Songs From My Debut Solo Album

[nightmare]

Hi all

I've just uploaded 4 songs from my upcoming debut solo album 'Into Darkness I Walk'.Everything was recorded in my bedroom on Cubase SX3 with Amplitube for the electric guitars and my Rode NT1-A microphone for vocals and acoustic guitar.The guitars I used were my ESP EC-50 and my Lancewood acoustic.Drums,bass and keyboards were programmed using my Yamaha QY-100 sequencer,which is also my live backing band haha.

www.myspace.com/samuelkeenmusic
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/page ... 045?ref=mf

Constructive feedback is of course welcome.I'm still getting a hold on my lead guitar skills as well as my mixing/mastering.

Cheers
Samuel

[badmotor]

Well, the Myspace player didn't load and the Facebook player didn't work at all for me. Thanks 'internet'.

edit: I had to reinstall Flash for some reason. Weird.

[ash]

Far from my tastes in music, but here are some thoughts intended to help:

Your lead guitar and mixing/mastering shouldn't be your main concern right now. Two other things stood out much more.

Firstly the vocals. I imagine you're going for a very sombre, morose kind of sound and you definitely got that, but at the expense of other fundamental things. You probably should spend some time with a vocal coach or at least an experienced singer in your chosen style and get some straight feedback about what you need to do. I predict you'll be told to sing much louder to get some life and dynamics into your voice and to steady up the pitch.

Secondly, three of those four songs pretty much sound like the same song. Same tempo, same chords, same instruments making the same sounds with the same rhythm. And the same vocals, just with different words. I know they probably sound and feel quite different to you, but on first listen to me, there's barely any difference.

To distill this down to one piece of advice, you need to work with other people. More ideas, more feedback, more criticism, more sources of inspiration - all good things. Yeah, it's hard finding like-minded musicians you can rely on, but that seems to be what it takes. How many rock/metal solo acts "make it" versus rock/metal bands? Almost none. And most still have massive collaborative input from other musicians.

[The Scarecrow]

Far from my tastes in music, but here are some thoughts intended to help:

Your lead guitar and mixing/mastering shouldn't be your main concern right now. Two other things stood out much more.

Firstly the vocals. I imagine you're going for a very sombre, morose kind of sound and you definitely got that, but at the expense of other fundamental things. You probably should spend some time with a vocal coach or at least an experienced singer in your chosen style and get some straight feedback about what you need to do. I predict you'll be told to sing much louder to get some life and dynamics into your voice and to steady up the pitch.

Secondly, three of those four songs pretty much sound like the same song. Same tempo, same chords, same instruments making the same sounds with the same rhythm. And the same vocals, just with different words. I know they probably sound and feel quite different to you, but on first listen to me, there's barely any difference.

To distill this down to one piece of advice, you need to work with other people. More ideas, more feedback, more criticism, more sources of inspiration - all good things. Yeah, it's hard finding like-minded musicians you can rely on, but that seems to be what it takes. How many rock/metal solo acts "make it" versus rock/metal bands? Almost none. And most still have massive collaborative input from other musicians.

Pretty much agree there with everything said. All sounded quite samey to me. Vocals reminded me of a southern preacher, but they were quite muffled and indistinct in a lot of places. I think they'd fit, but need a bit of work to work. Right now it sounds to my ears like spoken word over singing.

Overall I thought the production values on the music were quite good, much better than I could do. Keep at it man, but yeah, definitely take something away from what Ash has raised.

[sambrowne]

I mean no disrespect but this came to mind.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B0kOdaLTHk[/youtube]

Keep at it bro, all good.

[nightmare]

Far from my tastes in music, but here are some thoughts intended to help:

Your lead guitar and mixing/mastering shouldn't be your main concern right now. Two other things stood out much more.

Firstly the vocals. I imagine you're going for a very sombre, morose kind of sound and you definitely got that, but at the expense of other fundamental things. You probably should spend some time with a vocal coach or at least an experienced singer in your chosen style and get some straight feedback about what you need to do. I predict you'll be told to sing much louder to get some life and dynamics into your voice and to steady up the pitch.

Secondly, three of those four songs pretty much sound like the same song. Same tempo, same chords, same instruments making the same sounds with the same rhythm. And the same vocals, just with different words. I know they probably sound and feel quite different to you, but on first listen to me, there's barely any difference.

To distill this down to one piece of advice, you need to work with other people. More ideas, more feedback, more criticism, more sources of inspiration - all good things. Yeah, it's hard finding like-minded musicians you can rely on, but that seems to be what it takes. How many rock/metal solo acts "make it" versus rock/metal bands? Almost none. And most still have massive collaborative input from other musicians.

Yeah I'm still getting a grasp on actually singing as opposed to harsher vocals.I had a vocal teacher while I was at school but not since,although I have wanted another one for awhile now.I have always been very quiet in terms of singing,mainly due to lack of confidence but I'm trying to improve.They are very similar songs because these songs are from a time when I was less than great at writing.I have improved in that respect but these songs are from about a year and a half ago.

The reason I do solo work is mainly because I haven't found any other musicians who wish to do the styles which I want to create.But I am thinking about having perhaps some people to at least tell what sounds good/bad etc.I will definitely be working hard at improving everything before I attempt another solo effort.

Cheers for the feedback guys.

[nightmare]

Just uploaded the rest of the album onto the pages.I've decided to treat it as a demo album.I will be spending the majority of my time now working on improving my vocals,guitar and songwriting skills.

[sambrowne]

Hey Nightmare,

My first comment wasn't particularly helpful for a young guy just finding his feet.

Here's the situation: You've got some good guitar skills and some great ideas with your songwriting, but you would no doubt benefit in lots and lots of ways from jamming with other people, even in styles that aren't what you're particularly interested in. The more styles you can get involved with, the better your own music will be - guaranteed.

Your singing is fine for what it is, and yes you're right about confidence, that's a big part of getting your voice together and getting "good" at singing - as your skills grow, your confidence grows, and with singing, as your confidence grows your skills grow! It's difficult to get that initial confidence to sing loud and proud, but once you do, things start to fall into place. Don't be scared to blast it out, even if it's not always perfect.

The best possible thing for you to do from here, in my view, is jam with some existing bands or even just a couple of mates, and try lots of different things. You've got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing where you go with your music from here.

[nightmare]

Hey Nightmare,

My first comment wasn't particularly helpful for a young guy just finding his feet.

Here's the situation: You've got some good guitar skills and some great ideas with your songwriting, but you would no doubt benefit in lots and lots of ways from jamming with other people, even in styles that aren't what you're particularly interested in. The more styles you can get involved with, the better your own music will be - guaranteed.

Your singing is fine for what it is, and yes you're right about confidence, that's a big part of getting your voice together and getting "good" at singing - as your skills grow, your confidence grows, and with singing, as your confidence grows your skills grow! It's difficult to get that initial confidence to sing loud and proud, but once you do, things start to fall into place. Don't be scared to blast it out, even if it's not always perfect.

The best possible thing for you to do from here, in my view, is jam with some existing bands or even just a couple of mates, and try lots of different things. You've got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing where you go with your music from here.

Thanks man,I have wanted to have casual jams with some friends for awhile now so I shall definitely look into that.I do enjoy working on music alone a lot of the time,but I guess the main factor in the case of my solo work is that because there's no band members,no one can tell me what's good or bad.I will continue to make solo music aside from my bands,but I will now be having feedback from friends and band mates.

I have already written 3 new songs that I will be releasing as a solo artist.And they are far more evolved than these songs I've just put out.So I shall keep working at it and will hopefully come up with something really good eventually lol.

[Michael]

cool. you have no idea how tired I am of creationist rock.

[rob_on_guitar]

A good trick for vox when recording is to double them, pan a couple of reverb tracks faintly in the background, I thought your tracks were ok

[NZRS-Dave]

Having met you, it's weird thinking that that is you singing. So deep and round, I had expected to be higher.

I like the keyboard intro in 'The Cold Within'.

Certainly a great start.

[nightmare]

Having met you, it's weird thinking that that is you singing. So deep and round, I had expected to be higher.

I like the keyboard intro in 'The Cold Within'.

Certainly a great start.

I can sing high as well haha but I have a tendancy to lean towards to the lower end,probably from all the gothic bands I like lol.

The Cold Within is one that I am proud of.There's a few good moments here and there I think in the songs.Obviously some are extremely similar,but I think that there are a few gems hiding in them somewhere.

[DSilence]

Just want to pass on a word of encouragement. I agree with what others have said & I also think you have potential, Maybe spending some time working on song writting skills, listening to a bunch of music/jamming and see what you can produce in the future! Good work bro.
I added you on myspace.

Cheers!

[jeremyb]

Sounds a bit like you're trying to channel Ian Curtis, but the music doesn't quite fit his voice, but its still way better than I could do so props to you dude!