Nice. From a quick listen I like Folha No Vento best.
I think the electronic drums get more in the way than helping. It mostly distracts from your elegant guitar playing. I’d expect some hand-played percussion or shakers would be preferable for all those tunes.
Most other MIDI instruments that are sparsely used are fine though. I like the piano and vibraphone on Versos Incertos.
Mixing wise there’s a bit too much reverb for my taste, and the shaker in Versos Incertos is way to prominent in the heights. Perhaps a bit more EQ here and there and a bit more low-end to the overall mix… I like the guitar sound though.
I agree about the drums. Most of the time, in this particular genre, percussion can do the job better, but electronic drums also can be good. Maybe it’s a matter of mixing, getting the right samples and playing them better of course.
Thanks for hearing and for the compliment. I’m more of a guitar player than a producer but in the last years I decided to learn the basics of production and I’m working hard since then.
I agree with most of what @x42 said. I think the electric drum sounds you are using, especially the first song, don’t really fit the song. You have really nice fingerstyle guitar playing, so would tend to go more towards the shakers, tambourines, or maybe a snare sound played with brush. Maybe some blues kit out there may help round out the drum sound
The mixes seem OK to me, but think on one of the songs, the backing vocals seemed a bit strong and the piano was a little loud for me. Agree some more low end would help.
Having said all that, I like the style and the songs so keep it up!
I agree about the drums in the first track. I plan redoing them, and I’ll try a blues kit, if I can find one.
Speaking of drums I been having a hard time mixing drums from Hydrogen with Ardour. Specially the snare drum, which always clips. But maybe that’s a subject for another post.
Thanks for your words and for listening the songs!
@pdechery There is a mixer in Hydrogen where you can set the relative level of each sound. You can also adjust the master volume there coming out of Hydrogen. I’ve experienced the same thing, just cut down the master output (assuming doing a stereo drum track into Ardour) in Hydrogen mixer to leave plenty of headroom. Generally the samples are already clean and can bump up volume as needed later in Ardour without the input clipping.
@cchoowee, yep, I’m aware of this mixer in Hydrogen. But I don’t remember if, when exporting, I’d cut off the master output. But I do remember exporting every instrument as a separate track, so, in this case, that shouldn’t be an issue (the master output).
I’m getting a weird behavior on those drum tracks, though. The snare specially comes with a low sound and, if I try to raise it to an acceptable level, I get clipping.
I’ll guess I’ll need to work further with Hydrogen. Thanks for the advice!
I’m Leandro (from Brazil too :D). I agree with our buddies @x42 and @cchoowee there is some space on improve with the drums (some compression, paning, reverberation and so on). I got the idea of drums when thinking about the brazilian 70’s “folk rock”, like “Como nossos pais” of Elis Regina, but in that case they use iron strings. Your case is more like a “Milton Nascimento” way.
I use hydrogen too. Took me a while to get some good drums sounding on it (i’m still learning off course) but it is possible.
About the lyrics, i think i’m the only one that can say a bit about it . Awesome composition. Made me feel listening to “Clube da esquina”.
I’m glad that you were able to find influences of Brasil’s 70’s “MPB” records in my songs. To me, it shows I’m on the right path, even if there’s still a lot to improve. You’re also right in pointing influences from the “Clube da Esquina” sound. I’m a huge fan of Lô Borges, Beto Guedes and many others from that period.
In “Derradeira Estrela”, for instance, I tried to emulate Beto Guedes’ drumming style - but I’m still struggling a bit with the tool (Hydrogen).
I’d like to invite you to subscribe to my page to receive notifications about new songs. There’s more coming and you hope you could hear and enjoy.
. Awesome composition. Made me feel listening to “Clube da esquina”.