Day after

[AmR2m]

this is something I wrote the day after 3/11/2004 in Madrid. I spent all day at home scared as hell, felt helpless and miserable. I lived like, don't know, 2 or 3 miles away from Atocha. I heard ambulances all day, was really upset. Tried 2 put it on paper.

Then I composed the music when I got back, sampling the saddest piano I know.

Here's the result.

[HeatWAVS]

I've heard the stuff you posted in here and in the rap/hip-hop forum...

I don't mean to be jerkish but I haven't been able understand what your saying in 98% of your music. Don't get me wrong though because its not your accent its your recording quality. In all seriousness it sounds like you are making the beats on a casio keyboard then running them through a lo-fi filter and then running them through the lo-fi filter again...

and your vocals... sheesh they sound like they were recorded on one of the microphones people attach to their computer monitor (but the computer is underwater)...

I really, really, really want to be able to critique your songs and give you tips because I can tell (by what you've written) that you put a lot of emotion into your songs and I can also tell that you speak on subjects that mean a lot to you but honestly (and I think I speak for 99% of the people that have heard your music) until I can hear what your saying or at least seperate your voice from your beats it will be impossible.

So maybe you should start off by posting in this thread what equipment it is your using and what methods you use to make your music so we can get you on the right track...

[AmR2m]

mmmh... How did u know my equipment before I told u? That's weird...

Ok, let's see.

The beats: I sampled sounds from cds and mixed 'em for, don't know, half the tracks I have. I've been using Wavelab, and I think the sound quality is pretty good (before adding the vocals...).

I also used a keyboard for some tracks. It's a Yamaha PSR-150 I received for Xmas a long time ago (12 years?). I connected it to the computer with a cable and recorded mono .wav files. Then I tried to make 'em stereo with Wavelab. The result is not so good, because the drums suck and sound ridicoulous, and just a few instruments can be saved.

I put the tracks I had on cd, and recorded the vocals while listening to them through headphones on a cd-player. To record the vocals I used a digital recorder, the kind journalists use. I think it flattens the sound beside being low quality. The recordings are mono, and with a strong buzz in the background.

Besides, I had a strange impression (don't know whether it can be true): when I recorded I methodically paid attention to the rhytm and the beats, going on time. Then, when I mixed it, it never fit. I was wondering if it may be because the cd player went just a bit slower or faster, or if it was the recorder itself. I'm talking about a difference of, don't know, half a sec every minute, or maybe less. But it's really strange, and sickening above all.

Then I try to clean the sound with Wavelab, but I really can't do much more than normalizing.

The last step is mixing the tracks, and by doing that I have to turn down the volume of the music to reduce the buzz of the vocals. I guess this explains the situation...

I know it's the kind of equipment a 12 year old would use, but it's what I got and I tried to do something with that to see if it my stuff was worth spending some money to develop or if I should just drop the ball.

Thanx, bye