Input on my band! myspace.

[Dyslexic Magician]

www.myspace.com/trainwreckd

critique please! :chug:

[CantBuyAThrill]

Can see how you picked your name...

Sounds like... hm... 9th or 10th graders? trying to make a Classic Rock-type band. Trust me, I've been there. Sounds like your using solid state distortion on that electric. Really hurts the sound. The lack of any recording technique really makes this track a difficult listen. Check out some stuff on home recording on this site:

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187860

Or ask stuff in the Jam Session.

There wasn't much of a vocal melody or anything, and that's what the song is. So I'd suggest changing that. Try learning some stuff about music theory. (http://www.musictheory.net) That'll seriously improve your ability to write music.

Keep working on your songwriting and musicianship. Good luck.

[Dyslexic Magician]

11th grade,

you tried sounding like you weren't an asshole, i think you failed.

bump.

[Muse_]

The guitar is okay, I like that bit, the solo around the 2 min mark could use some work.
The lyrics are not good. The vocals are not good.

It does sound kind of juvenile. It seems like you decided to write a song about a trainwreck and were too fixated on that topic to put more depth into the lyric content. The drums and instrument aren't bad though, just work on the vocals/words/tune.
:) You'll get there.


Oh, and don't even consider calling me a spatula. You posted this so other people would comment.

[Swill_Merchant]

Since you don't take to nice crits, I'll be mean.

It sounded like pure overdrive with cliche' drumming and an over used song set up. The singing was HORRID, and the song would have been better off without it (not that it would have made too much difference, it was horrible all around). Your recording sounded like you used playschool microphone that was dangling from the ceiling. Were you drunk when you sang this? I only ask since the words seem slurred and not audible at some points. The solo was PURE wank-age. The guitar playing was SO sloppy that I quiver thinking what it would sound like clean. You were off-time at various points through the song. Your drums sounded like garbage cans and the only two parts that were enjoyable were the bass riff and the ending.

There. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[Dyslexic Magician]

Since you don't take to nice crits, I'll be mean.

Stopped reading it there, no useful crit can come after this sice you were trying to make me mad after that.

I can take criticism but when he links me to a music theory site? rofl. yea diaf with that idea. we know our share of theory, we just wanted a feel of how the song sounded not that we sounded like a bunch of freshmen trying to make a 'classic rock' band. :chug:

whatever.


The guitar is okay, I like that bit, the solo around the 2 min mark could use some work.
The lyrics are not good. The vocals are not good.

It does sound kind of juvenile. It seems like you decided to write a song about a trainwreck and were too fixated on that topic to put more depth into the lyric content. The drums and instrument aren't bad though, just work on the vocals/words/tune.
:) You'll get there.


Oh, and don't even consider calling me a spatula. You posted this so other people would comment.

thanks, we've heard a lot about or vocals and were going to try to shift and hand our singing to a singer rather than our lead guitarist. we have not decided yet.

[I Am a Hat]

the first post in this thread was 100% useful and constructive.

[CantBuyAThrill]

we just wanted a feel of how the song sounded not that we sounded like a bunch of freshmen trying to make a 'classic rock' band.

Whenever I post any of my own material up on here, I would take honest constructive criticism over "This song has a bluesy feel" anyday. If I write a song, I generally know what kind of "feel" it has. If you ever want to improve, you're going to need to have a more humble, accepting attitude. I don't want to talk down to you, but I really don't know how else to explain that if you won't accept people's helpful efforts, however negative they may seem, then you will never get better.

I only joked about this stuff because I've been at the stage you're at right now. How do you write your music? Do you go instrumentation first and then work on other things? I highly suggest that first you work on simply writing out chords and melody first, then expanding from that. If that's not your method already. Personally, this was my biggest mistake in songwriting until I'd been playing guitar for 3 years.

Listening to your music, I could say with almost 100% certainty that you could learn at least a few things from that music theory link. For example what do you know about Neapolitan chords? Can you sight read standard notation or play anything other than the instruments you all play on that one song? Knowing basic piano or keyboard is essential to expanding your proficiency in theory- and learning stuff about other instruments can give you new perspective on your own instrument. Sure, sounds like you know your pentatonic scales pretty well, but that's the very, very tip of the iceberg in music theory.

Force everyone in your band to practice singing when they're alone, like when driving in the car- the more you practice with your voice the more you realize it's simply another instrument. Having a group of people who have at least some ability with singing and recognizing pitch (whether intervals or individual notes) can come in handy more often than you'd probably expect. I'm no expert on vocals by any means, so I'd suggest seeking help from other people on these forums- as your vocal performance is clearly in need of improvement.

Your band is not perfect. It is far from it. If you'd rather hear how good your song is than an honest review, I don't see why you're posting it here and saying "critique please". I've never come on here to try to be a spatula to people in reviews. I'm legitimately trying to help.

[Dyslexic Magician]

Whenever I post any of my own material up on here, I would take honest constructive criticism over "This song has a bluesy feel" anyday. If I write a song, I generally know what kind of "feel" it has. If you ever want to improve, you're going to need to have a more humble, accepting attitude. I don't want to talk down to you, but I really don't know how else to explain that if you won't accept people's helpful efforts, however negative they may seem, then you will never get better.

I only joked about this stuff because I've been at the stage you're at right now. How do you write your music? Do you go instrumentation first and then work on other things? I highly suggest that first you work on simply writing out chords and melody first, then expanding from that. If that's not your method already. Personally, this was my biggest mistake in songwriting until I'd been playing guitar for 3 years.

Listening to your music, I could say with almost 100% certainty that you could learn at least a few things from that music theory link. For example what do you know about Neapolitan chords? Can you sight read standard notation or play anything other than the instruments you all play on that one song? Knowing basic piano or keyboard is essential to expanding your proficiency in theory- and learning stuff about other instruments can give you new perspective on your own instrument. Sure, sounds like you know your pentatonic scales pretty well, but that's the very, very tip of the iceberg in music theory.

Force everyone in your band to practice singing when they're alone, like when driving in the car- the more you practice with your voice the more you realize it's simply another instrument. Having a group of people who have at least some ability with singing and recognizing pitch (whether intervals or individual notes) can come in handy more often than you'd probably expect. I'm no expert on vocals by any means, so I'd suggest seeking help from other people on these forums- as your vocal performance is clearly in need of improvement.

Your band is not perfect. It is far from it. If you'd rather hear how good your song is than an honest review, I don't see why you're posting it here and saying "critique please". I've never come on here to try to be a spatula to people in reviews. I'm legitimately trying to help.

well sorry i called you an ***, i've been very frustrated lately and from your first post i think i read it with the wrong tone to it. just a lot lately whenever I post that link of our myspace we usually get shitty remarks like "your band has a myspace so it sucks" and overall things that dont really help us at all. I can take input without getting offended but I think your entire intro to your first post just rubbed me the wrong way.

sorry about that. p.s. swill merchant -- diaf.

[Grumpy the Cat]

You don't see anything wrong with naming your band "Trainwreck'd" and having a song named "Trainwreck."

What's your album called?

[atarisrock55]

i think one of the reasons your vocals sound so bad is that they're completely dry....try putting some reverb and echo on them maybe?

[Swill_Merchant]

Stopped reading it there, no useful crit can come after this sice you were trying to make me mad after that.

I can take criticism but when he links me to a music theory site? rofl. yea diaf with that idea. we know our share of theory, we just wanted a feel of how the song sounded not that we sounded like a bunch of freshmen trying to make a 'classic rock' band. :chug:

whatever.






This is why I didn't think you would take any useful crits. At least I had fun making mine.

[Dyslexic Magician]

You don't see anything wrong with naming your band "Trainwreck'd" and having a song named "Trainwreck."

What's your album called?

i hope it isn't self titled...


and swill :p

[Swill_Merchant]

i hope it isn't self titled...


and swill :p



:p, Now that I am not trying to be an asshole, and realized that you weren't one of those "We are God" bands (I apologise, but when I think you are just going to bash me for a critique I think "to hell with being nice and constructive, I'll be an ***")


Ok, this is pretty classic rock-ish. I think the vocals are pretty dry and adding some reverb can make a world of a difference. I like your guitar part, but the overdrive way to strong and trebled out. If you want some really good tube-drives with a true bypass look at a Fulltone, or a Seymour Duncan distortion pedal. They have rythhem, lead and clean channels and you'll get some amazing tone out of them.

The bass part was extremley well suited for the song so here :thumb:<- thats for your bass player. The drums and the guitar part seem a little off at a few points, but that is bound to happen when you do a live- one through recording. If you guys get some extra dough I would suggest some studio time(50-300 dollars and hour), but that could get costly since it takes a professional drummer about 2 hours to get a good drum track. Or invest in some home recording equipment, like an Alto 16-channel powered mixer and some good shure mics. Keep it up and I hope you can progress further!

[cadencethefire]

i think one of the reasons your vocals sound so bad is that they're completely dry....try putting some reverb and echo on them maybe?

they're just too upfront...

to TS:

I tell a lot of people this:

Write general ideas for a song, use the singer's input after the ideas have some kind of structure, re-write the song to fit the vocals better after you have a solid structure of the basic song, add in all the technicalities, right now it just sounds like everyone's doing a bunch of cool **** that's going nowhere. Be articulate with your music, don't just pump something out because magically it rocks the first time around or even the 20th time around... You guys really need to break that song down and take what parts are really cool and place them where they're most effective. Playing upfront and straightforward riffing all the time may be a good example of decent musicianship, but it's a poor example of good songwriting. Keep that in mind as you revamp this one

[Dyslexic Magician]

:p, Now that I am not trying to be an spatula, and realized that you weren't one of those "We are God" bands (I apologise, but when I think you are just going to bash me for a critique I think "to hell with being nice and constructive, I'll be an ***")


Ok, this is pretty classic rock-ish. I think the vocals are pretty dry and adding some reverb can make a world of a difference. I like your guitar part, but the overdrive way to strong and trebled out. If you want some really good tube-drives with a true bypass look at a Fulltone, or a Seymour Duncan distortion pedal. They have rythhem, lead and clean channels and you'll get some amazing tone out of them.

The bass part was extremley well suited for the song so here :thumb:<- thats for your bass player. The drums and the guitar part seem a little off at a few points, but that is bound to happen when you do a live- one through recording. If you guys get some extra dough I would suggest some studio time(50-300 dollars and hour), but that could get costly since it takes a professional drummer about 2 hours to get a good drum track. Or invest in some home recording equipment, like an Alto 16-channel powered mixer and some good shure mics. Keep it up and I hope you can progress further!


thanks(i play basS), yea our guitar player hates the recording cause 1 hes singing and he claims that he had a cold that day, and his guitar had way too much treble making the distortion sound like sh!t! we picked up a new singer today who's pretty good so were gonna pump out another recording. our drummer has a lot of recording **** in his basement (like one of those boards we plug all of ours mics into, were gonna try our best to make it sound cleaner this time)

thanks for input were gonna work on vocals and just overall recording quality. (and lyrics i hope.:p )

[Swill_Merchant]

thanks(i play basS), yea our guitar player hates the recording cause 1 hes singing and he claims that he had a cold that day, and his guitar had way too much treble making the distortion sound like sh!t! we picked up a new singer today who's pretty good so were gonna pump out another recording. our drummer has a lot of recording **** in his basement (like one of those boards we plug all of ours mics into, were gonna try our best to make it sound cleaner this time)

thanks for input were gonna work on vocals and just overall recording quality. (and lyrics i hope.:p )

Sweetness, I look forward to hearing it. Minnesota represent homie. :wave:

[ncrypted]

Okay...Here's this synth-weenie/computer-geek's $.02 worth...

As far as the guitar riff goes, I like it...so sue me...it's basic, but what the hell, I like simple... (I'm a big fan of the White Stripes, and other mimal member type bands..)

The vocals....well, they need help...but I'll get to that in a bit...

The Drums....washed out

Bass...fades too much into the BG

I'll be completely honest, and agree to an extent with CBAT...it sounds like a freshman outing, and that's perfectly fine...how the hell are you supposed to improve if you don't DO...so no matter the sound, kudoes for DOing...despite what the mythology tells you, the Beatles, the Stones, Zepplin, the Who, nor the White Stripes sprang, fully formed, from the forehead of the Rock Gods. You won't either, so it's best to forget that crap...it takes work to get good.

That having been said, All I can really go into in any detail, is the recording mechanics...that's what I'm best at.

Okay, first off...some questions...how are you recording this? How many mics, and what are their placements? Are you recording to tape, and then transferring to PC, or directly to PC? Are you using a mixing board? What kind of monitoring are the musicians using? (Literally) what room is it being recorded in...the garage, your bedroom, a closet?

I'm not asking these things to be a smart ***...these are all things that factor into the sound of the recording...there are many many more, but these are the ones that came to mind when I listened to the recording.

Based upon what I heard, it sounds to my ear like you did a live 3, maybe 4 mic/input session in your garage, maybe directly to a PC, maybe to a digital recorder...can't tell precisely, though....

Okay...critiques:

Using this song as an example, it's all in the mix.

1) The vocals are WAY too hot...they override everything else. Back off on the levels...I think I even heard some audio clipping (distortion introduced by exceeding your recorders max volume level).

2) the Vocals need reverb and either normalizing, or compression/limiting. You can very clearly hear when the vocalist comes closer to the mic, and then backs away...you need to make the difference between the vocalist's loud and soft bits less than it is now.

3) If you can, record seperate tracks for each instrument and the vocalist. That way, if you don't have anyone to set the levels live while you're playing, you can fix it on the 'puter. (Setting levels before recording can be a pain in the byew-tocks, sice the test levels can vary quite widely from the performance levels.)

Well...that's my input for now....If I come across as a jerk, please forgive me, that's not my intent.

ALSO...if you have original .wav type recordings (multitrack), I'd be really interested to play with them, maybe do a l'il sample post- on them to show you what can be done.

[Dyslexic Magician]

Okay...Here's this synth-weenie/computer-geek's $.02 worth...

As far as the guitar riff goes, I like it...so sue me...it's basic, but what the hell, I like simple... (I'm a big fan of the White Stripes, and other mimal member type bands..)

The vocals....well, they need help...but I'll get to that in a bit...

The Drums....washed out

Bass...fades too much into the BG

I'll be completely honest, and agree to an extent with CBAT...it sounds like a freshman outing, and that's perfectly fine...how the hell are you supposed to improve if you don't DO...so no matter the sound, kudoes for DOing...despite what the mythology tells you, the Beatles, the Stones, Zepplin, the Who, nor the White Stripes sprang, fully formed, from the forehead of the Rock Gods. You won't either, so it's best to forget that crap...it takes work to get good.

That having been said, All I can really go into in any detail, is the recording mechanics...that's what I'm best at.

Okay, first off...some questions...how are you recording this? How many mics, and what are their placements? Are you recording to tape, and then transferring to PC, or directly to PC? Are you using a mixing board? What kind of monitoring are the musicians using? (Literally) what room is it being recorded in...the garage, your bedroom, a closet?

we're using 3 mics...1 pointing at my bass amp, 1 at our guitarists amp, and one in a very clever spot near the drums, above bass drum on a stand (hard to explain). the 3 mics are plugged into a.. huge board looking thing with a lot of knobs and levers and buttons and a lot of complicated looking things that only my drummer knows how to screw around with. and we record in his basement, theres a lot of free space i suppose, pretty large. and i dont know what you mean my monitoring :smash:

I'm not asking these things to be a smart ***...these are all things that factor into the sound of the recording...there are many many more, but these are the ones that came to mind when I listened to the recording.

Based upon what I heard, it sounds to my ear like you did a live 3, maybe 4 mic/input session in your garage, maybe directly to a PC, maybe to a digital recorder...can't tell precisely, though....

close.

Okay...critiques:

Using this song as an example, it's all in the mix.

1) The vocals are WAY too hot...they override everything else. Back off on the levels...I think I even heard some audio clipping (distortion introduced by exceeding your recorders max volume level).

2) the Vocals need reverb and either normalizing, or compression/limiting. You can very clearly hear when the vocalist comes closer to the mic, and then backs away...you need to make the difference between the vocalist's loud and soft bits less than it is now.

3) If you can, record seperate tracks for each instrument and the vocalist. That way, if you don't have anyone to set the levels live while you're playing, you can fix it on the 'puter. (Setting levels before recording can be a pain in the byew-tocks, sice the test levels can vary quite widely from the performance levels.)

Well...that's my input for now....If I come across as a jerk, please forgive me, that's not my intent.

ALSO...if you have original .wav type recordings (multitrack), I'd be really interested to play with them, maybe do a l'il sample post- on them to show you what can be done.

ill see what i can do about that .wav


p.s. thanks