Hi guys, hope you’re all doing well.
I have a new track made with Ardour and I’d like you to listen and share your thoughts, if any.
This one was made with an nylon-string acoustic guitar and a “bandolim” (maybe “mandolim” for some of you) in the solo part. The drums were made with Hydrogen and this time I think they sound pretty decent. Not as I would dream, but OK to me.
Regards,
Pierre
Hi,
Interesting arrangement with the nylon string and mandolin, sounds great and mixed well! Great vocal and ambience too. For me, the drums especially the kick drum could be a bit louder but a minor point of opinion,
Great job!
Hi, GMaq.
Thanks for listening and sharing your views!
Unfortunately I presume the lyrics doesn’t have much meaning to a non-portuguese speaker but I’m glad the music was still interesting to hear.
I agree with you that the drums could sound better. I think the snare needs some more punch too. I’ll be working on it.
Thanks!
Pierre
I’d say the opposite, the snare sounds reminds off a solid rock/pop song. For a singer/song-writer acoustic tune, you may want something less punchy.
Do you perhaps have any percussion instruments lying around?
For similar tunes I’ve cheated in the past by using MIDI kick and cymbals, but snare and hi-hat were real. In case you don’t have a hi-hat, some shakers can do. or perhaps even just mute-strumming a guitar with a very very soft pick (like a washboard). A Cabasa/Afuche may also be good.
The vocals sound a bit boxed in, not sure if that’s the room you were recording in, or a room reverb. They sound somewhat out of place compared to the rest of the mix. Have you used shared reverb-bus for all tracks?
Enough nit-picking, the vibe gets across regardless! Nice playing, I also like the vocals, (even though I don’t understand Portuguese).
Hi,
I don’t need to understand the language to know the singing is good… 
Sadly I find very few people pay any attention to lyrics even if they are in your own language, it’s something I put the most effort into and most people don’t pay any attention including my bandmates… 
Hi GMaq,
I don’t need to understand the language to know the singing is good…
Absolutely. This song wouldn’t even exist if that wasn’t true! I mean, this is a rock tune and Rock music wasn’t born in Portugal or whatever 
As for what you said about lyrics I recognize it’s true. And it’s sad because is very frustrating for us, composers, since bring lyrics to a song it’s not the easiest job (I think for most of us).
Hi Robin,
Thanks again for your careful input.
Actually, I was thinking in something more straight rock when doing the arrangement. I guess the acoustic vibe came spontaneously, in this case. But it’s not something I avoid, at all. I think I’m more of an acoustic guitar player after all.
I used Hydrogen for the drum parts and until now I’ve never experimented with real percussion instruments, like you’re suggesting. But I’m definitely willing to do that now!
Just to note, “Afuche” here in Brasil is called “Afoxé”. I didn’t knew it has that name abroad and it’s very interesting. We can notice clearly how one word came after another.
So, well, I guess I have to pay a visit to the local music store now, just as soon as this pandemic allows 
As for vocals, they were recorded in the same room as the guitar, nothing special. I’ve used a little reverb, and I think I understand what you’re talking about. But mixing is pretty complex sometimes, It’s still hard to get exactly the sound I’m after.
But I’m glad the vibe has gotten across, as you said.
Thanks a lot! 
Pierre
It’s a great song, did you write it yourself ? The mandolin was a bit out of tune, you might want to correct that. Great song, thanks for sharing 
Hi Mikael,
Yes, sure I wrote it and I’m glad to hear you liked it!
You might be right about the mandolin, I’ll fix that. I find it pretty hard to tune sometimes, it’s eight strings after all …
Thanks for listening!
That was a nice catchy song. I enjoyed listening to it! You have a good energy there. I agree about the mandolin being out of tune. I definitely understand the tuning issues you described - I recently sold a 12-string acoustic because I found myself tuning it more than playing it!
I also enjoyed listening to your song, Nascimento. Very nice!
Hi Jdfight,
Hahaha, I can imagine that. I use to trust my ears when tuning my instruments but the mandolin is making me want to buy a digital tuner. I’d even searched Ardour these days too see if I could find one.
“Nascimento” is a piece I like a lot. Glad you like it too!
You may already have one, if you install x42 plugins:
Edit: Don’t ever feed the tuner distorted guitar signal (I did by mistake) distortion creates additional frequencies and makes the tuners job impossible.
Put the tuner on a mono bus and mute its output. Then set the buss input to receive the sound card channel that has the guitar on it. Let the plugin be on “Automatic” and tune your instrument.
Hi Mikael,
Great tip, I’m definitely gonna try this.
Thanks a lot!
This is a really, really nice track and I listened to it three times! Loved it, completely as is. Have no idea what the words mean but it just sounds fantastic. The Hydrogen percussion sounded fine to my ear and knowing only the least little bit about Hydrogen myself I found it impressive and inspiring to hear what can be done.
If I were to suggest any improvements the first would be to add some reverb to the vocal. Pull it back in the mix just ever so slightly and maybe widen it just a touch with some delay. Very subtle.
Also I felt it started and ended a little abruptly, maybe could use four (or eight?) bars of intro and outro.
I wouldn’t object to an electric bass line either because I do think this is more of a soft-rock tune than an acoustic tune. I would not start it at the beginning, but layer it in at some point like the first refrain. Then cut it at final verse (where the pullback is) and put it back in for the end. Just my thoughts …
This should be made part of a movie score! Well done!
Hi Tony,
Thanks a lot for your words! To me, they serve as motivation to keep recording - which I love to do anyway, but music is made to communicate after all, and I’m glad this one seemed to to did that for you.
Well, as for the bass, in fact there’s one on the song already. I’ve used Ardour “General MIDI” tool for that, and I think I’ve used electric bass, not an acoustic one.
And about Hydrogen I’m really glad you liked the drums. Hydrogen is a great tool with a lot of drum sounds. There’s cool ways to sync it with Ardour and for the time being it’s a nice workflow to me. I’m beginning to try to play drums with the MIDI controller too, which is cool, but I don’t know yet if there’s any drum plugins for Ardour besides “General MIDI”.
I’m working on a new version and I let you know here when it’s done!
Cheers! 
Pierre