# Looking for band feedback!!



## sgutierrez5678 (Apr 28, 2011)

Whats up everyone I am in a new band called Fall To Dust and every web site our band is listed on is full of listeners who don't leave feedback! lol that's probably not a big deal to most but i personally like to get feedback good or bad... so with that said here is a link to my band and hopefully some of you will let me know what you think!! Fall To Dust - Band Profile | Facebook


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## sanchazm (Apr 29, 2011)

I think the clean vocals are a little loud and if there is bass guitar it should come up a little. Its really solid though. Im not to crazy about the copious amounts of sub hits but its whatever lol. The guitars pretty tight. I think they could have a little more bite but that might be just me. That's all I got for you bruh. Good job.


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## sgutierrez5678 (Apr 29, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback man! What do you recommend as far as bass tones, distorted? clean and punchy? That has always been a problem area for me.


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## sanchazm (Apr 29, 2011)

I think the best bass tones are clean with a good amount of eq. You want that bottom end to speak but you also want it to have clarity. Sometimes distortion can add a nice touch but my personal taste is just a good clean sound.


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## sgutierrez5678 (Apr 29, 2011)

Sounds good bro I will keep all that in mind!


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## Ryan-ZenGtr- (Apr 29, 2011)

Pro look artwork...

Track 1. Collapse

Wind noise way too loud, I turned down expecting mega volume, but track is quieter than SFX intro

No bass guitar??? What drum machine is that?

Vocals need more compression and reverb, to sit well in the mix. Sound fine to me.

Guitars need levelling as chorus is MUCH louder than the rest. Also tone isn't the best, sounds like old pedal. Try the DI and reamp route, perhaps free plug ins.

Nice and short.

Track 2. 

different band!!! Much better recording!

and so it continues....

right, I've got it now...

What you need to do is cut the first 30 seconds of clean guitar in Never Spoken so it comes in powerful, on the vocal intro you have, put a simple heavy riff over the 2nd half of the clean verse section, trim some of the repeat Riff without vocal sections and make it tight and snappy. Put that on as the 1st song on your page.

Put Nothing and Sins 2 and 3 or whichever you like best.

Your killing yourself by putting "Collapse" online, dude! I'd kill the cover too, it's a bit ridiculous and funny!

Overall, once I'd realised it was a mish mash of old and new, I got the picture. Kill the old stuff!!!

Or hide it away somewhere else for people to find who like what you do NOW. Sends the wrong message as the first thing people will hear.

I quite like Sins, Nothing and I know you probably think Spoken is "too commercial", there are a lot of Killswitch influenced bands on the net, you should try to distance yourself a bit from that by putting Spoken first. You should market yourself on those 3, from what was on the page, IMO.

I hope to help by being brutally honest! In no way do I mean to cause upset or anything like that. Just what I would do in your position.

Re: Bass Tone...

I record with a DI into the POD, recording a pod tone and a pure DI. with bass, I send a copy of the DI to a Tube Screamer, guitar amp or other quality distortion simulation in the DAW. Low and High Pass the distortion at 500 and 2500, mix it in with a fat clean bass tone for extra bite. I really like Digital Fish Phones Endorphin (free) compression and Major Tom compressor from Stillwell audio ($$$) for bass tones, lately.

List of guitar ampsim software - Ultimate Metal Forum


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## sgutierrez5678 (Apr 29, 2011)

First of all I appreciate your honesty, that's what I was really hoping to get out of this!

Re: No bass guitar??? What drum machine is that?
Bass didn't get tracked on this solely because I didn't have access to one lol but now that I have purchased one it will definitely be a big part of our future mixes. The drum machine is EZ drummer, DFH expansion.

Re: "Collapse" Feedback
Collapse is a song we were never sure about although we liked the idea. The reason it has been posted first is because it has appealed the most to our local fans, which is about the only fan base we have at the moment. If it is completely remixed do you think it could be more promotable? 

Re: "Never Spoken"
It was intended to be very commercial and at one time was the headlining song but once again our local fans get the best of us, hence the reason it is last!

I would love to appeal to more than just our local fans who know very little about music, but even with our constant promoting we haven't seen much of a break through. It would be great to have a fan base from people on the site like you who give us awesome feedback so that we can make our mixes as great as possible.

As far as the cover goes, that is solely our singers doing. I think its hilarious actually but for some reason he is pretty into covering 80's music lol.


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## Ryan-ZenGtr- (May 13, 2011)

Cool Cool, I'm glad you understood the intent of my comments! 

Some people are touchy :roll:

+1 hilarious cover

Should be hidden away, or saved as a hidden track after 10 minutes of silence.....  Not on main page!!! Ruins credibility! Unless you want people to think your a comedy act, which can be a lucrative market. 

Maybe you should consider doing a new recording for "Collapse" and releasing it for a dollar a piece or whatever at your next show, with online later, using CDR's or what ever?

Merchandise is KING!

(Dollar is suggested price, plucked from randomness, you may charge what you think you might get, low is good though as people will buy them all! Perhaps 3 dollars!!!)

Just for clarity, I was suggesting changing the ARRANGEMENT of "Never Spoken", to make it more direct, by removing the extra repetition of clean guitar and later on, there's a riff without vocal that repeats a little too long IMO.


Just checked the Facebook, same as before, unchanged. You should get on the case and update the recording for "Collapse". Do you have the raw files? Can you keep the vocals and redo the drums from MIDI? Just overdubbing guitar and bass from scratch, so it sounds like your new recordings?

The sound on the newer stuff is so much better, it's a shame not to hear it first... When I first heard it, just on sound alone - NOT content, I was ready to skip the rest of the page. Not what you want to present to potential bookings. That's why I wrote here in the first place!!! The new stuff sounds great, put it first!!!! 


Getting out to play is tricky. I don't know what it's like in Seminole, as London is quite compact so there are many venues within driving range to play at. I'd suggest developing the facebook, or better, you own web site. You'll need to play a cool looking venue or find an interesting location so you can get some great pictures for the front page. Pictures can be important promo tools.

Do you play to a click track? Try to get a live recording, perhaps with multiple digital cameras and edit it, to one of your tracks demo recordings. Live video with studio sound.

You can get all that material at one gig, and do some close ups during the sound check if you can get to the venue early (perhaps organise with venue 20 minutes extra). Don't do anything silly!!! Must look funeral serious!  You can get your live photo's there and group shots all at one gig. Get your fans to help, more pictures = more chance of a good one.

Make the website look all nice and shiny and use the logo for a Tshirt design, which you can sell online, to make money for gas, food and strings.

Once you've played with a few bands, make sure to get reviewed by someone! Add these as links to your page when they say nice things. This will eventually lead to a great site.

I go into a venue, "Who is playing on saturday" "such and such...." "Who are they?" "Check out the site, dude, they're awesome!!!" Check site, I buy ticket.

Nowadays, the venues need advertising from the bands, otherwise no one will be at the venue. You have to be a promotion machine to sell tickets, so making your site look great will be a good start. 

Always remember, the fundamental law of music: PROMOTION PROMOTION PROMOTION + MERCHANDISE MERCHANDISE MERCHANDISE = WIN!

Hah, and the noobs thought it was about music!
:roll:

*note: just being cynical to make a point. I wish it was a meritocracy where the good people did well on the strength of their creativity and innovation, but really, it's all about keyrings, lighters, belt buckles, hip flasks, bandanas, clothing lines, posters... and the good 'ol fashioned Tshirt. The reason is labels normally negotiate a fee/percentage on ALL recoupables, normally they try to take control of merch, which is the real profit on playing a live show. You always need a trusted merch vendor! Don't put a girlfriend on there unless it's a last resort, if something goes wrong... All hell brakes loose!


So, you need a super web site to sell all this future merchandise which will pay for your music! If you can produce an album of the quality of the newer stuff, recording quality wise that would easily sell as an unsigned band for $12 + P&P.

How it all works is: Oh shit!! I have all these CD's to sell, oh no! Let's do loads of shows to sell them!

That is the drive and motivation behind musicians! Duplication costs! lol

Once they have the CD, you get them with the Tshirt... And next tour with ... The NEW Tshirt!

Your best off doing all this yourself, as all the money is yours. All the costs, too, but you won't get in debt that way. Record companies LOAN you the money... In the hope you earn enough to repay and make a profit. On the 2nd album they make the good return, as the band is then known.

Right, I hope that makes sense. 10 minutes down the drown! I hope that helps and I hope also that I've judged the advice right.

Good luck!!! 

P.S. Facebook is a CIA data mining tool, every one you add is free work for you, for them. And everyone uses auto add bots to add friends to their music page nowadays. Venues know this and are adjusting.


Just a little diagram to conclude:

500 flyers of the venues local area (pay a student fan to be "STREET TEAM LEADER" and visit colleges, train stations, town centres etc.)
Venue posters and flyers with reasonable lead time to advertise before the gig (a month is usual)

80 people at the show

40 buy CD's Or AND Tshirt

$100 + fee (if any!!! Venue scum) split equally to each member to pay for gas, food and effort.

I've seen bands sell their whole merch stand before, and on their first gig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia_(band)

http://www.pythiamusic.com/

http://www.myspace.com/pythiamusic

Look at that website, dripping with Pro. Don't you want to book them??? (Note: airbrushed faces, silly outfits and ridiculous poses... Looks expensive... PHOTO SHOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!) See what I mean?  They're mates of mine, so I can be cynical. 


*update* Having looked at their site (Pythia) they've done everything I advised here... Pseudo "live" videos with album audio... Merch... pics.... Think of it as a business study. Gothic metal, with harpsichord synth *ARGH!!!!!* NOOOO!!!!!!*


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