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I'm here, I'm here. I'll record the drums this weekend.

Sorry I haven't been posting lately.

I really need to finish the other tracks. D: I'll progress on them slowly as long as I can find some time, like now.

I think we can call the "first sad, then funky" ready for recording. Mostly repeated choruses and verses, but I added a pair of guitar solos and a bridge in which one of those is played. I also reduced the tempo a bit - it was too fast before. It turned out to be quite the long song, too - it's about 5 minutes I think, and I usually don't write long songs.    Now all it needs is lyrics. And lyrics are my weak point. D:

I'll play the "Distorted Guitar", "Solo Guitar" and "Bass" tracks in this song. As usual, the acoustic guitar and drums will be played by hpotter and jslomba respectively. 

Techno, your song is good. The reprise in the end is unexpected (although I was aware there was more to it since you said it was 5 minutes  ) and is a nice idea.

The one issue there seems to be with it is that the pinch harmonies are slightly off at certain points. They sound discordant to me. I only could decipher that by listening by ear, as I usually am able to tell if something's off or not. I did not yet go through the notation, so I may be wrong, but I would imagine it would sound better on the root chord, not the harmonic one.

I'll go through it again however, and tell you what I think of that part. The rest is fine. Could you change it to the way I mentioned and then notify me? Thanks. 

Last edited by DIY (2012-06-08 06:29:41)

technoguyx wrote:

The "reprise" sounds fine to me, so do the pinch harmonics in the solo. Though I do agree they might sound better on the root note - I notated them on the fifth. Going by strict theory, the root note being played is a F# over an A chord. F# would be a sixth in that chord, and it's fifth, C#, would be the major 3rd of the A chord. So the root note isn't even part of the chord in the first place. 

As I mentioned, the harmonics don't sound that bad to me.    Maybe they'll sound better in the actual instrument - if they still sound bad I might play the root note as the harmonic instead.

EDIT: Just throwing an idea there, what if we released an AMV (animated music video - i.e. not your typical recorded video, but an animation instead) along with the album's release? I'm pretty sure there's at least one collab with the intention of creating animations in this very forum, we could contact one of said collabs, or a single user with experience in the matter.

I never said I didn't like the reprise you know. 

I took a careful look at the notation and what is up now seems fine. About the AMVs, we need not hire anyone in the department. It is a good idea and I'm rather proficient at producing cut-scenes for videogames and trailers. You may have seen some of my well known work on Scratch.

In this case, we'll create an AMV for just one song, perhaps the best one. I like the idea, and it should definitely be considered. 

You call that slow? It's pretty upbeat right now.    Given the rhythm of the song, I'd say it'll turn out to be another of our typical pop rock-esque songs.

I say you end that first chorus (I'll assume the "So stay with me", etc. part is the chorus, since the two vocalists sing in unison and it contains the word "baby" a bit too many times lol) with a D before going on to a small pre-verse bit with the same, or a similar progression and instrumentation as the chorus, without lyrics. Then the song moves to the second verse, another chorus and maybe this time a pre-verse with a simple guitar solo before another chorus and a bridge with a different chord progression, perhaps in a minor key. Then a final chorus. Perhaps a whole tone higher - in A. It's cliche, but it gives the song a touch of magnificence, to say so. 

So, uh, yeah, I would continue the song going by standard pop song structure, pretty much. 

technoguyx wrote:

Said song is now ready for recording. Needs lyrics - I wrote some ideas for it one time but I didn't remember the rhythm of the song well, so now I'll have to figure out how to fit them into the song's current rhythm.

You know, if you had some amplified guitar tracks in the back there, and if you played the guitar solo on an electric guitar, you could have a hard rocking song with an almost glam metal sound.

technoguyx wrote:

You call that slow? It's pretty upbeat right now.    Given the rhythm of the song, I'd say it'll turn out to be another of our typical pop rock-esque songs.

I say you end that first chorus (I'll assume the "So stay with me", etc. part is the chorus, since the two vocalists sing in unison and it contains the word "baby" a bit too many times lol) with a D before going on to a small pre-verse bit with the same, or a similar progression and instrumentation as the chorus, without lyrics. Then the song moves to the second verse, another chorus and maybe this time a pre-verse with a simple guitar solo before another chorus and a bridge with a different chord progression, perhaps in a minor key. Then a final chorus. Perhaps a whole tone higher - in A. It's cliche, but it gives the song a touch of magnificence, to say so. 

So, uh, yeah, I would continue the song going by standard pop song structure, pretty much. 

Hmm... Perhaps I'll take your suggestion, but my intention was to go for an unorthodox song structure. Do you think you could save a copy of my song and show me what you exactly mean? Ending in a chorus a wholetone higher is cliche; we have already used it in Gone and I would avoid doing that. Also, it started out slow but transformed a lot once I transcribed that, so it's my mistake. 

I was thinking more of a piano solo for my song, but I guess a guitar solo will go well too after jamming in my music room.

technoguyx wrote:

Said song is now ready for recording. Needs lyrics - I wrote some ideas for it one time but I didn't remember the rhythm of the song well, so now I'll have to figure out how to fit them into the song's current rhythm.

That's good. jslomba and hpotter can record their respective tracks, or will you be playing all the guitars?

technoguyx wrote:

The guitar solo is, indeed, meant to be played in an electric guitar with quite a bit of gain    But I feel my guitar skills aren't worthy of a glam metal guitarist. 

What do you mean by that? I thought you are a pretty good guitarist. 

technoguyx wrote:

DIY wrote:

Hmm... Perhaps I'll take your suggestion, but my intention was to go for an unorthodox song structure. Do you think you could save a copy of my song and show me what you exactly mean? Ending in a chorus a wholetone higher is cliche; we have already used it in Gone and I would avoid doing that. Also, it started out slow but transformed a lot once I transcribed that, so it's my mistake. 

I was thinking more of a piano solo for my song, but I guess a guitar solo will go well too after jamming in my music room.

Hm, unorthodox structures are always fun to mess with    Yes, I thought about saving a copy of your song and continuing it myself, but the way you propose it sounds good too.

Maybe completely change what we currently have, and make it a purely piano/vocal ballad, at least for the first verse and chorus? After that, a short piano solo, then the rest of the instruments enter subtly and progressively. Maybe they would enter after the second chorus, too - making pretty much half the song a "pure" piano ballad.

DIY wrote:

jslomba and hpotter can record their respective tracks, or will you be playing all the guitars?

Yes, they can and should. 

DIY wrote:

technoguyx wrote:

But I feel my guitar skills aren't worthy of a glam metal guitarist. 

What do you mean by that? I thought you are a pretty good guitarist. 

I wouldn't say I'm "good", just fine enough to compose, and ocassionally record tracks.    But so far, I haven't had any problems with my own tracks - they're simple enough for me to play. The only real problem I have, is that I can't get a good guitar sound out of the amp and cabinet VSTs I currently have. My cheap-o amp sounds better than what I managed to create yesterday after recording the bass tracks. 

Your suggestions for the song are good. 

I will try them out, but do you suppose you can upload a copy of my song the way you would edit it. I will edit it myself too and then we can determine what good things can be put into the final version from both.

LOL about what you mentioned last. The quality of your bass tracks are good so far, I must agree. You are a good bass player though. 

technoguyx wrote:

Here's the G-Major ballad after adding some of my own ideas. I intended to turn it into a piano-only ballad but it sounded horrible (either Noteflight or I'm horrible writing piano ballads    ), so I decided to go with the more "pop rock" sound I assumed the song had.

Yup, I thought so myself. Thanks for uploading. I'll edit it my own way and see if we can combine both versions. 

Yes, I progressed and will keep progressing in it. Forgot to post that here.    After the guitar solo and the interlude, the song should somehow change to another verse (can't figure out how to make this change cleanly) and chorus, then it finally ends.

As of now, I have no vocal melody in mind for the female interlude. :3

DIY wrote:

technoguyx wrote:

Yes, I progressed and will keep progressing in it. Forgot to post that here.    After the guitar solo and the interlude, the song should somehow change to another verse (can't figure out how to make this change cleanly) and chorus, then it finally ends.

As of now, I have no vocal melody in mind for the female interlude. :3

No hurry. Could you come up with one and tell me once you're done? 

We can maybe have the guitar solo for 32 bars, with a gradual fade-out, so that the song is of decent structure and length. In that case, we won't have to add another verse and it won't sound too abrupt. The extra verse could complicate matters, but if you do come up with a good progression back to the verse, feel free to edit the score and share your idea. Then we can evaluate the two.

Glad you'll keep up the progress on it. This is great as it is, but you can continue to see where it leads. In my opinion, we'll need another chord variation if we don't want the tune to get repetitive, as an interlude, if you get what I mean. 

Otherwise, this is fine.

Yes, I get what you mean. The idea of a long, fading-out guitar solo doesn't sound bad either, though it might render the song a bit short.

I also just came up with the idea of reducing the tempo a bit, making the song a little less pacey, perhaps fitting the lyrics better.