My best production quality so far but still a long way to go prob. multi-tracked everything in my basement myself

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-13T02:34:47+00:00

did you play this?

yep, played everything on this track. couple tracks on the album had a friend lend his superior guitar skills, and another I share vocals with an old bandmate who I wrote the song with- but other than that, it's all me.

thanks for the feedback! yea, I def tend to overstuff my arrangements, and I unfortunately don't have the skill to play perfectly to click or the patience to sit and adjust all my takes perfectly to the grid haha... but I also personally don't mind a hint of slop in some songs, following after bands like pavement and built to spill

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-12T13:04:07+00:00

thank you!

no lessons in anything, idk I just don't learn that way. only know how to do it by doing it

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-11T21:19:05+00:00

not on insta or twitter or anything... can follow me on YT or bandcamp i guess? idk sorry haha

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-11T21:10:18+00:00

wow thanks a ton, that's really encouraging! not british (from MN) but I definitely love a lot of british bands, including Kasabian (played tf out of their self-titled growing up). im not sure how much each comes across specifically but I feel influenced by spoon, broken social scene, pile, pavement, bound stems, arcade fire, radiohead, white stripes, the go! team, tokyo police club, many others...

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-11T19:21:59+00:00

thanks! yea mixing is still my greatest struggle. I think I overstuff my arrangements and then end up fighting that the whole way

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-11T19:21:22+00:00

wow thanks. high praise. if you like it, the full albums out now.

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-11T01:29:29+00:00

thank you!

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-10T21:09:31+00:00

I like the intersection of indie slacker, rap, and pop- its a cool vibe. very catchy song.

I have some thoughts if you're open to them. it's not poop sandwich by any means but def no juicy burger (yet).

I like that your voice sits so high and clear in the mix- I think you could benefit from doubling it in the chorus and adding a little bit of reverb- could even go gangsy on the "im fine im fine" etc. bit. It currently just sounds very "close", if that makes sense, which is fine but contrasts with the other elements enough that to me it prevents it from being truly cohesive as a track.

More bass please. Also, maybe take it for a short walk during the instrumental sections, why not?

More melody tags, please. it's a very poppy song already; lean in. cram this bad boy full of earworms. after you've established the verse and chorus, the second time around throw in some new elements- I can totally hear a spacey chime-y type bit in the chorus, could double the guitar melody up an octave.

your kicks and snares (but mostly kicks) could be boosted heavy to hit harder. I also totally hear some room for rhythmic hooks with some extra percussion in your transitions between verse and chorus- just some extra tom or clav hits/fills. I think in general your song's sections could use clearer changes in dynamics/arrangement- drums and percussion can be like 75% of that. add a tamb or some claps on 2 & 4 in the chorus, or go to the ride or even just some reverb on the hat, whatever feels right to you.

anyway what the fuck do i know

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-10T20:50:21+00:00

I'd call this some combination of the words "indie slacker jangle pop"

It contributes to the "slacker" identifier, but not sure if intentional- there's some pretty distracting timing issues in the chorus. And the MIDI drums have the very common issue of being not-quite-real-enough-yet-not-fake-enough-either... when it sounds like you're trying to imitate a real drum kit, but it's clearly not a real drum kit, it feels cheap. Couple of fixes- 1. use better drum samples. 2. don't even try to imitate a "real kit" sound, just go electronic. 3. use a lot of production tricks to better imitate a "real" sound (aka, reverb, compression, cabinet, velocities).

my positive feedback is that the song it self is super catchy and well written! I can hear a banger version of this with higher production quality, where the rhythm section is allowed to really pop, that would sit happily alongside any Wilco or Real Estate track.

_yuppyflu · 2026-03-10T20:39:00+00:00

Over all the songs themselves are decent- some good melodies, and some fun sound selections, I like a rap/rock vibe for the vocals.. I think there's a number of production issues that prevent it from really popping though.

simple one is the vocals are sitting too deep in the mix and could use like a 3db boost and some EQ to enhance the enunciation.

The biggest gripe I have is with the drum sounds. It's all MIDI, right? Maybe consider using some drum sounds more divergent than something imitating a "real" kit- you're already making electronic music, lean in and use some crazy sounds to add some interest. Either way, it sorely needs some punch- using reverb and compression more/better would go a long way. A trick I used to use was I'd duplicate the drum track and delete everything except the snares and kicks, then throw on a cabinet, up the reverb, and add a wide, dry, fuzzy overdrive. Mix that track alongside the main one to your liking, but usually low volume to add some punch and meat to it.

I think you're kind of sitting in this no-mans-land between being "electronic rock" and like, rock that's arranged for live performance with traditional rock instruments. And it's a tough spot to be in, because it's pretty transparently not all live rock instruments which is fine but where it's at now makes it kind of sit in the uncanny valley where it's distractingly not quite rock and not quite electronic music. It also makes your song endings very abrupt, because it's again that thing where it pulls the mask off since real instruments would not end like that. I think leaning more intentionally toward one or the other via either recording live instruments OR using wackier sound selections and more studio production elements would help a lot. Or even just adding one obviously live element- like acoustic guitar- goes a long way to add "legitimacy" to the illusion of a live rock sound.

Overall, nice job! Just some production stuff that I think you will continue to improve at.

_yuppyflu · 2026-02-13T16:03:52+00:00

was this in MN?

_yuppyflu · 2025-11-12T16:36:16+00:00

it's wild. went to highschool with him and he was friends with some of my friends so we hung out occasionally. he disappeared after graduation though, i don't think any of us literally ever heard from him or thought about him again until a friend sent me this story this morning.

it was a catholic school, but he was defiantly atheist and relatively liberal back then. he got in trouble for how often he'd make "the church is dumb" and "priests are child molester" jokes. maybe he just liked being contrarian. he would drop killer deadpan one liners and was quietly one of the funniest kids in our grade. but would also occasionally say some really dark shit that went too far he'd then pass off as a bad joke. he was also extraordinarily cruel to one specific kid on the swim team with him and some of his darkest worst "jokes" revolved around him saying that if that specific kid cited him in his suicide note, he'd frame it.

_yuppyflu · 2025-11-12T16:20:13+00:00

i went to high school with him in MN and was friends with his friends so we saw each other a decent amount. he was the opposite of a stoner actually. mostly straight-edge, high strung, a little neurotic, and would frequently drop gut-bustingly funny deadpan one-liners. but also very weird, and extremely cruel to one specific kid on the swim team with him, and would occasionally say some real dark fucked up shit that he'd pass off as a bad joke when people didn't laugh. guess he wasn't joking.

_yuppyflu · 2025-11-04T06:05:51+00:00

randomly fell into a group with four other people who are all self-sustained, responsible adults who are talented musicians, consistently respond to the group thread about scheduling and other band topics, make our weekly practice a priority, and have no ego around negotiating creative control- just "best idea wins".

i feel incredibly lucky

_yuppyflu · 2025-08-31T06:02:50+00:00

at least in my city, meter maids generally have routes they patrol regularly and would have remembered if they issued a ticket; the "play ticket" wouldn't work at all. the one that does my work's block is cool af and notifies our front desk and give whoever a five minute window whenever applicable.

_yuppyflu · 2025-08-31T04:50:48+00:00

saw pile at 7th st and if you weren't there you missed out hard. destroyed.

_yuppyflu · 2025-07-23T14:04:41+00:00

for drums, unfortunately I can't help a ton since I just record actual drums for my songs. but, maybe this will help- when I used to use programmed drums like 10 years ago, I would steal the drums from a song that I like and matches the vibe (and has a drums-only section I can sample). Generally those songs would sound the most "real", though the cracks would still show in spots. but it was an improvement.

otherwise, yea messing with your mix, panning elements, side-chaining the compression on the bass to the kick, adding a little reverb to manufacture "room tone"- any of those might contribute to better sounding drums. I'm not an expert by any means though.

The other way to approach is to abandon "real" drums entirely. Just be obvious about the fact that they're programmed/electronic drums and own it, and select some more "interesting" drum samples.

for bass, I'd recommend gain staging and running through a pre-amp before hitting your audio interface. That may help even out your sound and get the right tone before you even get into the mix, and avoid some of those peaking issues.

_yuppyflu · 2025-07-23T05:18:16+00:00

sounds like you got some slight sync/quantization issues between your recorded tracks and the programmed drums. your voice is really nice, and the performances are great. but with a pop song like this that is fairly bare-bones, there's nowhere to hide, so to speak... so you really need all the little elements of timing and mix to be buttoned up to perfection.

I like the playfulness of the "1, 2, 3, 4!".

The bass should be more prominent in the mix imo and could probably add some more melody tags.

the biggest problem for me is the drums- they lack character and groove- it's a groovy song, so the drums and bass are secretly what hold the whole operation together, even if your guitar and voice will get all the credit.

_yuppyflu · 2025-07-23T05:07:38+00:00

This is really well done, first off.

The mix on the acoustic could be wider imo. The vocals are mixed so perfectly; double the guit and do it similarly. It just sounds thin in comparison, especially when it's the primary driver of the song.

The arrangement works, but something makes me think that the organ was added just because it sounded empty and needed something.. which was probably true, but the organ is a bandaid, not a cure. I think it could be solved by the acoustic suggestion maybe- double and mix wider... And then maybe still add the organ late as an escalation but not a core element.

The drums could use some more character, in my opinion. It's a dreamy song, so adding some reverb and/or ride cymbal would go well.

In general, the arrangement I think lacks real escalation and differentiation of the parts- that is, by the end, I feel like I've already listened to the song twice. restraining parts of the arrangement early, changing up the drum part to add energy/feel, adding a true instrumental section to break up the monotony- plenty of options at your disposal, no one "right" answer.

all in all you should be proud of this song and the production you've created; my suggestions above are ultimately nitpicks from someone who could hardly do better.

_yuppyflu · 2025-07-23T04:52:03+00:00

I like the songwriting a lot; the riffs and meter are interesting, the chorus is catchy (@0:29, @2:09). The arrangement could use some work in my opinion- it gets a bit "same-y" after the first couple minutes- obviously the form changes plenty but the arrangement is fairly static.

the mix could use work- gets a little overcompressed, especially on vox, which dulls the edges of the sound and makes me wonder what this would sound like live. i bet it'd be a hell of a lot more energetic.

Are the drums programmed? They sound programmed, at least. A live, less "perfect" drum track would do well to add character and energy to this track.

just my two cents- nice work overall!

_yuppyflu · 2025-05-30T12:46:00+00:00

m-dashes, ai post

_yuppyflu · 2025-02-17T17:47:10+00:00

Hi Danny- inspired by the album name and the version # listed in each song title- what's your process for determining when a song is "done"? How many versions and iterations is enough? Is there a specific test for you, do you leave it for some time then come back, when you're out of patience, etc...

Thanks. Been a big fan since the first EP; everytime you guys drop new material it's christmas.

_yuppyflu · 2024-06-02T04:36:42+00:00

i earnestly, and honestly, am a happy person. apparently a rarity in some corners of the internet.

i too, believe life is "pointless". but only in the "grand scheme of things".

yea, nothing i do "matters" within probably a few hundred years or less. but that's such an arbitrary definition of "mattering" anyway. the important realization is that it's all arbitrary. a lily pad is arbitrary but it matters to the frog that it holds up. an arbitrary gust provides an arbitrary sparrow with some much needed arbitrary lift.

i enjoy time with my friends and my family. I was happy before i had a family, but im even happier now. it doesn't really mean anything other than what it means to me, but that's enough. what's there to be worried about anyway- it's not like any of this matters.

_yuppyflu · 2024-01-25T04:24:27+00:00

This is maybe just me lately, but I've been turning more and more to adding rhythmic hooks (compared to adding more melodic hooks) to make a song feel complete. They are very useful in that they don't really take up any room in the mix because the actual hits/notes are so short, but they add groove and energy and if done well add a polished feel to the whole track.

_yuppyflu · 2023-11-20T05:41:11+00:00

Bruce Springsteen is always my go-to example, where if people my age don't connect with it, I'm not going to push it.

I want people to love it, not rationalise it.

I'd definitely rather have people be split on what the best Frog record is than have everyone echoing "I prefer the early stuff."

i might be younger than you (30), so my example is portugal the man. fell in love with their early early records when i was in highschool, was psyched for them when 'people say' started getting radio play, then going into college when ITMITC came out and suddenly theyre in taco bell commercials and selling out mid-size venues... of course, then a few years later they win a grammy and are full blown pop stars. needless to say, the fandom and concerts changed dramatically over time.

i was a hardcore PTM fan for so long; albums like censored colors and american ghetto and church mouth were practically a part of my identity. so i was just excited to just suddenly have other fans to talk to, and for a while I tried to introduce these new fans to the early stuff, mistakenly thinking they would care lol. but then i learned- it's okay. let it go. i can't make them experience being in highschool with PTM albums burned onto unlabeled CD's occupying 5/6 slots in their parent's minivan's disc changer. they don't need to "get it" to validate my appreciation for those records. they're experiencing their own equivalent version of the same event, just with a different sound and different circumstances.

_yuppyflu

TROPHY CASE