[LAU] New music: Shoegaze

James Stone jamesmstone at gmail.com
Sat Dec 19 18:04:39 EST 2009


james morris wrote:
> On 18/12/2009, "Ernie Dulanowsky" <ernst at pulsewidth.ca> wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 1:54 PM, Folderol <folderol at ukfsn.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:29:37 +0000
>>> James Stone <jamesmstone at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> Here is my last track of the year (although probably not finished).
>>>> Early 90's shoegaze style with lots of nods in the direction of the
>>>> likes of My Bloody Valentine, and probably/maybe some Goth influences
>>> too??
>>>> All recorded with Renoise:
>>>>
>>>> http://drop.io/mcrx9js
>>>>
>>>> As always, comments and criticisms gratefully received..
>>>>
>>>> One thing I'm not totally happy with is the "fizzy" distortion. I think
>>>> this might just be a result of using the computer rather than a valve
>>>> amp, but I'm particularly interested in improving this aspect...
>>>>
>>>> James
>>> First, I must say I don't know this style at all, even so I found the
>>> distortion far too heavy and prominent. I had to really struggle to
>>> hear anything else.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Will J Godfrey
>>> http://www.musically.me.uk
>>> Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
>>> Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>>> Linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
>>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>>>
>> Hi everyone:
>>
>> This is a pretty good attempt at a shoegaze sound, but something is kind of
>> off.
>> I'm guessing that's based on how it was produced. to me it sounds like some
>> sort of
>> 80s style minimal synth/darkwave, which isn't a bad thing.
>>
>> To me, the 'distorted' part sounded less like distortion and more like a
>> synth with a
>> wide open filter. Perhaps that's the fizziness referred to earlier.
>>
>> Now, I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest that for this style
>> of music
>> this piece is almost too clean and parts are relatively distinct. MBV's epic
>> 'Loveless'
> 
> It reminds me particularly of "loomer" or "sometimes" from loveless.
> I think what's missing is the strumming sounds. IIRC there's only a
> couple of tracks on loveless where you can't actually here the guitars
> being strummed behind all the constant (fantastic) noise.
> 
> I really like the noise on your song, but maybe it does not quite go far
> enough, it might need a few more layers of noise - the synth is a little
> too clear.
> 
> But saying that, you probably to arrive at your own sound rather than
> emulate MBV, so it's not fair to say you don't sound enough like them
> ;-)

Thanks James and Ernst for your very kind comments!

I will continue to work on this one - maybe some more layers would be a 
good idea.. maybe a real guitar or two! :)

I think "fizziness" is a criticism commonly made of digital emulation of 
valve distortion, however I've never heard it as badly as on this track. 
When I have a bit more time I will experiment with some sounds from my 
V-Amp..

The main thing that really grates for me on this track now is my vocals 
- feel really constricted and even slightly off-time (certainly out of 
tune) in places. Think I need to get a singer! :)

James



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