Ortolan Soup

This is my latest project. Original indie folk. Free-download. What could go wrong?

http://ortolansoup.bandcamp.com/

Head over to the facebook page and click 'like!'.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ortolan-Soup/125952640815726

Goddamit these songs are cool, sounds professional stuff. Summertime was clear favorite. Fantastic song.

Emp

good recording but y so much effect on the vocals

I really enjoyed every song. Great recordings Doz.

Cheers guys, and @notim; it's just multiple tracks and reverb because I feel my voice is not rich enough alone - and I also wanted a distant feel. Thanks for the feedback!

got ya doz, i kinda figured but thought I would ask, you got the distant feel...very cool

Thanks; I ought to start taking singing lessons or something so that I don't have to mask the sound of my vocals - although I think it suited the tracks here, it's a fair bit of criticism.

Make sure to download the EP for free guys!

Nice production,i didnt like the music but its because of personal taste (HATE indie stuff,and i generally dont hate stuff)

BUT this one was kinda cool,congrats!

@Alexb you took the words right out of my mouth.

Doz, dont get me wrong man it sound good, and vocals fit perfect, and sound big, well mixed also, I am not it to indie either but I am into good production and those songs are well represented. I always have a problem with pushing sounds where I want them.

I on the other hand, DO listen to "indie" (I hate that word) music. This is more upbeat and happy than I would normally listen to, but I still liked it quite alot, and I am downloading it right meow

Great sounding tracks...I listened twice!

AlexB: Well, thanks for the response anyway. To be honest though, I would only really say it is indie in it's ethic, rather than it's actual style, although the style of course does influence me.

Thanks again Notim: On the subject of placing sounds, it just takes planning and a little technical knowledge.

The obvious is to pan certain instruments where you want them, and is commonly done to emulate 'live' set-ups. Some general rules include putting bass instruments in the centre with the kick drum and lead vocals. Offsetting the different drums to reflect where they would be in a live set-up (eg. Snare offset slightly to the right and hi-hat slightly more). Double or stereo tracked mid range instruments (guitars, keys, synths etc.) panned hard left and right. Backing vocals spread around in multiple directions and so on.

Another thing to consider is frequency ranges. If you have lots of low mids in the guitars, cut some of it out of the keys so that it doesn't sound cluttered. Cut bass instruments high frequencies, cut the low frequencies off the hi-hat. Open every EQ window for every track and take out what you don't need. You might just make the instruments you want heard clearer without having to increase the volume or boost the EQ. Cut before you consider boosting.

Next, reverb. Dry tracks (no reverb) will sound up-front, wet tracks (reverb) will sound further back depending on the amount and settings. Take a listen to the electric guitar at the end of the chorus in The Night, it sounds more distant and at the back of the mix than the other instruments, and it's the same thing I've done with the vocals (though you might not usually do it with vocals).

An idea: if you draw a semi-circle with a cross at the bottom representing the listener, you can write the names of the tracks based on where you want them in the mix. If you put the track far away on and slightly to the left of the listener, when it comes to recording - be a bit more generous with the reverb and pan it to the left.

In short: pan evenly to space out tracks, cut frequencies to reduce clutter, add reverb to far away tracks.

BodomBeachTerror: Thanks, although I wouldn't have described it as up-beat myself!

TinyskateboardL All I can say is, listen again!

Thanks Doz, thanks a different way to look at, and really makes sence

Well compared to straight up acoustic folk stuff

I listened to your stuff dude - I just didn't comment for some reason :S I thought I did! But oh well.

I really like these man, brilliant job. Is this what you'd like to do in the future? Because you've definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY have the potential :D Keep it up dude!

BBT: you're probably right, but I was cautious about calling it folk too. I'm not really sure what genre it is - but folk, indie and rock have all influenced it so that's the closest I'll get to tagging it I think.

Thanks Jazz, and yeah. I know I have room to improve... and this is another practice run for me. I have to work on my writing and recording chops before I can really put across what I want to, musically. But yeah, I have sort of found my style, although I say that carefully because I'm always looking for something else to influence me!

Thanks for the responses guys! I've already written a lot of new material so I hope to record an album later this year.

Solid song writing and production.

Introduction sounded great did you virtual synthesis, samples or a real synthesiser to do it?

The night, effect on the vocals kinda trippy, I like.

Summertime, best song I've heard so far but there's one left

Solomon Grundy, a good end to the EP, sometimes I think a band has placed the songs in the wrong order and they would work better in a different order to be cohesive but here you've ordered them perfectly.

Hey, thanks. The introduction was created using an advanced time stretch program, that could stretch audio by a large amount, and then essentially smooth the audio after it stretched it. The audio I used for it were the other three tracks - I liked the idea of having an introduction to the sounds used. Then I cut the songs up, listened for parts that stood out and used them in certain places (e.g. the major sounding bit at the end), editing everything in - faded in, faded out. So no real synths at all.

The Night and Summertime, well - I really like the Night the most, but that's a personal thing. It's more fresh to me. That said - I do get that most people would go for Summertime over The Night, so I did place them accordingly. And yeah, Solomon Grundy is at the end because it's the most 'rock' track I had... and it's good to go out on something bigger.

Really appreciate the feedback!

No problem, what was that time stretch program you used?

Doz: Thanks for the cool recording insights. And you don't need to label your music or at least you don't have to use a label that has already been applied to something else.

If you were promoting yourself and telling the music magazine what you are, you can make up a label. What does TV ON THE RADIO bill themeselves as?

Tinyskateboard; I'd love for it to be that way, but the truth it... I'd be missing out on quite a few listens if I didn't describe the music. Firstly because I couldn't give them a reason they might like it, and secondly because it wouldn't come up in myspace/bandcamp/facebook searches under a genre. But I get what you're saying, and it's a fair point. And no problems about the recording insights, I'm in no way an expert - telling other people helps me to keep on top of all the techniques myself.

And daniel M - As for the program I used, I'll get back to you. Can't remember what it's called - and it's a windows program (I usually run OSX). Next time I boot windows up for any reason I'll get back to you.

Hey tinyskateboard: it was called PaulStretch.

I'll use this opportunity to post my links across the web. Right now I'm desperate for likes and follows, so do me a favour!

BandCamp: http://ortolansoup.bandcamp.com
MySpace: http://myspace.com/ortolansoup
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ortolansoupuk
Purevolume: http://http://www.purevolume.com/OrtolanSoup
TheSixtyOne: http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/OrtolanSoup/

ALSO: The guy at a cool blog called Choose my Music did a review/interview for my EP at http://choosemymusic.blogspot.com/2011/05/audiophiles-ortolan-soup.html

If you have any thoughts and opinions - it'd be great if you posted them there!

That's a pretty cool interview. I know what soup is, but what's Ortolan?

While reading on that interview, its great btw... this was the lines I especially got attention...

"OS: I did the EP as a university project. I've always told myself that I could do this kind of thing if I wanted to, but never really did it. But the only way you can do something is if you do it. With a grade riding on it, I knew I had to get it done. As for doing it alone - I just worked to my strengths I think. I don't really have all these musicians around me to reach out to, and I don't have the cash to pay someone to design artwork and create a website. I think I have a pretty good eye for professionalism, so I made something that I'd like."

well... man, thats the dedication. not just music, studying or attitude on work you got the get done.. thats what Id like to have.
Respect.

"It's hard to get anyone to listen to anything, even music fans."

I felt same, many times :)

Anyway... great job m8. How about thinking, that you form a band, rather than joining it, by contacting you the band members will show that they are seriously in, because without it, they never be contacted you.

Emp

tinyskateboard: Thanks. And I chose Ortolan because it sounded nice and pleasant, whilst being quite tragic really. It's a small bird that used to be tortured (force-fed and locked up) and then eaten whole. An ortolan soup would need a lot of them, so that's just multiplying that depressing image really.

Empirisim: Thanks also. It's a shame that even when someone likes something, they so easily forget about it. And as for the band, that's my plan anyway - I want to find people willing to play my material, and then eventually move into writing together.