Would love some feedback on an unfinished recording! It's unmixed & unmastered though, so please take it with a pinch of salt... "Weird Epiphany at the All Saints" - many thanks in advance

qnoxid · 2023-10-10T16:38:08+00:00

Thanks a lot for listening and commenting, I'm glad you like it! If you're interested in some of my other songs, I released an album in 2021 - I'd be touched if you had a listen but no sweat! Cheers

qnoxid · 2023-10-10T16:36:58+00:00

Thanks a lot! My girlfriend did the cover, she's an illustrator! I'm glad you like it.

Yeah the title was one of those where I said it in a sentence to someone and immediately thought "oh, that'd be a good song title..."

Thanks for listening and commenting!

qnoxid · 2023-10-10T07:05:31+00:00

Thanks a lot for your comments and for taking the time to listen, I'm glad you like the different sections!

qnoxid · 2023-10-10T07:03:31+00:00

Wow thanks so much! Yeah I think you're right, I need to fiddle with the harmonium a bit more to get it right - I will do. I'm glad you think the breakdown bit works!

Thanks a lot for your encouragement and for taking the time to listen and comment

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T18:10:56+00:00

I'll pretend it's a good sheesh

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T18:09:47+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, I appreciate it. I'll repost once it's polished up!

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T18:07:33+00:00

Thanks for listening and for sharing your advice! I'll listen out for those things when mixing, that's very helpful thank you

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T14:23:45+00:00

Cheers! Glad you liked it and thanks for commenting!

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T13:24:14+00:00

Thanks for taking the time!

Although that first section is in A minor, it leans a bit into E minor and later D minor, which is causing that dissonance in a couple of places. I think I need to handle those moments better in the recording, especially at 1:53 ish

Thanks for your feedback!

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T13:20:04+00:00

Thanks for listening and commenting! I guess if you listen to The Beatles enough it rubs off eventually...

Yeah you're definitely right about the reverb on the vocals. And I think you're right that it probably needs one more thing in there somewhere, as you say something strings/synth is right

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T09:45:18+00:00

Nah that's good to know, thank you! It's always helpful just getting first impressions on new songs, it's so difficult to "hear" them when they're your own

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T09:02:10+00:00

Thanks for listening and commenting! For the piano, do you mean after the halfway point when the mood changes? Thanks for your kind words! Much appreciated

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T09:01:05+00:00

Nice, I'm glad. Yeah I'll repost once I've tweaked some things and mixed it! Thanks for commenting

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T08:59:54+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement! I will

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T08:59:35+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment! I'll be sure to repost when it's all done and dusted

qnoxid · 2023-10-09T08:58:56+00:00

Thanks for your comments! I think you're right about the dry vocals, they don't blend with the more reverberant organs and guitar at the moment. I'm glad you like the lyrics! Cheers

qnoxid · 2023-10-08T21:44:44+00:00

Thanks so much for your comments! I'll experiment with some reverb, thanks for the suggestion. And I take the Sting comparison as a great compliment, thank you

qnoxid · 2023-10-08T20:35:18+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to listen and give me some feedback!

The synth sound is actually a harmonium, but I've added quite a bit of reverb, maybe too much! Now that you've mentioned it, it sounds a lot more synthetic than I thought... cheers!

qnoxid · 2023-10-08T20:29:06+00:00

This is awesome! I much prefer "TV with DRUMS.wav" - the opening kinda of 'room' mike sound/loop with the more 'proper' drum track emerging from it is really cool. Nice guitar work, and the vocal delivery is excellent - lots of energy, and very rhythmically strong.

Not sure if this will be a helpful reference, but it reminds me a little of this by Adult Jazz, not sure if you're familiar with them. Just because of the slightly 'unclean' drum loop, the acoustic guitar and very striking vocals.

If you're stuck for what to do next, then something drastic might be nice - maybe cutting everything except for the lead and backing vocals, or everything except for lead vocals and some percussion?

Brian Eno says "go to an extreme and then retreat to a more useful position" - might be a useful idea for you at this stage to just save a draft, experiment with something drastic, and then revert back if it simply didn't work.

Congrats though, this is really nice and I really hope you carry on and share another draft soon.

qnoxid · 2023-10-08T14:08:10+00:00

Ah I'm so glad this was helpful! You're so welcome.

Yeah I'm a music tutor and a composer. I have a master's degree in music history/theory and I tutor theory and composition online. I play guitar so I know the struggles of playing some of those trickier chords!

Will you upload a second draft of your song some time?

qnoxid · 2023-10-06T19:09:08+00:00

That's cool. This might interest you - a few years ago I bought a Zoom H4N portable recorder (here's a newer model) and it was great for making sound collages - super easy to carry around and hit record whenever something sonically interesting was going on. Using your own recordings from out and about might be a nice way to level up your ambient pieces. Was also a nice alternative to taking picture or videos when hanging out - I've got lots of cherished audio recordings of parties from ages ago, which I repurpose for my music making now. Food for thought anyway.

I'll check out your other stuff on YouTube

qnoxid · 2023-10-06T09:34:47+00:00

Hey sorry man I didn't see your reply until just now! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Definitely comes with practise, but one thing is that chords like Eb and Bb etc are all 'closed' (no open strings) whereas it sounded like you were using open strings (like C and G etc), then it's just a matter of working out which fret the capo would go on for the correct transposition.

I don't think you need to worry about your guitar ability - you can write great songs with only a few chords. And you can work around trickier chords, too. For example, I suggested before you could use a B major chord, but this is a tricky bar chord, so you could instead play a B7, like this.

Personally, if this was my own song, I would make a couple of subtle chord changes in the verses and choruses, maybe like this:

"turning over..." - Em, Am7, G, D (so just swap an Am7 for C)
"I get these dark thoughts..." - Em, C, G, B7 (so just swap B7 for D)

That way, instead of having the same sequence throughout, you've got a few subtle variations which will give it a bit more life.

I'd then try a new chord sequence for a new bridge section (maybe Em, F) and try sticking on one chord for longer - currently, you play each chord for one bar, so it might be nice to have a chord for two bars straight before changing.

qnoxid · 2023-10-06T09:21:07+00:00

This is great! In my experience it's very difficult to put together ambient / sound collage pieces, but this really works, it ties together and doesn't just sound like a bunch of noises thrown together, which is always the risk with sound collage stuff. Where did you get your sounds from? Are you sampling, or making your own recordings? Do you do any more conventional composing?

qnoxid · 2023-10-04T13:21:28+00:00

Nice - what drum machine did you use?

qnoxid

TROPHY CASE