[adamfarr]

I really enjoyed the thread recently about members' "best songs" - was great to hear some diverse past gems again or for the first time.

It got me thinking about past songs that were essentially good but now we almost hate to hear, whether due to lack of recording experience or poor artistic decisions at the time.

What's your song that you'd love to go back and re-record now you are older and wiser? I'll start you off with "Empty Hand" https://soundcloud.com/lutehill/empty-hand - so long in the writing, but now all I can hear is the noisy lack of gain-staging, clumsy compression, and amateur drum programming. Great BVs though! Also contains a line that inadvertently sounds like "hope that Dawn helps me forget"...

[PopTodd]

Excellent topic. I've been thinking about this recently, myself.
The one that I would most like to re-record, I think is this one. Again. I think that the writing is solid, but the mix is way off. There should be no piano in the pre-chorus section (it takes away from the dynamic shift), and the bass line isn't quite what I was wanting him to play. My bass player just wasn't comfortable pumping out 8th notes as consistently as I wanted him to.
The rhythm guitar tone is crap; needs to stab more than jangle. Maybe use a Telecaster with the bridge-position pickup and a bit of overdrive.
Also, not least-importantly, my vocal is pretty bad.
https://hoponpop.bandcamp.com/track/bound-to-fail
So yeah, a lot that I want to address.
Strangely enough, I just talked to the keys player on here and he really likes how we did this. I think all that he is hearing is his own part, because (aside from that one part that I just want to take out), it's pretty good.

I'm gonna go and listen to your song, Adam, and see what I think.
Thanks for the great post idea.

[PopTodd]

I really enjoyed the thread recently about members' "best songs" - was great to hear some diverse past gems again or for the first time.

It got me thinking about past songs that were essentially good but now we almost hate to hear, whether due to lack of recording experience or poor artistic decisions at the time.

What's your song that you'd love to go back and re-record now you are older and wiser? I'll start you off with "Empty Hand" https://soundcloud.com/lutehill/empty-hand - so long in the writing, but now all I can hear is the noisy lack of gain-staging, clumsy compression, and amateur drum programming. Great BVs though! Also contains a line that inadvertently sounds like "hope that Dawn helps me forget"...

I see what you mean about it. But, there is still a certain undeniable amateurish charm to it, as well. And even though you probably won't take it as such, I do mean that as a very high compliment, indeed. In its current state, it is certainly not a choice for a single, but I would enjoy the hell out if it as an album track.

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

Are you on to rerecording it then Adam? I remember it of course. I like the song and that lo-fi sound is quite appealing too...goes with the unaffected, little bit hesitant, almost reluctant-sounding vocal. Obviously you hear the places where you would have done it differently and with your better production skills you could bring it up to date nicely.

As it happens I've been trying to update my old stuff. My first recordings were much worse than yours.

My first post on here was an attempt at a jazz/ballad called 'Pretty Blue'. I have long thought that it would make a rock'n'roll era ballad...this is nearly done and I will be posting it when my four weeks is up even though it's not strictly a newly-finished song.

I won't subject anybody (yet!) to the old version because it is awful and I'd have to search hard to find it anyway....I will try to dig it up!

[adamfarr]

@Todd - I like yours a lot - though it does have something of "session musicians that just met and all had different ideas which they refused to give up" about it!

@Viscount - I'd like to hear that rock n roll ballad (I won't search for the original if you don't want me to!)

I do have a soft spot for Empty Hand - the recording quality was the real issue, and those "drums"...

[jacksimmons]

Get this all the time! I ended up going back and recording some old stuff but it lost some of the charm somehow along the way. Ended up scrapping the idea. Think the best thing to do is just keep writing, and apply your new skills to your current output. That way everything has it's time and place.

I would like to re-record pretty much the whole of my first album.
https://soundcloud.com/jack-simmons-1/sets/jack-simmons

[Wicked Deeds]

I don't think tht I would want to record any of my songs again. What would appeal to me would be to take my songs and record my production ideas with real musicians who have the ability to add to the songs without going overboard.  Too many musicians use songs as a platform to showcase their musicianship in a way that doesn't ' benefit the song at all.  Good musicians will keep in mind that's the song takes centre stage.  A good Engineer/producer to bounce off and share production input would be very worthwhile.  As for doing it all over again by myself, that doesn't appeal to me at  all. 

[tina m]

i have done this  but  when i listened to both versions at a later date ive  realised I had been trying give the song a up to date sound...which in fact now sounds dated again & in fact the original sound has come back into fashion & sounds better!

you have to be careful when buying old albums bcos quite often the artist has decided hes going to rerecord them 20 years later & give you modern versions that might sell better, & you end up with  extremely bad almost cover versions that miss all the brilliance of the original..

[adamfarr]

interesting thoughts. I'm not sure I'd ever really do it, though where it's a question of quality and not style then it's definitely tempting. Possibly as a "very low output" writer I live with them more and find it harder to move on?!

[Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra]

I suppose it depends what you want and perhaps why you are doing what you are doing in the first place.

For me, when I recorded the first songs that I wrote I knew absolutely nothing about the production side of things...I'm far from being an expert now, but better than I was.....and I think the songs are good enough and I like them enough to not leave them languishing in a pitiful state when I could make them sound better.

It would obviously be preferable to get professionals to record and produce them but in reality that isn't going to happen.

Yeah I'm also a 'low output writer' Adam and can't let go of them either!

Most importantly, as far as I'm concerned, they remain part of my 'songbook' but I have taken them down from Soundcloud cos they're so bad and i don't want to just dump them so I'm slowly redoing them.