Because You Know – Song #2 in 52 Song Project
What did I learn from this second week?
- It’s too easy to get caught up in working on a song for hours only to realize that it’s crap by the time you’ve finished. I did that the other night and then had to decide if I just put it out or if I switched songs. I switched.
- Logic for OS X is easier for me to use than Audacity for Windows, but then again, Logic isn’t free
- I have a really difficult time keeping the songs simple. After wasting a ton of time on that other song, I had fully intended to just record a guitar/vocals version of this song. 3 hours later, I had this arrangement and instrumentation.
- Jonathan Coulton apparently did something very similar to this quite a while back, and he named it ‘Song a Week’ as well… Pure coincidence that our projects had the same name and similar set up, but even so, I decided to change the name to ’52 Song Project.’
Please let me know what you think. Last week’s feedback was really insightful.
You can download the mp3 HERE or from my not-updated-in-forever MySpace page.
Again, please tell me what you think… the good and the bad And, let me know if there’s a style you would like to hear, think I could do better, any of that.
See the those little Share buttons just to the right? Please share this. Maybe, I’ll do a more energetic song sometime where I incorporate the names of everyone who tweets these songs 
Thus far, I’ve had suggestions for a sea shanty and a Twitter song. Thoughts?
July 8th, 2009 at 8:17 am
That's the first song that I've listened to Eric, but think it is great! You have a lot of talent. Your voice seems like a cross of David Byrne and a bunch of others. I looking forward to listening to more.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Thank you very much, Joe
July 8th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Wow! What a project… I'm impressed by your ability to churn through a song a week and focus on some of the more important things in life. Keep em' comin!
Who knows you might come up with the Twitter tagline- Plus people tend to share things they know or feel strongly about.
I'd like to see you try to do some catchy jingles…not all songs are 2-3 minutes long
July 8th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Thanks, Marshall. I hadn't considered something like a jingle, but that would be interesting. Even if it was catchy, I think I'd feel cheap including it unless it was part of a larger attempt at a sort of theme song… like “Here's my suggestion for a Twitter/Friendfeed/Social networking theme song.”
July 8th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Well sir, I bow down and applaud your vision for the project. Looking forward to the Social Networking theme song though'
July 9th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Hi, Well No 2. is a much better effort. Even more so given just 3 hours, good to hear more your vocals too. Agree with the David Byrne comment. You really do nice work.
Now on with the grubby bits.
Vocals: Still too much reverb / echo. The doubling doesn't really lift the vocals but rather calls attention to some of the less strong bits of your register.
Guitar: Distortion, it sounds clipped rather than “rock and roll”.
Love the electric guitar and the vocals panned hard left and right in the B part. COnsider bring it in to about 50% spread.
All the transitions are too “bitsy”, the mix doesn't flow, it seems to jump from section to section. When the big guitar sound comes in at 3:08 it just seems seems to swamp everything. It would work so much better as a build to the sudden stop at the end and I bbsolutely love the end. Ironically it probably needed a tad bit more of a reverb tail.
I am really impressed with you output and the ideas so far(quite envious actually). I personally would love to hear the discards.
@topherotica Sorry but I disagree, with Eric releasing everything we get to hear how his ideas and execution develop over time, I don't see the songs as the destination but rather regular way stops on the journey. Have a listen to the first song and the second song, the vocals have improved by 100%. You wouldnt know how far Eric could come in a week without the first one to give you a place to start.
Compressing acoustic guitar is a minefield and good for hours of debate, personally I try to avoid it but a lot of engineers do. To get it sit in the mix with all the other guitar sounds you have try to very lightly compress it – a ratio of 2:1 or so should do the trick. Let's face it acoustic guitars itself are very dynamic and you really don't want to lose that.
Nice article in Sound On Sound about recording acoustics, might trigger some thoughts http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Aug01/articles/...
Absolutely looking forward to week 3.
thatch
July 10th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Thanks, thatch. I appreciate the specifics about the recording. I think I've now figured out why it sounds clipped, so am hoping that won't be there on the next recording.
Since I really like this song, I'm almost considering re-recording and remixing it if I have a major case of writer's block some week… although, that then wouldn't be a new song which would kind of make me feel cheap for not doing something new
Currently, I have a few ideas for the next song post that are similar in style to this song. That would give me a chance to improve on the recording and mixing of this week, but I am tempted to try a different sound this week so that I'm getting variety in the songs…not sure yet what I'll do.
Thanks for the link. Going to check it out later today
July 10th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Thanks, thatch. I appreciate the specifics about the recording. I think I've now figured out why it sounds clipped, so am hoping that won't be there on the next recording.
Since I really like this song, I'm almost considering re-recording and remixing it if I have a major case of writer's block some week… although, that then wouldn't be a new song which would kind of make me feel cheap for not doing something new
Currently, I have a few ideas for the next song post that are similar in style to this song. That would give me a chance to improve on the recording and mixing of this week, but I am tempted to try a different sound this week so that I'm getting variety in the songs…not sure yet what I'll do.
Thanks for the link. Going to check it out later today