New Songs

I’ve been an N-Track user for a decade, or so, but only recently have I tried to write any original songs.
Check out the two songs at:

Music of David Caughey

Click on “Original Songs” in the Navigation panel on the left to see embedded versions of the two songs.

And let me know what you think (please be kind to a newbie songwriter …)

Dave

Thanks for sharing Dave. I’ll have a listen when I get home.

Cheers

Dave, those are really good.
Very well constructed songs, played really nicely.
I would like to hear the lead vocal up just the tiniest bit, but that’s not a criticism of the songs.
:agree:

Edit: I know what it is about the lead - the reverb on the main vocal is very reminiscent of the vocal sound on 60s folk recordings. I bet your lead vocal would stand out just a bit more if you backed off just a little on the reverb. You’d hear more of the richness of your voice, as well. Again, this is trivial, and not at all about the songwriting.

Yep. very nicely done… at least to these ears. So these are nit-picking comments…

Actually, unlike Tom, I think the lead vocal could go down a little on Never Alone. :)

On the production side of things it would be nice to have the drum loop change a little.

Nice guitar sound on Knocking holes.

Great stuff

Mark

Many thanks, guys.
To TomS: you (correctly) identified me as a folkie from the 60s!
and To Mark A: yes, I need to learn how to do drum loops;
on these recordings, I simply used an automatic chordal arpeggiator (is that a word?) with built-in drum loop from my Yamaha keyboard, adding my mic-ed Martin guitar and vocal(s).
In addition to having no variation in the drum beats, you may have noticed that I can’t do any ritard at the end.

(Any recommendations for drum-kit software?)

Thanks again!

Quote: (DACaughey @ Sep. 07 2011, 10:21 AM)

(Any recommendations for drum-kit software?)

Well apart from a real drum kit :)

I have used various techniques and bits of software over the years.

In recent years there have been some great software simulations. One that I've used recently is Toontrack's EZDrummer. It's a virtual drum kit and comes with a set of loops and fills that you can assemble a drum track from. Or if you are good with midi you can program your own or tap them in from a keyboard or drum machine.

Or there's the BFD Eco product which Tom alerted us to recently that's on sale for $29US. At that price it's certainly worth a look... I will be grabbing a copy.

Hope that helps

Mark
Quote: (DACaughey @ Sep. 05 2011, 6:02 PM)

I've been an N-Track user for a decade, or so, but only recently have I tried to write any original songs.
Check out the two songs at:

Music of David Caughey

Click on "Original Songs" in the Navigation panel on the left to see embedded versions of the two songs.

And let me know what you think (please be kind to a newbie songwriter ...)

Dave

That's a nice page you have ..
You have some great tracks on those songs to support your vocal lines..
:agree:
:)
:agree:






Bill..

The BFD stuff is supposed to be good, but I can’t get it to work, and they haven’t responded to my emails. One thing I have discovered – midi drum grooves, where a real drummer records the midi data, is much better than just making your own parts, esp. if they are quantized.

Quote: (TomS @ Sep. 07 2011, 4:53 PM)

The BFD stuff is supposed to be good, but I can't get it to work, and they haven't responded to my emails.
One thing I have discovered -- midi drum grooves, where a real drummer records the midi data, is much better than just making your own parts, esp. if they are quantized.

I mostly agree with that statement Tom, but I sometimes use my drum machine - which has velocity sensitive pads - to program the drums. I'll play the song through in real time maybe doing just the kick and snare, and then add hihat/rides and crashes on a 2nd pass. Then a bit of a tidy up and a bit of quantisation etc. I've had a proper drummer think that my parts done like this are real drums played by a drummer.

I think that doing it this way enables me to have some variation of drums through the song - ie you don't get the same fill at the same point on every verse ('cos let's face it, once you've programmed one verse the tendency is to cut and paste it!).

However, I also think that the music listening population is becoming so accustomed to programmed drums that nobody really notices anymore.

Sorry – I tried to do an edit to my original message, but was told that, because I was logged in as “DACaughey” I did not have permission to edit my own message …

Anyway, I’ve changed the link to:
DACaugheyMusic.com/mp3/

Dave

Quote: (DACaughey @ Sep. 11 2011, 1:24 PM)

Sorry -- I tried to do an edit to my original message, but was told that, because I was logged in as "DACaughey" I did not have permission to edit my own message ...

Anyway, I've changed the link to:
DACaugheyMusic.com/mp3/

Dave

Yeah, the forum does that. You can edit a post for a short while afterwards. After that it's locked. Kinda makes sense I suppose - stops people saying one thing, a whole discussion following, and then they go and edit the first post so it no longer makes sense.