Kara-Moon Forum

Ok, so made an album last summer and noone really ever heard it. I've been thinking on a solution to that and I've just decided that I'm gonna post it up on here so that should any of you poor misguided souls wish to hear it, then you can.

The album is themed and also cronological. It's a do***ent of a relationship that I was in for about five years and as such it has ups and downs. The songs were all meant to fade into each other when burned together onto CD. Should any of you actually want it in it's entirety then write me a pm and I will send you one. If you dont care about those sorts of things then you can just listen if you like. I'll post all of the songs on the forum. There are ten in all.

Anyway, this is track one. It's called Y'know What I Mean. (if that wasnt obvious from the title of the thread) It's sorta lo-fi-ish indie rock I guess. Or it might actually be a fish sandwich. I havent decided yet.

Any and all comments welcome. Positive, negative, expletive, whatever.
I hope that you all enjoy  ;D


                       Y'know What I Mean

       
          My head was down
          Facing the ground
          I wasnt much to talk about
          I was a dream when you were a scream
          I was impressed if y'know what I mean
          And I remembered once and you were my girl
          I was a crutch, but you gave it a whirl
          And I remembere twice and you were my queen
          I was impressed if y'know what I mean

          Lost then I'm found
          You're always around
          I like your smell and I like your sound
          I was the best when you knew the rest
          Let's get together now, we'll make a mess
          I remembered once, your little pharmacy
          It was the cutest one I had seen
          I remembered twice and you were my dream
          I was impressed if y'know what I mean

          Another one down
          I'm blue box bound
          Spring in my step cause I know you're around
          My heart's filled with weeds, but you're a new seed
          Your crooked grin now is all I need
          And I remembered once, you were dressed to stun
          Never knew falling could be such fun
          And I remembered twice and I was on my knees   
          I was impressed if y'know what I mean
         

I love the old punk rock style mixed in with the dillanesque harmonica.  Really clear recording.  Great vocals, all sounds blend really nice.  Sounds almost live.  I hear a theremin?  what a pallet.  Thank you for sharing.

Why, thank you good sir. This is about the extent of my harmonica playing unfortunately, but it was fun. It was the hardest track for me to record. The sounds in the middle are a mixture of the free Dr Phibes organ vst and about ten tracks of me and a friend drunkly trying to sing the chord progression in "ahhh's". Then I ran the whole thing through a bunch of effects. Thanks again for listening :)

Enjoyed it much. Good energy there. I taped my feet whole song. And yes, to me it sounds live.

Thanks emptysound:) I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was trying to make it sound like a band. I pretty much always try to do that, but its almost always just me. I like to mic things so I think that maybe adds to the live feeling perhaps. Everything is mic'ed even the drums and phibes vst were mic'ed from the monitors and run back into the computer.

I like this, Van Greco.
Love the driving energy and the mix. The guitar solos are the sort of style that appeals to me.....very Marc Knopfler inspired.
Well done. Fill your new artist page up with this stuff!
 ;)
James.

Thanks for the kinds words James. :)

Now that you mention it, I guess a couple of the little runs toward the end are kindof Knopfleresqe. I just improvised throughtout this whole song and then used volume automation to keep the lead out of the way of the vocals. Nonetheless, that is a comparison that I will gladly accept.

Thanks for listening and commenting.  ;D

Wow, thats great. I am going to try something like that.

BTW. Why don't you have a band to play your music ?

You should. I find it especially useful on the drums. I record the sound from the monitors with a pair of small diaphram condensers (mxl 603s in this case) in an xy configuration from across the room.(sometimes it can be cool to do it from the next room too) Then I blend that back into the dry drumtracks. I like it because it makes it makes the drums sound as if they are sortof in the same room as the guitar amps. (I also used a room mic for each close mic'd guitar track) Sometimes I'll compress the hell out of the mic'ed drum mix for effect.


Why dont I have a band? It was always a problem finding people to play with that werent either fucked up or just generally unreliable. Drummers have always been hard to come by for me. I just recently moved, so now I dont really know anyone at all in this new town yet. I do miss playing in the same room with other people though. I especially miss playing infront of people.  :(

yep I understand you

I forgot to add that it sounds like Alanis Morrisete.

And just one thing. Try to work on your breath, I hear you have problems with breath. Thats just my advice.

Lots of energy here, VG. Nice stuff.
Song and vocal style are reminiscent of good old Bob Dylan I think, not just the harmonica. Well, Bob on steroids that is.  ;D

You play the harmonica almost as well as I do. ;D

PS
I'll pm you for the cd.

Hi Van Greco
Excellent song and great vocals I like it.
Very enjoyable, I listened to it for half an hour and it sounds like you put a lot of effort in the mixing phase.
Everything has its space and frequency range, and it's harder for rock'n'roll 'cause there are dirty sounds and sometimes instrument fight in the same range.
Nice inspiration and melodies, I dig the Harmonica.
well done

Cheers

@ emptysound - yeah, I forget to breath sometimes.  :-[ 


@ Martin - I was listening to alot of Dylan's first album when I wrote this song. It is unusual for me in that it has no definite chorus section. I decided to try that from listening to Dylan which then lead me back to Leadbelly, Guthrie, etc. It's a pretty common form in old folk music. I then threw a little change in the middle just to keep it interesting.

@ Laguna - yes alot of effort did go into this, but nothing crazy really. Yes, the instruments definately all fight for space. Guitars are really guilty of this. They can quickly become muddy when you start to layer them. I'm glad you liked the harmonica. I might actually learn to play it one day ;)


Thanks for taking the time to listen guys :)

VanG..Heya..I like this a lot..I was reading what folks said while downloading impatiently.

OK, OK..I hear the Dylan, OK, but it's like way back there, and so was I [way back there], or it wouldn't be..to me I hear something I don't have a box to put it in, so I think its you I'm hearing..I'll know more when I get to listen to more of your stuff.

Oh man..the ending just about tore out my left eye..never expected that..needs to have some kinda warning label, especially after starting with that nice smooth innocent fade-in. ;D  Haha..Caution, seatbelts required!!

I like the thing you're doing, playing all the instruments..I try to do that too, but for me that usually means 'both' the instruments. ;D

I have often had to work with harp and guitar so they can both fit in the mix..I usually try to get a large separated sound, because, well I guess you gotta be going for something..

..anyway, my impression here is that everything is woven together very cooperatively, and the vocals sit in there nice too..kinda like equal-opportunity..I can hear it all pretty easy..nice guitar, too..yes.

Way to go with the mic setups too...if Ida tried to do it like that, it would have been rainin mud.

..thanks for letting us in on it.

Wyatt

yes, it's certainly not a straight up Dylanesque tune. What i took from listening to Dylan was mostly the idea to try and wrote a song in this form. It was a nice change from the usual ABAB type songs I do and it still rocked so that was important to me. I do try to make everything that I do my own.

The ending is sort of a surprise. The next song starts very suddenly after this one ends so that was the reason for it.

It was really difficult to get a harmonica sound that i liked. This was the first time i really spent any time trying to record harmonica parts. I ended using a comdo of condenser about a foot away and then a dynamic in hand that ran into a guitar amp with some slight overdrive with a 57 on the guitar amp. It was by far the most time consuming track for me in this song. You wouldnt have any harmonica recording tips would you? I dont use one alot, but I'm sure i'll pick it up again at some point in the not too distant future.

Thanks for the kind words about the mix. I do work on them a good deal. I've gotten much better than I was when I first started posting at the old Audtorium. i got alot of good help.

I did get pretty experimental with micing techniques when I was making this batch of songs. Alot of times it was really muddy and unusable, but after a while you start to know your mics and your room and then you really start to have fun with it.

 Thanks for the great comments Wyatt :)

Cool track! Great vocals and very nice guitars, great mix. The end doesn't really work for me as a stand alone track but I take it that it works better when fading into the next track.

Right on with that..make it your own..if I hadn't read Dylanesque or something, while I was downloading, I probably wouldn't have thought it..and he was one of my first influences in the 60s..not too long after I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan that first time.


Thanks for explaining that..whew ;D


OK..keep in mind that it's early, and this is off the top of my head..in no particular order..

I had one hard time mic'ing harps..I don't much like condensor mic's, but i may be a minority of one on that score..I have demo'ed them, and the only recording I liked was done side by side, along with a Shure PG-58..when I turned my head it sounded dimensionally moving..other than that, condensors made my harps sound too small..so I got rid of them.

I use a Shaker Harmonica Microphone..[dynamic]. I move a lot when I play, so its in the hand..gotta be. This sucker amps like a monster..I mean blow the roof off type of monster..bigger than my Strat..huge huge sound. Never been able to bring that sound back alive, but then, I haven't tried mic'ing the amp yet..not just duh, but I have gotten a sound I like..it's on my list to capture that huge huge sound, but offhand I don't know where Id put it.

I think if you like your sound better you might grab the harp sooner..

..so..hmm..I used to feel that even the best harp playerz didn't get showcased in the mix..well, worse than that..it used to sound like the band was onstage and the harp player was back in the bathroom..soo..

..what kind of sound are you looking for?

..what is it you don't like about yours?


..hope this helps you get closer to the sound you want..

Hmm..I want to try something..fasten your seatbelt, and check your messages.

Wyatt

Hi VG

Rockin Tune Dude!

Hey you could breath more if your stuck to 45 to 60 BPM tempos like yers truly ;)

I like the sound alot..


1 :)

@ Marc - Thanks man. I'm not sure if the transition will work for others, but it works for me. The abrupt ending to this one and the sudden stat to the second track amused me.

@ One - Thanks for chacking it out man. I guess the breathing could be a little distracting, but I didnt mind it so much. I could have taken it out, but oh well. Too late now. Fast songs are much harder for me, but I like them so much. I have to change it up or I get bored with myself.

@ Wyatt - I ended up getting what i wanted out of the harp tracks. It's just that i had to use two tracks to do it. The rest of the mix is pretty busy so it was tough to fit it in there for me. Most of the tone you can hear is actually from the amp, but I found that when I added the condenser track in that it cut through better. The condenser track on it's own was pretty horrible. It sounded just like someone playing a harmonica in a room and it was pretty wimpy compared to the rest of the track. It did more realisticly capture the high end though. It's very low in the mix, but it makes a big difference if it's not there.

I think that really what keeps me from recording the harmonica more often is the fact that I cant really play it all that well. I came up with this part while playing along to my guitar using a harp holder and when it came time o record it i found that I couldnt play it how I wanted unless i strapped on the guitar and went through the motions of playing it without hitting any strings and played the harp from the holder.

Hey VG


Naw Dude I meant yer breathing in reference to the comment that emptysound made. I was kidding! Er to the winny smiley ;)


Personally I'm really lazy about that stuff myself I leave it all in, breathing, nose whistles all of it :D


1 :)

Yeah, I knew you were just kidding man. I guess I was just talking. I do that too much probably. I leave the breating in sometimes and sometimes I dont. I'm right there with you on the laziness. I dont know about these nose whistles you speak of. They sound frightening. Thanks again one.  ;D

Also, we need better smilies.....pleeeease?

For me, the vocal made the song. Urgent, breathy, intent. Then ending on such a slope. Vintage Van Greco.

Oren.

A very strong song.
I like the lyrics but allso the way the song has been constructed. It's not often that you hear a song in this style without the typical AB construction.
And a good strong bridge. Perhaps you should buy one of those yamaha wx windcontroller to play the harmonica ?
I was a tiny bit disappointed about the end, doesn't realy honnor a song like this.

Anyway, a great track ! Thanks for sharing this here

Kara

Hey VG! Its rockin!

Really has a great live feel. Your recording techniques seem to work quite well. And, of course, the vocals and guitars are great.

Hi VG,

yeah, a solid and top level classic from you! I really enjoyed it, all is good here, guitars, harmonica, drums,the rest and, of course, this unique vocal!

Argh!! You kill me with your ending  :D

Must be the sixth time I listen to it in loop  ;)

Thanks!

bye

mag