My band Stone Caravan

[Quartz]

I got a band together with my best friend. It's been an adventure, a rather rough and challenging one, since I've only been doing music for four years.

We recorded with Audacity, which is the source of many of the mistakes you may hear. That and me drumming after only playing drums for 2 months. Yeahhhh. It's been a learning experience, and we've taken a lot away from it. Our next songs will undoubtedly be of even higher quality.

Give it a listen if you please. I would really appreciate it! All four of the songs only add up to 12 minutes. Feedback is welcome so long as it is is constructive. (Also, if you can't quite put something into words due to lack of musical knowledge or whatever else, never fear, I can most likely figure out what it is you're talking about.)

https://soundcloud.com/quartzlcc/sets/door-to-the-past

Y'all have been very supportive of my art in the past -- that being Bitfighter maps. Whether you take a listen or not, I do appreciate you all for the support in my artwork as a whole.

"Sorry! We can't find that playlist."
- Sound Cloud

[Quartz]

"Sorry! We can't find that playlist."
- Sound Cloud

Yeah my bad. It should work now.

[kaen]

Is that you doing the falsetto on "Not Ready"? I like it, but you should commit to it a bit more. It sounds like you think it's silly, and that comes through on the recording, whereas I think falsetto there is a perfect complement. When you're using your full voice I think you need more support (as in vocal projection). It sounds like neither of you have vocal training, but that's cool because it works well with the lowfi/garage band feel the tracks have. I only mention vocal support because it makes the vocals feel less powerful than they could be. (Lyrics are great, no complaints here). The instrumentation in the chorus/verses is top-notch imo. Better than most top 40 over-produced garbage by far.

I think the bridge in "Better" could use some work. The start is like acoustic Metallica, then it has that cool Violent Femmes frantic looseness to it near the end, but it's almost a little too out of time for my taste. I think it just needs to be tightened up a bit. When you come back with the reprisal/crescendo I think you could go a bit harder, but I totally felt it. I think if you commit a bit harder there it'll be even more powerful.

Coffee Break is Push of War turned to music. Fine with me as long as it's short.

"Over It" is great. Like timeless classics of the decade good. It reminds me of Mumford and Sons at the start, but it takes a pretty different direction about midway through. Is that a synth after the bridge? I see where you were going but the timbre of it throws off the pensive vibe of the rest of the song. Maybe if you add some distortion to that channel? It works well to complement the melody (maybe it should be playing a harmony though), but I think it definitely needs something to give it more texture so it sounds less like a toy piano.

Overall, really good stuff. Definitely not what I expected given your previous work with bobdaduck and your affinity for slipknot. I can't wait to see how good it gets once you match your bitfighter map-making level of time investment. Good luck you guys.

Nicely done! Love your style. I'm not very musically-inclined so I'll just default to what kaen said.

[Quartz]

Is that you doing the falsetto on "Not Ready"? I like it, but you should commit to it a bit more. It sounds like you think it's silly, and that comes through on the recording, whereas I think falsetto there is a perfect complement. When you're using your full voice I think you need more support (as in vocal projection). It sounds like neither of you have vocal training, but that's cool because it works well with the lowfi/garage band feel the tracks have. I only mention vocal support because it makes the vocals feel less powerful than they could be. (Lyrics are great, no complaints here). The instrumentation in the chorus/verses is top-notch imo. Better than most top 40 over-produced garbage by far.

Interesting observation, not gonna lie. I have a hard time not thinking of my falsetto as silly because I have over a 3 1/2 octave range* but lack the ability to blend head and chest voice as of yet, so I have this deep, full vocal that I can go big on in the lows and mids and then my highs and uber highs just sound fucking ridiculous next to that. Do you have any tips on that or..?
I was really uncomfortable doing full voice on this album in general. As a guy who's into hard rock I want to go big, or if I do anything quiet, I want to do the whole sort of muttering with vocal fry thing that became popular in the 90's onward (Nirvana, Korn, etc). So that's probably what you're picking up on.
I have about a year of vocal training but it was early on. I've been singing 4 years, and about a 1/2 year in is when I had a vocal coach for a year, so.
No offense meant but you may be picking up a bit on the fact that the production wasn't professional or near-professional in general, including the vocals. Practically no professional song is without its vocal filters, even light ones.

I think the bridge in "Better" could use some work. The start is like acoustic Metallica, then it has that cool Violent Femmes frantic looseness to it near the end, but it's almost a little too out of time for my taste. I think it just needs to be tightened up a bit. When you come back with the reprisal/crescendo I think you could go a bit harder, but I totally felt it. I think if you commit a bit harder there it'll be even more powerful.

The out of time complaint is totally legit. That bugged me too. We learned a lot from recording that track. Things such as, don't fuck up the click track, and for the love of God record drums first. I'm kind of laughing at your "go a bit harder" bit because I did what I felt like an almost criminal amount of drum rolls in the last chorus, but maybe you mean the acoustic and/or electric guitars rather than the drums. Hahaha. Thanks!

Coffee Break is Push of War turned to music. Fine with me as long as it's short.

LOL, interesting comparison. We considered developing it into a song, but I felt like it was too out there to really do that with.

"Over It" is great. Like timeless classics of the decade good. It reminds me of Mumford and Sons at the start, but it takes a pretty different direction about midway through. Is that a synth after the bridge? I see where you were going but the timbre of it throws off the pensive vibe of the rest of the song. Maybe if you add some distortion to that channel? It works well to complement the melody (maybe it should be playing a harmony though), but I think it definitely needs something to give it more texture so it sounds less like a toy piano.

Well thanks! Yes, it's a synth. I wasn't entirely happy with the tone either. A little too playful, as you said. Distortion is an interesting idea. I'm a bit confused by your comment in the parentheses however, because I'm 90% sure it IS playing a harmony, if I recall we just threw his vocal up an octave and then changed a couple notes.

Overall, really good stuff. Definitely not what I expected given your previous work with bobdaduck and your affinity for slipknot. I can't wait to see how good it gets once you match your bitfighter map-making level of time investment. Good luck you guys.

I like what Ryan and I are doing, but I'd rather be doing hard rock. Shhhhh...

I really appreciate the time you took to review, kaen. It means a lot to me and it's insightful to hear listeners' different opinions. Thanks!

*Keep in mind this is on a really good day, particularly the highest highs:

Nicely done! Love your style. I'm not very musically-inclined so I'll just default to what kaen said.

Thanks sky!

[Quartz]

Follow up on my singing. I have been singing for four years and yet I feel as if I'm no closer to being comfortable with it. It's like everything I do is a fully conscious effort. I think it's because I'm so interested in both voice acting and singing; I have a hard time keeping the two separated. I have not found a tone I am both comfortable with and I think sounds good.

I don't really know what to do about it, because I've never heard of anyone else having this problem. It's pretty frustrating if I'm being completely honest. Ya I know, it probably makes me sound like a big whiner. Sorry.

A door to the past and Over It turned out nicely.
The others could use some work.

I can't really say shit since I know nothing about music.

Just out of curiosity, how do you record drums? It sounds pretty good.

[Quartz]

A door to the past and Over It turned out nicely.
The others could use some work.

I can't really say shit since I know nothing about music.

Erm … A door to the past? That's the album name so I dunno which one you're talking about!

You probably mean Not Ready, though. The acoustic-oriented ones turned out pretty quality. We're going to have to get better at recording electronic instruments.

On Better, we effed up the click track and tbh it shows. We're gonna re-record it some time.

Thanks Opti!

Just out of curiosity, how do you record drums? It sounds pretty good.

This works hilariously well. For my kit, I had to manually turn down the volume for two of the toms, but beyond that it worked really well considering what it is:
http://youtu.be/iS_YZpn818A?t=1m25s

Whoa sweet

A good way to improve your singing is to put your emotion into it the more you mean it the better it sounds.

[Quartz]

I definitely agree with you that emotion is important in music, especially singing.

Update, we recruited an actual drummer now, Bubba. He's my friend but bandmate Ryan's childhood friend. We just got done having a couple of practice days at my house with all three of us (sleep over lul!), and I must say he's quite good! All in all it went very well. The plan is to start recording songs again (including those already demo'd) in a bit over two weeks. (I'll be on Christmas break from Uni)

Cool look foward to hearing more music.

(sorry for bumping this old thread but I wanted to know how it was going')

[Quartz]

Well, we didn't end up getting that much recording done over Christmas break, but we got another two songs written entirely, which is the hard part really. Recording, meanwhile, is not too hard, but time-consuming.

We re-recorded a rough version of Better. Less rough than what y'all have heard though. kaen was mentioning that the song needed to be tightened up, and I think Bubba's drumming definitely accomplished that.

https://soundcloud.com/quartzlcc/better-2014