Yet another reggae tune for crits

[n3tgraph]

click me

any crits are welcome!!
Hope you like it

[Gregjazz]

Sweet!

Some random comments:

- The bass is a little too boomy, it could use some EQ-work, and it seems like it's panned too much to the left. Maybe simplify the bassline, too. It can be syncopated like you have it, but just remember, it's really muggy and hot in the Caribbean, so you sort of get lazy-feeling and play minimal notes.

- Reverb for the sidestick? Like almost a bit of a gated reverb, but not too loud. Also, when the sidestick does that little extra variation hit, make it more like a ghost note, a lot quieter. Maybe more quarter-note triplets with the sidestick also.

- Hihat is a bit too loud, or maybe could just use more velocity variation. Or perhaps a more typical reggae hihat pattern.

- I like the phaser guitar--definitely very dub reggae. Try combining it with a bright acoustic piano (turn up the highs and the lows down to get that 'tacky' reggae piano sound). Pan the piano opposite of the guitar.

- Very cool timbale at the end! Maybe you could add some flams every once and a while, too? Also, try EQing it so that it's a lot of highs, and no lows. Then apply some long reverb. It'll sound even cooler.

- Steel drum rolls in the background? It's a little cliched, but it could add something. Pan it in the center/a tiny bit to the left, with some ambient reverb.

[n3tgraph]

Hey Thanks Geoff,

your a great help!

As for the phaser guitar, it's actually a piano
I heard it in a Bob Marley song, so I copied it.

But I could put the phaser on the guitar, so the piano will be very snappy again.
The piano and guitar are indeed opposite panned.

Maybe you could help me with this.
You see, the recording isn't running very smoothly. The music you hear is recorded directly from my synthesizer. When I record track-by-track I get a major lag.

Therefore I haven't been able to use the mixer and effects in Cubase. Everything you hear now is a one-take from my synthesizer.

Do you know a way te remove the lag without buying a very fast and new computer?

[Gregjazz]

As for the phaser guitar, it's actually a piano

Okay. Sorta difficult to tell because of the effect, I thought it was a cheezy synth guitar with flanger.

But I could put the phaser on the guitar, so the piano will be very snappy again.
The piano and guitar are indeed opposite panned.

Is that the mute guitar quietly doubling the bass part?

Maybe you could help me with this.
You see, the recording isn't running very smoothly. The music you hear is recorded directly from my synthesizer. When I record track-by-track I get a major lag.

Therefore I haven't been able to use the mixer and effects in Cubase. Everything you hear now is a one-take from my synthesizer.

Do you know a way te remove the lag without buying a very fast and new computer?

I'm assuming the lag is your soundcard processing power. What soundcard do you have? See if it's compatible with the KX drivers (which are awesome and free), because those give you ASIO support. I'm not sure, the KX drivers might just be for Soundblaster cards only.

If it really is the soundcard lag, then you could always get an external USB/Firewire soundcard...

[n3tgraph]

No I was talking about the guitar skank, which is the same as the flanger-piano only on a guitar-chord setting

I know my computer is rather old (duron 700). I think I need another version of cubase or maybe another program, because the cubase I'm running atm is full of errors.

Anyway, I have a soundblaster 128 in it. But I never heard of KX drivers. I think I'll go look for them!

Thanks again!

[Nikolas]

Which version of Cubase are you using?

Any version after Cubase SX1 will be fine, I think.

I've bene using Cuabse SX1 and very recently upgraded (downgraded actually) to Cubase SL3...

Beofre Cubase SX1 was releaed (which was three years ago, I think), Cuabse was a different story. Now it's great!

[n3tgraph]

I haven't a clue which cubase I use..

But I've heard some fancy stuff about Steinberg Nuendo... ?
Anyone familiar with that?

[Nikolas]

The only thing that I can say about Nuendo, is that it started off with Cuabse SX1, and was almost teh same, but now things are hugely different. And that the latest version costs aroudn 1500$ Other than that amazing program, that, unless you're working on multimedia, it's not worth the truble I think, and believe.