Opinions on some tracks?

[sjt269]

Right, well, I'm slowly getting bolder about letting people listen to my recordings, and since there is far more musical experience on OcUk that I currently have, I thought that posting said tracks on here might yield some good comments. I also know from my time here that OcUkers are brutally honest and will tell me if my stuff is rubbish, so I'm prepared.


www.steventhomson.co.uk/index.php?p=music

www.soundclick.com/steventhomson


None of the clips are proper final recordings, they're all rough demos/work in progress tracks. In consequence, some of the timing is a little sloppy, and there are no drums or lyrics to any of them (at least, none that are recorded, anyway). I stress again that they're all still in the ideas stage. One of them is a re-recording of an old track I entered for dmpoole's guitar thread ages ago (where loads of us all recorded songs and sent them to dmpoole, who hosted them on his webspace, remember?), but it's much better than it was then.


(I should point out that the 'Steven and Alan Jam #1' on my personal site was just a muckabout, don't take that one seriously - and I'm not the 'singer' )




I know people don't tend to post soundclips/songs for opinion on this forum, but what the hell, I figure I've got nothing to lose other than my self-esteem if this thread gets ignored/locked or if the tracks get slated.



Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if anyone would take the time to have a listen to the songs. The Soundclick ones are mostly the same as the ones on my own site. There's an extra one on Soundclick (short) that's not on my site, and the muckabout stuff isn't on Soundclick, but the more important ones are on both sites.



Thanks
tTz




PS: my site still has ocassional problems with the white text at the top, so if it shows up with half missing or something, just ignore it. Same for if the text comes out unreadably small, just zoom in.

 

[Sweetloaf]

First of all, well done, it may not seem like it to most but it does take guts to post your work on a forum, us guitarists are a sensitive lot deep down

Some nice ideas on the site, I'm more of a bluesman myself (it's the only style where you gain more respect the more wrinkly you become )

Keep up the good work and keep 'em coming

What do you use for drums? have you ever considered going down the downtempo dance/breakbeat route? This sort of atmospheric stuff believe it or not matches up really well, the beats themself are a piece of **** if you use something like Ableton Live. Probably not your style judging by your influences but give it a try, you may suprise yourself

 

[sjt269]

First of all, well done, it may not seem like it to most but it does take guts to post your work on a forum, us guitarists are a sensitive lot deep down

Heh, thank you.

you ever considered going down the downtempo dance/breakbeat route? This sort of atmospheric stuff believe it or not matches up really well, the beats themself are a piece of **** if you use something like Ableton Live. Probably not your style judging by your influences but give it a try, you may suprise yourself

Funnily enough, Ableton Live (edit: the 'Lite' version, I should point out) is what I use (got 4, 5 and 6, but I only use version 4). I recently discovered the drum samples (is that the right term?) in Ableton's Impulse plugin, and I've got a MIDI keyboard to use them, I'm just not very good at coming up with drum patterns for songs I've already got.

I'm open to all sorts of ideas, though I'll admit that seems a bit to me just now. Like you say though, I might surprise myself, so what the hell. It's not like I've got anything to lose.

 

[Sweetloaf]

I'm just not very good at coming up with drum patterns for songs I've already got.

Drums have always been my downfall as well (as well as playing guitar ) Drum loops can have the effect of sparking off an idea that you never realised you had, If you use Cubase at all I would also recommend Addictive Drums, it's a nice and simple VST plugin and sounds superb.

 

[sjt269]

Just added a new little melody thing to my personal page, might stick it on Soundclick too. Just picked up the guitar and out came this (imo) lovely melody/lead part/thing.



I'll keep an eye out for that VST you mentioned, Sweetloaf. To be honest, anything more than a kick drum, a cymbal and a snare or two confuses me, but I've always prided myself on being able to learn by throwing myself in at the deep end, so I won't let confusion stop me.