of problem, it would have been solved by re-singing the track. 

All three songs had good production values. I enjoyed listening to them with my morning coffee, especially "code."   

Hope that helps,  ~swd

Hi Stephen
Thank you very much for taking the time to listen and comment, I really appreciate it.

'Far' is not finally mixed yet and your comments are very helpful.

Thanks also for your comment regarding the production values - I produced all 3 tracks at Artisan Audio in Moseley, Birmingham UK.  Engineering by the guys at the studio.  I would classify these as polished demos.

I have over 60 songs in various stages and am recording as fast as I can go - I have 10 prety much fully produced, the next ten will be more stripped down and hopefully wil take a lot less time - these have taken me years!

many thanks

Mike

ok so would 'musical IQ' be a fair term..?

I am really talking about melody writing as the ultimate form of musicality - you can learn the others to a degree but writing a 'great tune' is either there or its not - being driven to try to do it is part of the talent

hello Stephen

here's a technical question - it involves having a quick listen to the track 'Far' at my Myspace acount if that's ok

www.myspace.com/mikeslattery - its the default song (low quality to keep filesize down)


here's my problem:  the first lot of lead vocals sound slightly out of tune to me (the section where the lead vocal comes in

ie the first lot of 'oooh I'm gonna miss you')

having listened to an older version without the Ohmboyz delay effects I think the vocals are ok and its the wash of effects

that is making them sound out, especially when a chord change comes but the wash from the last section in a different chord

continues, if that makes sense

did you ever have this problem,and if so how did you get out of it..?

many thanks

Mike

demos that still need polishing but you'll get the idea

thanks

Mike

any comments welcome of course!!!

demos that still need polishing but you'll get the idea

thanks

Mike

what makes one person but not another able to write a great/memorable tune..?

a top athlete has physical characteristics which enable them to excel at their discipline so I presume a great musician has a different brain-wiring job to other people..?

what I can't figure out is how this works ie which bits of the brain are different if you are musical..?

hello Stephen - glad to hear you're feeling better!

Mike

as far as I know Durrie Parks is quite easy to find re: the film school she teaches at..?  is that right ..?  I remember finding her quite easily on the net a couple of years back

on 7th july from diabetes complications apparently - I only just heard today

I think Brian double tracked a lot of his vocals to thicken it out

I find 'Heroes and villains' very hard to sing - you have to sing in front of the beat fractionally to drive it along + it starts quite high and ends quite low

its absolutely real

(knowing that the sounds at the end of that track are real, I can't wait for Desper's stories on THAT one...)

 

Hi Stephen

I've got a bit of a 'how long is a bit of string' type question, which is:  how many different vocal parts can be happening at once and still allow the human ear to discern each part without it all becoming a big mush of sound..?

stacked harmonies wouldn't count, it has to be one different part for each voice, so 5 part harmony would indeed count, but 5 part harmony with eaxch part doubled would not

thanks

Mike