Join Now
LoginEidolonia's 100 Most Recent Comments
| Due Negligence by overphlow1 | 2 months ago |
| Awesome! Sounds heavy as hell. Great composition, great performances, great leads -- awesome work all round. -Eido |
|
| Let It Breath (Revision and additions) by overphlow1 | 2 months ago |
| I like the new mix better -- the lead guitar in particular cuts through better, and the guitars are crisper, without being overly harsh. Listening to this song a second time, I notice that you have a mild tendency to play ahead of the beat in places, particularly where you have a flurry of fast notes -- worth keeping an eye on that. Liking this track very much so far, although it doesn't sound finished yet to me -- are we getting more soon? -Eido |
|
| BloodLust (Death of a Vampire Lord) by Tony2008 | 2 months ago |
| Tony, you've got a tremendous voice. (Seems that iComp has a few awesome metal singers around at the moment.) I like the production too -- it's very live-sounding, with bags of energy and a very natural ambience. Great playing too! -Eido |
|
| Intro ( Shackle Me Not ) by THE_K_TEAM | 2 months ago |
| Very cool! I like the energy -- and, having just looked up Shackle Me Not on YouTube, the source material is pretty damn cool too. -Eido |
|
| Invasion - The coming of the Body Snatchers by foolschaos | 2 months ago |
| I love the industrial sound, particularly the eerie synths in the background around the 1:50 mark. For such an atmospheric mix, I think the drums could use a touch more reverb in places -- the fast double-kick sections in particular sound quite dry and obtrusive to me. For my taste I'd like to hear a bit more body in the guitars; although it's an effective tone for the most part, there are times when the guitars disappear a little. The change of pace at around 3:15 is terrific. All in all, it's a great listen -- very much enjoyed. They're here already! -Eido |
|
| Jet City Racer Theme by JDVLZ | 2 months ago |
| The guitars have a lot of power, but I think there's a bit too much distortion -- the palm mutes are more fuzzy than chunky, and when the guitars drift slightly out of sync with each other some of the clarity is lost. I'd like to hear some reverb on the lead tone, too -- at the moment it's rather piercing. -Eido |
|
| Demo Song no lyrics (yet) by LH2O | 2 months ago |
| Sounds great! Good use of dynamics, interesting riffs, lovely shimmery guitar sound on the chords, and nice programming on the drums. I'd love to hear what your programming would sound like with a better drum library, actually -- if it weren't for the snare giving it away, I might not even notice. I'd love to hear this with vocals. -Eido |
|
| A Captain's Advent by herrsolera | 5 months ago |
| I'd pretty much resigned myself to not getting one of these this year, so I was overjoyed when iComp helpfully tipped me off that you'd managed to pull a fifth rabbit from a fifth hat after all. Last year I played the previous four to my parents, so we listened to this one together too. Mum did quite a bit better than me at spotting the embedded tunes, although she wasn't terrific with names. I recognised four of the tunes (and could name two or three with any confidence), whereas Mum managed six or seven but didn't know the names of most (recognising them as 'French', which didn't narrow it down much). I like this year's arrangement very much indeed. The interplay between orchestra and lead guitars in particular is handled exceptionally well -- several places where the melody trades between instruments are sheer genius. The dynamics work very well too -- a medley which is heavier overall could easily be rather one-dimensional (like my Christmas efforts, ahem), but the variations here remind me of the Ghostship series (which I still listen to, by the way, most commonly when travelling). Bravo! -Eido (and family) |
|
| A Tribute To Steve Jobs by TheTiler | 7 months ago |
| Wonderful tribute, sir. RIP Steve. -Eido |
|
| Eres muy hermosa by Nick_W | 8 months ago |
| Speaking as a guitarist who once tried to learn flamenco technique and failed dismally at tremolo picking, please allow me to cut off all of my fingers in tribute to your awesomeness. Breath-taking. -Eido |
|
| Pray for Me by HayleyDeakin | 9 months ago |
| As I think I've said before, what really sets you apart from the pack is your expressive delivery. Many vocalists really only do one tone, even if they do it very well, but you have a huge range of expression, which makes you captivating to hear. I love it. (I hope you didn't hate it in the morning!) -Eido |
|
| What I Should Already Know by ScubaScissors | 9 months ago |
| Reading my comment back, I realise that it wasn't particularly clear that I intended 'wonderful' to refer to the whole thing, not just the performance. So, to be clear, the whole thing is wonderful. Touching lyrics, beautiful music, excellent vocals. Bravo! -Eido |
|
| What I Should Already Know by ScubaScissors | 9 months ago |
| Holy. Cow. In the past I've sometimes given you a hard time for sometimes singing a little off-key. Not so here -- every single note is squarely where it should be. And not in a technical, mechanical way, either -- your expression is beautiful, and I'd kill for your vibrato. (Um, a manly version of it, obviously.) Wonderful. -Eido |
|
| I Come To Murder by Sewer_Rod | 9 months ago |
| Awesome lyrics! I'd suggest backing off on the guitar distortion just a little bit, so that the riffs come out a bit clearer. Cool vocals -- are they inhaled? -Eido |
|
| Willow v2 by KurtonNanogon | 9 months ago |
| Gentlemen. This is amazing. Message ends. -Eido |
|
| Haha, There Is A Hole In Your Shoe by Uplink | 9 months ago |
| Great tones you're getting these days, Up. I'd be interested to know how it works out for you having all your songs in one project -- I thought about doing that for the album I'm working on now but eventually decided it would be too much hassle messing around with all the automation. What do you use for drums? -Eido |
|
| Inverness by THE_K_TEAM | 9 months ago |
| I love 90s metal mixes. Not as 'polished' as their modern counterparts, but somehow more honest -- the kind of intensity that comes from a band being on top of their game rather than an engineer cutting and pasting in Pro Tools for twenty hours. Enjoyed this a lot! -Eido |
|
| If you cant ride two horses at once... you should get out of the circus by Asking Alexandria (cover) by fromoutofnowhere | 9 months ago |
| The guitar playing is very tight, and the screams are massive -- great performance all round. The drums sound generally good, although there's a short interlude just past the halfway point where they sound very drum machine-y. The main issue is clarity; the guitars sound distant, and the drums hidden behind them. How do you record your guitars? If you're miking up an amp, I'd suggest placing the mic a little closer to see if you can reduce the amount of room sound in the mix. -Eido |
|
| The Final Solution by a7xfan | 9 months ago |
| Nice, interesting track -- I like the variety and development. Personally I'm fond of music that doesn't just do the same thing over and over again. Watch out for playing ahead of the beat, which tends to give music a nervous, rushed feel; this can be unhelpful, particularly in something like the clean strummed bit, which feels to me like it wants a more laid-back approach (playing a little behind the beat would even help here). 'Tis cool. -Eido |
|
| ASCENDING by overphlow1 | 9 months ago |
| Mix-wise it sounds great, although for personal taste I prefer the slightly darker tones you're getting in Further It Crawls. In terms of the arrangement it's a little busy for me, almost to the point of being chaotic -- but then, having said that, I tend to find highly complex music to be very rewarding after multiple listens, so commenting after my first listen might be unfair. Perhaps it might help if the lead-esque guitar was playing a little further up the neck, though; when it's low down it blends with the rhythm (which is already a busy space, particularly when the drums get more intense) and I have a hard time making it out, whereas when it comes up right at the end it stands out a bit more clearly. -Eido |
|
| Black Death (Instrumental) by Mindtrack | 9 months ago |
Wow, this is epic. Quite a journey! The orchestration is absolutely amazing -- what library did you use? There's a wonderful sense of spaciousness to the orchestra. By comparison, the guitars suffer a bit, I think; they're playing some cool stuff, but feel a bit muffled/buried under the orchestration. Perhaps a more defined tone would bring them out some more. (Or maybe you need to scuzz up the orchestra.  ) I particularly like the feel of the livelier section which comes in about three quarters of the way through, followed by an excellent guitar solo -- that bit in particular really grabs my attention. I'd be very, very interested to hear what this'll sound like with vocals -- how are the lyrics coming along?-Eido |
|
| Arrival At The Gates by Fioretti | 9 months ago |
With a title like that I was half-expecting melodic death metal.  This is awesome -- great atmosphere, interesting development, tight playing. The drums sound amazing -- I really like what you've done with them. What tuning is this in? Sounds pretty low on the lowest chords... Great work, guys!-Eido |
|
| EXPERIMENTAL CRAP!!! :D by sanny1064 | 9 months ago |
| I like the mixture of electronica and heavy stuff. I'd suggest experimenting with guitar tone to try to get something with a bit more body -- right now it's quite raspy and nasal, whereas you'd get a lot more impact with a fuller tone. -Eido |
|
| 'Not A Choice by Steel_Toe_Revival | 9 months ago |
| Oh, by the way, you can enter the lyrics when you upload the song, rather than having to add them as a comment. There's a box for lyrics underneath the Description box. -E |
|
| 'Not A Choice by Steel_Toe_Revival | 9 months ago |
| Quite an interesting sound you have here. Are the vocals generated by some kind of synthesiser, or processed somehow? They sound a little bit muffled, slightly lacking in intelligibility. The guitar sounds a bit overly distorted to me -- the harsh-edged tone suits the rather unsettling atmosphere (which is particularly well supported by the flute), but the distortion is actually blurring some of the fast riffing to the point of sounding a touch messy. I'd also suggest varying up the drums a little -- the hyper-fast kick drum is a bit machine-gun-like, and I think you'd benefit from some variations in velocity. -Eido |
|
| [If You Insist Digital Single] A: If You Insist by darkhatred | 9 months ago |
| At first it sounded to me like the mix was missing a bit of presence, but then I YouTubed a couple of songs by The Color Morale and Asking Alexandria, and actually it sounds to me like you nailed the sound pretty exactly -- I guess that's just what Joey's doing these days. With the reference point to compare to, this sounds really good -- nicely balanced, the tone you want is pretty much bang on. The screams are very effective; if there's one area you could work on it's the sung vocals, which feel a bit nasal to me at the moment. But all in all I'd say you guys have nailed the sound you're going for, and the future looks bright... -Eido |
|
| Buzz Dust by THE_K_TEAM | 9 months ago |
| Very tight playing. The break towards the end is a nice touch -- it adds some much-needed variety to the sound. I think you'd benefit from more aggressive drums; at the moment they don't match the intensity of the guitar riffs. Cool song tho'. -Eido |
|
| Escape From The Plastic Castle by metfan31 | 9 months ago |
| Awesome song. Dream Theater would be proud. I do think the heaviest parts would benefit from real guitars for some added edge -- the only problem with 'fake guitars' is that they tend to be too smooth and even -- but there are really only a couple of places where I even particularly notice. The track flows very well, with no awkward or jarring transitions, and it covers plenty of interesting territory. The mix sounds great too. Good job! -Eido |
|
| I Ain't No Hero (and the gunslingers rides on) by Surak | 9 months ago |
| Cool song. Makes me think of 'Tallica on Garage Inc (which presumably means it actually makes me think of Bob Seger etc., but I have Garage Inc and I don't have the originals, so sue me ). The vocals sound more prominent in the mix at the end of the song, although I can't tell whether they're just louder or somewhat less processed; either way, the additional clarity there could address LunaBleu's concerns if it could be applied throughout the song. What do you use for drums? They sound particularly fine. -Eido |
|
| Vivaldi Double Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor (audio re-upload) by Vlazreus | 12 months ago |
| Hey Vlaz, glad you were able to get this uploaded in some format, at least! I'm a fan of both Vivaldi and cellos, so this made for some great suppertime listening. How long have you two been playing? I keep toying with the idea of getting a cello myself, but I keep telling myself I need to get better at the piano before learning another instrument. Do you have any more recordings of you and Sarah playing together? If not, make more! -Eido |
|
| Wish You Were Here by PunkFloyd | 1 year ago |
| I'm trying to remember the original mix for comparison -- seems to me that the new songs have a heck of a lot more welly to them, especially around the low end. Really love the sound -- the bass pops out like crazy, everything is crystal clear, and of course the performance and arrangement are still top-notch. You guys rule. -Eido |
|
| The Ouroboros Cycle by FireProven | 1 year ago |
| Wow! This is one of the most exciting iComp debuts I've ever heard. When is the EP out? Love the synths, great vocals, outstanding performance -- incredibly impressive. -Eido |
|
| Layer by Hierogram | 1 year ago |
| Wow, really nice. (I can't believe this has been up for over a week without a single comment.) Very cool track -- great production, very Periphery-esque guitar tone, awesome riffs. Please post more stuff! (You might like fellow iComp artist ahumblepizza.) Do you have an album? -Eido |
|
| Funeral Fire (new better reverb mix) by Vlazreus | 1 year ago |
| Oh yes, much better than the last mix -- much more unified and cohesive, which really brings out the atmosphere. Great! -Eido |
|
| Cello test 1/2 by Vlazreus | 1 year ago |
| Sounding really nice, Vlaz! -Eido |
|
| Epic Movie Trailer by ESAFoster | 1 year ago |
| Awesome! -Eido |
|
| Robotic Attack (MIX II) by Doctor_Hops | 1 year ago |
| Aside from the slightly odd panning of the mix, this is cool. Really like the melody, and the crazy vocal effects work very well. I'm going to be watching out for robots all day now... -Eido |
|
| the road less traveled by Mystified | 1 year ago |
| Absolutely beautiful. -Eido |
|
| Summer in Winter (instrumental with PICS!) by Ignoramus | 1 year ago |
| Very, very nice track. The start puts me in mind of some of the early Pantera stuff where they weren't quite so desperately hung up on being the heaviest band in the world and Dime was free to explore the guitar and do some beautiful stuff. I didn't see the heavy bit coming at all, since I was part-way along the trail and feeling pretty mellow. It works well, though, and somehow makes the trail-walking experience all the more epic. Still loving the Engl preamp sound. In the near future I need to try out a couple of recordings with my JSX and see whether the mic'd sound compares favourably with impulses. Have you tried the Nebula cab sims at all? I see the UltimateMetal guys talking about them from time to time; supposedly they're supposed to avoid the 'static' nature of impulses, although to be honest I hear plenty of stuff recorded with impulses that sounds great to me, this included. -Eido |
|
| In Context (Electronica/Glitchy/Djenty Idea + Mix Test) by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Awesome sound, but too short! Please do expand it -- it stops just as I'm really getting into it. The glitchy drums at the start contrast nicely with the beautifully clean notes, and the guitars and drums sound awesome -- the mix all round is terrific. I just want more! -Eido |
|
| Unto The Stars 2011 by voXager | 1 year ago |
| Very cool. I hope you won't mind, though, if I hold out for the versions with real guitars -- good though these samples are, I don't really feel they do justice to the compositions. There's an energy in real guitar playing that I don't hear in sample libraries, and I think that energy (plus vocals, of course) would really complete these songs. Looking forward to the final release. -Eido |
|
| A.O.T.B.H.G.T. by albumflaps | 1 year ago |
| Cool riffs, tons of energy. Great vibe. And the drums sound amazing -- what are you using? The only catch is the mix -- holy ducking compressor, Batman! Every time there's a drum hit (which is a lot, given the tempo) everything else disappears. It doesn't sound hugely unbalanced, so I'd suggest just taking the levels down all across the board or using a gentler setting on your stereo bus compressor if you're using one. -Eido |
|
| G-TEST Noisy Slop 01 by SmellKellHell666 | 1 year ago |
| Sounds nice and thick, and the end is cool. You're right about the noise, though. I'd suggest reducing the gain a lot for rhythm guitar parts and see if the sound cleans up -- there should be a middle ground where you still get a thick chunky sound but without all the fuzz. -Eido |
|
| When Heaven Comes Down by Mark_Cheetah | 1 year ago |
| Outstanding cover -- great sound, terrific performances, polished mix. You guys make a great team -- you should make an album. Now, please. Mark_Cheetah wrote: As for "Alone Again," Eric is altready swamped with requests! LOL I could sing it for you no problem, but I'd have to use a prerecorded backing track... and they don't allow those here anymore. Prerecorded backing tracks are not prohibited and never have been. What is not allowed (and, likewise, has never been) is copyright infringement. If you buy a prerecorded backing track from a company whose license agreement allows you to make recordings and post them on the internet, or if you obtain written permission from the company to do so, that's absolutely fine. Unfortunately, some people have posted music using material that they DON'T have permission to use in that way. Some of these people have become very defensive when asked if they're acting with appropriate permission, and their subsequent behaviour has produced the myth that 'karaoke is banned on iComp', which just isn't true. -Eido |
|
| Monster Island by BrainTree | 1 year ago |
| 'Tis pretty cool! There's a fair amount of noise in the rhythm guitar tone, so if you could find a way to get a tighter, chunkier sound I think you'd have a better mix. It also sounds a little nasal in places. It sounds to me like you have a different guitar tone for riff that comes in midway through playing mostly chords -- if that's the case, I like that tone better, and if not then I guess the tone is more suited to playing that kind of riff. The performance is pretty sharp -- in one place you start to drift very slightly ahead of the beat but then get back on top of it quickly, which is good. The drum loops sound a little lightweight to me -- if you don't want to program your own I'd suggest looking at something like Beta Monkey for something a little heavier. -Eido |
|
| Tron inspired by Lapskin | 1 year ago |
| Very cool! The tempo changes mess with my head a bit, but in a good way. So did you like the film? -Eido |
|
| Pathway Lit By Darkness by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Did the upcoming album get made? 'Cos this is awesome and I want to hear an album where this song belongs. -Eido |
|
| Line In The Sand by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Tuning higher than standard? Hmm. You know you can get a capo, right? Well, I can't wait to hear this with vocals. Female-fronted rock bands generally live or die on their singer, unfortunately for you, but this song is terrific, so hopefully she'll do a great job with it! It sounds really professional, actually -- you clearly know your stuff, and once again I'm bowled away by those Superior 2 drums. Really nice work. -Eido |
|
| SOPHIA (Demo) (Open Collaboration) by solongsecrets | 1 year ago |
| You're rapidly becoming one of my favourite artists on iComp. This track is an interesting blend of a variety of styles (which generally appeals to me straight away), and has some beautiful melodies and an awesome riff. I'll be really interested to hear what you do with the final version. Awesome! -Eido |
|
| Six by Mystified | 1 year ago |
| Riven is my favourite of the Myst games, so this was right up my street. I love the motion sequences -- for something Riven-themed I was expecting all pads and reverb, but this works really well. Your singing is angelic as usual, creating a beautiful ambience. Great! -Eido |
|
| Take One Last Breath(Sample Cover) by Verbalist | 1 year ago |
| Wow -- quite a set of pipes you have there, sir. Impressive! -Eido |
|
| Rebirth by solongsecrets | 1 year ago |
| Awesome! Sounds like it should be on the soundtrack of a future noir movie. Terrific vibe and great production -- killer track all round. -Eido |
|
| devil's in minds by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| Cool! Blazing guitar solo, great vocals as usual and bags and bags of energy. Great fun to listen to. -Eido |
|
| Within Walls by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Those drums sound frickin' amazing -- very, very realistic, and your programming skills are top notch. Your guitar playing ain't bad either. There are a couple of places where the riffage could do with being just a touch tighter, especially in the section where the drums drop out momentarily -- if you're playing djent you really can't afford to be even a tiny bit off -- but overall the riffing pretty much kills. I'd need to sit down with this for quite a while before it totally made sense to me, as all good djent does. Is there a bass in there? I can't quite tell if I'm hearing low frequencies from one of the guitars. Either way I'd like it to have a little more balls; it might also be worth experimenting with having the bass and guitars play different things on occasion, to make the most of all the instruments you have available. (I like harmony and counterpoint, so sue me. )-Eido |
|
| SD2 Test + Djenty Riffs by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Am I right in thinking that this is expanded in your 'Within Walls' track? If so I'll comment on that one and leave this for now... -Eido |
|
| Hand Of War by Vlazreus | 1 year ago |
| I'd like to hear this with some really aggressive Araya-styled vocals (and, of course, meatier guitars). With the right production I think you could get a great Slayer vibe going on here. Personally I'm much more into the melodic/atmospheric thing, so your MDB-esque piece is more to my taste, but you have some interesting dissonance going on here. -Eido |
|
| Ages by Vlazreus | 1 year ago |
| Wow, I really like this! You've really nailed that early MDB 'plaintive violin' sound, although this is a little more uptempo than a lot of their stuff (not that that's a bad thing -- personally I like doom bands that mix up some more uptempo stuff here and there). I'd really love to hear this with real guitars rather than software instruments -- the composition is cool but the sound of those GB guitars always leaves me a bit underwhelmed. With some more realistic instruments and an appropriately doomy singer I think you'd have something really awesome going on here. I do think you need some vocals in there to vary things up a bit, because it's a long song with a fair amount of repetition. I agree that the outro could stand to be a little tighter but it sounds awesome -- I like the way you crossfade out of the main song, and the composition there is beautiful. Really great work! -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Road by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @malekey: The guitars are fairly highly processed to get the most out of them -- most of the power and size comes from the combination of PSPaudioware Vintage Warmer and a subtle touch of reverb, plus high and low passing. I also swapped out my usual set of strings for a heavier gauge so I could tune all the way down to CGCGCE, which helps quite a lot with the bigness of the sound. (There's also a bit of Stillwell's Event Horizon on some of the buses to warm things up a bit, plus some master bus processing to glue everything together and add some more warmth.) Unlike most of the other Lies tracks, Road only has two tracks of rhythm guitars, which means the chords aren't as big as in some of the other songs but there's less phasing to worry about. -Eido |
|
| A Captain's Winter by herrsolera | 1 year ago |
| (Second attempt at this comment since my browser ate the last one. This time I'm wise to its tricks -- this is being written in a text editor and pasted in...) As the days passed I began to worry -- was this really going to be the first Christmas in recent years without a herrsolera Christmas song to listen to? So I was immensely pleased to see this track in the uploads list, and even more so to listen to it when I finally got a free ten minutes. Last year, I commented that A Captain's Carol sounded less like a fusion of source material and more like a linked sequence of songs; this time around, we're very squarely back in medley territory. As someone who sometimes struggles with transitions, I greatly admire your ability to blend themes together seamlessly. This piece ebbs and flows in a genuinely natural manner -- reminiscent of orchestral music much more than the kind of strictly structured composition that normally comes from working with music software. It's all the more impressive that you can so seamlessly and effectively blend such familiar tunes -- some of which are so familiar that Maple and I are grinding our teeth trying to remember the names, because they've seeped so deeply into our cultural memory that we could sing every note of the tune without having the slightest idea what it's called or where it originated. I'll send you our guesses so far separately, so as not to spoil the fun for other listeners (or to reveal the depths of our ignorance if we're miserably wrong). Just to show that I haven't altogether lost my critical faculties, there's one point where you have a staccato snare pattern backing up the rhythm of the music, and here I find the snare a bit obtrusive. In general the drums work exceptionally well throughout the piece, especially considering the source material, but here I'd have been tempted to drop the volume just a little. But considering that the biggest gripe I can find in a piece of this size and complexity is that in one place the snare drum is a bit obtrusive, I'd have to say that this is yet another remarkable achievement, all the more so for coming after three previous superb Christmas compositions. Even if next year's song takes an entirely different approach, I hope the muse doesn't desert you entirely -- it wouldn't be Christmas without this! -Eido [Edit: Fixed the mess my text editor made of the formatting.] |
|
| Silentground by VertigoSteps | 1 year ago |
| Ooh, I think I might be buying the new Vertigo Steps album in the next few days... It sounds like your sound has shifted a little since the last album, and it's in a direction I appreciate very much. Having a guest spot from the chap who did the clean vocals on the new Insomnium album is an unexpected bonus... Your performance and production have always been beyond reproach, and for my money the song-writing and arrangement is stronger this time around too. Very, very cool. -Eido |
|
| Superior 2 Test & Random Solo by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Wow, those drums sound very naturalistic to me -- certainly much less weirdly distinctive than EZDrummer, which makes it harder for nerds like me to spot the sample library you're using. Cool! -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Void by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| As I mentioned in the Road comments, I'd love to work with a female vocalist in the future, but right now we have the people and the recordings we've already made... If anyone has any suggestions for something we could do with the vocals as they currently stand, please let me know. -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Road by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @SAHARIAN: I would love to work with a female vocalist, but we probably don't have time between now and Tuesday. Something to consider for the next one, though... -Eido |
|
| A Captain's Winter by herrsolera | 1 year ago |
| A placeholder comment for now -- I listened once this morning but then had to hurry off to a training course, and tonight I'll be beavering away on Lies To Children again. I'm at a crunch point with Lies right now, otherwise I'd devote a healthy chunk of time tonight to listening to this. I'll return soon with an intelligent comment, or as close to one as I can muster. In the meantime, I'll just say this: I liked it! -Eido |
|
| A Burning Horizon (EP) (Mastered) by juzcook | 1 year ago |
| Wow! I always look forward to Tria Mera stuff, but hearing a full band was a very pleasant surprise indeed. The riffage is as awesome as usual, but the vocals are a great new addition to the sound -- the chorus in particular blew me away. The clickiness of the kick is a tiny bit distracting, but I could probably get used to it. Outstanding guitar solo -- really impressive, and fitting too. The vocals sound great production-wise as well as performance-wise -- very complete and polished all round. Great job! -Eido |
|
| my name is emma by Mystified | 1 year ago |
| Well, Mysti, you've always been one of my favourite vocalists on iComp, and this track confirms it in style. As I noted to davisamerica, this track and his form two sides of a coin, and complement one another perfectly. Your vocals are, frankly, breath-taking; my only objection is that in a couple of places I'm getting a little distortion out of my MacBook where things get very loud. Even so, I could listen to this all day. -Eido |
|
| Emma by davisamerica | 1 year ago |
| Me three. This version and Mysti's are two sides of a very interesting coin. Enchanting atmosphere, beautiful melodies and an interesting concept deftly executed. Great work all around. -Eido |
|
| wake up by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| As usual, generally great but with a couple of complaints. On the plus side, you have a great song with a very catchy melody, solid rhythm guitars and outstanding vocals. However, the vocals are still difficult to make out, which is a great shame for a song with such a strong vocal. This one also suffers a bit from the high notes in the guitar solo being rather flat. It would be great if you could resolve these production issues because you're a terrific song-writer, vocalist and guitarist, and with a more polished sound you'd be one of the best here. -Eido |
|
| pokerman by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| Very cool song. Maybe you're getting tired of me saying it, but the vocals are once again awesome. Really like your singing. I'd like to hear the rhythm guitars more prominent in the mix. They sound almost gritty at present, and through my MacBook speakers they're frequently masked by whatever else is going on. In the guitar solo in particular all I can hear is lead guitar and snare, and while it's a good lead guitar (even if it gets noticeably ahead of the beat in places) I'd like to hear a rhythm guitar backing it up. Please post lyrics! -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Space by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @olympus, @becwil: Argh. My very last decision before exporting the final mixdown was to drop the volume on the drums a little, because I thought the snare was overpowering things. Right now I have the drums split into 'wood' (kick, snare, toms) and 'metal' (cymbals, hats). It's a bit lazy compared to some of my previous approaches where I've handled each drum in a separate track, but a big selling point of the Slate library I'm using is that you're supposedly able to chuck them straight into a mix without further processing so I was trying to get away without having to micromanage everything. I guess I've paid for that decision, although the trade-off is that the songs have been finished on time... Anyway, I'll revisit the drum mix for the final album. Thanks! @herrsolera: Glad to be keeping you guessing! Figuring out the pacing of the whole album has been a challenge all along -- since we approached this from the perspective of a whole album rather than a collection of individually written songs, we've been trying to think about how to keep things fresh and changing all along. It's been a challenge, but I think the effort has been worth it -- although whether I'll be brave enough to try the same approach for the sequel remains to be seen... @KCsGROOVE: Thanks, I'll tinker with the vocal EQ when I come back to do the final album mix. (I won't touch the panning 'cos FrozenEntropy will complain.  )@FrozenEntropy, @keedragoon, @ShadowofNine, @pharmakeus, @RubyDubidoux: Thanks for listening! Glad you're enjoying it so far... -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Sky by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @herrsolera: I was shooting for 'chaotic wall of sound' with this one rather than 'guitar solo', so provided it isn't offensive I think that's fine. I'll say this, though -- the next project I do is going to have simple arrangements by comparison. Layering is pretty much essential for what we're trying to accomplish here, but for the next ten-to-twelve track album I'd rather not have to catch my breath every time I open a project with only a couple of hours of spare time left... @becwil: Har. teleute wanted the vocals dropped relative to where they'd been for most of the mix. (This is the 'dropped' version.) Personally, I'm aware that they're lower and less in the spotlight than in, say, a mainstream rock or pop song, but I'm kind of okay with that -- we're aiming for a sound driven by the music as a whole rather than led by the vocals. Having said that, when I come back for the album mix I'll nudge 'em up just a little and see what happens. @metfan31: Thanks man. Marty Friedman is one of my guitar heroes, so that means a lot to me. @olympus: That's because awesomeness transcends genre. In all seriousness, I know my/our stuff is pretty far from 'mainstream metal', whatever that might be -- I've lost track of the number of times people have told me that my music isn't metal -- but actually most of my favourite music could be categorised the same way. I greatly enjoy the power and emotional range of metal, but tend naturally towards beauty rather than ugliness, so I suspect the end product has a lot less of the 'nasty stuff' that puts a lot of people off most metal. Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you like it -- thanks!@FrozenEntropy: Thanks, I'll add that to my list of 'panning experiments judged unsuccessful'! I've been trying to adopt a strict LCR mixing approach with this one -- the arrangements are so complex that if I let myself get into the micro-panning stuff I used to do with the Shadows-era stuff, I'd go mad -- but I'll look at relaxing the strictness for the final album mix. @GaryLester: Check back here soon. I observe that there are three more Thursdays left in 2010 and only two songs left in the album... @Henno, @OMM, @ShadowofNine, @eagle, @RubyDubidoux, @Trannyman, @pharmakeus: Thanks, everyone, we really appreciate it! -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Ocean by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @Henno: No problem at all -- many thanks for listening and commenting anyway. We do appreciate your efforts! -Eido |
|
| Bravery (of a saurian) by voXager | 1 year ago |
| Don't take this the wrong way, but that vocal transformer is surprisingly effective! This track has a lot of the trademarks I've come to expect from a voXager song -- tight rhythm guitars locked in with the drums, an excellent variety of synths and some interesting melodies. It's nice to hear vocals (even guide vocals) throughout -- I get a much stronger impression of where the project is going. Roll on April and some vocal recording sessions... -Eido |
|
| breaking heart by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| Cool song. The intro is nicely atmospheric -- gives the impression of a 'big' song. When the main song kicks in, it feels like the synth could use a little compression; the way it's pulsing in the verses is a little distracting, and it seems to be fighting a little with the vocals. It's an interesting element to have in the arrangement, but not at the expense of the clarity of the other instruments. The guitar solo is several kinds of awesome; nice use of delay. The vocal performance is great as always; there are a couple of places where it seems like you're straining a little as you reach up to the higher notes, but it isn't a major issue (and you hit the note just fine). Overall it's a cool track -- great job for you and your collaborator(s). -Eido |
|
| Cyclosarin by TheUnheard | 1 year ago |
| The vocals could stand to come up in the mix a little, I think -- between the (awesome) reverb and the general intensity of some of the sections, they're getting a little buried, particularly by those blast beats. I like the melodies and the dynamic touches -- the clean guitar sections, in particular, are excellent, with a suitably ominous feel. The playing is very tight throughout, which is pretty important for music like this, and the overall package feels very 'complete' -- great job. -Eido |
|
| point of no return by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| I'll echo the previous comments with regard to the vocals -- as usual, the performance is great, but I'm having trouble making the words themselves out. EQ is likely to be the answer -- the region between 1kHz and 8kHz is important for clarity, so play around with an EQ and see if you can get things sounding a little crisper. The doubling may be working against you here -- variations in performances will often have the effect of 'blurring' the underlying words to some extent. Catchy as hell, though. -Eido |
|
| Against the Waves by KurtonNanogon | 1 year ago |
| Great track. I like the piano and synths very much; it has a good dynamic flow and an interesting arrangement. Unlike TheUnheard, I didn't find it too repetitive, which is pretty unusual for me because normally I obsess about variation. I also don't really think it needs vocals -- it has plenty of melody already, and a strong and full enough mix that I think it works just fine as an instrumental. (Far better like this than with bad vocals, certainly.) To my ears the guitar tone is somewhat inconsistent; was it heavily compressed or clipping somewhere down the chain? Sometimes it sounds raw and powerful, sometimes squashed and overly distorted -- seems like it comes and goes. The drums sound awesome -- what are you using? -Eido |
|
| Aladna Hill by voXager | 1 year ago |
| What sample library are you using for guitars? I'd guess Electri6ity or one of the Prominy libraries, just because it sounds unusually good for sampled guitars. But it probably isn't profitable to think too much about that since the guits are going to be replaced anyway. In fact, it's pretty hard to imagine what this'll be like, since the guitars will change and three vocal parts will be added -- I look forward to hearing the next version, because this sounds like a solid enough bed but the finished track could go in a variety of different directions. Sounds cool right now, though... -Eido |
|
| waitting in fire by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| The vocals on this track are fantastic. You're a really, really good singer, with a great ear for melody, expression and arrangement. Some of the notes in the guitar solo were quite flat, which I found rather distracting; the rest of the package is strong enough that a little slip like that seemed out of place. If it were me, I'd probably also have cut out what sounds like a bit of guitar noise at the very start, although I suppose it does give the opening a sense of 'aliveness' that you might not get from just having sampled drums playing the intro. I love the melodies -- I really wish I could write catchy melodies like this, and you do it very well. Love it! -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Ocean by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @Henno: What is it in particular about the 'anew' bit that's troubling you? I've listened a few times and don't hear anything in particular, but this particular song has lived in my head for seven years so it's extremely difficult for me to hear the music I actually recorded instead of what I think should be there! The 'abused' section being in the background is intentional -- I was shooting for a growing wall of sound with more power than precision (think tidal wave). @mdestiny: Thanks! Hmm, so far you're the only person who's noticed the sub stuff, and you've done so in the negative, so I'll probably drop it from the final album mix. I was shooting for a surging, wave-like feeling, but if it's more annoying than effective I'll bin it. Cheers! @LunaBleu: We're currently aiming to get the album finished by the end of this year. We'll make plenty of noise about it when it's done, have no fear. @herrsolera: Many thanks, sir. I'm never quite sure whether my predilection for building sections so layered that they become more puzzle than arrangement is a character flaw or simply a choice. Part of it comes from listening to a lot of innovative metal bands in the 90s when studio budgets and technology didn't allow for the kind of crystal clear production that you'd get from a Sneap or Bogren today, so you'd end up with very dense mixes that had to be picked apart. I enjoy the sense of discovering something new when re-listening to something I thought I knew well; I guess I have to hope that other people do too... Many thanks to all commenters, and to those who've sent private messages -- we really appreciate you all taking the time to listen to our stuff. -Eido |
|
| my kingdom by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| The fade-in at the start is a bit abrupt for my taste; when the music started quiet I was expecting a slow build, so the sudden jump to full volume came as a shock. The distorted guitar seemed a bit nasal when it first appeared, but I got used to it pretty quickly; not sure if there's a way to make that first chord a little gentler on the ear. It's nice to hear a ballad from you, though -- after a couple of full-bore rockers it's great to hear variety. The big vocal sound works really well -- the combination of that and the persistent lead guitar melody reminds me a bit of Amorphis. The end seems as abrupt as the start -- again, a gentler approach would be nicer, IMO. But overall this is a great track -- keep them coming. -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Ocean by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @Ignoramus: Actually, nothing whatsoever has changed with the guitars. But I hear it too, and I've been wondering. Some possible theories: * This is a much sparser arrangement than some of the previous ones, so perhaps the guits have space to breathe at last. * Rather than dropping volumes all round to avoid clipping I dropped a limiter (Stillwell's Event Horizon in 'analog warmth' mode) on a couple of key buses, so there's a bit more pressure on the mix as a whole. * The drums (which were forever getting buried in previous mixes) are split out into wood and metal and run through a couple of different compressors to bring them out a bit more. The next song is another dense one arrangement-wise, so I'll see if I can take the lessons from this one and integrate them into a busier arrangement. If I can figure out what's going on then I'll revisit the earlier mixes when I come to put the final album together. Thanks all for the comments -- keep them coming! -Eido |
|
| Painted Warnings by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Update: pm has fixed it. <3 works fine now. -Eido |
|
| [LiesToChildren] Ocean by Eidolonia | 1 year ago |
| @becwil, @FrozenEntropy: The silences at the beginnings and ends of the tracks I'm uploading here are entirely misleading relative to how the final album will sound; they're purely artefacts of me exporting from Logic in such a way as to minimise the risk of the bizarre bleeps, pops and randomly triggered drum hits that Logic likes to insert in my mixdowns for no apparent reason. When all the tracks are done, I'll export each one again and then shove the whole lot into a new single project so that I can get the gaps between tracks exactly as I want them, and potentially do some other stuff (which I'm deliberately trying not to talk too much about, so that there's some pay-off for listening to the full album when it's all done) to link it all together too. In the specific case of River and Ocean, the two overlap. The open hat count-in for Ocean comes in underneath the closing chord of River, so the bass should kick in somewhere around the point that the reverb tail of River is just about fading to nothingness. I actually thought about uploading both River and Ocean as a single track, but my available free time for mixing was falling apart around me while I was working on River (as you can see from the four-month hiatus that followed), so that wasn't really an option. @KCsGROOVE: Thanks! Most of the 'secret' behind the guitar production, if you can call it that, is layering -- each rhythm guitar part is played twice, once low, once high, to give the chords a 'big' sound. @PinkFreud, @ShadowofNine, @Vixen: Thank you all! We really appreciate your kind words, and hope you enjoy the rest of the album as it makes its way up to the site. Best wishes, -Eido |
|
| blinded my eyes by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| Awesome! Tons of energy, another strong performance and an infectious melody -- a great track all round. The vocals would possibly benefit from a little bit more clarity -- the doubling works great to give them impact, but I can't quite make out the words in a lot of places, which is a pity because this is a perfect song to learn and sing along to. That aside, though, great work! -Eido |
|
| Sweet Child o mine acoustic cover by CharlexMelendez | 1 year ago |
| Wow -- your voice is absolutely INCREDIBLE. I love it! I was pretty sceptical when I saw that you were doing an acoustic cover of this song -- I couldn't imagine Sweet Child without Slash giving it both barrels -- but I was converted from the first moment you opened your mouth. Really, really good. -Eido |
|
| jalousy by SAHARIAN | 1 year ago |
| Wow, this is amazingly good. Great performance, cool song-writing, strong production. My only complaint is that it's a bit sibiliant -- some of the finger-squeaks on the guitar are pretty piercing through MacBook speakers (which tend to accentuate high-end problems). But it's an awesome track -- I hope you have more coming! -Eido |
|
| Harvester (Origin Mix) --open for collaboration-- by solongsecrets | 1 year ago |
| I'm not really much of a psychedelic guy, but the dissonance at the start made my head spin in a way that was unsettling, slightly painful and yet oddly compelling, so... um, I have no idea what to make of that. The second half seemed more accessible to me. Very smooth production -- nice. -Eido |
|
| Night of the Vampires (v,2) by KimonF | 1 year ago |
| The lead guitar is miles better now -- you've done a great job with the retakes. The guitar and drums are synched better at the start, although the bass still sounds a little way apart from both. The synch at the end isn't so hot, although it's better than the previous mix. What are you using to record? A lot of these timing issues can be resolved using a DAW with a grid and a metronome to record to. If you're on a Mac you'll have GarageBand, of course; if you're a PC user, I strongly recommend Reaper, which has a very cheap ($40) non-commercial license, and you can try out the full program with no restrictions at all before you buy. If you're using something like Audacity to record right now, I can't emphasise enough how much easier recording in time will get if you take the time to learn something like Reaper. -Eido |
|
| Alone in the Dark Intro - Testament Cover by mkinnon | 1 year ago |
| Awesome. I keep thinking I ought to get into Testament but have never got around to it. Where should I start? -Eido |
|
| Painted Warnings by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Dude, you're fast becoming one of my favourite artists on iComp. I was going to ask if you're familiar with Periphery, but then I saw them in your artist bio, so I guess you're way ahead of me. (Textures are pretty cool too, if you don't know 'em.) Again, this all works really well -- the great performance and production, the epic wall of sound (with a hint of Katatonia, which always works for me), the dynamic flow -- all around excellent work. -Eido |
|
| Void by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| How the heck do you get that tone out of Amplitube?! It sounds amazing -- much heavier than I could imagine that plugin producing. I guess being in drop G# helps, but even so... Be careful that you don't overdo the high end in Ozone (which is really easy to do). Right now the mix is very bright indeed, which sounds very attention-grabbing but I suspect would be fatiguing over repeated listening. Any more than this would definitely be too much. I look forward to hearing the rest of Traces -- if this is anything to go by, it's going to be awesome. Your performances are great and the song-writing is high quality too. In the clean guitar section, it sounds like one of your strings was a little out of tune. At first I thought that was going to make me wince, but actually it gives the section a slightly off-kilter feeling, like someone playing an old piano in need of a tune-up, which actually works pretty well with the dreamy feel of the section. I like it! -Eido |
|
| THe Yellow. The Solar Plexus. The Third. Mister West. (The Consumer) by solongsecrets | 1 year ago |
| Whoah, very interesting mix of styles and dynamics here. I like it a lot. There's a lot of clipping, though, which at first sounded kind of effective, giving the start a crunchy, messed-up feel, but in the fast, loud sections it got to be a bit too much for me and just became fatiguing. Parts of this sound a little Nine Inch Nails-y to me, maybe Fragile-era, which for me is no bad thing. Terrific performances and arrangement all round. -Eido |
|
| Stick Stickly Cover Demo by justanotherone | 1 year ago |
| Man, people love to cover this song. The guitars seem to have lost some of their body relative to Uplink's original upload, which makes them sound a bit nasal. As Up says, a touch of 'verb on the vocals would help them to sit better in the mix -- but it sounds like you have the potential to be a great singer. (Just lose the Autotune. Yeah, I know Attack Attack do it and this is a cover, but if you learn to sing well without clever effects and other crutches then you'll be head and shoulders above most of your contemporaries, and when the Autotune sound goes out of fashion everyone else will be left sounding like an idiot.) Good effort. -Eido |
|
| Intro Sample by Uplink | 1 year ago |
| Guitars are sounding really nice. Kind of a strange thing to notice but the snare seems really short to me -- like it's being hit really, really hard and is wound up so tightly there's no resonance. For me it lacks a bit of impact as a result, because it's gone so quickly. Maybe a touch of additional reverb just on the snare to give it a tail? -Eido |
|
| An Reflection Exists by ahumblepizza | 1 year ago |
| Awesome tone! What gear did you use? This is really nicely put together -- the synths complement the guitars very well, and the arrangement has a nice dynamic flow. Plus the riffs are awesome, which always helps. Best track I've heard all morning. (The silence at the end was disappointing, though -- I saw the file size and was hoping for a longer track...) -Eido |
|
| My Goddess by Dandar | 1 year ago |
| The clipping is much better on this one compared to My Mirror Glass, but it's still present in the vocals when you hit a loud note, especially about a third of the way in. The need for a pop shield is also more apparent this time around, due to the comparatively sparse backing. It sounds like you've got some good musical ideas, but there's some work to do on the production front before they'll really begin to shine through. -Eido |
|
| My Mirror Glass by Dandar | 1 year ago |
| The mix is suffering pretty badly from clipping. I wrote a blog about clipping, but the short version is that the levels are too high, which is causing everything to distort. I hear it most on the vocals, but I think it's there on the rest too to a lesser extent. It sounds like you'd also benefit from a pop shield when recording vocals -- if you haven't got one or can't afford one, you can always pull a nylon sock or stocking over a coat hanger and put that between you and the microphone, and that'll help a lot. -Eido |
|
| Night of the Vampires by KimonF | 1 year ago |
| The use of MIDI is very effective -- the bed you're laying down is very atmospheric, and suitably spooky. The guitar performance needs a fair amount of work, though; the intro is significantly out of time compared to the bass and drums, and there are a few missed notes. The slide/wah section sounds awesome, but the fast picked bit that follows again loses a lot of its impact due to missed notes. It sounds like you can really play fast, which is great, but a bit more time spent on precision would really bring out the potential here. -Eido |
|
| HATE INCARNATE (w/ Lyrics) by jett22251 | 1 year ago |
| Love the guitar tone. The vocals could use a little more clarity -- without the lyrics I wouldn't have a hope of deciphering them, although the growl itself sounds great. The instrumental performance is tight as hell and sounds great. The snare could maybe do with coming up just a little, but the kick works nicely -- the clicky sound cuts through the guitars effectively. (If you don't want ratings you can disable them -- on the song upload or edit page, just untick the Rating box ('Allow other members to rate this submission'), and you'll still get the comment box but without the option to leave a rating.) -Eido |
|
