Best Ever Albums

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

dihansse — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 01:01:13 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 12/11/2018 06:01

carpents wrote:

dihansse wrote:

I admit I started listening to your album with the first posts you made but stopped listening after three or so songs I suppose I wasn't in the mood.
But now I'm listening to it again and, well, I like it: I love the guitars and the songs while the voice is both the weak and the strong point. The comment is already been made that it's a bit thin but on the other hand I love it. The best comparison that can be made is with the one of Robin Proper-Sheppard of Sophia, one of my personal heroes: if you don't know the band you should certainly give them a try.
Also the music is a bit in the style of Sophia and this is absolutely meant as a compliment. There's many good tracks but to me Breakdown and And You And Me are the highlights: I must say the quality of the album gets better as it goes on (maybe also a reason I stopped listening first).
I can't give you any advice technically but hey: 2018 is for me one of the best years in rock music (have already 118 albums of this year I have scored) and your album is one of them and even better: I put it now at rank 68 of 2018 so it might even earn some points.
Keep up the good work!

Awesome feedback! And even though you ranked mine below Greta Van Fleet I won't hold it against you. 😎

Will definitely check out Sophia, we have very similar tastes.

I have only listened to Greta Van Fleet once: maybe I should check them out again 😉

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:43:07 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 12/10/2018 23:43

dihansse wrote:

Awesome feedback! And even though you ranked mine below Greta Van Fleet I won't hold it against you. 😎

Will definitely check out Sophia, we have very similar tastes.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

dihansse — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 15:55:01 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 12/10/2018 20:55

I admit I started listening to your album with the first posts you made but stopped listening after three or so songs I suppose I wasn't in the mood.
But now I'm listening to it again and, well, I like it: I love the guitars and the songs while the voice is both the weak and the strong point. The comment is already been made that it's a bit thin but on the other hand I love it. The best comparison that can be made is with the one of Robin Proper-Sheppard of Sophia, one of my personal heroes: if you don't know the band you should certainly give them a try.
Also the music is a bit in the style of Sophia and this is absolutely meant as a compliment. There's many good tracks but to me Breakdown and And You And Me are the highlights: I must say the quality of the album gets better as it goes on (maybe also a reason I stopped listening first).
I can't give you any advice technically but hey: 2018 is for me one of the best years in rock music (have already 118 albums of this year I have scored) and your album is one of them and even better: I put it now at rank 68 of 2018 so it might even earn some points.
Keep up the good work!

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

dholl — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 19:03:51 GMT

Author: dholl

Posted: 12/01/2018 00:03

carpents wrote:

Mixing & mastering is a Black Art, I have zero aptitude for it and don't want it either. If you enjoy mixing and mastering, you have a rare talent and should be doing it for money. (In fact, PM me, I am working on another album.)

So, the point: I've become much more understanding of just how difficult it is to create a cohesive album of music. I'll forgive more a cliche'd line in a song, or appreciate the little bits of even simple songs. I'm even more marveled by those bands who can transcend into greatness, because every single step in the whole process is difficult.

Aye, agree with all that...I used to be in a band (electropunk) and recording an album of decent technical quality was honestly too difficult for us back then. Playing live was very fun tho'...great memories, despite the chaos. Nowadays I'm still doing stuff, but only for my own fun and nothing with full instrumentation. Sometimes people online like it and that's brilliant, but yeah as you say it does give you a heightened respect for working musicians to be able to get their shit together and make it work.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:09:25 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/28/2018 02:09

Hayden wrote:

Don't go back there 🤣 And please don't tell me he just stuck a mic infront of your amp.

Also, another tip (which, might not be standard, but I've always preferred it), is that unless you have an amp you really like or an assembly of complex pedals, record electric guitar via direct pre-amp input and deal with distortion/amp plug-ins afterwards. Even basic amp plug-ins aren't anything to shrug off, they usually sound just about right. That way you have the cleanest sound you can get with the most versatility at your disposal. You can double-up and layer things at your whim that way.

And, in general, never only use a single mic when recording acoustic guitar. Micing can be an art, but I feel people ignore the opportunities it presents. Don't let recording engineers dull your creativity with 'standards'. Put six mics on a saxophone, stick a mic inside a tuba, whatever.

I'll contrast it with my other experience with a "pro" engineer: The guy who did some of the drums was stoked that I would record in a remote mountain cabin, and urged me just to throw a mic up in the rafters to see what I got.

For guitars, I do have a sound that I love from an amp that I love, so while some of those guitars are DI most of them are from the amp. I also now love ribbon mics, can't get enough of them. I got a deal on a Mesanovic Model 2 that is just perfect for electric guitar, I pair it with a dynamic and blend them together. And, or course, add in a touch of a room mic in the rafters. 😁

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:01:53 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/28/2018 02:01

craola wrote:

ahem, but dude, i enjoyed the album quite a bit and will be revisiting it before the year is out. all the best going forward.

Wow, this is awesome. I know your taste, and you generally go for work which is more challenging than mine (the latest Julia Holter is a good example) so you made my Tuesday. Thanks a lot, really.

(I actually think you'll like the next album better...I hope...)

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

craola — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:30:21 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 11/27/2018 23:30

ahem, but dude, i enjoyed the album quite a bit and will be revisiting it before the year is out. all the best going forward.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

craola — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:28:28 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 11/27/2018 23:28

Hayden wrote:

carpents wrote:

I did have one incident where I rented "studio" space for a couple hours around here. Guy looked at my XLR cables and basically decided that I didn't know anything about recording. When I told him how I mic'ed my guitars, he genuinely was confused why anyone would use more than just one SM57. #-o

Don't go back there 🤣 And please don't tell me he just stuck a mic infront of your amp.

And, in general, never only use a single mic when recording acoustic guitar. Micing can be an art, but I feel people ignore the opportunities it presents. Don't let recording engineers dull your creativity with 'standards'. Put six mics on a saxophone, stick a mic inside a tuba, whatever.

i'm gonna second what hayden said and gripe a bit cause i've had some bad experiences.

a good chunk of recording engineers i've interacted with are just meeting their 9-5 so they can get their paycheck. so they know all the "rules", but they don't know your music the way you do, and they're not too invested in its outcome. there are obviously exceptions to that, but you know how it should sound. don't let them tell you how it should sound unless you want them involved in a more collaborative role.

in general, it's worthwhile to find the sound engineers you want to work with. listen to stuff recorded locally and find what you like. figure out the who did it and where it was done. the worst recordings i have of my old band(s) are the ones that came from the "professionals". literally, the stuff random people in our audiences got on their cell phones sounds better than some of the garbage those guys at W*** R*** Studios pulled out of their ahem. also, the same goes for performing live. you'll play at a dive bar that has their own sound guy, and the TOOL fan is going to mic and amp you up like you're TOOL when you're there to play Beatles covers. and half of those guys are actually deaf from blowing out their hearing, and they amp the frikkin drums in a 200 capacity bar so that the noise level far exceeds anything you do in your rehearsal space, and you can't hear each other, and you can't hear yourself, and you blow out your voice just trying to hear the sound coming out of your face five inches from your ears and you sound like crap and you lose your confidence and the audience doesn't hear you and you walk away thinking your music probably sucks but that clown on the soundboard is just an idiot, and after the show, that clown is your biggest fan and is trying to set up your next gig, which is perhaps the most confusing part of the whole thing.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

Hayden — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:16:08 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 11/27/2018 23:16

carpents wrote:

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:11:17 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/27/2018 22:11

HazeyTwilight wrote:

Definitely a 90s slowcore vibe going on in the music. Sounds pretty good and (I'm sure you're doing this already but) definitely take Hayden's advice because recording and engineering in music is a craft on its own. From my experience knowing students who studied music production, me, a silly musician, working with them on a studio album that we were selling to a broad audience, and who have now recently graduated and are, hopefully, applying that knowledge into their fields have my respect. Hope future endeavours go well.

Thank you! 90s slowcore was exactly what I was going for.

I'm definitely lucky, I fell in love with microphones and recording. I'm still learning, and yeah all the good critical advice I've gotten has really helped.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:06:16 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/27/2018 22:06

AAL2014 wrote:

This post. I like it. This is a good post.

As a drummer of now a decade, I haven't much dabbled in the recording/engineering aspect until recently. I work at a music shop where lessons are taught and there is a studio upstairs. While the engineering part can be incredibly tedious, it is a necessary evil so to speak. Cool to hear you got some results you liked through non-traditional means and mic placements, no such thing a "right" in music.

I have to say many congratulations to you for finally hammering it out and making your album! This post is coming at a time in which I'm beginning to write heavily with my band and we're planning out our first release. Nothing quite like it is there?

Many thanks! And this is definitely a strange thing to do, but I can't say that I had a choice in it; creative urge is bizarre.

I did have one incident where I rented "studio" space for a couple hours around here. Guy looked at my XLR cables and basically decided that I didn't know anything about recording. When I told him how I mic'ed my guitars, he genuinely was confused why anyone would use more than just one SM57. 🤡

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

HazeyTwilight — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 14:52:48 GMT

Author: HazeyTwilight

Posted: 11/27/2018 19:52

Definitely a 90s slowcore vibe going on in the music. Sounds pretty good and (I'm sure you're doing this already but) definitely take Hayden's advice because recording and engineering in music is a craft on its own. From my experience knowing students who studied music production, me, a silly musician, working with them on a studio album that we were selling to a broad audience, and who have now recently graduated and are, hopefully, applying that knowledge into their fields have my respect. Hope future endeavours go well.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

AAL2014 — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:23:40 GMT

Author: AAL2014

Posted: 11/27/2018 15:23

This post. I like it. This is a good post.

As a drummer of now a decade, I haven't much dabbled in the recording/engineering aspect until recently. I work at a music shop where lessons are taught and there is a studio upstairs. While the engineering part can be incredibly tedious, it is a necessary evil so to speak. Cool to hear you got some results you liked through non-traditional means and mic placements, no such thing a "right" in music.

I have to say many congratulations to you for finally hammering it out and making your album! This post is coming at a time in which I'm beginning to write heavily with my band and we're planning out our first release. Nothing quite like it is there?

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

Hayden — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 21:04:15 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 11/27/2018 02:04

carpents wrote:

I went through a few, but settled on the Pearlman TM-2, which I think is a U67-ish mic.

Oh, Christ, that's a mic. If people ever ask me what mic to buy for home studios, I usually tell them to go with a Shure SM7B if they want to go all-out, but that's even a few steps of investment above that. Not a bad catch. Definitely handy to have a mic that's good for recording a whole variety of things, not just vocals or drums or brass, etc...

Quote:

NOT MIDI! They're real violas! (3 of them in fact.) However, they do sound MIDI-like, and this was something I was disappointed in the mastering. (I hired someone to mix & master btw.) Whatever they did on the master lost what little dynamics my playing had, and did something to the timbre of the instrument. By that point I was exhausted, not going to change it.

Was hoping you'd respond to that bit, because for the life of me I was confused as to what was going on there. I was 50/50, but really couldn't imagine those being live players. It was more bait to figure out how they were done 🤣

You 100% the engineer didn't downmix the recording a go over it with midi? I gave it another listen, and they sound... well... not particularly like three live violas. In that case, I don't blame you for being disappointed in that result. Way too compressed... kinda kills the instrument's dynamics. Like, they're a good call, they fit perfectly, but if you go with him in the future, just say you want the strings to pop a little more. You should be able to hear a little more grit and tug with live bowed instruments. You have In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Seven Swans and Ys pretty high on your charts, so you def know those nuances can be appreciated. Being said, the drums sound completely real, so you didn't lose out there.

Anywho, glad you liked a feedback 😄

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 18:48:55 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/26/2018 23:48

Hayden wrote:

Hey, you've got something here! 😜

Plenty of early 90's influence across the board, and mixing and mastering's definitely up-to-snuff, no worries. You should be proud of this, nice and cohesive, to the point, professional standard. Suffer, Division and Acceptance are pretty good standouts.

Wow. Completely unexpected, truly. If something really sweet happens to you today, it was from karma.

Hayden wrote:

Being said, if you're working on a new album, I merely say these things in hope of you moving forward:

As a bassist, I always try to remember rock musicians/band to have fun with basslines. You've put a lot of effort into the basswork here, but there's plenty more room for it to shine. You've got it kinda following the rhythm guitar, which is perfectly normal, but every once in a while there's these gaps that I kept desiring it to do something (mainly Need) — don't fear the bass.

I am, and this is another surprise. Writing bass lines that don't just mimic the root was one of those "harder than I ever expected" moments. I only explored something different in the bass in 2 songs, but I did spend a lot of time playing them all.

Hayden wrote:

Don't fear brass either. Brass would've fit nicely on a track or two here. You've got the violin midi on Breakdown, which's a nice switch-up, but some larger instrumentation can go a long way.

Hayden wrote:

Speaking of bass, just gotta fill out the vocals a bit more (small bass boost, easy). Just sounded a smiiiidge thin. Don't know what mic you were using though. In my (disastrous) attempts at vocals, I've used everything from a $4000 Neuman to a built-in laptop webcam. Once past standards for recording instruments, mics for vocals can get really personal. A lot of people I've worked with have a favourite that stick with because it suits them the best (not always the most expensive options either).

I went through a few, but settled on the Pearlman TM-2, which I think is a U67-ish mic. The vocals got better as I went on, definitely the strongest are on the last ones I did.

This was all really great feedback, I really appreciate it. And I'm truly surprised, you and the Chief made my day.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 18:32:26 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/26/2018 23:32

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

That's awesome man. I gave it a spin, and I'd believe you if you told me this was some long lost album from that era. I don't have the kind of time or income to do anything at this point, but I'd like to someday.

Can't thank you enough. I recently looked through your 90s chart, and would have guessed that you might have liked it.

And it's never too late, this one album has taken me 24 years now.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

Tha1ChiefRocka — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:46:33 GMT

Author: Tha1ChiefRocka

Posted: 11/26/2018 20:46

That's awesome man. I gave it a spin, and I'd believe you if you told me this was some long lost album from that era. I don't have the kind of time or income to do anything at this point, but I'd like to someday.

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

Hayden — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 14:12:41 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 11/26/2018 19:12

Hey, you've got something here! 😜

Plenty of early 90's influence across the board, and mixing and mastering's definitely up-to-snuff, no worries. You should be proud of this, nice and cohesive, to the point, professional standard. Suffer, Division and Acceptance are pretty good standouts.

Being said, if you're working on a new album, I merely say these things in hope of you moving forward:

As a bassist, I always try to remember rock musicians/band to have fun with basslines. You've put a lot of effort into the basswork here, but there's plenty more room for it to shine. You've got it kinda following the rhythm guitar, which is perfectly normal, but every once in a while there's these gaps that I kept desiring it to do something (mainly Need) — don't fear the bass.

Don't fear brass either. Brass would've fit nicely on a track or two here. You've got the violin midi on Breakdown, which's a nice switch-up, but some larger instrumentation can go a long way.

Speaking of bass, just gotta fill out the vocals a bit more (small bass boost, easy). Just sounded a smiiiidge thin. Don't know what mic you were using though. In my (disastrous) attempts at vocals, I've used everything from a $4000 Neuman to a built-in laptop webcam. Once past standards for recording instruments, mics for vocals can get really personal. A lot of people I've worked with have a favourite that stick with because it suits them the best (not always the most expensive options either).

Careful with mixing different reverb plates, it can makes things sound unnatural.

Stylistically, I would've loved some more shoegaze-esque dream fuzz overtop everything, especially at more climactic-moments, but that's just being nitpicky.

Everything else was spot-on mate. All the best with future endeavours 😄

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

Hayden — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 12:47:14 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 11/24/2018 17:47

carpents wrote:

Hayden wrote:

The most reliable critics of any art are those who have dabbled in that art themselves.

Anyway, I'd gladly give it a spin. Bandcamp perhaps?

Hey cool, yep let me know what you think.

Not on bandcamp but I have it streaming on my site, the bandwidth might be spotty sorry:
https://synchromatica.com/some-new-ordeal-available-now

Here is the whole album on a playlist in YouTube (probably more reliable stream):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Y3tuK7-Sk&list=PLmC9T8cwgQmT3KNtuWjn1SMir97uONE1w

It's also on Spotify, Apple music, Google Play, YouTube, Tidal, etc.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3pIxL0Ver7EkcIfzabQpeC
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/some-new-ordeal/1443586348?app=music&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
https://play.google.com/store/music/alb...duaekdmscu

Spotify it is 😜

I'll queue it up for a listen either later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, you should add it to the site. We even have a chart for BEA creations.

BEA Creations by videoheadcleaner

Re: Making an album has changed my opinion on music

carpents — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 12:42:41 GMT

Author: carpents

Posted: 11/24/2018 17:42

Hayden wrote:

The most reliable critics of any art are those who have dabbled in that art themselves.

Anyway, I'd gladly give it a spin. Bandcamp perhaps?