New demo: Cognitive Dissonance

[the captain]

I wrote this in two bursts. The first one was about a week ago (the one I said in the Making Music thread was being done on an acoustic guitar) and includes up through the first refrain, the "never leave you, dear" line. From there on was mostly written yesterday and a little bit today, and yes, I recognize they are polar opposites (hence the title). I hope you like it.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/y19kgh

[Domino]

Really good Luther! It reminds me of Brian demos in the 70s, and I love Brian demos in the 70s

[the captain]

I appreciate that. It was a pretty quickly written one and it felt really good to me, kind of important to finish. As with the other recent (e.g. past few months) songs, I'll record it properly as soon as I decide on a solid batch to go forward with.

[the captain]

"Promptly" in this case meant "in about three years."

This is a ballad that I really rethought and overthought a lot. It wants to be the ultimate cheesy power ballad, but it does have a certain amount of drama inherent in it. So I tried to walk a line that let me stay on the tolerable side of melodrama and cliche.

Zach drummed, as is the case on my past few recordings. I did the rest yesterday, with the music box and (typically bad) mix today.

https://soundcloud.com/the-beau-mondes/cognitive-dissonance

[Bean Bag]

Nice production!

[the captain]

Thanks, Bean Bag. I'm not sure I agree--what's new!?--but I appreciate that.

[Bean Bag]

Really?     What don't you like about it?

[the captain]

I don't hate it, but I'm not totally satisfied. (I'm also not about to spend much time tinkering, because let's be honest, it just doesn't matter. We move on with our lives.) "Production" can include a lot of disparate things, some of which I am satisfied with. I like the arrangement. I'm not unhappy with the performances. The main things I don't like are:

a) I feel like the drums and the rest of the track sound patched together, two disparate things. This is, of course, true. But so are all the individual instrumental and vocal tracks, and I though they blended well. So something about how I mixed it just isn't working. (Not that I don't like the drumming itself, or the recording of it. Zach did a good job.)

b) The electric guitar, aside from maybe the staccato part on "never leave you dear," doesn't come through in a way I'd like it to, and when I push it up, it's just too loud. And it's kind of muddy, lost amidst the piano and things, which I wasn't expecting since I put it in a higher register.

[Bean Bag]

I honestly didn't hear the guitar!  Sometimes really compressing the crap out of a guitar helps it bust through the mix without getting too loud.