ORIGINAL SONG: Mannaforra - Who You Are

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Crumbso
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ORIGINAL SONG: Mannaforra - Who You Are

Post by Crumbso »

An original song by me and my band Mannaforra.



Comments, criticism and feedback would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

LYRICS

I don't know who you are
I don't know what you've got to say
What you do to me
You sell our rights and walk away

The cause of the pain and all the scars
That mark us still today
They make us who we are
So we're not breaking apart

You think that you can push and trample over
all the things we share
But we were ready for you from the start
We'll find a way to feel the pain
and get the will to soar

So when you sign our dreams aside
To hold impending tides at bay
I hope you sleep at night
Because you know we've got you

You turn to face the hoarde
Before you run away
The clock has reached the countdown
And you can't ever say
You knew the wind was howling
so now we're here to stay

You go now and bear our scars
Last edited by Crumbso on Wed Jan 18, 2017 11:52 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Timotheus
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Timotheus »

Loved the rhythmic stuff that was going in the bridge. That was executed really well.

Cool song, loved the double / halftime changes that were going on in the verses. If I had to give some feedback (which I don't, but I'm gonna do it anyway :D ), I'd say that the vocals (which are really good) could be mixed a bit better into the mix. I think they sound a bit distant, which sucks because you're clearly an amazing singer.
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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Crumbso
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Crumbso »

Thanks man feedback is really welcome. Glad you like it. I know what you mean. My mixing/recording has come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years but vocal mixing is my Achilles' heel, It's a mix of not knowing what I'm doing EQ/Reverb/Delay/Compressor wise and a bad mic (I only have a live mic rather than a good studio mic).

Kudos to our drummer for coming up with the half/full time change thing. It really lifts what could've been a repetitive chord sequence.
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The Plotblocker
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by The Plotblocker »

Not bad man, not bad at all :D Catchy riff, nice vocals and a killer solo! My kinda music. Good ending too. You guys on Facebook, or YouTube?
"Something something deny..... Something something blame..." - Myles Kennedy - Every lyric writing session.
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Timotheus
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Timotheus »

Crumbso wrote:Thanks man feedback is really welcome. Glad you like it. I know what you mean. My mixing/recording has come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years but vocal mixing is my Achilles' heel, It's a mix of not knowing what I'm doing EQ/Reverb/Delay/Compressor wise and a bad mic (I only have a live mic rather than a good studio mic).
I think the mix is really natural sounding, so kudos on that. I hope you don't mind me giving you some tips?

Automation is worth looking into if you're not familiar with that, especially with big guitars like the ones you're dealing with. It can help putting the vocals on top of the guitars without making them too loud or the guitars too soft.

Something else you could do is duplicating your vocal track and adding some distortion to it (or you could use a bus). It's basic saturating, but it can really add something organic to the vocals. You can't make the track too loud of course and have to EQ it so it's subtle.

I don't really like reverb on vocals. I just use a reverb bus at the end of the entire mix (all instruments/vox except bass and kick) to make the entire mix a bit more glued together. Delay can be really cool on vocals if you EQ the delay and pan the the delay creatively. I usually use two delay busses on my main vocals, pan them wherever there's space in the mix, one to each side, and make the time on one delay a bit slower. Stuff like that can really help making the vocals a bit bigger as well, without making it too obvious.
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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Crumbso
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Crumbso »

The Plotblocker wrote:Not bad man, not bad at all :D Catchy riff, nice vocals and a killer solo! My kinda music. Good ending too. You guys on Facebook, or YouTube?
Cheers. Really appreciate that you like it. We're not anywhere just yet. Still putting together our first set/bunch of demos but will post here when we are.
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Crumbso
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Crumbso »

Timotheus wrote: I think the mix is really natural sounding, so kudos on that. I hope you don't mind me giving you some tips?

Automation is worth looking into if you're not familiar with that, especially with big guitars like the ones you're dealing with. It can help putting the vocals on top of the guitars without making them too loud or the guitars too soft.

Something else you could do is duplicating your vocal track and adding some distortion to it (or you could use a bus). It's basic saturating, but it can really add something organic to the vocals. You can't make the track too loud of course and have to EQ it so it's subtle.

I don't really like reverb on vocals. I just use a reverb bus at the end of the entire mix (all instruments/vox except bass and kick) to make the entire mix a bit more glued together. Delay can be really cool on vocals if you EQ the delay and pan the the delay creatively. I usually use two delay busses on my main vocals, pan them wherever there's space in the mix, one to each side, and make the time on one delay a bit slower. Stuff like that can really help making the vocals a bit bigger as well, without making it too obvious.
Tips are totally welcome. I've eliminated all reverb from the vocals now, the delay is less extreme, there's a slight distortion track under the original and I've cut some highs and boosted the mids in the EQ. I think everything seems to sit in there more nicely now so thanks for your advice.

I've remixed and output it all to the same link, I would appreciate it if you could have another listen. I also uncompressed the overhead mic on the drums and give a bit more clarity to the choruses (I think that was causing the vocals to get lost).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0szoots9ueavq ... e.mp3?dl=0
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Timotheus
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Timotheus »

Wow yea, that sounds so much better! The chorus is so much stronger now too! Nice job :D
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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Crumbso
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Crumbso »

:cheers

Your advice was really helpful. I feel like I've made major progress with vocals now. The distortion track makes a noticeable difference. I forgot to mention there is a slight stereo chorus on the original track that helps to keep it on top of everything.
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Re: ORIGINAL SONG: Skullpture - Who You Are

Post by Timotheus »

I always feel kinda awkward giving advice, because you never know how the other person is gonna take it, so I'm really glad it was helpful! :cheers

I really love simple solutions like that. I absolutely recommend The Recording Revolution's videos on Youtube, if you're interested in more stuff like that. That guy is super helpful and always to the point. There are a bunch of great tips/tricks on his channel.
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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