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Lexical_Whale

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  1. Lexical_Whale
    Cool song but the guitar tuning sounds really off to me for those clean arpeggios. Shame really as the track has a great vibe and sounds grand apart from that.
  2. Lexical_Whale
    Was literally just on here to see if there'd be any interest in my one of these before I eBay it . Don't want to poach away any interest in yours though so I'll knock that idea on the head for now!
  3. Lexical_Whale
    The tradeoff being that you have to look like a total dweeb doing it and therefore defeating the entire point of picking up a guitar in the first place.
  4. Lexical_Whale
    Finally got round to releasing our first LP today. Easily the best thing we've done to date and hopefully something in there for everyone: long ones, short ones, loud ones, quiet ones, rocky ones, ambient ones, riffy ones, proggy ones. Some of my favourite guitar tones I've ever heard out of my gear too so really quite proud of those particularly. Can be streamed/downloaded from Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify. A fine way to spend a 40 minutes or so on a fine spring afternoon even if I say so myself!
  5. Lexical_Whale
    Evening all. New track from my band Wicket from our forthcoming album recorded back in the summer. Instrumental post-rock for fans of Mogwai, Sigur Ros etc: https://projectwicket.bandcamp.com/track/we-were-sinking
  6. Lexical_Whale
    Anyone here coming along to ArcTanGent at the end of the month? My band Wicket are kicking things off on the PX3 stage on the Saturday. Lots of instrumental post-rock like this to be enjoyed: T5WZdeYhXV0
  7. Lexical_Whale
    Thanks! This to get the controllers connected and generate usable data from them which then gets shunted to Ableton and MAX/MSP for a lot of experimentation and fun.
  8. Lexical_Whale
    Cheers. Yeah a black one's on my list of things to look into after payday. Last one from me before I spam up the thread too much more. Thought I'd go for something a bit different this time: Moog_03 by Lexical_Whale, on Flickr
  9. Lexical_Whale
    I'd say that's probably true as a general rule. I think I've only really used it once for a project that wasn't heavily MIDI or sample based and that was just to see if the change of environment helped with the writers block I was having (it did). I wouldn't say the workflow is any easier or harder, just different to something like Logic but as I say I tend to use them for completely different things really. This is one of my favourite things I've used Ableton for that just wouldn't have felt easy or natural to do in other DAWs: nd6yk2fxSeM
  10. Lexical_Whale
    My choice would almost always be Logic and that's what I've always used when I've been tracking at home or mixing. Pro Tools is fine and it's usually been the only option in studio situations but I'd agree with Jaicen that I find it a bit counter-intuitive outside of tracking. I've used Ableton a fair bit too for triggering instruments and samples live mainly but also for a few more experimental bits or messing around with things that need a more immediate hands-on kind of approach.
  11. Lexical_Whale
    Got a very similar setup to what you're using I think. Got the same flashgun (based on the price/features/good things said about it on here ratio), Canon DSLR and a bit of white cotton material as a backdrop. Was a bit on the fence about 'needing' the flashgun but so glad I went for it (diffusing the pop up flash with bits of paper to nice soft lighting was getting tiresome ). Will have to look into mounting the flash off camera though; have you found any big benefits doing it that way? Can hardly compete with your collection but here's a couple of shots I took a bit earlier. Really should've cleaned the dust off... LP DC_01 by Lexical_Whale, on Flickr LP DC_02 by Lexical_Whale, on Flickr LP DC_04 by Lexical_Whale, on Flickr Couple of others here Really keen to try out some different backdrops too. Would thoroughly recommend it Matthijs, especially if you're trying to disguise the fact that you're actually shooting in a cluttered bedroom...y'know hypothetically.
  12. Lexical_Whale
    Taking a few very tentative steps into this taking photos lark recently so thought I'd try a few tips I've seen thrown around here to get some shots of one of my main live guitars: First time putting any proper thought into what I'm shooting rather than just messing around getting to grips with the camera and also first time going for subtle post processing adjustments rather than overt image editing or graphics stuff. Hopefully going to have a go with some of my other gear tomorrow so any technical advice or composition suggestions/interesting angles for this sort of thing would be very welcome (currently my thinking goes as far as getting rid of the wrinkles in the background and maybe trying for slightly less narrow depth of field to keep the top cutaway in focus too).
  13. Lexical_Whale
    Not really that easy to comment on it as a score without the visual. Don't really care so much for the melody: feels a bit aimless and improvised at the moment but obviously that perception might change in context. Like the chordal stuff between 0'20" and 0'36" though so would have been interested to hear it based around that idea a bit more but context blah blah. Any chance of hearing it with picture?
  14. Lexical_Whale
    Don't think I've heard either of them before but then I only tend to dip into this thread every so often seeing as the quantity and quality of material varies so much! Great stuff though, all three are very cool and thought the first two were particularly fantastic. Lots of potential there and to be honest the recording quality didn't really get in the way of enjoying the songs at all. Everything comes across really well in spite of any production issues but would also love to hear them all polished up and whatnot though.
  15. Lexical_Whale
    Noice! Got any more?
  16. Lexical_Whale
    By copycat I took it more to mean straight covers trying to match the studio/live versions as close as possible (basically what most people normally do). I guess though that you'd potentially run into problems with doing creative covers as you'd either have to do it really quite stripped back or make your own backing from scratch as I doubt there are many Ska/Klezmer fusion backing tracks for Plug In Baby floating about.
  17. Lexical_Whale
    Like this idea. Think I mentioned it last time round but my main problem with assigning specific albums to certain rounds means people might feel like their choice is limited entirely to shitty songs.
  18. Lexical_Whale
    Haven't listened to the whole thing but skipped around a bit. So strange hearing that piano loop at the start without it being followed by the rest of Endtroducing . Heard a bit of Kavinsky in there too which I like very much. The whole thing gets a bit baggy in the middle but it's pretty cool.
  19. Lexical_Whale
    It definitely shows that the song's under-rehearsed but a positive way to look at it is that when you come to re-record you've got a solid benchmark to listen to and work out what you want to improve or do differently and a point of comparison for afterwards. I definitely know how tempting it can be to record new material soon after it's written. This track was recorded under similar circumstances to your one; people wanted to film us for their project we'd only just written it, the structure was worked out 10 minutes before the first take but we wanted to play it because it was new and we only had one other track. So this is completely understandable. If you're identifying things that you're not happy with and areas that you need to pay attention to then that's definitely a step in the right direction. It all comes with practice really - I listened back to some mixes of songs I did 5 years ago and they're fucking cringeworthy but I find I'm improving with every mix I do (even if I'm still lightyears away from as good as I want to be!). Something else that's just just occurred to me on a second listen is that I can don't think I can hear any kick drum anywhere in the whole 4 minutes. I thought something sounded strange and that's what it is. Should say as well that the snare and cymbals sound pretty nice even if the performance is a bit ropey
  20. Lexical_Whale
    Are you the guy who had the demo before with all the really odd panning? If so then this is a big improvement. Either way here's my thoughts (not all negative and hopefully constructive): Sounds like the performance is really quite loose which doesn't really do the recording any favours. When you've got issues like people audibly knocking mics (2.50) and that sort of thing it seems rather like a bit more time and care could have been taken. Still. The drums in particular are dodgy more or less all the way through with all sorts of timing issues and whatnot particularly on the fills. The vocals aren't really that bad to be honest but the mix and production do nothing to flatter them and help them mesh with the track. The aforementioned knock and some pretty erratic levels on the vocals suggest that it might be worth your vocalist spending a bit of time working on mic technique as that'll help with these issues. Guitars and bass are pretty solid, plenty of potential there and not a lot to criticise although mix-wise I do feel like the guitars are overwhelming everything else at points (especially the vocals). Really the important things to take from this are to make sure you practice, practice, practice until you're ready to record and can all play every bit of the song comfortably and consistently. Make sure to go through and check for any stray noises or mistakes that shouldn't be there and remove them: If this means recording a whole new take then do it because it'll be well worth it to get an infinitely better final product. If you're mixing this stuff yourselves then just keep at it and make sure to try and improve each time. If someone else from outside the band is mixing it for you then consider looking elsewhere.
  21. Lexical_Whale
    Found time in between making the Live Sessions videos to finish off a new studio track. Really pleased with how it came out, definitely a step up in terms of production compared to the demo. Check it out: http://projectwicket.bandcamp.com/track/know-your-roots (Stream and free download)
  22. Lexical_Whale
    Sounds cool. I've used a fair few String plugins with varying results; never got anything sounding as warm and natural as recording the real thing but definitely not bad. Check out NI 'Session Strings'. Really good for more contemporary and pop stuff rather than classical and it has some really cool soul/Motown style sounds that could work really well with this sort of thing.
  23. Lexical_Whale
    Awesome, glad you like them. Also if that was you that just bought the demo then please accept a huge thanks from all 3 of us; it really means a lot and is much appreciated
  24. Lexical_Whale
    Thanks. Never really listened to Porcupine Tree despite frequent recommendations so checking them out now. Cheers. Here's a with our other Live Sessions videos. Hopefully if you liked that song then "Light Up Berlin" in particular should be right up your street. We also have a Bandcamp page where you can stream our studio EP/demo and the best way to keep up to date with any new tracks or videos is at our Facebook page: http://facebook.com/projectwicket. Think that covers everything Thanks for listening guys, really appreciate it!
  25. Lexical_Whale
    Thanks There's actually a second very similar controller just out of shot that our bassist is using to control the video changes. I'm using the one you can see in a lot of the shots to trigger the mellotron string chords via Ableton Live. We call them WILLIAM and WALLACE but I can't quite remember what those are acronyms for
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