eclecticnosepicker

Although it's not been discussed publicly, I know we've talked and you know I can make pretty decent sounding rock productions. As far as helping burgeoning indie artists here, I don't know how much help I'd be. I could definitely give mixing, arrangement, production, songwriting tips. The only problem being how much of the original artist would shine through. I tend to hear things a certain way and want them done in that fashion. Maybe that's the mark of a good producer? Or a tyrannical musical dictator!

Here's my favorite Ozzy guitar player showing you how to play the biggest song from that era properly. If you want a great left-hand work out, try playing the outro solo correctly on two strings as he shows you here. Those five fret stretches are really great for the hand.

The mix is a bit boxy sounding. A lot of EDM is really hyped. Big bass, bright treble. Your song has a lot of midrange, which would work for a rock arrangement, but it doesn't pop the way EDM should. Those synths at around 1:15 come in way too loud also, they bury everything else. The music itself doesn't really inspire to dance (down tempo harmonic minor stuff usually doesn't), but I don't think that was your intention since this was based on an old song. Just trying to electronify it?

My songwriting partner and I do the backing vocals together, at the same time, on one mic. I've found that two people singing together into the same mic makes the backing vocals sound WAY more full and lush than just one person doing all the singing, or two people doing the singing on different mics. I've read the same thing from a bunch of pro producers. Two voices into the same mic almost creates a new voice that's unique. We start with the low harmonies that are easy to sing, and that helps us warm us up. They're not the most prominent backing vocals in the mix, so if they're not absolutely dazzling it doesn't matter anyway. If they're not in tune or really crappy, then we scrap them right off the bat and just redo them immediately. We listen as we go, and if something's not up to snuff, we throw it out. Doing several tracks irons out any pitchiness, and we usually do several tracks to get a big sound. At the very least four for each part, because we want at least two tracks of the same part in each stereo channel. That really fills out the sound. After having warmed up doing the low backing vocals for every section that needs them, we're usually in good voice to do the main backing vocals in the middle register. And after we finish that, we're definitely warmed up enough to do the lead vocal. The backing vocals help in warming me up for the lead take, and the backing vocals themselves are usually satisfactory because we started with the easiest part for us to sing.

When I'm tracking a song I do the backing vocals first, so I guess that's my warm up for sounding better on the lead take. Haha. I practice guitar way more than I do singing. What are your warm up suggestions, Peggy?

This is a nice piano piece. A little harmonic minor flavor towards the beginning middle?

Did the poll!

I saw Rapid Fire in the thread title and immediately thought Judas Priest, but figured it was an original song. Pleased to see it really was Priest. Dude, you sound uncannily like Halford. I'm not just sucking up, 'cause I can call out crap when I hear it (politely). This isn't it. A great vocal take. The backing track on the other hand leaves something to be desired. Some of the riffs are simplified, sloppy, and the MIDI drums are robotic. I don't know if you created that though.