Is your drummer on the demo?
Good ear - no, he's not. The demos have programmed drums. When we record properly we'll be doing his drums in studio.
Ok. I saw some of the comments about the drummer on the MP forum. Let me start out by saying that ultimately I will defer to the opinion of a drummer on a drummer (I'm basically a guitarist), but I disagree with the comments on your drummer with those at MPF.
When I listened to the demo, my comment was going to be "the drums are boring". And I'm not talking about robotic timing or percussion sounds of a "drum machine/software". But I recalled liking your drummer on the live video, so I put it back on and it felt like night and day. All the flam/rudiment embellishments on the drums and cymbals gave the drum "track" lots of life. All the little things equivalent to what we as guitarists do with our hands without even thinking about it that most the time wouldn't even be transcribed. I don't agree that he is overplaying. I think the demo created the basic drum "groove", but your drummer is creating all the ambience that the casual listener translates into "I like this" without even really understanding exactly why they like it.
Now onto the other "big discussion". The vocalist. To dismiss her as "not that great" is only half the picture. I hear it all the time. Especially when a friend talks me into watching "American Idol" or something like that. A singer can sound great on the *hard parts*. The soaring, higher pitched vocals, and then sound very mediocre and even out of tune on the *easy* borderline "talking" vocals.
Essentially, your vocalist has a pretty good handle on the "harder" stuff. For the most part, the higher pitched stuff. When she goes lower (for a female), it starts to get a bit off. This is probably a difference of natural talent v. training to overcome your weaknesses. Or maybe her voice will just never sound that way? Don't know. We don't ask Joe Cocker to sing in the style of Ann Wilson, or vice versa. Other than getting with a vocal coach to see if those edges can be smoothed out, perhaps consider some vocal doubling with that stuff. It could be her doubling the track, some effects work (reverb, autocorrecting but only adding the autocorrect in as 20-30% of the total vocal mix to create some *natural* chorusing) or even another person in the band doubling like Bieler/Kramer in Saigon Kick or Cantrell/Staley in Alice in Chains. It might lead to some interesting results (or it could result in a hot mess). It doesn't matter if the band member doubling has a great vocal timbre. If they are relatively in pitch, the ear usually hears the combined results.
The actual songwriting I will have to listen to in a different frame of mind. It is harder to decide if you truly enjoy something if you go in critical on the very first listen. I've also had prog-fatigue the last year or two, so that makes it harder to connect right now. I do recall there was one part of one of the songs where you were soloing/thematic playing where the band went from busy to subtle, on your very last note. Liked that a lot.
Topic: Will you do me a favour and ruthlessly critique my band?? (Read 2733 times)
