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  •  production comments... (2+ / 0-)

    First, where are y'all located and when/where are you playing in the San Francisco Bay Area?   Depending on my schedule I might come...

    Second, production notes (speaking from experience on the other side of the glass), having listened a few times through plus numerous rewinds to various parts.  If this is useful, good, if it's not, sorry for wasting your time with it...

    The more I listen to this the more I get a sense of what you're doing with it; it reminds me of another band I knew years ago, hopefully the times are more receptive to this now than in those days.  Thoughtful and with subtle intensity rather than in-your-face.  

    Lead guitars could do for a bit more edge, more high-end presence throughout the entire piece.  You have a nice soulful tone there, at times haunting, at times meditative, it's basically OK but could do for a little more punch in places.  

    Also a bit more edge in the snare drum in the more sparse parts of the intro.  I would suggest setting up two drum mixes, one reserved for times when drum parts are highlighted.    

    Bass tone works fine as it stands.  I have a few ideas for production techniques that could work in places but not critical.  You've got a good tone there, with some edge but not overdone, and with nice depth.

    Your lead vocalist has a very nice tone, even harmonics (frequency distribution of the voice), no nasty odd harmonics, good enunciation, good control.  That's about a 1-in-100 voice there just based on the harmonics and intonation.  Second verse is a good example in particular.  

    Darn, I like what you're doing with the guitars there, it seems there could be a bit more of it, i.e. what I've been saying about edge and high end.  

    The lyric section, "forgetting everything..." works as a break part, in which case it might want a backing vocal off in the distance.  If I were doing it, I'd be looking for a male backing vocal in a lower pitch range than the lead, and a slightly different vocal melody for the backing track.   The small guitar part on the right track just could come up in volume just slightly, or again same comment about a bit more high end.  

    The last verse, "the waves are rolling in.." if I were producing it, I'd add two backing vocals in the distance: one the same as for the break (male, lower pitch range), the other a female vocalist in a higher range; these would be purely accent parts, fractional harmony on a few words here and there.  

    The transition between the last verse and the instrumental parts after that seemed a bit abrupt; if that's what you're going for, then changing the texture of the backing tracks might help accent it.  Or if you're going for more continuity than that, there's a space in the frequency spectrum just a bit lower than the vocal part that could be occupied with something as a brief transition to the instrumental part after the last verse.  There are some nice background subtleties in the instrumental parts as the song ends, hmm...

    Back to guitars again: it occurs to me that what I'm thinking of here re. presence & punch could be achieved with microphone selection.

    Don't worry about not using conventional song structure here, you can get away without it; catchy lines can help make a song contagious but also not essential.  You've got a very nice soulful and meditative thing going there; I don't know what the current audience demographics are but it stands on the artistic merits and people will find you.  

    --

    Checking out your website:  Yeah I definitely like what youse guys are doing there.  You've certainly got the creative chops together and intereting songs as far as I've heard, and your lead vocalist definitely has the 1-in-100 voice which is important.  And your live stuff hangs together really well too, including vocals; all of which is rare for bands that have a more complex sound in their studio productions.  

    OK, so when are you playing around Oakland or San Francisco?  And do you have a regular mailing list for upcoming shows?  (should I just write to the contact address and say "add to mailing list"?)  

    •  Very grateful for your praise (0+ / 0-)

      Again, many thanks for your wealth of in-depth comments, G2geek. I want to speak to all your points and tell you why it is what it is.

      From 2002-2004 Honey White was based in Santa Barbara (where we recorded our first demo), but when various reasons made it necessary for 3/4 of us to move away from SB, we considered ourselves "mobile" but still gathered in SB to rehearse for fun or before a gig. The city is a nice midpoint for 1 guy coming from SoCal and another coming from... San Francisco! Yes, that's right, for 3 years our main guitarist has lived in SF, and we were still unable to book a show there. Now he has been accepted as a PhD candidate on the east coast, for 5 years, so it appears that we may be seriously inactive on the gig front for the forseeable future.

      However, we did spend substantial amounts of time in SF during 2004 to record the album that this song is taken from. We were able to track it at this studio and had the essential assistance of a great engineer, a guy for whom we have tremendous professional respect. We were able to finish the album and release it, DIY-style, over the web via CD Baby and iTunes, and also pressed a short run of 500 CDs. So, I'm sorry that in a sense your tips for recording are great for future knowledge, but a bit late for this particular project! ;-)

      Anyway, I myself being a graphic designer have taken care of all the album covers, posters, web work, etc., but alas I am not a competent band manager. That's ok, though, cause we long ago accepted that we would not, and would not seek to be, "signed" in the conventional sense to any kind of label. That's been very liberating as far as being able to make the music we want to make, play the venues we want to play, and not feel forced to become jerky rock stars in order to get gigs or promote our work. None of us have the winner-take-all temperment for the music biz anyway. I'm very happy that I've been able to be creative in bands for over 10 years and not have to worry about living up to somebody else's expectations of "what it takes" or "how things are in this business".

      So yes, we're DIY, indie, however you want to describe it, but music for me is still a hobby- albeit a very expensive, very creatively rewarding hobby. If you want to know more or are looking for specific links just email me (check my Dkos profile) and I'll be happy to flood you with stuff. Thanks again.

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