Getting An Idea.. Developing It.. Recording It.. And Then Not Liking It At All.., Does it happen to you too? Options

[Jakub Luptovec]

Well quite often some idea pops in my head and at first it seems great. So i sit down, grab a guitar and start developing it. In a few minutes I usually have couple of riffs recorded, drum beat behind it, some harmonies are beign added... adn then I listen to it... and I hate it. It seems to me plain and stupid. Is it just me, or is it everybodys problem? (i still remember one episode of Dethklok, where Nathan kept deleting their albums, because they were not brutal enough:D)

I have also included the rough recoding of that thing in attachments. I would appreciate your feedback (be it for composition or the recording/eqing itself. For now its just intro and chorus, without singing:)

Attached File(s)

 C____Carnivora.mp3 ( 1.97MB ) Number of downloads: 152

 

[vampire18]

i think its great if you add a singer. if it suppose to stay instrumental i think maybe a stronger lead will be nice

[Jakub Luptovec]

No no, I will do vocals to it, after I finish recording instrumets. I got inspirated by mythical plant Carnivora - a plant, that ate men - today, while playing Age of Mythology:D The intro is supposed to resemble the winding of the plant (dunno if winding is the right word.. imagine the plant in the wind, how it swings from side to side..)

This post has been edited by Jakub Luptovec: May 4 2009, 08:44 PM

[Jakub Luptovec]

EDIT: Srry double post

This post has been edited by Jakub Luptovec: May 4 2009, 08:37 PM

[Artemus]

I know exactly how you feel when it comes to recording an idea and then not liking the result as much as when you first started. It's very normal - or atleast I hope so because it's normal for me. A lot of my projects were scrapped over the years when in hind sight they needn't have been. Often what is required is a pair of fresh ears - when I've worked something to death I'll leave it for a week or two and then return to it with a fresh ear. If I still like it after so many repeated listens then I'll keep working on it and it may reach completion.
Anyhow, I took a listen to your track and it's definately worth persuing. I can see your ideas or where it's heading. To me, the intro is stellar and the distorted guitar comes in where I'd expect. It's just that when it does, it's a little out of balance. I realise you panned it to the right so as to build to the crashing in of the full wall of guitar sound but since there's a phaser like effect I think I'd have it stereo but autopan it slightly in sync with the phasing and perhaps drop some of the top and low-mid frequencies to make the contrast between lone rhythm intro guitar and onslaught of guitar wall of doom
The verse/chorus after is just a bit rhythmically muddled on first listen. I may not be following what's going on but personally I'd define the double bass drum pattern and get the bass to follow or enhance it - and then use the guitar riffs to accentuate certain parts of the riffs - or play with polyrhythms until I have one that works well enough to give the right groove and space. Also bring the drums out with some eq'ing - get them to sit snug into their respective sonic spaces and they should come through the mix a bit clearer.
Feel free to ignore my suggestions because they're entirely subjective and they're just the way I'd do something but I did enjoy your track and look forward to how it develops.
Good stuff man

[Vasilije Vukmiro...]

If you ask me, that is ok recording(maybe if you would add vocals), but of course, what most matters is whether you like it or not. The thing is, when you start recording and composing....there are so many posibilities, drum patterns, rhyhtm patterns, sounds, vsts, tempo, solos, guitar sounds, it's hard to decide

[Bogdan Radovic]

This happened to me a lot of times.I would develop an idea for days sometimes months and then I would realize it isn't strong enough for a good song. But you should try listening generally and objectively as much as you can.Also you should not be bothered if something is plain and simple because so many times - simple ideas were much better then the complex ones...I often find myself after composing some part to look back and "Delete" notes that are not needed so I can get a cleaner/simpler idea. I liked you recording and I think you should consider even more simplifying it in order to get a clean and strong "groove"!

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: May 5 2009, 07:51 AM

[steve25]

You get further than i do to be honest. Most of the time i will create a riff or something. Build on it (add more stuff to it to form a section of a track for example) then i will just delete it because i think it won't ever be good enough. I have never written an entire song only riffs. I just don't seem to have the ability to write full songs. So it doesn't even get onto a recording

[David Wallimann]

I like your idea a lot!

[Muris Varajic]

That pretty natural, not to like your work right from the start.
Mind needs refreshing tho, leave it for few days
and have a listen again, maybe you'll instantly realize
what was it that you didn't like in a first place,
nice recording tho.

[AlexLion]

I liked this actually, maybe do some more complicated heavy riffs. LOL I used to play AoM too, nice game

This post has been edited by AlexLion: May 5 2009, 03:10 PM

[kaznie_NL]

I think you have a cool piece of music there, but I have a litle thingy

First part: solo sound, great!
Second part: rhythm guitar comes in, Great!
Third pard: WHAAAAAH... A bit to much sound, you get me? Especially the first few seconds.

[Carlos Carrillo]

A very good composition. you continues composing the whole structure of the song, I think that the results are going to be very good.Nice sound too

[Jakub Luptovec]

Well I did a small reedit according to Artemuss post - the drums are equed a bit as well as the other instruments, does anybody know, btw, how to do Autopan on stereo track? (so it moves from left to the right and back) in Cubase SX3?

EDIT: I will probably advance with the recording in half an hour.. i just need to take a short nap:) Your feedback is amazing and helps me find what that sound really is in my head:) Continue with it (if you'd like). I am promising to myself, that I will really finish this one till the end of may:D

This post has been edited by Jakub Luptovec: May 5 2009, 04:33 PM

Attached File(s)

 C____Carnivora_01.mp3 ( 1.9MB ) Number of downloads: 96

 

[Artemus]

That sounds awesome! It's got alot more definition now
I think Cubase SX should have the Autopan feature as a plugin that comes with it. Just select it from the pull down menu in the channel editing window (with the eq'ing) and play with the settings. I'll check when I get back home. If not then there should be a free plug in floating around the internet that will do the job
Great work!

This post has been edited by Artemus: May 5 2009, 04:36 PM

[AlexLion]

Wow, now it`s really good, love intro Is that a sevenstring I smell ?

[Jakub Luptovec]

Nope, it is not 7string. I borrowed a strat from my friend for my gig, where I will play Andy timmons Electric gypsy (I will post my cover here soon:)) because its easier to downtune (Its in Eb).. Well my dreamed band's name is C# because I just love that tonality - dunno why. I also noticed that no band has this kind of name - its also easy to shout ("C sharp, C sharp...") But I would love a 7string tho

Btw. there is still no bass guitar, since I am still rebuilding my PC after moving to Windows 7. Maybe you noticed it lacks a bit in basses

[AlexLion]

OMG that Strat sound heavy Yeah bass Vst or real bass would be good! What is Windows 7

Really strange idea about band name

So why you can`t tune your guitar to C# if you like it?

This post has been edited by AlexLion: May 5 2009, 07:55 PM

[Jakub Luptovec]

I have a band where we play rock songs covers and we use standard tuning and my guitar being equipped with floyd rose, so constant retuning will be a bit of an hassle:D

Win 7 is new version of windows - upgraded vista, stable and fast as XP, ribbed off as vista:) Wonderful system

Btw its ashton strat for 200$ with amp:D wonderful cleans the guitar has.But i guess my Pod X3 live helped a lot to its sound:)

This post has been edited by Jakub Luptovec: May 5 2009, 09:17 PM

[Ivan Milenkovic]

As everybody said, take a break from that song and try to come back with a fresh mind. This way you will see what you don't like, and possibly get some new ideas as well. Don't worry, it is perfectly normal for this to happen.

Regarding automation, click on a small + symbol to expand automation options for the track. There you will find panner option, choose a pen tool and then draw the kind of panning movement you want over the timeline.

This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: May 5 2009, 09:22 PM

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