mad world (tears for fears/donnie darko cover)

[Jae.Thomas]

http://jasonbrianmerrill.silverlogix...s/madworld.mp3

comments, suggestions, thoughts welcome

[tspring]

Jason,

This is nicely done and is one of the best vocals that I have heard you do. Very nice arrangement. The mix and recording is good except that the high frequencies seem attenuated. The absence of highs is especially evident on the snare and cymbals. I think that highs are cut on all tracks, although the vocal tracks actually sounds good as they are.

T

[fatstrat]

The hi-hat sounds very strange and up front, and maybe it's the speakers I'm listening on, but I hear some weird distortion that crackles a bit after a light *ding* sound? ("...filling up their glasses *ding*No expression..." it happens a few times before this line too)

Vocally, just a little shaky over the soft parts, like you're holding back. Don't take that in a bad way, I'm a horrible singer! I realized one day that I did a little better when I kept one ear open (headphone off) when recording so I could hear my voice naturally. For some reason it's harder for me to track vocals when all I can hear is the monitored vocal coming back to me in the headphones.

The vocal harmonies sound good, and incidentally, they sound like you're "pushing" them out. The vocals during the second half of the second verse sound the best in the song, really good. "..when to school and I was very nervous..." I would retrack and sing the entire song with that "aggressive" sound, even if the original is more mellow. It would suit your voice better, in my opinion. I've listened to some of your other stuff and you sound best vocally when you're putting some volume or air behind it.

I also like the "Mad World" vocals, cool reverb and musically, the instrumentation is tight.

Overall this is done very well.

[richlum]

Liked this.
Co-incidentally I'm learning this on piano at the moment (can't play piano very well... I mainly play guitar)

I really liked the variations in dynamics you have throughout the song with the breakdowns for some sections and then the layering of the vocals in others.

The drums sound a bit funny.. kinda thin in the cymbals and muffled for the kick and snare.

I'm getting the breaking up on the hihat aon the tail of some hits too.

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by tspring

Jason,

This is nicely done and is one of the best vocals that I have heard you do. Very nice arrangement. The mix and recording is good except that the high frequencies seem attenuated. The absence of highs is especially evident on the snare and cymbals. I think that highs are cut on all tracks, although the vocal tracks actually sounds good as they are.

T

the drumkit is purposely subdued, i wanted a nice, smooth sound from it, wasnt too concerned with the clarity in this one. I didnt purposely cut the highs on any other tracks, however.

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by fatstrat

The hi-hat sounds very strange and up front,

its hardly even a hihat... I put an envelope on it that makes it almost just a tick hehe

Originally Posted by fatstrat

and maybe it's the speakers I'm listening on, but I hear some weird distortion that crackles a bit after a light *ding* sound? ("...filling up their glasses *ding*No expression..." it happens a few times before this line too)

yeah those samples are "glitchy" on purpose. Im a big fan of industrial and glitch type sounds, so i kinda liked it

Originally Posted by fatstrat

Vocally, just a little shaky over the soft parts, like you're holding back. Don't take that in a bad way, I'm a horrible singer! I realized one day that I did a little better when I kept one ear open (headphone off) when recording so I could hear my voice naturally. For some reason it's harder for me to track vocals when all I can hear is the monitored vocal coming back to me in the headphones.

that was the hardest part, over the Em/A progression, and yes its a bit strained. That is because im not using my full on voice (the one that you hear on "went to school and i was very nervous) -- because i thought the strained voice sounded better... go figure!!! haha


and i actually love to go one headphone off during tracking as well..

Originally Posted by fatstrat

The vocal harmonies sound good, and incidentally, they sound like you're "pushing" them out. The vocals during the second half of the second verse sound the best in the song, really good. "..when to school and I was very nervous..." I would retrack and sing the entire song with that "aggressive" sound, even if the original is more mellow. It would suit your voice better, in my opinion. I've listened to some of your other stuff and you sound best vocally when you're putting some volume or air behind it.

thank you for that observation. I think my normal voice sounds a bit whiney though, so i sometimes stray from it.

Originally Posted by fatstrat

I also like the "Mad World" vocals, cool reverb and musically, the instrumentation is tight.

Overall this is done very well.

thanks for the comprehensive review and comments~!

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by richlum

Liked this.
Co-incidentally I'm learning this on piano at the moment (can't play piano very well... I mainly play guitar)

the best version of this song is done all on piano, off the donnie darko soundtrack. Its truly suicide inducing.

Originally Posted by richlum

I really liked the variations in dynamics you have throughout the song with the breakdowns for some sections and then the layering of the vocals in others.

I try and make things interesting for the listener, either by adding or taking away parts...

Originally Posted by richlum

The drums sound a bit funny.. kinda thin in the cymbals and muffled for the kick and snare.

I'm getting the breaking up on the hihat aon the tail of some hits too.

for all intents and purposes, i totally LOVED the snare i picked out for this song. Its actually 2 layered snares from the battery 3 artist kits, and the breakup you hear are some glitchy samples from the same set.

[tspring]

I did occur to me that you might be doing the drum thing intentionally. Another thing that I noticed is that there is a high frequency ringing (around 0:43 and 2:09 for example) that seems to be associated with the acoustic guitar. If I had to guess I'd say the ringing is an artifact generated by a misbehaving plug-in. Or maybe that is some of the glitchiness that you were goiing for?

T

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by tspring

I did occur to me that you might be doing the drum thing intentionally. Another thing that I noticed is that there is a high frequency ringing (around 0:43 and 2:09 for example) that seems to be associated with the acoustic guitar. If I had to guess I'd say the ringing is an artifact generated by a misbehaving plug-in. Or maybe that is some of the glitchiness that you were goiing for?

T

yeah, did you hear some kind of buzzing?

i was using a capo on my guitar and i think it generated some issues

but live and learn...

[tspring]

Maybe... the high E-string buzzing at the capo induces ringing in the string above the capo? The pitch of that string segment would be about right for the pitch of the ringing I hear.

T

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by tspring

Maybe... the high E-string buzzing at the capo induces ringing in the string above the capo? The pitch of that string segment would be about right for the pitch of the ringing I hear.

T

give me an exact time index (if you please) and ill check it out when i get home

[tspring]

Approximately 0:37, 0:41, 0:46, 0:51, 2:09, 2:18, 2:23. The ringing is fairly subtle and a casual listener probably wouldn't even notice it, but I did cause I was listening so carefully.

T

[Jae.Thomas]

Originally Posted by tspring

Approximately 0:37, 0:41, 0:46, 0:51, 2:09, 2:18, 2:23. The ringing is fairly subtle and a casual listener probably wouldn't even notice it, but I did cause I was listening so carefully.

T

wow thanks

thats aLOT!!!
hopefully i can figure out what it is.

[richlum]

Originally Posted by Jason Brian Merrill

the best version of this song is done all on piano, off the donnie darko soundtrack. Its truly suicide inducing.

I decided to learn this after seeing the Dresden Dolls cover it and thinking it was a cool song and wouldn't be that hard to learn for my limited piano skills.

Will have to check out the movie.

Thanks for the heads up.

[smueske]

I like this, but I do have a few comments. Most are just aesthetic things so take with a grain of salt.

I know you are going for a subdued drum sound, but the bass drum and snare have almost no character. The snare, in particular, sounds boxy and flat. I think if you found a better sound for those two drums, it would really help.

Also, I like the quiet vocals, but they sound a tad thin. I think they would sound better if you put a compressor on them so that there isn't such a wide range of dynamics. I know that dynamics are good, but I do think that a compressor would help even out the volume so that the lows and highs felt like they sat on the track.

Overall, though, I really enjoy the laid-back vibe of this.

Steve

[StepOne]

Sounds good, the off-key note at 1:21 is the only majorly noticable flaw I found.

It would be interesting to hear a mix with copious amounts of reverb on the snare, perhaps even only on specific beats, like the 2nd and 4th hits of each measure