Newbie....need some crtical ears and help

OK… apologies...seems I don't have enough privileges yet to post a link on this site...never mind...the Soundcloud URL is as follows:
soundcloud.com/peterjung2/no-4-remix-2014-02-26-mp3

spacealf
 
Thanks for the reply.  Hmm...was having some problems uploading to soundcloud.  Uploaded as public but something went wrong somewhere and it became private?...
 
anyway....hopefully should be ok now.  I still cannot post the actual link for now but a cut and the paste of the following into your browswer should work
 
soundcloud.com/peterjung2/no-4-remix-2014-02-26-mp3
 
thanks again

Ruben
 
Many thanks for your constructive input.  I certainly had fun...just wish I had more time!
 
EDIT - Ruben thanks for posting the actual link!

Wow…Voda La Void…many thanks for your comments!
 
I am very flattered by your words.
 
I guess what I was getting at was to really just have the chance for some more experienced and knowledgeable ears to have a listen and tell me if there was anything technical that was obviously “wrong” with the mix that I may not be hearing.  Apart from the basic level balance I tried some panning, and a bit of reverb.  I am just starting to look into how to use the Pro Channel so on this I have not used it at all.
 
The piano sound I had in mind was a sort of 70’s electric sound…. I was thinking of the type of piano sounds you can find on lots of the tracks on the Moon Safari album by aIR.
 
The piano sound is one of the Scarbee Pianets from the Vintage Keys library for Kontakt, the bass is also from this library.  The drums are from a Sonar standard library loop.  Horns from Session Horns and whacky noises from Evolve Mutations.  The guitars are all “real” some through Amplitube 3 and some through Guitar Rig.
 
I struggled for a long time to try and find a vocal melody that fits….still searching…. I hear a pretty French chanteuse’s voice in my head but can’t get a melody yet.
 
I would have a go at a vocal track myself …..but as I sing like a pig being strangled I am not likely to load that take online.  At the very least it would have to be drenched in vocoder…even then it would probably just sound like a pig being strangled … but through a vocoder…..
 
Thanks again and I really appreciate all you guys taking the time to listen and comment.

For a sketch this is a good base, the general mix sound reasonable here.  As has been mentioned a need for little more ear candy to latch on to would help.  But as a background under a video this would work well.
 
Look forward to more from you.  25 posts is the magic number then you should be able to post links.

Walt / Wookie / daryl
 
Many thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, again I really appreciate your feedback.
 
On the Horns I hear what you mean.  I think (well certainly for me anyway) this raises one of the biggest issues with VST technology.  It is wonderful to have access to so many sounds and instruments of course, however in the case of trying to mimic a real instrument and a real player you really need some understanding of the technical skills needed to play the actual real instrument to make it convincing.
 
As you can no doubt gather I have never even so much a held a horn of any kind in my hands much less played one!  So Walt – appreciate the sound technical advice on this!  I will give it a try and see if with practice I can get it any better!
 
Wookie…one more post to go !
 
Thanks again guys and to everyone else that took the time.  Being a newbie in general, but especially in here, it is really nice to be shown such consideration.
 
Peace!

Shawn
 
Thank you very much for the comments - yes I did all the guitars - some on Amplitube and some on Guitar Rig.
 
I like your suggestion regarding delay/reverb...although I think I need to read up on stereo delay.... something new to learn every day!
 
Thanks again man
 
Peter

Finally listened. Kind of subdued. I would have made it shorter perhaps in length (start with the guitar where it starts) but who am I to say. I get going to and the song turns out longer than I thought it would be.
 
But trying to make it sound real probably is not going to be done without real musicians playing each instrument.
I do not worry about that, and just do the song (although I try to make it sound like a more real musician playing it).
That probably won't happen so just getting the song down and getting it done is what can be expected.
 
In this day and age of music, I really think that people will accept any song that is fine to listen to, and I would not worry about the rest. Of course you can try and perhaps driving yourself crazy.
 
The mix sounded fine to me but then that is usually what I say anyway. So no nitpicking from me, except it may sound better fuller. Perhaps you can do that, perhaps not - any which way you may think of - perhaps doubling the tracks on certain instruments and changing pitch slightly to add more fullness to the sound.
 
That's music, and perhaps a lot of it is just going to be editing in that kind of sense of making it into what you want it to be.
 
 

Nice composition. My guess is that someone with a lot of experience could bring a lot more life to the mix and take it up a couple notches. I'm a beginner myself, though. Best of luck to you.

Bapu, Spacealf, Lynn, BBB and Bob Oister
 
Thanks all for taking the time to listen.. I really appreciate your comments and feedback.
Lynn - got a couple of vague ideas in the pipeline....but I am a slow worker and do not have much free time.
 
Will certainly post something else when I have something that I hope is worthy of a listen
 
Thanks again to everyone that listened and provided feedback.
 
love and peace
 
Peter

Hi Freddy J
 
Thanks for your input.  Inspired by your and others comments I will look to get a bit more adventurous with drums and the like.  To be honest the rhythm track on this is the original one I started with just to get some timing down and I just kind of stuck with it.  It is just a stock loop out of Sonar X2 that I stumbled upon, slowed it down and went with it.  I watched great tutorial on the Sonar YouTube channel about mixing drums that made think I may try to create a rhythm rack from scratch next time.
 
The bass again is kind of the first scratch that is really simple but felt ok and that stayed there
 
So much to learn and so little time J…..enjoying the ride though….
 
Thanks again for taking the time to comment - again I really appreciate everyone's input

Hi, Also enjoyed the groove when the guitar kicks in. :)
Learning about real instruments helped me in writing and arranging. I read Essential dictionary of orchestration on the kindle, very cheap but informs you of what can be done on real instruments.