my first song.. comments are appreciated

[Yeri]

Hi,
here you can hear my first recording.
I'm totally a newbie (specially in recording matters) so any comments, suggestions,... are highly appreciated (however I'm very proud of the result )
Probably this song wouldn't still be done without the knowledge received from this forum

I've used rosegarden to record the song (everything is midi).
Guitar is played with a midi keyboard and synthesized using zynaddsubfx.
Drums are played with an e-drum and synthesized using Hydrogen (with free drum samples from the NDK library).
I've used Qtractor to record the audio (maybe ardour would be a better choice?)

I haven't done any mastering neither applied any effect at recording time.
IMHO guitar is not bad, but I guess that there must be better guitar synths.. do you know any ?

Thanks in advance,

Gerard.

[studio32]

congratulations. Nice for the first one

Sometimes I feel like the rhythm is somewhat lost. What is your song structure? Which sections do you have and how many bars does that have? On which beat(s) to you put a accent?

[Yeri]

Thanks for the comments

There are several places where the drums are not perfectly synchronized with the guitar.. I wanted to put a lot of drum variations and did not take excessive care in syncing perfectly with the guitar . Could be this the cause of rythm loosing that you mention ?

With regards to the guitar part, the song structure is more or less like this:
Intro (slow part) - 8 bars
dynamic rythm num 1 - 8 bars
dynamic rythm num 2 - 4 bars
dynamic rythm num 3 - 8 bars
dynamic rythm num 2 (again) - 4 bars (and with the drums a rythm with the toms)
dynamic rythm num 4 - 8 bars (alternating between hi-hat and toms in the drum rythm of the last 4 bars)
Intro (again) - 8 bars
Break (drum) - 1 bar
dynamic rythm num 5 - 4 bars
dynamic rythm num 6 - 4 bars (alternating between ride and toms in the drum rythm)
Ending - 4 bars

I'm not sure what an accent is. If it is related to intensity, I try to play all the dynamic parts at maximum intensity and I relax at the slow parts (which I call the intros).

Cheers,

Gerard.

[Capoeira]

that guitar you made in zynaddsubfx? how that?

sounds good, not talking of the drum-syncing

[Yeri]

sounds good

Thanks

that guitar you made in zynaddsubfx? how that?

Yes. It's made with two instances of zynaddsubfx playing the same notes. One with "Thrash guitar 1" and the other with "Dist guitar 5" in the guitar bank.
Thrash guitar 1 gives an obscure sound. On the other hand, dist guitar 5 gives a more defined sound helping to appreciate the details of the guitar parts.
IMO "Thrash guitar 2" is more similar to the kind of guitar that I was looking for, but its sound is too undefined and makes the song to sound confusing.

Does anyone know another option for synthesizing a thrash guitar ?.. maybe with soundfonts ?

Regards

Gerard.

[studio32]

Just an tip (not only for you), whenever possible, take music lessons or learn to play (with help of a teacher) an instrument!

[Capoeira]

learn to play (with help of a teacher) an instrument!

i learned piano for 5 years or so (in an music-school) and i CANT sync the drums correctly playing it live on my midi-keyboard. on the other hand, sequencing the drums gives a very unnatural sound

[studio32]

learn to play (with help of a teacher) an instrument!

i learned piano for 5 years or so (in an music-school) and i CANT sync the drums correctly playing it live on my midi-keyboard. on the other hand, sequencing the drums gives a very unnatural sound

I guess that's why most artist are in a band, so you have one specialized in keys and the other in drums
Maybe a linuxmusician can do the drums for you?

[Yeri]

Just an tip (not only for you), whenever possible, take music lessons or learn to play (with help of a teacher) an instrument!

sure that's important, but for me being autodidact is still more important.
The best is a combination of both, of course

[Capoeira]

learn to play (with help of a teacher) an instrument!

i learned piano for 5 years or so (in an music-school) and i CANT sync the drums correctly playing it live on my midi-keyboard. on the other hand, sequencing the drums gives a very unnatural sound

I guess that's why most artist are in a band, so you have one specialized in keys and the other in drums
Maybe a linuxmusician can do the drums for you?

its strange, because i play percussion-instruments too.........only drums on keyboard is very hard.
i guess i have to train this more, if i cant get this perhaps somebody could help, but i want to try to learn it. prince and stevie wonder can do this too cant they? ehehehhehehe

[Chipfryer]

First attempt
Wow I thought that was kicking. I have the same problem. Sometimes I want to check out of a chorus in just two bars. I'm not certain on how to change the time stamp at the moment.

Anyway excellent stuff. You'd never know it was a drum pattern editor, Great stuff.