Band Website Officially launched. AND we're done our Demo

Volitions Advocate

Hero Member
Messages
1,239
But I only have 1 song up so far.

Here's the Website: http://www.hollowembrace.com

and here is the first track on our demo. the 2nd and 3rd I dont have copies of ATM
http://www.taltopia.com/view/116890/user/0/1/Take-My-Place

lemmeknowwhatyouthink  :blob7:

The "gear" section is still under construction.
 
Bad ass song VA, love it, a bit long for radio play maybe. But killer non the less... :headbang1:
 
What do you think of the mixdown?

We've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best mix.  We purposely left the vocals a little low, figuring that most indie bands try to push them too much so that they can be heard better, leaving the band paper thin and in the dust.
I posted this on another forum of people I knew would be complete douches but I did it anyway.  And they're complaining about the mix like crazy.  Apparently the snare sounds like crap and the vocals have no dimension to them.

Some of them thought we weren't even using a multitrack recorder.  I'd like to chalk this all up to a bunch of asinine computer nerds, but I dont have my own head shoved up my butt so it's not like I'm refusing critisism.

I've been learning that even when you're making an effort to be humble, you really arent' your own worst critic.

I'd rather take advice from you guys because you're a little more connected to the real world (and to our guitar fantasy world  :laughing7: )

seriously... the first reply was "i can't tell by those pictures if your singer is hot or not, so i'm gonna say your website is no good."

 
I thought the mix was very good over all.  There were times where the vocal track seemed a little washed out, but it doesn't distract.  I think just a touch of reverd on the vocal track would thicken it up.  Nothing at all wrong with the voice though. 

Bill
 
Volitions Advocate said:
What do you think of the mixdown?

We've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best mix.  We purposely left the vocals a little low, figuring that most indie bands try to push them too much so that they can be heard better, leaving the band paper thin and in the dust.
I posted this on another forum of people I knew would be complete douches but I did it anyway.  And they're complaining about the mix like crazy.  Apparently the snare sounds like crap and the vocals have no dimension to them.

Some of them thought we weren't even using a multitrack recorder.  I'd like to chalk this all up to a bunch of asinine computer nerds, but I dont have my own head shoved up my butt so it's not like I'm refusing critisism.

I've been learning that even when you're making an effort to be humble, you really arent' your own worst critic.

I'd rather take advice from you guys because you're a little more connected to the real world (and to our guitar fantasy world  :laughing7: )

seriously... the first reply was "i can't tell by those pictures if your singer is hot or not, so i'm gonna say your website is no good."

I found the drums a little "roomy" for my tastes ... and not in the Jon Bohnam kind of way.  They sound a little washy.  I'm wondering if the tom mics were "open" throughout the song.  Gating them would probably tighten things up a bit.

Drums are really the hardest thing to record. 

Nothing wrong with the vox, though.  Placing vox in a mix will ALWAYS start an arguement.  Personally I like them up front, without too much FX, but that too depends on the song, style, etc.  If you feel that they're in the right place, they probably are!
 
I'll listen to the clip when it's quiet here, but the site looks good  :icon_thumright:
Quick suggestion as an amateur web designer- loose the splash page. It's not very useful, and is only an extra step to reaching the site itself.  :icon_thumright:
 
Good point...  I'll figure something out.

no the tom mics weren't gated.  He went in afterward and cut out the unused parts.  We tried to leave the toms nice and open.  I like the sound of a nicely tuned drum skin as opposed to one covered in duct tape to deaden it.  We tried for a little bit of room ambience rather than plastering fake 'verb on everything.  I agree with the idea of putting some reverb on vocals.  Although I'm suddenly wondering if this wasn't the newest mixdown.. I actually went and listened to the file i uploaded and I'm wondering a bit.

Funny thing is all 5 of us are present at mixing and we dont get into arguments over it.  oh well.. officially the demo is released on wednesday.  not that anything is official 'cause we're 100% indie, but thats the plan.  We're going to go spread them around the bar that night that we're playing at this friday hoping to get a few more butts wagging on the dance floor.  When that happens the whole thing will be up for download if anybody is interested.
 
My computer won't play it at the moment.  Anywho, about the mix (and music in general), I've had to learn to ignore people.  In the same club, people will tell me to turn the levels up and down.  My band just spent a small fortune on a demo, and since then the engineer that mixed it has won a grammy for another project.  Spent a small fortune, had a pro mix it, and people still tell us that we should have spent a little money on production value.  And the MP3 format myspace uses doesn't necessarily do wonders for it either.  I sent your band a friend request.  www.myspace.com/lwmoonshine
 
cool.

I'm not the one in charge of the myspace account, but i'll make sure Chris and Jaron know.

I think the production quality is top notch, sounds good man.

One thing is for sure, we're not going to master our own stuff. Hell at the moment we dont even have studio monitors.. we're using our PA, the computer is hooked right into the board.
But I agree,  everybody has an opinion, and if we're driving to create our sound, then we shouldn't make it sound the way the asses of the masses want.  Which isn't to say that a few tips dont help a great deal.
 
I liked it, it could be polished a tad for sure, but the performance is good and I think it translates well.

The Drummer does kind of remind me of Bill Ward in the early Sabbath days.
 
Other folks have talked about the music/recording, so I'll put my $0.02 in about the website.

First off - nice photo on the home page.  Having a good photographer is something that a lot of bands miss - glad that you took the time to get a good shot  :headbang:

next - the about the band page.  Too wordy my friend - no one looking to book a band will go through all of that.  Try instead one or two sentences describing the type of sound and instrumentation and the type of shows.  Then another 2 or so sentences about each member.  If you feel the need, have another link to a more information page for the full narrative, but I would not have it up front.

Photos - Hey!  where's that photo of that hot lead vocalist screaming into that SM58??  You need one of these.  Up front and center.  Even if you have to stage one - get one.

demo - why not put it up on the site?  It's pretty easy to stream music from the website - why direct folks to another site altogether?

finally - the gear page.  IMHO, cut it.  It's just a shopping list for thieves in your area and doesn't say much about the band/music.

my $0.02 - YMMV.
 
well the gear page isn't finished yet, the plan was to explain our rigs and what we use and why, just a quick little thing.  The reason for all of it is we got a checklist from some radio guys of what to put in a presskit and apparently with the way things are going with the music biz nowadays they want to know what equpiment you have, probably because they want to know exactly what they have to shell out for if they decide you're the next big thing.

Good idea about the band bio, I should get to work on that.

As for the pictures..  the ones on the pictures site I dont really like. they were after though pics taken when we were just kind of warming up.  The reason we only have the 1 photo is because pro - photographers are expensive and we didn't have enough money to pay for the whole shebang.  We'll get that in a bit.  Plus we have a show this friday,, should have some nice lights going on so we'll get some more good pics this time to post.  we just have to have SOMETHING up before the show because people have been bugging and bugging us for ages about it.  Something they can show their friends and convince them to come along.

As for putting the demo up on the site.  I want to make sure it's not going to cost a fortune in bandwidth if a bunch of people start downloading it, so I'm going to contact my host.  The site is already bigger than it should be.
 
The song is cool - but I personally wouldn't be able to live with the sound of the fuzzed out/wah guitar at the very beginning of the song (the one playing a melody over the clean guitar part). Sounds out of tune to me and doesn't fit. Just my opinion. I'm happier when it's over. Not real crazy about the solo either - doesn't work for me. Otherwise it's pretty rockin. :headbang:
 
Finally got around to listen to the song!
I like it - from the intro you almost expect it to be something like iron maiden!

Great website too! and yes, I read the whole band story!  one thing I noticed, you all have great rockstar names! :)
 
Back
Top