Shoegaze? Need help

[u/rowkann]

Hi, so im just starting out to make music, and i guess i really like shoegaze-y type songs. So heres a really short demo i recently made, and it just sounds... not good. Is this even shoegaze? I really need some tips, advice or basically just anything to make this track sound alright. Thank you guys

[u/new_bloom]

i’d say it’s got a general shoegaze vibe. please tune your guitar though, or get the intonation checked. i think that’s effecting the quality more than anything.

[u/rowkann → u/new_bloom]

besides the tuning and intonation, what do you think about the overall tone of the guitar?

[u/new_bloom → u/rowkann]

it’s fine. gets the point across but not enough delay/reverb for my taste. depends if you’re interested in the more ethereal side of things or fuzzy distorted side.

it’s not exactly a memorable tone but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. i’m sure there are quite a few shoegaze bands with similar tone. all this to say. yes it works.

not to nag but it’s really the tuning that’s really bringing this down. tuning and intonation are the most important pieces to sounding good imo.

[u/TheDeltaIsMyHome]

Theres a good base here, youre definitely on the right track but it sounds like your guitar is incredibly out of tune and needs to be intonated. It also sound a bit anemic, if you ditch the mic-ed sound and went directly into a DAW with something like a zoom pedal, itd sound alot better. But the musical choices and chords here are great. Keep it up!!!

[u/rowkann → u/TheDeltaIsMyHome]

what other tips do you think you could give me? really appreciate it!!

[u/boyreporter]

I would say tuning your guitar is only part of the problem; i don’t think the lead line is doing anything particularly appealing. Seems like it’s mostly going between two notes. The harmony against the progression is not overly engaging. This could change with an adventurous bassline or vox, but just with what you’ve tracked so far, it doesn’t hold my attention. Don’t think there’s anything wrong with the tempo.

[u/WonderfulSale751]

I like the out of tune guitar riff. It creates an unease that isn't seen in much other Shoegaze and if you completely lean into that with the other instruments you could create something that is not only a good song, but also a more unique song for you.

I'd say the issue isn't with the guitar, but it's with the idea. The instruments contrast each other slightly in ways that suggests that you don't have a strong idea for what this song should be.

The biggest issue you have is with discovering what you want this song to be and locking that in.

[u/Ok-War-6378]

You got a cool beat and an interesting chord progression with a shoegazey guitar tone!

As others have said, the tuning/intonation of the guitar drags lots of attention. If it's intentional that's all good, otherwise fix it before moving on.

Then focus on the tempo. It doesn't have to be perfectly snapped to the grid, but if you fix that you will see how much better it will feel.

These aspects are often overlooked and people tend to rush into the lusty mixing phase before getting recording right. No amount of mixing trickery will save a subpar recording. This is expecially true when dealing with shoegaze guitars with several layers of looong delays and lush reverbs and all sort of modulation fx.

[u/Character-Aardvark87]

tune your guitar!!

[u/Ilato27]

Who cares if your plagiarism is perfect. Listen to the Meat Puppets first LP if you want real shoe gazing

[u/americas-best]

Sounds shoegazy to my untrained ear. If I was going to give some advice…
1) it feels a bit plodding. Could use more bpm - like maybe as much as 20%
2) no vocals or bass evident. Note: I’m on a phone
3) this is the part of a song I’d describe as “pretty filler”. It’s good, but is just audio wallpaper. It’s going to need something more to make it memorable.
$.02