Don't use 7ths, use 9ths!

Summary by Krater

Adam Neely reviews and critiques viewer song submissions, analysing their musical arrangements, instrumentation choices, and recording and mixing techniques.

From the video

Answers: How can I improve my song submission and recording?

• music production
• song critique
• audio recording
• arrangement
• mixing
• bass playing
• saxophone playing
• guitar playing

What it concludes

• Recording a live sounding room can lead to missed nuances, making home recording situations or DIY multitracking with multiple phones a useful alternative for better audio capture.
• Adding an octave up effect to a bass guitar helps it project melodically, but mixing in a dry signal adds necessary warmth and body.
• Replacing major and minor seventh chord voices with ninth chords on a bass guitar reduces restless wobbling and creates more resonant, stable sounds.
• An SM58 microphone has a frequency cutoff at about 100 Hz, which means it is less effective at capturing pillowy low-end upright bass frequencies.
• Walking a bass line with quarter notes over a chord progression creates better continuity and connection during improvisation compared to playing licks that stop and start.
• Rhythmic repetition can successfully adapt non-musical sounds and linguistic melodies into musical compositions.