Awes
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Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
Mornin' all!! As I try and get comfortable in my suit with the additional festive weight, thought I'd pop my latest effort up for your ears and comments. Had a couple of objectives in mind with this one, wanted something short and sparse, wanted to avoid having a "standard" rhythm guitar playing chords, wanted to try something different drum-wise from other tracks and wanted quite an abrupt ending - although admittedly it is probably too abrupt! I did have a play around and have the middle vocals and just a drum beat from the intro at the end, but it didn't work well. https://soundcloud.com/aw...re-do-all-the-stars-go
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dcumpian
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/04 08:48:20
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Intro is a little long without an additional element, like a guitar solo being added. Mix is really good. Vocals are nice and even, and very clear. Drums sound great.
Regards,
Dan
Mixing is all about control. My music: http://dancumpian.bandcamp.com/ or https://soundcloud.com/dcumpian Studiocat Advanced Studio DAW (Intel i5 3550 @ 3.7GHz, Z77 motherboard, 16GB Ram, lots of HDDs), Sonar Plat, Mackie 1604, PreSonus Audiobox 44VSL, ESI 4x4 Midi Interface, Ibanez Bass, Custom Fender Mexi-Strat, NI S88, Roland JV-2080 & MDB-1, Komplete, Omnisphere, Lots o' plugins.
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cclarry
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/04 09:37:06
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IMO the ethereal background vocals could be a little more up at 1:09...they are kind of getting lost from what I could hear...the main one is real close, and there's another one, which comes in first, and is real faint
behind the main that's totally lost, and I could barely hear it, and I was listening intently to
try to hear it...other then that it's a great track!
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Mannynyagain
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/04 10:09:34
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I like it! The sparse instrumentation really works for me – it lets the lead vocal take center stsage without having to fight for space. BV as mention by others a little distant – I found it a bit frustrating. All in all, a very cool track – it’s got its own personality.
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Awes
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/04 16:20:19
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Thanks for the listens and feedback!  dcumpian
Intro is a little long without an additional element, like a guitar solo being added. Mix is really good. Vocals are nice and even, and very clear. Drums sound great.
Regards,
Dan
That was my original intention, to have the reverbed guitar high up the neck playing throughout, and have a more prominent lead part for the intro and the spaces between vocals. Unfortunately my guitar playing is not great, and my theory knowledge is even worse, so the elaborate plan whittled down to a simple guitar line. Drums are BFD2 and the first time I have used the CLA Drum plugin, loving the CLA bundle already! cclarry
IMO the ethereal background vocals could be a little more up at 1:09...they are kind of getting lost from what I could hear...the main one is real close, and there's another one, which comes in first, and is real faint
behind the main that's totally lost, and I could barely hear it, and I was listening intently to
try to hear it...other then that it's a great track!
Mannynyagain
I like it! The sparse instrumentation really works for me – it lets the lead vocal take center stsage without having to fight for space. BV as mention by others a little distant – I found it a bit frustrating. All in all, a very cool track – it’s got its own personality.
Those middle vocals were a nightmare! I attempted to create a type of choir with just me. I ended up recording the same line 15 times, 5 normally, 5 a little higher and 5 a little lower. I then cut each line up into 16 clips and chopped them all around to get as much variation as possible. The result was 10 tracks panned at 20 intervals from 100L to 100R. In hindsight, I could've spent a little more time trying to do that part properly, and got some others to provide some backing vocals for some variation. Thanks for the feedback, will definitely take it into the next project.
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Freddy J
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/04 22:30:04
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I really like the pensive mood of this song. The minimalist (instrumental) nature of this song really sets the tone for this number and the rhythm paired with the accents of the guitar are great. However, the gritty nature of the vocals really make this number.
Great stuff!!!
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emeraldsoul
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/05 01:14:04
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Nice track, nice song. Cool feel. I like the minimalism.
So it makes sense that the middle vocal section stands apart as your issue - do I understand that you sang the same line like 10 times? If so, that's gonna get mushy pretty quick. It could be the ethereal thing you want, but I had a hard time discerning the vocals at that point.
I thought your guitar work held up nicely in this song! And was fooled, I thought the drums were recorded live! Did you play them in?
keep at it, man, good stuff.
cheers,
-Tom
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Awes
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/05 09:06:19
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Freddy J
I really like the pensive mood of this song. The minimalist (instrumental) nature of this song really sets the tone for this number and the rhythm paired with the accents of the guitar are great. However, the gritty nature of the vocals really make this number.
Great stuff!!!
Well, I in no way consider myself a vocalist, in fact, it's a bit of a necessary evil for me as I'm not a fan of instrumentals. So a massive thanks for the compliment! emeraldsoul
Nice track, nice song. Cool feel. I like the minimalism.
So it makes sense that the middle vocal section stands apart as your issue - do I understand that you sang the same line like 10 times? If so, that's gonna get mushy pretty quick. It could be the ethereal thing you want, but I had a hard time discerning the vocals at that point.
I thought your guitar work held up nicely in this song! And was fooled, I thought the drums were recorded live! Did you play them in?
keep at it, man, good stuff.
cheers,
-Tom
Thanks Tom, drums were a bit of a mixture of playing along on a MIDI keyboard and manually inserting them on PRV. I changed my usual approach of mixing each individual drum track to having just OH, Room, Snare & Kick and letting the OH/Room pick up cymbal, hi-hat and toms,
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jamesg1213
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/07 10:10:05
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That's a cool track, great atmosphere. I like that idea of the high-pitched guitars, works a treat. Good drum programming too.
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Wookiee
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/07 11:02:08
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I liked the mood created by the instrumentation, nicely placed vocal, all in all a nice track, thanks for sharing.
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Lynn
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/07 15:31:05
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This is a terrific song that I will listen to from time to time. You should definitely consider yourself a vocalist because that's one of the strengths of this song. I like the tip about how you processed your drums tracks by using the room and overheads to pick up the cymbals, hihat, and toms. I'd like to hear just a little more bv vox, but this still stands on its own. All in all, very entertaining!
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daryl1968
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/07 15:35:33
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this is very cool - great feel to it.
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Grizzlylip
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/07 20:11:00
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This songs reminds me that less can be so much more! I wasn't struggling to hear a ton of different instruments playing at once nor was I ever in doubt as to what youd set out to accomplish. Very well done!
I thought it would have been cool to cut all of the music at either "stars" or "go" at the end. Maybe you tried this already, but that's what came mind in considering your wanting an abrupt end. Thanks for sharing!
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Awes
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/08 08:28:16
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jamesg1213
That's a cool track, great atmosphere. I like that idea of the high-pitched guitars, works a treat. Good drum programming too.
Wookiee
I liked the mood created by the instrumentation, nicely placed vocal, all in all a nice track, thanks for sharing.
Lynn
This is a terrific song that I will listen to from time to time. You should definitely consider yourself a vocalist because that's one of the strengths of this song. I like the tip about how you processed your drums tracks by using the room and overheads to pick up the cymbals, hihat, and toms. I'd like to hear just a little more bv vox, but this still stands on its own. All in all, very entertaining!
daryl1968
this is very cool - great feel to it.
Wow, thanks all! Good to know I'm on the right track. I occasionally go back and listen to some of my older SoundCloud tracks and it's amazing the difference between 'then' and 'now thanks to bits and bobs picked up on this forum. Grizzlylip
This songs reminds me that less can be so much more! I wasn't struggling to hear a ton of different instruments playing at once nor was I ever in doubt as to what youd set out to accomplish. Very well done!
I thought it would have been cool to cut all of the music at either "stars" or "go" at the end. Maybe you tried this already, but that's what came mind in considering your wanting an abrupt end. Thanks for sharing!
That is a good shout and one I didn't consider. I went the other way by adding more to the end - the middle section vocals with just a drum beat - but that didn't work. Didn't think of going the other way and cutting some off. D'oh!
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stevec
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/15 15:04:18
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Yeah, sounds good here. It's got a cool dreamy but not quite settled feel to it.
I also agree with others that your vocals sound good - those backgrounds should be heard! FWIW, when I do anything remotely similar, I will literally stand in a different position for each take just to get a little built-in EQ and room sound variation.
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Awes
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Re: Awes - Where Do All the Stars Go?
2016/01/16 11:28:32
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stevec
Yeah, sounds good here. It's got a cool dreamy but not quite settled feel to it.
I also agree with others that your vocals sound good - those backgrounds should be heard! FWIW, when I do anything remotely similar, I will literally stand in a different position for each take just to get a little built-in EQ and room sound variation.
Thanks! The changing of position is simple, yet genius! Moving around the room and getting different parts of the mic to pick up each different take would definitely added some variation, something to bear in mind for next time!! 
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