Skol303

Honest opinion here... The site looks ok. It looks home-made, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't "wow" me, but it gets the information across and it's not a pain in the ass to navigate. Which is a good thing! What I don't get is the Srabble imagery. Your band is named 'Xerocks' as a pun on the famous printer brand, right? So personally I'd recommend carrying that pun through to the design - make a connection between the band name and its brand (sorry, I work in branding and am slipping into shop talk here ). There's obviously a world of difference between 'Xerox' (a dull office stationery supplier) and 'Xerocks' (a lively rock band - that's you), so maybe play on this contradiction and have some fun with it. I get the link between Scrabble and Xerocks being a high-scoring word (I'm a mean Scrabble player ), but when I hear the name I'm not immediately thinking Scrabble - I'm thinking photocopiers. Just my tuppence worth.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1370951432' post='2107779']The simple truth is that there are many types of music and many uses for music. Getting teenage girls to scream is just one of them and isn't necessarily the one we all aspire to.[/quote] This. Pop music has a well-defined agenda, of course. And that certainly involves making teenagers scream (and buy merchandise). So in the context of the Beatles - or anyone aspiring to replicate their success - it makes sense. But less so when applied to other genres of music. And so not necessarily something that should be the goal of [i]everyone[/i] here.

Ok, so not [i]technically[/i] me... but a genetic clone, two years old, with pretty much the same barnet, dress sense and eating habits.

^ Cheers guys. Like I said, don't take any of my criticisms to heart... it's easier for me to note what I dislike when listening to each mix (dislike is probably too strong a term - 'like least' is better). And don't forget I'm no 'pro' myself! So my opinions aren't worth gold, they're just another person's take on it. I remember reading somewhere that most mix engineers tend to find their musical 'feet' somewhere around the 100th mix mark, so we've probably all got some way to go before then Keep on truckin'. Paul

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1370611029' post='2103429']OK, one terrified Debs here [/quote] Right, for starters you're being way too hard on yourself about this track. If this is a first attempt then I'm genuinely impressed! The mix needs a lot of work - sure - but creatively I really enjoyed it. And besides, you can make vast improvements with mixing through some easy-to-learn technical stuff; whereas it's not so easy to learn creativity from a book or YouTube video. And your track has plenty of that. The bassline(s) are great (I think there are two?). I like the spoken word storytelling aspect of it - it's kinda folky and definitely engaging. "...corpses of mauled strangers at their feet, as the reality of the night before unfolded". Sounds like many a night spent in Cardiff during my youth! But seriously it's good stuff. Like some kind of Grimm's Fairy Tale. I also thought your singing was fine - I was expecting some real caterwauling based on your 'sales pitch' of the track, but it was fine. Had you not mentioned I wouldn't have thought twice about it. Oh, I also liked the gun shot / wolf howl sound effects. Well, I hope they were sound effects and not recordings you made at home with your pet werewolf and the twelve-bore you have slung above the fireplace In all: great job Debs! And welcome to the club.

Ok y'all, here are some notes I scribbled down while listening to everyone's mixes. I always take a few brief notes while judging which to vote for… it helps me to shortlist my favourites and really think about what I like/dislike about each one. I tend to write more about dislikes than likes - despite me generally being a glass-half-full kinda person! It's just what I note down while listening, so please don't hate me for anything I've said about your mix. It's intended to be useful and we're among friends, so well, yeah… Deal with it Your opportunity for revenge is to do the same and post some feedback. So there NB: I mix and listen probably 99% of the time using headphones. Specifically a pair of AKGs. Thought you should know as it helps put my comments into context - especially if you're the opposite and mostly using monitors or other speakers. [b]A:[/b] Vocal is panned off-centre (to the right), which is weird. Makes it sound lost in the mix and 'oddly' placed - although it's certainly striking! Some nice panning on some of the instruments. But too much reverb throughout - everything sounds distant and 'muddy' in the low mids. Drums sound a bit dry and flat; lack punch. [b]B:[/b] Nice bass. As with Mix A, too much reverb. Lead vocal sounds lost and distant. I like the fact that the instrumentation has been stripped back and simplified - a bold move. And a good way to make the mix a bit easier. I was tempted to do the same myself! 'Muddy' in the low mids - need some EQ cuts around there. Kick drum sounds ok; the rest is a bit messy. Snare drum in particular is ill-defined - too much 'splay' and not enough 'snap'. [b]C:[/b] Nice mix. Deep, rich vocal. Great panning and reverb. Good drums. Seems to have lots of automation going on - like how the bass really warms up in the chorus. Nice change of arrangement around 1:50 minutes-ish. Dropping instruments in and out throughout [b][This one got my vote - well done Si!][/b] [b]D:[/b] Vocal is buried and lost. Muddy in the low-mids. Drums need gating - there's too much of 'bleeding' of sound between the stems, which sounds like it's causing phasing problems (peaks and troughs in volume). [b]E:[/b] Bass is gigantic! I quite like it. Nice panning and simplicity. However low end generally too boomy because of the bass (probably sounds muffled through speakers?) - it swamps everything including the vocal. Vocal itself is lost in the mix and sounds muffled. Possibly too much reverb as well. Drums are a bit dull and lack definition or snap. Everything sounds very 'middy'. [b]F: [/b]Nice and clean. Perhaps too much reverb on the vocal (slightly) but otherwise the vocals sound strong. Muddy low end - needs EQ cut. Drums are too heavily gated; there's also too much top end fizz (they sound a bit thin). [b]G:[/b] Good panning. Loud! Nice vocal. Guitars are too loud in the mix - they drow out the other instruments. Drums are a bit weak-sounding; the snare lacks snap - more of a splat. [b]H: [/b]Very quiet. Nice mix. Vocal a bit high in the top end (some sibilance issues). Also needs a bit of reverb - too dry. Good mix overall. [b]I: [/b]WOW! This is fantastic!!! Probably the best mix I've ever… yeah ok, this one was mine. In comparison to others it came over sounding a bit too 'toppy' (high end) and even harsh in places. I ended up destroying the snare in an attempt to make it snap, when I should have embraced the 'splat' and eased it off a little and been a bit more gentle overall… including with the compression (a habit from working with electronica that I'm still wrestling with). I was quite pleased my vocal and thought I'd got the bass / low end worked out ok - which is always the most tricky part using just headphones. I was certainly pleased with getting the votes I did, so cheers if you chose it! [b]J:[/b] Sounds muffled. Vocal is too dry and the reverb used on it sounds too different to that used on the rest of the track - sounds a bit 'unnatural'. Drums lack punch but not too bad. Can't hear the banjo at all [i][by this time I'd listened to a lot of banjos, so my ears could have been deceiving me!!].[/i] [b]K:[/b] This one needs work. Very muffled and muddy-sounding. Sounds mono with everything panned down the centre - I'm guessing that actually the stems have all been panned equally left/right (?), causing this effect. [b]L: [/b]Not bad at all. Panning sounds alright. Guitars are a bit loud. Vocal has a little too much reverb. Drums sound a bit too forward in the mix - a bit dry and maybe even lacking reverb - but are quite well mixed too. Fairly clean-sounding. Not too muddy. Despite that wall of mostly negativity - sorry - I thought everyone had a good stab at it this month… enough for me to listen to the track a dozen or so times in a row, which is some achievement! Taking all of the mixes together, I think some of the most common issues that need work are: [b]1) EQ'ing.[/b] Particularly avoiding things building up in the low-mids - broadly speaking between 150-500Hz or thereabouts. For the newcomers to mixing among us… the way to avoid this is to carefully EQ each instrument/track of your mix individually. Start by adding a high-pass filter (HPF) or shelving EQ to the track in question. Gradually increase the cut-off frequency until you hear it change the sound of the instrument - then dial it back a little, so that the instrument sounds (pretty much) the same as it did before you started EQ'ing. This helps to clear out a lot of unused low frequencies, which can add up across each track/channel of your mix and result in a muffled or 'muddy' sound overall. It might sound like a chore tweaking each channel with an EQ… but welcome to mixing. You signed up for this, sucker!! …another thing I find useful is scooping out the low-mids with a bell-shaped EQ. I normally start around 400Hz with a generous cut (- 6db or so) and move the centre frequency up/down until the sound becomes 'less muddy' (difficult to articulate this - but you'll get the gist of it!). When scooping the low-mids, I usually find it's best to cut shallow and broad, rather than deep and narrow. For example: I usually cut around 400Hz by around 2-4 db with a Q setting ('steepness' of the cut/boost) of around 1 - 1.5. Obviously those aren't some magic numbers that will work on every mix…! But it's a starting point to play with. [b]2) Reverb. [/b]Just lay off it a little!! 'Verb is one of tools that's often best used subtly rather than like sledgehammer. It's very tempting to dial it in hard because it can (deceptively) make things sound good in isolation - particularly vocals - but it's also very easy to make things disappear off into the distance of your mix… or in extreme cases, make your mix sound like it's being played loud in the room next door, rather than in the room you happen to be in. Which is never good. Now bring on the next one! Cheers comrades

"Vicariously"... nice word In a nutshell my answer to this question would be no. The longer answer is I think the Beatles have undisputedly had a huge impact on pop music - both in terms of inspiring artists (an obvious example being Oasis) and providing a blueprint for A&R folk and record labels to base their decisions on. But they're not the only band to have such influence, so I don't think the blame of modern mediocrity can lie solely with them. Also, I don't personally find modern music to be mediocre. Well, no more mediocre than it's been at any other time during my 40 years thus far. I think what's considered to be pop music has diversified hugely since the hey day of the Beatles. If anything, the mediocrity of today's chart is due to major labels being constantly one step behind the zeitgeist and always playing catch up: desperately releasing sanitised pastiches of whatever trend they've been told is 'Trending', by which time the cool kids have already moved on to whatever's next. Justin Bieber released a dubstep-infused track recently, which says it all really. And it was desperately mediocre. Anyway, I'm blathering... but no, it's not just the Beatles. If anything, I'd say their influence on modern pop music is fading rapidly with each new generation. And especially as it's no longer all about white kids with guitars. Still, an interesting question Nige. It got my noggin working on a Friday afternoon, which is no mean feat

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1370615337' post='2103515']In the past I've used some royalty-free movie dialogue clips that I bought from Loopmasters that work well.[/quote] Nice idea! I can see how that would work with this month's pic in particular. In the past I've done plenty of digging in this area myself - i.e. ripping audio from out-of-copyright films. Easy to find lists of these online, though typically the films are hosted for download on US websites and are therefore governed by US copyright law, which can sometimes be different to that in the UK. It's also common for these films to be a bit cr@p - there's usually a reason for them being in the public domain! - although there are a few gems hidden amongst the dross. That said it can be a time-consuming process to not only find films that are available, but also to find sample-worthy clips within them. I might check out that Loopmasters library myself as it looks like a good collection, and more importantly a good way of saving time! PS: my biggest disappointment in this regard was the film Forbidden Planet. It's chock-full of great dialogue (well, great in a retro sci-fi way) and I was sure it was out of copyright, but sadly not.

Looking forward to giving it a listen later on. And good on you Debs for entering this month! - the first of many I hope ("once you pop, you can't stop..."). Also, bonus points for being the first to post something up. That's normally Bilbo's accolade, but he's probably already working on July's...

^ Some very useful and insightful feedback above, Si - cheers mate! Reminds me that I need to post my own mix notes ASAP... will do so tonight.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1370510304' post='2101910']...I'm just entering a friendly competition with other bassists and have no choice but to do an instrumental or have an attempt to relay my concept using my incredible substandard voice![/quote] [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1370511144' post='2101937']Ditto! But hey, you never know.. with a little practice...[/quote] A big +1 to both of the above. I'd [i]never[/i] attempted to record myself singing before these monthly challenges... at which point I just thought, why the heck not - give it a go! It's testament to the friendly nature of this forum that we're able to have confidence to do that. I'd never dream of doing so on other music forums where the atmosphere can be much more competitive and at times downright spiteful (hence I've largely abandoned other forums and now [s]waste[/s] spend 99% of my time here). I've since grown to enjoy singing. I'll never be great at it - I don't practice enough for one thing - but it's nice to dabble

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1370499239' post='2101767']"You can't sing, your singing is out of tune and you sound welshy.... Do you know I really don't like your singing voice. The mix is all over the place, it may sound better if you sort that out, but ultimately if you do, don't play it to me again as hearing it once was enough. It really is a depressing song you know. You aren't really going to enter it are you?"[/quote] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcsXtiN8-UY My wife is equally generous with her compliments. She once described my singing voice as being "like Jarvis Cocker on a really bad day", which I'm actually quite happy about.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1370455242' post='2101262']Bloody hell Paul, you weren't lying were you I'm addicted already!!... I have learned soooo much yesterday and today....[/quote] Haha, I did warn you! Great to hear that you're having with it and learning new stuff. That's [i]exactly[/i] what all this is about. Second to playing a gig, I think it's one of the most satisfying and rewarding things to do, musically-speaking. I've learned a sheload of new things since Charic kicked off these monthly challenges last September... and more importantly my confidence as a 'musician' (I use the term lightly) has grown from strength to strength. Getting your head around the recording process and using a DAW is probably the most challenging aspect, but you'll soon find that it 'clicks' and becomes second nature, if it hasn't already done so. And there are plenty of folks here who're very happy to help out if you ever get stuck. I know Stephen has been offering you advice already - he's a good bloke like that Anyway, really good to have you taking part and better still to hear you're enjoying it! [quote name='urb' timestamp='1370465995' post='2101529']This is going to be an interesting one...[/quote] It sure is mate [quote name='Stephen Houghton' timestamp='1370470482' post='2101627']Love the pic it could really bring in some interesting tunes, will deffo have a pop this month, I am going to try the serious approach this month... I prayed to the god of football and look where that got me, FA cup win yeah, then relegation. Evil god of football[/quote] Nice one Steve! I wouldn't worry about the "serious approach"... I like the sense of humour you often bring to your music, be a shame to lose that but also nice to try new directions, of course. A bit like Wigan Athletic - although I appreciate why their current direction might not be to your liking I shouldn't mock... I'm a Hereford United fan, and they're verging on entering the Sunday League.

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1370387137' post='2100289']By the way, in this month's photo, is that Mount Mistie in Colco Canyon, Peru?[/quote] From the descriptive blurb it's... [i]"Full-moon in the Moon Valley. Volcanoes Licancabur and Juriques, west of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile in the Cordillera de la Sal, in the Atacama desert of Chile."[/i] Link to original image here: http://tinyurl.com/kjw98y7

Great to see so many people up for it this month! Sounds like there are some interesting ideas brewing too...

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1370276095' post='2098462']Of all the styles that this picture seems to inspire and subliminaly suggest , I still have that country twang thing running through my head [/quote] Haha, I know what you're saying mate! Last months mix challenge has a lot to answer for... Yeehaw.

Cheers Garry, that's a goldmine of useful info! I thought I'd read/watched just about every tutorial on Reason, but it appears not Thanks for sharing mate. Paul

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1370262481' post='2098199']I may have a go.... I'm waiting for inspiration to strike.... I won't get thrown off Basschat for having a go and doing terribly will I?[/quote] There is no "doing terribly", just "doing". Or as Yoda said: "do or do not... there is no try". Or in the words of Nike: "Just do it!" Etc... but yes. Go for it SpaceChick It'd be great to have you on board. Just bear in mind that it's highly addictive and you may have to develop a crack cocaine habit, or something similar, to wean you off it once started. Paul

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1370259442' post='2098135']I did decide I was going to do nice simple drums for once, no shifting poly-rhythms, no fancy snare stuff that takes 3 hours to program, and no 30 unique fills...[/quote] Yup, I know that feeling very well indeed! Deciding when to stop tweaking drum patterns can be difficult for me. I'm quite used to spending hours on unique little fills, hit velocities and other quirks that no bugger else is ever going to notice! It can be like an obsession.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1370254110' post='2098034']I may call in a couple of friends for this piece. We were jamming in the living room the other day and I came up with a chord progression which by all theory shouldn't have worked sounded great though.[/quote] Rope 'em in! The more the merrier. Bilbo mentioned doing something similar with his trio... I think it's a great idea. I'm not in a band myself so the closest I can get to it is through collaborating online. Quite a different process but still good fun. [quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1370255502' post='2098060']hmmm..... might not take the studio apart just yet then.....[/quote] Go for it Dave. Seems like a perfectly sound excuse for not having to box up your toys just yet...

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1370252803' post='2098013']No you won't [b]I [/b]will beat Skol! [/quote] No, no, no, [size=5][b]I[/b][/size] will beat... oh wait Actually I'm collaborating with Mike (urb) this month, so we're like a Mexican wrestler tag team. Double trouble!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1370243557' post='2097875']Did you know 75 tracks have been submitted since last September? Assuming an average track length of 4 minutes that's 300 minutes (5 hours) of music![/quote] ...wow that's great, innit! I might stack them up and listen from top to tail next time I'm doing the decorating, or whatever. Be interesting to hear how we've all evolved in that time. Hope this month's pic is to everyone's liking. I know we've had lots of landscapes in the past, but they've often proved a good source of inspiration. Besides, I was trawling through a stock imagery library for work purposes and hit upon this image, so it seemed like an easy win [I've bought the permission to use it, so no worries there...].

[quote name='triviul' timestamp='1370067420' post='2096138']Well done Moonbass and Ironside! Glad to see everyone's been getting into the spirit with this competition. As promised, I'll be posting critiques of those two mixes, as well as some comments on the other entries, soon.[/quote] Thanks again Mike! Very kind of you. Looking forward to hearing your feedback Paul

Great to hear it went well mate ...nice choice of whisky too.

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1370029716' post='2095867']i think charic should post it now.... and skol should have a month off......[/quote] "Not unless you pry it from my cold, head hands... " Etc Seriously though, thanks guys! I know I'm in danger of becoming a pariah but I'm always genuinely honoured to win these challenges amidst such good company. It's been another great month with new people joining in (welcome Rob). And it was clearly a close run finish against Garry's superb composition. I've sent a pic to Charic for the next one which will be posted up soon. Thanks again