Electronic Rock (a little hardstyle) - Critical Ears Wanted!

I'm at that phase with this song...the one where I want tons of critical feedback and brutal honesty. :-)

The song is based in rock, but I've peppered in a healthy dose of electronic stuff as well. I usually give more of a preamble, but I think this time I'll just post the link and let you run with it.

http://soundcloud.com/hiberna/wip_05232011

Thank you so much for taking the time. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

D

Note: You cannot hurt my feelings. Go nuts.

Another Note: I'm also going to post this over on the gearslutz boards, so you might have already heard it!

+1

I just feel that the stutter could have been used more musically, and less as an effect.

Daniel,
  Where you used the stutter in the begining sounds ok and fits.
The use at 0:54 does not work for me.
The section at 1:00 to 1:08 does not work.
The use at 1:47 I think takes away from the song.
The use at 2:25 does not fit well to me.
Where I think it could work more with the song is in the chorus where the lyrics "I can be brave tonight" there is a sustained note on the word brave. Try to apply the effect just to the word brave and see how that works. It may not, but this is what I would try.
 
An effect like stutter should be like a jet going by.
By the time you figure what it was you just heard it is gone.
Keep in mind these are my views alone, you mileage may vary.
Hope something from this helps.

  
WOW this is the best I have heard around hear including mine - crap did I just say that !
Man this really sounds great , the changes , the driving bass and other instrument voices you added to your song and the drum and percussion .
The vocals sounded really cool in this as well , nice job !!

Crap now I have to work extra hard on my next song that will be ready in July .
Ok now the big question , what DAW did you use to create this song ?

No compaints at my end , Great song !!
Radio

Wow!  That is fantastic!  I agree with taking the stuttering down quite a bit.  It detracts too much from your excellent voice and stellar melody.  Really great.  How do you do all those sweeps?  Are you moving the low pass filter using automation in Sonar?  I can't really give any advice - this sounds really good.  Great job!

This sure gets into high speed really quickly .....   Interesting vocal effect. It seems to work O.K.   The overall playing and production is really good. Thanks for sharing this one.

Thanks, guitartrek!

Some of the sweeps are just white noise samples I've collected over the years. The rest are filter automation on the synths. :-)

D

Not prepared to critique.

I just wanted to say that I really like it... alot.


Lance

You know what? I just found the 05252011 version... I take it all back. It's not much different, but! I noticed that I was looking forward to the stutter, not to critique it, but because I LIKED it. This is addictive....

is there a way to download the track? Or maybe can I join a list or something to be notified when it's done? I definitely want the song in my collection ;)

Sorry for the delay in responding, folks! I've been out of town and away from computers and as many of you probably know, the forums don't work on certain mobiles.

LanceJ,
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. If you come up with any feedback in the future, please do share!

julibee,
Ha! Interesting...so the stutters got in your head, did they? I've been struggling with what to do with them - maybe for the same reason. Now that I've heard them a number of times, I EXPECT them to be there. I will try your panning idea, though. Thanks!

JoshWolfer,
Thank you! I'll look into that kick. I pump up the acoustic drums during the chorus and there might be a phasing issue between that kick and the electronic kick, which starts playing the same pattern at that point. Actually, there are five kicks going at once during the chorus - I'm sure there's something in there that can be tweaked! Same with the bass - there are four basses all going at once at times.

For the stutters, I just hand-sliced the audio and did some very simple volume automation.

As far as downloading, I'm trying to keep it relatively under wraps for now. We plan on releasing it in the next month or so, once the video and a few remixes are ready to go. In the meantime, you can check out http://WeAreKETURA.com. We have some other songs on there, but most importantly we have links to our Facebook, Twitter, etc. Hook up with us there and we'll be sure to let you know when the song is available!

Janet,
Thank you! Appreciate you taking the time to listen!

Thanks a bunch everyone! I imagine this thread will probably die down a bit now (old!) so I wanted to say that I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten. I've made a lot of tweaks to the track since I first posted it here and I think it has benefited greatly from the things you all have mentioned.

Take care!

Daniel

Thank you, vechung! That means a lot!

Hi, Daniel,

Dynamite job on this very cool song!  Great songwriting and performance with amazing flow and texture throughout the nice, clean, pro sounding mix.  The vocals are truly outstanding.

By the way, count me as a fan, I visit your band page often, just to listen to "Wide Awake". It's truly one of my all time favorite songs, and the chorus hook is just spectacular.

Anyway, fantastic work on this, have a good one!
Bob

Beagle,

Thank you for taking the time to listen! :-)

Bob Oister,

Wow! That's great to hear! Thanks a bunch for the encouragement!

evadianepug,

The stutter is definitely a point of contention in the feedback I've been getting. I'm still undecided as to how I'll deal with it. Thanks a bunch for your input!

D

Only listening on lappy, but this sounds really good even so. As a matter of personal taste I think you overdid the stutter effects, but other than that it's all good to me. What other processing are you using on the vox - sounds great !