Website thoughts?

TheDialog · #1 01-14-2011, 07:25 AM

Hey Justin,
Hope all is well and happy new year

.

I was wondering if you could take a minute to check out a website that my band, The Dialogue, recently launched. Please let me know if there's anything you would add and your thoughts.

Thanks, as always,
Justin

www.thedialogueband.com

If you're into organic/natural recordings check out a track.

skwee · #2 01-14-2011, 07:49 AM

Sound great! I like the look of the site, which fits your band very nicely. It is bare bones though. People want to know where you hail from, and each member of the band bit better than that. An About Us or Bio page would take care of that, and I don't think you need more than that at this stage. But do help us get to know you.

Bare minimum, if you are listing gigs, put the city on there!

Best of luck!

TheDialog · #3 01-14-2011, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skwee

Sound great! I like the look of the site, which fits your band very nicely. It is bare bones though. People want to know where you hail from, and each member of the band bit better than that. An About Us or Bio page would take care of that, and I don't think you need more than that at this stage. But do help us get to know you.

Bare minimum, if you are listing gigs, put the city on there!

Best of luck!

Thank you. I dig the bare bones approach too. I think this early in the band it's okay to not have bios of each member; a simple band bio would make sense though.

I listed the city, state, which I agree is important

.

Cheers!

P-oddz · #4 01-14-2011, 11:32 AM

I like the site!

We've got a bare bones thing going on our site as well, though admittedly I like your design better, and the band image among the city scape is really sharp (don't want to hi-jack your thread but if you're curious: www.revisiontext.com).

I think it makes sense, since there are so many sites that seem to be a better market for social advertisement that people might be more inclined to pay attention to (Facebook, LastFm, MySpace, etc.). It's a great idea to have a place holder (with a domain name that obviously will help people find your band easy), and some clips posted. Then leave it up to the people to search further if they want to know your story.

That aside, you guys sound really good! Great recording. Very organic, as you mentioned.

TheDialog · #5 01-14-2011, 02:55 PM

Thanks P

doctorpunch · #6 01-14-2011, 03:05 PM

Not bad. A little more content wouldn't be a bad idea. I like the links on the upper right for your other website. Good start though, better than most IMO.

TheDialog · #7 01-14-2011, 11:18 PM

Thanks dr.

Hizzoner · #8 01-15-2011, 08:45 AM

hey the dialog-I like the ebsite..I'm in the process of building my band site too and it sure is time consuming! Your site is a very tasteful use of bricks..that building looks wonderful in the background...

I had to LOL....I was reading about how bands should definitely NOT have a photo in front of bricks(b/c everyone does photos that way) but yours looks great..not just a brick wall in a pub

Music sounds cool in a radioheadish kind of way...great job

TheDialog · #9 01-15-2011, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hizzoner

hey the dialog-I like the ebsite..I'm in the process of building my band site too and it sure is time consuming! Your site is a very tasteful use of bricks..that building looks wonderful in the background...

I had to LOL....I was reading about how bands should definitely NOT have a photo in front of bricks(b/c everyone does photos that way) but yours looks great..not just a brick wall in a pub

Music sounds cool in a radioheadish kind of way...great job

Thanks man. I thought this was going to be an easy process and really it should have been, but it's rough when relying on others. I've always hated having to outsource, but for what we wanted we had to.

That's so ironic with the bricks. I know what you're saying. Definitely not our first go around at "band pics"

. With this band we've shot in dozens of places, but we went back to this one numerous times to get the best shots. It had the best vibe for what we wanted.

Thanks for the music comments. I'm sure everyone in the band, especially my brother (drummer - has that bear with jagged teeth tattooed on his side - it's pretty small - only a few inches, but it's for him, which is what's up

) will appreciate that

.

Cheers!

jmjbassplayer · #10 01-15-2011, 11:20 AM

A very elegant, simple presentation. Nicely done.

TheDialog · #11 01-15-2011, 12:02 PM

Thanks Justin. I really appreciate the kind words. I have the utmost respect for you as a musician and find your lines to be perfect in each and every application I've ever heard.

Have a great 2011.

jmjbassplayer · #12 01-15-2011, 07:59 PM

High praise! I hope to be able to live up to it. Thanks very much indeed!

P-oddz · #13 01-17-2011, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hizzoner

I had to LOL....I was reading about how bands should definitely NOT have a photo in front of bricks(b/c everyone does photos that way) but yours looks great..not just a brick wall in a pub

Yes. Brick walls are usually out of bounds. Here are some other examples of band photos you do not want.

http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php

TheDialog · #14 01-17-2011, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P-oddz

Yes. Brick walls are usually out of bounds. Here are some other examples of band photos you do not want.

http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php

I think it depends on looks too. Show me great looking "rockstars" in front of a brick wall or close up with black in the background and tell me it "doesn't work" haha.

derridiandrift · #15 01-17-2011, 09:21 AM

Justin, the website looks great. I absolutely hate the jumbled mess that most bands have on their myspace sites. Myspace is not conducive to such a stylized treatment like you've done here.

The songs are cool too. If I'm not mistaken, has your band's sound evolved a bit in the last while? I remember checking out some clips last summer, but I don't remember hearing anything that sounded quite as mature and ethereal as what you have going on now. Did you master through a tube pre or some kind of an soft clip emulation software?

I would be inclined to re-think the "the diablog" text box. I think that box seems visually unrelated to the rest of the page. My gut reaction suggests that it might look better if you did away with the box, but listed the upcoming show venues and dates on the left side in the same font as is used on the links to facebook, twitter, etc., maybe in a parchment coloured font, right onto the photo background. If the band goes through a period where you don't have many shows coming up, you could leave up a list of some past shows, put something else in that space like quotes from any press that you get, or positive feedback from industry people, venue owners, promoters, etc. Then when you get a bunch of dates lined up again, you take the testimonials down and put the new dates up.

Careful though.. I'm not an expert. This advice is coming from someone who hates myspace, but millions of people love it.

P-oddz · #16 01-17-2011, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDialog

I think it depends on looks too. Show me great looking "rockstars" in front of a brick wall or close up with black in the background and tell me it "doesn't work" haha.

I was just teasing about that.

I didn't mean to come across like a jerk (if I did). I think the shot of you guys looks really sharp!

It's like an ongoing joke about brick wall shots ("brick-wallers" is how it is referred).

TheDialog · #17 01-17-2011, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P-oddz

I was just teasing about that.

I didn't mean to come across like a jerk (if I did). I think the shot of you guys looks really sharp!

It's like an ongoing joke about brick wall shots ("brick-wallers" is how it is referred).

No no no, I don't think you came off as a jerk. I was just putting that out there in response to both comments about the wall thing. Yes, I know that standard brick wall shot it cliche, but take any group of good looking, well put together people and shooting in front of the brick wall becomes like most other backdrops

.

TheDialog · #18 01-19-2011, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derridiandrift

Justin, the website looks great. I absolutely hate the jumbled mess that most bands have on their myspace sites. Myspace is not conducive to such a stylized treatment like you've done here.

The songs are cool too. If I'm not mistaken, has your band's sound evolved a bit in the last while? I remember checking out some clips last summer, but I don't remember hearing anything that sounded quite as mature and ethereal as what you have going on now. Did you master through a tube pre or some kind of an soft clip emulation software?

I would be inclined to re-think the "the diablog" text box. I think that box seems visually unrelated to the rest of the page. My gut reaction suggests that it might look better if you did away with the box, but listed the upcoming show venues and dates on the left side in the same font as is used on the links to facebook, twitter, etc., maybe in a parchment coloured font, right onto the photo background. If the band goes through a period where you don't have many shows coming up, you could leave up a list of some past shows, put something else in that space like quotes from any press that you get, or positive feedback from industry people, venue owners, promoters, etc. Then when you get a bunch of dates lined up again, you take the testimonials down and put the new dates up.

Careful though.. I'm not an expert. This advice is coming from someone who hates myspace, but millions of people love it.

Yes, MySpace is not very user friendly anymore. The website is a great, simple platform for what we do.

The sound has definitely matured over the last 2-3 years going from a more "Pop/Rock" sounds to the more Indie/Rock vibe, which was just natural progression for the band. The tones were recorded that way. No special after thoughts were compiled to create those tones except for the drums being "trashed" up a bit in a song or two that are not on the page. A video is being compiled for the site currently that shows the tracking of the last song "Illusions", which was all done in a 24 hour period including editing and mixing.

For bass, we used my '71 P, '78 SVT, '07 US SVT VR (has all NOS tubes from the 50's and 60's and is our producers, who is one my best friends) and his US 410HLF. Pedal wise, I used an EHX Memory Toy for the slap back, wavy tone of "High Tide" and Maxon's OD808 RI/D&S II for the overdrive and distortion sections.

If memory serves me right we used a Radial JDI Passive DI for the Direct signal, as well as, micing the cab with both a MD421 and a Kiwi. Compression, which was a little on the high side came from the UBK modded FATSO. The Abbey Roads pre may have been used too.

I understand what you're saying with the box. It's a feed from our Tumblr page and does need a bit more content. I think if it had more content, updates etc. it would fill it out well. The box is going to shrink in size once the video is uploaded.

Thanks for the comments! I appreciate anyone that takes the time to check it out and tell me their thoughts

.

Justin