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Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2020 1:48 pm
by spamatica
Hi folks,

I have shuffled this one around for quite a while not sure when it would be finished or what I would do with it.
Today I thought, frick it, I'll just upload and share it!

A song about climate anxiety.

https://soundcloud.com/cdee/snotackta-falt

Hope you enjoy :)

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:44 am
by turbidh20
Brilliant! I love the music :D Unfortunately I can't comment on the lyrics (excuse my ignorance) but I'm a music first guy anyway. Excellent!

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 4:57 pm
by spamatica
turbidh20 wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:44 am Brilliant! I love the music :D Unfortunately I can't comment on the lyrics (excuse my ignorance) but I'm a music first guy anyway. Excellent!
Thank you :)
I'm 'a music first' kinda guy myself, and as it's in swedish I wasn't expecting that many to follow along with the lyrics ;) Not to shame them, I'm happy with how the lyrics turned out too!

For the curious, here's a bit translated:

Curves, Slopes, (snow)drifts, snow covered fields.
We race through curves, run down slopes, around snow covered fields.

Who can still recall, when the snow would stay around?
Though, clever as I am, I've saved a bit here.
In my pocket.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 7:11 pm
by jonetsu
In some regions there's already a lot less snow than years before. Never saw again since my youth a snow fall that would reach the roof of a single story house and where some would use snowmobiles on regular streets. Those days are gone. In those days we used to jump from a second story balcony into huge piles of snow. Lots of fun.

Now there's rarely enough snow to simply build a good snow shelter (quinzee) in one's backyard.

The song is pretty good, well-driven right from the start.

Cheers.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2020 3:53 pm
by milo
Nice rock n roll track. I especially like the guitar solo.

Is this a solo track or a group performance? The drums sound real.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:17 pm
by spamatica
Thanks @jonetsu and @milo!

And, nope the drums are the prepackaged kind, glad they sound convincing, I was definitely going for a 'live vibe'.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:44 pm
by jdfight
Nice track, I really enjoyed listening to it - It reminds me a bit of Frank Black (aka Black Francis from the Pixies) - Great energy and the band sound you got is great - The guitar solo was a lot of fun but to my ears it stuck out a little too far in the mix... maybe roll it back just a bit? That could have been due to the fact that I was listening on my laptop which has really bad speakers. -- Overall Very cool song!

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:19 am
by Basslint
Very good writing and mood!

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:27 pm
by spamatica
Thanks @jdfight and @Basslint :)

As for the solo being to high, I tried to listen but to my ear it sounds about right, putting it lower it might get too low.
I'm totally open to other opinions though, others think it's too high?

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 6:01 pm
by milo
spamatica wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:27 pmAs for the solo being to high, I tried to listen but to my ear it sounds about right, putting it lower it might get too low.
I'm totally open to other opinions though, others think it's too high?
I just took a few more listens.The guitar solo is a just a touch more prominent than the lead voice. I usually like to make those two parts approximately the same level. I think it's also partly because of the echo effects on the voice, which distributes the sound of that track into the mix a bit. Then the guitar, without an echo effect, really catches the ear because it is so precisely located in the mix.

But I don't think it sounds bad. In this genre you expect a bit of sloppy mixing anyway, at least on the vintage recordings.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:25 pm
by funkmuscle
Nice!! Did you use SoundCloud's mastering service also?

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:35 pm
by jdfight
@spamatica If the guitar solo sounds the way you want it to- then by all means go with it. I greatly enjoyed the track and it did remind me of some of Frank Black's solo albums, which -also had some very prominently mixed guitar solos! I think it was my laptop speakers that made the guitar jump out so much - When I listen on my headphones, it sits in the mix better.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:02 am
by oscillator
I listened to this before with Kajsa, and we both enjoyed it, but I forgot to comment.

This sounds LIVE, in a good way. And I can really feel with the lyrics (being one of the people that can understand the lyrics) -- really capturing the evertday observations of climate angst. It evokes memories of my childhood.

How did you do the drums?

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:44 pm
by spamatica
Hi guys,

was gonna reply earlier but sometimes I'm just not that trustworthy ... ; P

@milo @jdfight I've listened more and you guys are right, it's higher than necessary. I will probably do a re-release on Spotify if I manage to get a few more songs together, I'll rebalance this then.

@funcmuscle I did not try the mastering service so no idea if it is any good.
I'm mostly a do-it-yourself kind of guy. I want to be able to do it myself. Not that I always know what I'm doing but I'm fairly happy with the result. Mastering for me is basically a combo of Calf multiband compressor and calf multiband limiter on the output track in MusE. And keep pushing the levels up as far as you feel it's doing anything good. ; )

@oscillator thanks :)
The drums are provided by the windows plugin Addictive Drums2 through airwave vst bridge (and a lot of drum programming of course). It's a thorn in my side to use a windows plugin, if I could replace them with something linux based I would, but I know of no drum plugin in linux that even comes close.

Re: Snötäckta fält (snow covered fields)

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 6:22 pm
by jonetsu
spamatica wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:44 pm The drums are provided by the windows plugin Addictive Drums2 through airwave vst bridge (and a lot of drum programming of course). It's a thorn in my side to use a windows plugin, if I could replace them with something linux based I would, but I know of no drum plugin in linux that even comes close.
Why is it so evil ? Isn't that simple people who coded that drum machine ? They were not on Bill Gates' payroll. That they have chosen to get paid for their work is their choice. Not everyone can spend a lot of time designing and coding something and expecting nothing to bring bread on the table in return. Not everyone has that luxury of creating high-end software, and giving support and updates along the way, having nothing in return. People must live, buy food and clothes, pay mortgages, etc. What do you think of u-he's Linux synths ?

Cheers.