Rate My Production

[Calum]

(apologies if this should go somewhere else in the forums)

I just made a song with my friend to send to some american friends. It's a bit of a joke so some of the performances aren't super amazing and it was all written and recorded in about 3 hours. But just now I decided to mix the whole thing to the best of my ability and really up my game. The production side of music isn't my forte but i would like it to be on par with other aspects, so please don't hold back and give me your wise jewels!

You can discuss the song itself as well if you wish

Download or listen to mp3 or wav.

MP3:

WAV:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mi9v32s9cp812f9

Thanks,

Calum

[SnappleMan]

5/10

Drums - Nice punchy sounding kit, needs some top end though.

Guitars - could to be brightened up a tiny bit.

Vocals - singing is bad, tone is bad, pitch is off, vocal production overall is uneven.

Keys - nicely layered under the vocals.

Overall - mix could be a bit louder without any real loss of the dynamics, the mix is uneven at times in a bad way, things jump out randomly when they're not really supposed to. The backing is well done, but the vocals are just bad.

[erineclipse]

intro- awesome

main- nothing against acoustic, but that particular bit has been done to death, not really what i was anticipating

vocals- horrible

[eilios]

5/10

Drums - Nice punchy sounding kit, needs some top end though.

Guitars - could to be brightened up a tiny bit.

Vocals - singing is bad, tone is bad, pitch is off, vocal production overall is uneven.

Keys - nicely layered under the vocals.

Overall - mix could be a bit louder without any real loss of the dynamics, the mix is uneven at times in a bad way, things jump out randomly when they're not really supposed to. The backing is well done, but the vocals are just bad.

Basically this. I can't really add anything at all to this.

[SnappleMan]

-1/10

Don't ever record your voice again.

I wouldn't go that far. He just need to practice singing a bit, he's got potential.

[Calum]

This thread isn't called Rate My Singing.

Yeah, did I forget to mention this was a bit of a joke?

All of the performances were done very quickly and really not all that seriously so your reactions aren't a surprise but not really what i'm looking for.

ANYWAY thanks for the feedback on the productions everyone so far.

intro- awesome

main- nothing against acoustic, but that particular bit has been done to death, not really what i was anticipating

vocals- horrible

Yeah, this was like a joke-y soft rock ballad type song. Judging it on its originality or the performance of the vocals (although the latter of which might be relevant to the productions) kind of misses the point. Thanks anyway.

[eilios]

Yeah, did I forget to mention this was a bit of a joke?

All of the performances were done very quickly and really not all that seriously so your reactions aren't a surprise but not really what i'm looking for.

I don't like it when people claim that they're doing music "just as a joke" when they get called out for things. It happens all of the time, you tell people that they're not as good rappers as they claim to be in their extremely stupid 4 minute braggadocio snorefest(not talking about you, just in general) and they say it was "just for fun" and that you shouldn't rate it so seriously. In the future, if someone says the vocals are bad, take it as is instead of trying to excuse the bad vocals on some other factor. Or if any other thing is bad, really. It's a little bit of a pet peeve for me, but I'm sure others think the same thing.

[Calum]

I don't like it when people claim that they're doing music "just as a joke" when they get called out for things. It happens all of the time, you tell people that they're not as good rappers as they claim to be in their extremely stupid 4 minute braggadocio snorefest(not talking about you, just in general) and they say it was "just for fun" and that you shouldn't rate it so seriously. In the future, if someone says the vocals are bad, take it as is instead of trying to excuse the bad vocals on some other factor. Or if any other thing is bad, really. It's a little bit of a pet peeve for me, but I'm sure others think the same thing.

I get that but i really don't think this applies to me. I don't like that either. I mentioned in the original post that it was a joke before people started "slating me" - i'm not at all offended or defensive about it, even though I don't think I'm an amazing singer what I presented was clearly (at least to me) not particularly serious vocals. The reason I stressed that it was a joke was because people were getting hung up on the vocal performance rather than the production which is what I was after.

I didn't record this song for the purpose of putting it here to be judged - it was a "funny" (I guess not) song that i wrote for some friends which i just so happened to attempt to mix. Perhaps I shouldn't have posted a song that would provoke such a reaction. I am aware that when i post something people are going to react to different parts of it whether I want it or not but the hard work only really went into the production here. So all these vocal insults aren't surprising and i'm not bothered or trying to defend myself, It's just like "YEAH I KNOW THEY'RE SHIT, THIS ISN'T NEWS TO ME! I'M NOT TRYING TO SING AMAZINGLY".

But really, I personally thought it was glaringly obvious that the vocals were over-the-top and not at all serious. You may think i'm still backtracking but no, i'm not. I completely agree that what you've said i've done is annoying but i just don't think it applies to me as I stated that it was a joke in the original post and thought the vocals made that point pretty clear as well.

[SonicThHedgog]

-1/10

Don't ever record your voice again.

Atleast be fucking funny.

@calum some people just cant read threads. I'v been watching this thread for awhile XD

But snapple nailed half of it and yes the singing, alto its not a ''rate my vocal thread'' I would give you a 7.0/10 it sound cool/not bad to me.

Vocals are mixed in good to me, guitars need to be a tad brighter imo for this particular track, and thats it for me.

[Calum]

Atleast be fucking funny.

i'll assume that's directed at me. I didn't know this was such a hostile forum. No matter what reasons I give, no matter how true or relevant, will just seem like excuses now.

Well, shall i say it wasn't a joke now since you don't think it's funny. Hahaha.

Well, um... keep the feedback coming I guess.

[SonicThHedgog]

i'll assume that's directed at me. I didn't know this was such a hostile forum. No matter what reasons I give, no matter how true or relevant, will just seem like excuses now.

Well, shall i say it wasn't a joke now since you don't think it's funny. Hahaha.

Well, um... keep the feedback coming I guess.

Not at you, he should not had been "extra" with his post, pretty much triffle.

But I finished editing my post .

[eilios]

Atleast be fucking funny.

I get that but i really don't think this applies to me. I don't like that either. I mentioned in the original post that it was a joke before people started "slating me" - i'm not at all offended or defensive about it, even though I don't think I'm an amazing singer what I presented was clearly (at least to me) not particularly serious vocals. The reason I stressed that it was a joke was because people were getting hung up on the vocal performance rather than the production which is what I was after.

I didn't record this song for the purpose of putting it here to be judged - it was a "funny" (I guess not) song that i wrote for some friends which i just so happened to attempt to mix. Perhaps I shouldn't have posted a song that would provoke such a reaction. I am aware that when i post something people are going to react to different parts of it whether I want it or not but the hard work only really went into the production here. So all these vocal insults aren't surprising and i'm not bothered or trying to defend myself, It's just like "YEAH I KNOW THEY'RE SHIT, THIS ISN'T NEWS TO ME! I'M NOT TRYING TO SING AMAZINGLY".

But really, I personally thought it was glaringly obvious that the vocals were over-the-top and not at all serious. You may think i'm still backtracking but no, i'm not. I completely agree that what you've said i've done is annoying but i just don't think it applies to me as I stated that it was a joke in the original post and thought the vocals made that point pretty clear as well.

Whether you have an absolute all-out no holds barred PARTY with the vocals or not is irrelevant, because as soon as you put them there, they're part of the production. If you didn't want them there because they were bad and jokey, you shouldn't have put them there. Like it or not, as soon as you put the vocals up in this kitchen, you can't take them out and they will affect your mix. And once you have the mix up there, you can't just turn them off and just go to town with the backing instrumentation like you can with the project file or whatever the cat planet it is.

[Calum]

Whether you have an absolute all-out no holds barred PARTY with the vocals or not is irrelevant, because as soon as you put them there, they're part of the production. If you didn't want them there because they were bad and jokey, you shouldn't have put them there. Like it or not, as soon as you put the vocals up in this kitchen, you can't take them out and they will affect your mix. And once you have the mix up there, you can't just turn them off and just go to town with the backing instrumentation like you can with the project file or whatever the cat planet it is.

OK. Well, i didn't realise this would be such an huge issue. I fully accept that the performance of the vocals is a huge part of the production and perhaps I should have done this with a track with super solid performances but it was just a lil' experiment (is that another excuse?). Perhaps it may appear that I suddenly decided this wasn't serious as soon as people slated it - but i was always under the mindframe that those particular parts which were so concentrated on were not essential.

Just for the record I did have an absolute all-out no holds barred party!

Atleast be fucking funny.

@calum some people just cant read threads. I'v been watching this thread for awhile XD

But snapple nailed half of it and yes the singing, alto its not a ''rate my vocal thread'' I would give you a 7.0/10 it sound cool/not bad to me.

Vocals are mixed in good to me, guitars need to be a tad brighter imo for this particular track, and thats it for me.

oh, @me some people just can't read comments. Well i'm super glad I was wrong and it wasn't directed at me!

Thanks for the 7.0, I'll wear it with pride!

and thanks for the feedback.

[SnappleMan]

Don't start a thread asking for feedback if you're unprepared for what you're going to get.

[Calum]

Don't start a thread asking for feedback if you're unprepared for what you're going to get.

I may have come off as a little defensive but my issue was not with the feedback itself but that so much of it was solely aimed at the vocal performance. I admit that I may have underestimated how important a good performance is to production so apologies for that.

Thanks for the initial feedback, anyway.

[SnappleMan]

The vocal performance is certainly part of the production. And in a pop song, it's the biggest and most important chunk of the production. In this song the vocals are the weakest link, and if they weren't such a focus then it wouldn't matter as much. I've worked with bands who have made "joke" songs, and they succeed where you have failed because while they sing ironically and slightly askew they still keep the basic elements of good singing intact (like pitch and phrasing). You didn't do THAT bad a job on the pitch and phrasing in your vocals but the combination of that being off, as well as the mixing being uneven (uneven compression throughout, EQ needs a little bit of tweaking, reverb needs tweaking etc etc) made it too far gone for me personally.

[Calum]

The vocal performance is certainly part of the production. And in a pop song, it's the biggest and most important chunk of the production. In this song the vocals are the weakest link, and if they weren't such a focus then it wouldn't matter as much. I've worked with bands who have made "joke" songs, and they succeed where you have failed because while they sing ironically and slightly askew they still keep the basic elements of good singing intact (like pitch and phrasing). You didn't do THAT bad a job on the pitch and phrasing in your vocals but the combination of that being off, as well as the mixing being uneven (uneven compression throughout, EQ needs a little bit of tweaking, reverb needs tweaking etc etc) made it too far gone for me personally.

I completely understand that the vocals are a major part of the production, particularly in a pop song. I feel the key issue is that I haven't written this song SPECIFICALLY to be judged itself. It wasn't a "joke" to be judged by everyone, it was just a little thing I sent to my friends - I wouldn't put this on youtube hoping for everyone to LOL their heads off. Far from it. Maybe I feel you're taking me too seriously. Maybe I'm just complaining because no one likes to feel like they've done bad.

The main thing is that the recording of this song and then the mixing I did were two absolutely separate things for me. The mixing was the part I wished to be critiqued, the song I just happened to pick because I recorded it that day. I'm not looking for any approval for my singing or if this is a good "joke" song or succeeds - all i wanted to know is, is it too quiet? could that be louder? boost these frequencies? use this compression better! The vocals aren't something i'm ever going to re-record. SO MAYBE I'M ASKING How good a job did i do at attempting to polish a turd?

I know, i'm stubborn. OK, i'mma shutup now.

[SonicThHedgog]

I really think that my all serious post was FUCKING FUNNY

I suck at satire (im lying)

Heres my comback

alt + 84

alt + 104

alt + 101

alt + 32

alt + 71

alt + 97

alt + 109

alt + 101