And another Stragglers song, origianlly featured on Shayne (and my) Glasspuppets album. Probably my personal favourite of Shayne’s songs. Took me a while to get into it though I must admit. He squeezes a lot more words and syllables in that I normally do, it was a bit of a tongue twister for my initially.
Anyway,
Save Yourself
(Apologies for the appaling Bandcamp stream. I reckon they’re easily sub-128k MP3 grade)
Alt link to Soundclick:
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10609900
Hi Ian
I am not too keen on commenting on performances but it does sound like you are struggling to get all the words in at times. The timing is not too good in some places. Don’t have time to list time details just now, I have to get off to work. 
Regarding the mix, I have only listened a few times on headphones this morning but the stabbed keyboard chords don’t really work IMVHO. They make the song sound a bit cheesy, bit like one of those keyboard auto accompaniment parts. I thought it had a negative effect on the groove too. I would loose the chords all together and just keep the fills but with a different sound. Others might not agree. 
I like the darker section where you distort your vocal a lot. That’s the best part of the song IMO. 
The attitude of the band in this section seems to fit the song better.
I need to listen more seriously to comment further on the mix. 
Cheers
Dave
Hi Ian
Have you changed this mix since my post? Mind you the sound quality is so bad it’s hard to tell. The stream sounds much worse than earlier to me. 
BTW, last chord tuning?
Just played ‘Light And Darkness’ and the quality of sound is much better. 
I’ve never trusted their encoding and had some issues a couple of years ago but it seems even worse now. 
Yeah… Dave, there’s no doubt now that Bandcamps streams vary noticeably in quality. Another one I posted recently that sounds shocking to me is “Invisible”. I seem to recall Doug making some mention of this actually, but it’s not until now that I had really thought it an issue and it’s certiainly not something I’d noticed previously on others tunes using Bandcamp - nor older BC hosted postings from myself in fact. But with these more recent Straggler tunes, well it’ sure is a bit hit and miss. Re-uploading seemingly makes no difference either. I tried a few times with “Invisible” and it stills sounds really bad - more like a 64k MP3
It’s a shame because Bandcamp is certainly the best looking hosting site, but I might have to set these songs up elsewhere where I know the audio stream is going to be consistently good!
He did indeed!
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting some webspace that we guys here can post tunes to at higher mp3 rates or ACC, etc. Of course, it wouldn’t be visible to the public, just some space for streaming tunes. I’m already paying $9.95/month for the premium service at soundclick, I wouln’t mind paying considerably more some open space. Ian, you know far more about this stuff than I do – would such a site require all of us to have web creation software, and the SAME software to boot? Or is it possible to post tunes in the m3u format for example just using some freeware that is out there?
It would be nice if Steinberg provided this, since the “Made With” section is something of a nice advertisement about what the app can do. I’m not sure how much space would make sense, however, of if anybody would really even use it faithfully… not to mention a few other negatives I can think of.
Oh, I forgot to comment about the song…
Not bad. My only big issue is… wait for it… yes… the snare. 
In the intro it’s there but almost inaudible… was that intentional? Same with the outro.
The 128kps stream doesn’t that bad here, although as the last chord faded out I could hear the distortion
I think it all depends on the nature of the proposed site and how you want it to look and the interface you want to present to the users. However, I’m sure there must be free options out there already that could be used. Perhaps even things like Microsofts Skydrive for example. I could for example upload a .WAV or .FLAC file there and simply share the download link. But of course to upload to this facility you have to sign up for Windows Live. There’s also “Dropbox” which Jet used recently for his mix project. There’s no online streaming of course with these sort of options so each track would have to be downloaded. People who pay for premium accounts on the likes of Soundclick etc of course already have the option of higher bitrates but not everyone wants to pay the monthy or annual subs.
By the way I don’t think .m3u is an audio format as such, more of a playlist type thing - it acts like a pointer to an MP3 file for streaming purposes.
Really? I didn’t think it was THAT quiet? In fact sounds about right to me? I wasn’t really going for that big fat ‘in-yer-face’ sound…
The 128kps stream doesn’t that bad here, although as the last chord faded out I could hear the distortion
I’ve uploaded to Soundclick (somewhat better I think):
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10609900
I like the song, strong chorus.
The acoustic guitar is very much out of tune throughout
and needs re-tracking.
The drums are there but the kick is a little thin and the snare
is not much defined. I don’t know if you just want an outline
sound or something meatier with the drums. They are “there” as
sounds but lack power. Again, I’m not sure what you want from them.
The bass is a bit bottomy on this tune too, Ian, especially in
the middle section where wooliness creeps through again.
You might need to apply a different EQ curve there. I guess it’s
made more prominent because of the vocal EFX there as well.
I see what you mean about the (lyrically) crowded vocal.
But it’s mostly OK and needs only a few phrases re-tracked I think.
Again, a strong tune.
Jet
It’s a shame about Bandcamp. It’s a great pace to distribute music but I guess they host a lot of music for no revenue. I wonder how many sales there are through the site and there are only so many free lunches.
A couple of things I found when uploading was to make sure that the peak levels of the file are best kept below -1dbfs and it is also essential to upload the highest possible quality file. What ever you do do not upload an mp3 because it will be encoded again.
Hi Doug
I use these guys Unlimited Web Hosting | Unlimited & Multi-Site Web Hosting from £4.99pm for my website. I expect there are plenty of good deals to be had.
It’s something I have thought about too but never got around to and wondered how much interest there would be. The easiest way would be to upload the mp3 and then create a m3u file for streaming. There are also various bolt on players available. Another way is to set up a wordpress blog on the web space and use a plugin for streaming as markone does, I think. I did do this but find the Soundcloud player adequate and much quicker to use.
What would be great would also be some sort jukebox or radio player.
The acoustic guitar is very much out of tune throughout
and needs re-tracking.
I hate guitars. I play almost everthing capo’d. They’re never in tune even when I painstakingly tune them. I’ll redo them at some stage I guess… though I’m not really noticing the issue myself. But I’ve rather suspected for a long time now that I’m tone deaf!
The drums are there but the kick is a little thin and the snare
is not much defined. I don’t know if you just want an outline
sound or something meatier with the drums. They are “there” as
sounds but lack power. Again, I’m not sure what you want from them.
Tweaked in the latest mix.
The bass is a bit bottomy on this tune too, Ian, especially in
the middle section where wooliness creeps through again.
You might need to apply a different EQ curve there. I guess it’s
made more prominent because of the vocal EFX there as well.
Also tweaked in te latest mix.
But it’s mostly OK and needs only a few phrases re-tracked I think.
Also tweaked.
Again, a strong tune.
I agree 
I’m sure that’s changed. They introduced a new scheme some time back - not sure of the details .
A couple of things I found when uploading was to make sure that the peak levels of the file are best kept below -1dbfs and it is also essential to upload the highest possible quality file. What ever you do do not upload an mp3 because it will be encoded again. >
Uploading in .WAV or .FLAC format to BC is the only choice you have. I always upload .WAV’s - but as mentioned there’s a couple of tracks recently that really sound dreadful when played back. I’ll try the -1dB idea out and see if that helps.
I did do this but find the Soundcloud player adequate and much quicker to us.
The problem I just discovered with Soundcloud is you can’t simply update a track using their free account. You have to delete and replace. I’ve gone back to Soundclick…
What I’m think of is just webspace – no “page(s)” to speak of – where people could upload their songs in a higher bitrate mp3 using some sort of freeware app. And yes, the M3u isn’t the audio codec, it’s the tagging method used to stream an mp3, so in the case I’m dreaming of, the person would have to set that up at their end, and then just provide the link to it (and a download link to if they want) here at the forum
I know you didn’t want a “in-yer-face” sound and the song doesn’t call for it. But in the intro, I think it’s a side-stick and I can barely hear it. Then, in the rest of the song, the kick seems fine to me, but the snare seems pretty quiet relative to the guitar in the left channel – a bit jarring. Not horrible, though
I actually own a copy of this -
and could well be the thing you’re looking for. I played around with it for a while when I once entertained the idea of hosting my own songs but you’d still need to rent some decent amount of web space which comes at a cost of course. For me… Sounclick, Bandcamp etc for free was more compelling.
A huge improvement.
I think the only line that still needs a re-track is that “understand” phrase
just after the synth break.
Is there a cross stick or snare in the into or not? I can’t hear one or the other.
Finally, are there edit clicks at 00:59 and 1:02? Could be that new snap on the kick I’m hearing.
Jet
Phew!
I think the only line that still needs a re-track is that “understand” phrase
just after the synth break.
Ok, ta. Looking into it…
Is there a cross stick or snare in the into or not? I can’t hear one or the other.
I hear sidestick. But happy to make it a tad louder for the benefit of the aging 
Finally, are there edit clicks at 00:59 and 1:02? Could be that new snap on the kick I’m hearing.
No problem detected my end, but I’m also aware that me not hearing something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not there.
Huh? What was that?