My band's demo

[Josef_K]

Hi,

I play keyboards in a rock band called Oracle. I can't really describe our style, I guess we are influenced alot by progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson etc though we are not really "true" progressive rock either... Any comments, especially on my keyboard work of course, would be greatly appreciated.

You can find our demo (not professionally mixed) at our reverbnation site: www.reverbnation.com/oracleswe

Thankful for all answers and looking forward to some interesting discussions on this forum in the future, cheers!

 

[happyrat1]

I listened to the first 4 or 5 tunes. The first two sounded sorta Deep Purple with the rock organ parts. I preferred Sequana and Illusions of your Mind for the synth work. I'd have to say you're a better synth player than an organist. Then again, with more practice, your organ playing could become quite polished.

I also really have to say your vocalist sounds flat and uninspired. Perhaps adding some reverb or chorus effects to the vocals would give them a little more zing? The writing and lyrics seem pretty good, but either get a new vocalist or dress her up with some effects.

I personally can't sing a note but I bought a funky effects box from TC Helicon called a Voicetone Synth that can make me sound like anything from T-Pain to Locutus of Borg. I don't really aspire to publishing anything of mine atm but I'm totally having a hoot with this thing and it does turn my tired old rasp into something that sounds mainstream.

Anyway, if the product was a little more polished I'd consider buying an iTune or two, but I really am a much better critic than a performer, so who the hell am I to say what you're doing is wrong?

Keep working at it. I'd say at least add some reverb to the vocals or something to give them more depth and then you might have something that you could truly consider professional.

Anyway, you asked for honesty and that's what I gave ya. More power to ya...

Gary

 

[Josef_K]

Thank you very much for your reply! I consider my Moog solo in "Sequana" to be the best solo I've played so far, however when I started playing I wanted only to copy Jon Lord (I still do to some extent, the man's a genius). I think you mixed up the songs though, "Illusions of Your Mind" is extremely Uriah Heep/Deep Purple styled and doesn't feature any synth while "Red Sky", even though it is organ based, has a synth solo and is a bit further from that typical organ rock stuff, more like symphonic doom-prog or whatever.

We brought the vocalist in in February this year or something, she hasn't been with us while writing any of this stuff (except Étaín I guess, that was written when she was in the band though I wrote the whole song myself so...). That is why some people tend to think she sounds uninspired or whatever, we REALLY wanted to record these songs and had no possibility to do so during the summer, so we had to rush the learning process for her a bit... We hardly consider ourselves anywhere near professional musicians, I mean sure I love our songs myself but we need to practice much more and develop our sound to become a more serious band imo. I mean, there is a reason you don't have to pay to download these songs from our Reverbnation haha

I don't know if you took the time to read through any of the lyrics or you just kinda liked what you heard, but they are often a bit strange... especially in the songs I've written myself (Sequana, Red Sky, Naim, Deirdre, Étaín) I like to use lots of metaphors and mythical references. Anyway I might bump this thread after our gig on the 4th of September, even though that will be really short (20 minutes) we will record it and hopefully the quality will be good enough to get it onto Reverbnation. Only one song from the ones on our Reverbnation at the moment will be played... I wish we had more time... ^^

Again thanks for your comment and constructive criticism!

 

[happyrat1]

I'm heading out to do some grocery shopping this AM, but I'll give your tunes another listen when I get back. I'll also take the time to read the lyrics. My previous post was a rushed first impression.

In the meantime I started up a thread of my own with a few of my own tunes. I discovered soundcloud.com while I was reading in this forum and it seems to provide just the right mix of informality and anonymity that suits me fine.

Anyway, if you want an idea of what sort of stuff I do, check out my page at

http://soundcloud.com/happyrat1

I plan to add a few more of my tunes there as time goes by...

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

I tried to give them another listen. Instrumentally your band is pretty tight. But that vocalist??? Show her a one way ticket to palookaville. I realize with autotune you can can give a pig a golden voice these days, but she's gotta be tone deaf. I'd say cut your losses, show her the door as politely as possible and find someone who can sing. I honestly couldn't sit thru any of the songs once she started singing.

I hate to come off sounding like a b****** here but honestly that girl has no future in music.
Your lyrics are good enough, your instrumentals are good enough, but that girl is an anchor around your neck.

Sorry to be so harsh but I'm running on very little sleep today and I honestly couldn't sugar coat it for you and keep my integrity.

Gary

 

[Josef_K]

I tried to give them another listen. Instrumentally your band is pretty tight. But that vocalist??? Show her a one way ticket to palookaville. I realize with autotune you can can give a pig a golden voice these days, but she's gotta be tone deaf. I'd say cut your losses, show her the door as politely as possible and find someone who can sing. I honestly couldn't sit thru any of the songs once she started singing.

I hate to come off sounding like a b****** here but honestly that girl has no future in music.
Your lyrics are good enough, your instrumentals are good enough, but that girl is an anchor around your neck.

Sorry to be so harsh but I'm running on very little sleep today and I honestly couldn't sugar coat it for you and keep my integrity.

Gary

Hehe... wow... Well at least you're speaking your mind and I completely respect your opinion. Though I really don't agree with you, she very rarely sings out of tune and we haven't used any autotune on these tracks at all. And even if we would assume that she is as bad as you say here, there is NO WAY we could find a better singer, so frankly even if we had been feeling the same way as you we would have kept her. Luckily we don't, we consider her to be a great singer for our band...

Anyway, no worries man, I want people to speak their honest opinion, no matter how harsh it may be. We are trying to develop something different and it will take time, and we are extremely far from full-time (or even part-time) musicians of course, you have to take that into consideration.

As for your material, sorry but I cannot give an opinion at the moment, I will have to return to you later on this... All I can say at the moment is that it feels like it needs more experimentation to stay interesting as instrumental pieces, each song sounds more like a long backing track for vocals as I hear it now... Anyway, I realize this sounds like a "oh you don't like my band well you're not that great either" kind of criticism and I apologize for that, I will return as soon as I can (might take a while though, it depends...) with a more sophisticated comment on your music.