Beat Crazy: Work in progress for the new album

    Some might remember that I wrote a while ago about our process of writing and recording songs for the new album, and that we intended to record it live (i.e. backing tracks would be played by all the band at once and simultaneously) and that a performance would only be kept if it was good, no post editing allowed as a premise.
    Well, life gets in the way sometimes: Our keyboard player had to have heart valve surgery, which was totally unforeseen and threw us all back for a few months (operation, rehab, reconvalescence).
    In the meantime we rehearsed of course but refused to record as that would have been against the premise of playing together.
    But now we're back in the game (with him of course) and are going steadily.


    I just finished the first song 'TOO MANY GODS IN THE SKY' (which we believe will be the title track).
    It features drums, bass, keyboards and two guitars, all recorded live together with no post editing.
    Vocals were overdubbed though.
    The mix is quite like I imagined it to be, perhaps vocals could be a little bit less loud.
    let's hear some opinions, please.


    Here it is:

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    Lyrics:


    Too Many Gods In The Sky



    Verse
    Waking up and my heart is empty
    The papers tell me about rotten relationships
    The neon lights are all so tempting
    I feel surrounded by 1000 ego trips
    A perfect life that I would like to live
    Is something they cannot give me
    But they seem to know what's good for you
    And I wonder why?
    Chorus
    Too many gods in the sky
    Too many float my cathedral
    Dancing with tears in my eyes
    Greed is the root of all evil
    Evil
    Verse
    I never thought we'd be so stupid
    When all I ever wanted was talk to you
    Too many people seem to lose it
    Religious leaders claim to have a clue
    Telling young men to blow themselves up
    There is no truth in a lie
    How can I even make it stop
    All you do is die
    Chorus
    Too many gods in the sky
    Too many float my cathedral
    Dancing with tears in my eyes
    Hate is the root of all evil
    Hate is the root of all evil
    Mittelteil
    We're all stuck on a grid
    We're stuck on a grid
    We're stuck on a grid
    We're all drowning bit by bit
    We're drowning bit by bit
    Drowning bit by bit
    We're all stuck on a grid
    We're stuck on a grid
    We're stuck on a grid and I say
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba
    We're all dying bit by bit
    Dying bit by bit
    We're dying bit by bit and I say
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba
    Chorus
    Too many gods in the sky
    Too many float my cathedral
    Dancing with tears in my eyes
    God is the root of all evil .
    Chorus
    Too many gods in the sky
    Too many float my cathedral
    This is all passing me by
    I'll never lose my free will
    Outro
    I'll never lose my free will.
    I'll never lose my free will.
    Copyright © 2016 Beat Crazy

    I really like that - I think the lyrics are very good and the singing / playing / melody is great.


    I also think the mix works nicely. I'm listening through headphones (it's late) but, through the phones, I wouldn't have put the vocals any lower personally but as I've said on the other thread I don't always make the best decisions on these things :) You can certainly pick out all the instruments and they all have their space/


    Very nice :)

    Quote from Gary_W

    I really like that - I think the lyrics are very good and the singing / playing / melody is great.


    I also think the mix works nicely. I'm listening through headphones (it's late) but, through the phones, I wouldn't have put the vocals any lower personally but as I've said on the other thread I don't always make the best decisions on these things :) You can certainly pick out all the instruments and they all have their space/


    Very nice :)

    Thank you. That is what I WANTED/NEEDED to hear. :) It's my gut feeling, too. A musician friend of mine found the drums too quiet (although he's not a drummer. ;) ) so I got a tad insecure.

    Just had another quick listen through phones. Maybe snare up just a fraction if I'm being picky? The kick comes through very strongly that maybe the snare gets a little lost in comparison when all the other instruments are in. Also, if your friend listened on Soundcloud, the usual thing of the cymbals sounding a bit weird due to their compression not being great?


    But that's me trying to find something with my not very good ears!

    I like it too.
    Just my opinion, but I would make the first verse guitars slightly rougher and without the picking, bring that in next verse.
    The chorus vocal could be harder? harsher? something to make it a bit more special.
    Just my opinion and what do I know:)
    Nice mix.
    Woof!

    Another general question for you native sprakers. I'm getting some flak in a German forum about the use of some phrases in these lyrics (which is a German phenomenon, critisizing somebody for lyrics while they don't even natively speak the language).
    Is there anything here where you ask yourself: 'WTF what does this mean, he must be German?'
    I'm genuinely interested.

    Quote from Ingolf

    Another general question for you native sprakers. I'm getting some flak in a German forum about the use of some phrases in these lyrics (which is a German phenomenon, critisizing somebody for lyrics while they don't even natively speak the language).
    Is there anything here where you ask yourself: 'WTF what does this mean, he must be German?'
    I'm genuinely interested.

    I think maybe it's this bit they're referring to :
    "ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba-ba-da
    ba-ba"


    :D


    Nah, in all seriousness, the only thing that's slightly wonky is this :
    "How can I even make it stop"
    The use of "even" here is a bit strange. I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but an alternative could be "How could I ever make it stop".


    Nice track! Me, I'd like the guitars and keys to be more prominent, though use automation to bring certain roles out at certain times, to keep things interesting and to not drown the vocals (which I'd like to tighten up a little in a couple of sections). The punchy drum sound seems a little out of place with the way the rest of the instruments are balanced in this mix. If the rest of the parts are to remain at the same level, I'd be tempted to tone down the drum transients a bit; make them more Beatles-y and less Steven Slate, if you get what I mean. There are some very nice melodies here, Ingolf! Well done


    Edit : on second listen through different speakers, the vocals sound too dominant, and I think that they're what make me think that the other instruments should come up in level. It does kind of reveal that the other parts were recorded together and the vocals placed on top. I wonder if you'd done a monitor mix after doing the live stuff and before tracking the vocals? It's very tempting to start the final mix from there and try to get the lot to gel, but most of the time it's easier to start afresh and with an empty new project/session :)

    47 years of being a native English speaker. Which means I can order beer in 14 other languages but otherwise not so good. I always try wherever I am to speak the Native language and usually end up speaking to a French person where I'll throw in a bit of French, a Spanish word, a phrase of German and then descend into English but louder and with a comedy French accent :)


    The lyrics all make grammatical sense in English - there is no phrase that sticks out and says 'that's written by a non-native English speaker'. You're rhyming on pronounciation and not the written word which is a good thing. Maybe they're picking up on that? The only thing that may give it away 'on paper' is the language is kept simple - there are something like 150,000 words in English but most people typically get by with 400 or so! The language you're using would be too simple for poetry but to be honest, a pop song normally does keep it simple. It's pretty normal not to use 'pretty' words in a pop song.


    One thing that *might* give it away is that it's very direct. Again, Brits tend to think of Germans as 'getting to the point quite quickly'. We've got a friend who is German who some mutual (British) friends think is 'a bit rude'. The friend is not rude - just German and the style of language is more direct. A lot of songs will have more imagery and leave something to the imagination / loose interpretation. This is in various degrees - your song leaves little room to interpret anything other than your intended message. This can be entirely what you want but sometimes a bit of mystery is fun. Something like 'some men look to find their heaven in the bottom of a glass, but whispered words turn paradise into hate filled shocking blasts'. Or some such thing anyway.... that would need work as it doesn't scan but it's to illustrate what I mean - it's saying the same thing but making the listener do a bit of work. Mind you, some of the best songs are completely in your face so what do I know? :)


    Only thing I'd change in the written lyrics is not mentioning the ba-ba-ba's with that much accuracy - that does seem like a German stereotype in terms of us Brits tend to think of you guys as very precise, accurate and efficient in the same way you guys tend to think we don't take anything seriously :). In written lyrics here you'd probably put down ba-ba-ba etc or just not mention them..... no one needs to read that bit.


    All IMO of course - this is art and none of it is wrong. Just what connects with someone.

    Quote from sambrox


    Edit : on second listen through different speakers, the vocals sound too dominant, and I think that they're what make me think that the other instruments should come up in level. It does kind of reveal that the other parts were recorded together and the vocals placed on top. I wonder if you'd done a monitor mix after doing the live stuff and before tracking the vocals? It's very tempting to start the final mix from there and try to get the lot to gel, but most of the time it's easier to start afresh and with an empty new project/session :)

    Thanks for these constructive hints. I think this goes in accordance with what @Robbue said. I'll cut the main vocals down a bit in the lower mids and bass. This alone will help the backing stand out more.

    Haha, I think you're spot on with your comments, mate.
    The dilemma for us is that with having spent our formative years with the cream of the crop of sophistication of British alt pop music (like XTC, Elvis Costello and the like) including studying their music and lyrics we can never dream to match their genius in songwriting (lyrics- wise) as non- native speakers but only can hope to "get away with it" and not be too overly annoying. ;)

    Well done, Ingy!


    On my pathetic, low-volume, no-bass, mono speaker, the first thing that stood out to me was that the lead vocal has too much sibilance action going on. "T" and "D" tell me it's not so much the usual "S" range for males that's the issue. I'm guessing that some "air" you've added has extended downward into the sibilant range.


    "When all I ever wanted was talk to you" is grammatically-incorrect. Alternatives might be:


    1) When all I ever wanted was to talk to you
    2) When all I ever want is to talk to you


    Option two has the same number of syllables as the original you sang, so this might be your first preference.
    If you feel you need to say it in the past tense, option one might be the way to go.


    I especially like the way you slide the vocals up at the and of the "Mittelteil". Excellent!


    Again, well done mate, and keep it up. So good to hear your keyboardist's OK now too!

    Cool song Ingolf! I enjoyed it a lot.


    I'm not sure you'd want any feedback on mixing from me of all people but I also agree with the others who feel that the lead vox are a little high in the mix and I'd probably experiment with dropping the treble a little and popping in a de-esser. I'd also maybe opt for a slightly softer snare drum sound that's a little less metallic and push up the kick drum slightly, but that's just my personal preference when it comes to drum sounds.

    Welldone song!


    Let me say in a direct german speaking way ;)
    My first impression: vocal is loud and special in the Chorus a little too soft (it's not a love song).
    I would like to hear more bass and sometime the guitar plays to much.
    More tension can be established with breaks, dynamic and/ore more economical use. For me it could be done more as it is already.
    A professional mix will improve the result very much.


    Now a short personal summery :)
    I like the chord progressions. The song structure is very appealing. The performance of everybody is very good.
    The song has quality and has also a statement - which is not found very often :thumbup:
    I wish lot of success and best health rehabilitation for the Keyboarder.

    Thanks. Well, bear with me, this is only the first rough mix of the new song cycle to give me a feeling how things will be perceived by you guys despite my several monitoring conditions to do a proper mix. While I'm not a pro mixer I have successfully done it before and intend to grow with this present task as well.
    The album will be mastered by @Robbue at indoeaudiomastering.com who I can totally recommend to do such a job though.

    Finally I took some time to listen to your song on my monitors, it's a great track , no doubt, the mix and dubs are really well done.


    Only Gripe for me would be the verb or the samples on the drums , they are too cold for my taste, but I don't really like pop drums anyway, so don't listen to my advice ;)


    I would also have backed up the vocals and let them breath a little more with a longer or different type of verb/delay , but once again my reference is Alan Parsons when it comes to vocals, so that's only a partial judgment from me,and I don't sing !


    looking forward the mastered track.


    Renaud.