Emax

Hi Patrick,

First of all, apologies for taking a long time to reply to your post. Also, 
thanks for taking the time to listen to my song and producing such a 
comprehensive list of suggestions.

>First, major applause for completing something you feel happy enough with 
>to put out there. Second any >crtisims should be taken as trying to help. 
>And keep in mind I feel this is better than most the shit that is on >the 
>charts right now. But speaking of the charts, maybe you should add some 
>auto-tune effect on your >voice. I'm sure you would chart right now. . .

Thanks! I'm pretty sure you were joking about this, but I went ahead and did 
it anyway. I used Reaper's own built-in autotune effect. It is not too 
dominant, and I think it does actually sound marginally better.

I'd be very happy to hear what you think of the result:

http://alonetone.com/danielb/tracks/imaginary-friend


>What are you going for with the track? What place, what atmosphere do you 
>want me to be in, or what >feeling do you have or want to envoke from the 
>song?

I wanted it to sound kind of dark and forbidding. I probably shouldn't 
mention Depeche Mode yet again in connection with this song, but it will 
give you the general idea The actual inspiration for the basic sound came 
from an Emulator II demo I found on Youtube. That said, all of the sounds 
except the drums and the JX-8p pad that I used behind the repetition of the 
first verse are homemade.

Just some thoughts:

Structure:

> The ending around >3:40-3:43 actually would sound really great at the end 
> of your bridge before droping >right back into the chorus.

The flanging sound (actually Roland JX-8p oscillator sync, there's no 
flanger used), overlaid with the "filter sweep" DX7 sound, actually does 
recur in empty spaces throughout the track. At the place you mention, it's 
shortened.

Lyrics:

>It is my feeling that I'm being beat over the head with my "imginary 
>friend".

That's kind of the point. People like the one the song describes can be 
rather obsessive and talk about their imaginary friends incessantly.

>Effects:

>The bass could use some glissandro or a slight susstain to round off the 
>edges just slightly.

Interesting idea. Might not be too easy to achieve on an Emax II. Pitch 
envelope anyone?

>Also, have you tried raising the bass an octave higher?

I think it would sound rather plinky.

>It sounds really low without the punch and this sometimes occurs on bass 
>samples that are being played too >low. Some EQ on the bass could make it 
>fill out a little also,

It's not really a bass sample. it's a sample of me saying "taa" into my Korg 
Radias's vocoder. I did give it some extra EQ.

>or layer a real bass sound in there.

Don't have one, can't play it.

>It made me think of Body Pop and a bit Joy Division so I think it is in 
>line with exactly what you were going >for. Keep it up!

Thanks again for your criticism. I certainly didn't find it to be negative, 
and frqankly, even if it was, I normally find negative criticism to be more 
useful than everybody standing in the aisles and cheering. . .

Regards,

Daniel