"Better" - discuss it in this thread

[ppbebe]

I love how everyone is a master producer and audio engineer on this board.

 

so which one do you think did this?

i think the general public's response to better could  potentially be a similarly surprised and pleased one.

will come to think better.

a question:

do this new version of BETTER is "much" diferent from what the band played live the last tour??

Apart from BBFs parts, not much. But it's hard to say really, live is live.

The chorus at the beginning and at the ending sound just like those at kroq Inland Invasion and after.

[michaelvincent]

so which one do you think did this? hihi

all i'm saying is that 99.9% of the time people are just talking out their asses when it comes to this stuff. myself included. i don't know any more about the details of these tracks than the next guy, i just speculate. i've spent my fair share of time in a recording studio, i know my way around, but in the end that doesn't tell me jack about who played what and when on these demos.

[ppbebe]

so which one do you think did this? hihi

all i'm saying is that 99.9% of the time people are just talking out their asses when it comes to this stuff. myself included. i don't know any more about the details of these tracks than the next guy, i just speculate. i've spent my fair share of time in a recording studio, i know my way around, but in the end that doesn't tell me jack about who played what and when on these demos.

I knew your point hence my response.

[Naltav]

I love how everyone is a master producer and audio engineer on this board.

   That made my day! Just what I've been thinking

[uzisuicide2002]

i found the real verson of better on myspace and it sounds great.

[jasran]

Hey guys, I don't post often.. and I don't have the time to go through this many pages of threads.. but I made an observation..

When I opened up the net 'better' in itunes, and clicked on 'get info' it said that it is track 1 of 11 

Have you guys seen this?? There is supposed to be 13 tracks on Chinese Democracy right??

[Jackamo!]

Yeah but this isn't from Chinese Democracy.

And Axl did say 13 tracks- but don't take that as how many there is. He's been quoted saying many different numbers. That was just the most recent- which isn't so recent now.

[madagas]

so true....we don't know what is going to happen until the mixing is complete, the record is turned in to the label, a release date is set, and then, after all this, a tracklist will be set. Final tracklists usually come in right at the end.

[Jackamo!]

It's been recorded, mixed and submitted before- this is just another attemped- hopefully the label will think it's good enough to put out.

The tracklisting should go up on the site like how NIN did it- one song at a time.

[Howard2k]

Except for the line switch, NOTHING HAS CHANGED in the new leak. Everything (including Pitman's funky synth stuff) is there in the old leak, this time around it has just been mixed differently.
I can make the old leak sound like the new leak, all you need is an audio software like Adobe Audition for example, put a filter on and tinker with the EQ... There you go.

And besides, the mix was so sloppy that I doubt that it's something other than a fan-edit. Listen closely, and you'll notice that the volume changes several times during the song.

 

Wrong.

You cannot tweak a song to add digital information that is no there.   It?s quite CLEARLY different guitar, different layering and far superior quality of lyrics.   

That?s not a tweak.

This is just like the NIN photo which "clearly showed the track list when enlarged".  Even though no additional data was actaully there.??

[michaelvincent]

ok i've heard it. sounds like the same parts, just a different mix.

overall...meh. it's ok, i like that things sound a lot clearer but it didn't blow me away.

[Tatu]

Cheek this out

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/02/new_guns_n_rose.php

 

[Bandita]

Here is the text:

posted: 6:01 PM, February 21, 2007
New Guns N Roses Song: Pretty Good!

The last time a few Guns N Roses tracks leaked, I had this to say: "Take a minute and picture yourself walking into Tower or whatever and seeing Chinese Democracy staring back at you on the new-release rack ... I just can't visualize it ever happening." That was almost exactly a year ago today, and as it turns out, I was right. Tower Records has now gone through the last of its death throes, and we aren't really any closer to seeing a final retail version of Chinese Democracy, the new GNR album that's been in the works for well over a decade. We'll never, ever walk into Tower Records and see an actual CD copy of the album; the store no longer exists. The retail market for CDs is disappearing at such a frantic clip and maybe we'll never see a copy of the album in the Virgin Megastore or Best Buy either. By the time Axl Rose deems Chinese Democracy fit for release, maybe we'll only be able to buy it in ringtone form. Maybe all human life will be scorched from the surface of the planet and Axl will have to sell the album to roaches since they'll be the only living things left to hear the thing. Or maybe not. Since those unpromising Chinese Democracy demos leaked, the band now calling itself Guns N Roses managed to complete a well-received arena tour, and Axl is yet again attempting to assure us that the album will definitely-absolutely see release in the next few months. I'll believe that when I see it, but yesterday Idolator gave us maybe the most encouraging glimpse yet of the form the album may take: an mp3 of "Better," a new song that actually seems to be finished. (The mp3 has since been taken off the site, but you can still stream it.) And here's some cause for celebration: "Better" is a pretty good Guns N Roses song. I sure didn't see this coming.

The song starts out pretty dubiously: a screechy filtered guitars with Axl singing in a horrible little falsetto and pseudo-industrial drum machines clanking away underneath. After a few seconds, though, it suddenly surges up into a satisfyingly melodic guitar-crunch, and Axl lets his voice settle into its usual scratchy, vaguely feminine whine, which, miraculously enough, hasn't deteriorated much in the past twenty years. Like all the songs that leaked a year ago, "Better" is a breakup song, and on the pre-chorus, Axl dips into a low, self-pitying moan, where things threaten to get a bit emo. (Actually, now that I think about it, Axl might be a great unsung influence on the vocalists from half the MySpace emo bands currently cluttering up Fuse.) That only lasts for a line or so, though: when the chorus rips into a vaguely funky stomp, Axl lets his still-formidable sneer burst through undiluted, all the stronger for its absence up until now: "Now I know you better / You know I know better." There's a lot going on in the mix: wheedly guitars and gurgly synths, everything layered up into a precarious pile. But all those multitracked elements are there to serve the song's basic groove, which is a neat little update on the classic-rock swagger that Axl has always known how to find. One of Guns N Roses' secret weapons has always been the band's ability to take subtle shards of disco or synthpop and subsume them into its sound so completely that dance-phobic rock fans have barely even noticed; think the synth-pings of "Welcome to the Jungle" or the insistent locomotive growl of "Rocket Queen." The blurting keyboards on "Better" fit that lineage nicely; they could've been swiped from some recent Parisian rock-techno track. I'm not quite as sold on the song as John Darnielle is; I really hate that intro, and a lot of Axl's lyrics are pretty awkward: "So bittersweet this tragedy, won't ask for absolution / This melody inside of me still searches for solution." Still, it's a nice little surprise; I'd gotten to the point where I wasn't expecting anything from Chinese Democracy, and here we suddenly have the best Guns N Roses song since 1991.

There's always a veneer of whispered rumor around any rumblings related to Chinese Democracy; apparently, an earlier version of "Better" was making the internet rounds a few years ago. But the song is new to me, and I'm just dumb enough to take it as a sign that Chinese Democracy might not be the cluserfuck travesty I've long expected. At this point, it'll be near-impossible to hear Chinese Democracy, if it ever comes out, as actual music, since the event-buzz surrounding it has been so deafening for damn near half of my life. But I've been listening to "Better" on repeat all afternoon, and I haven't tired of it yet. Those demos that leaked last year were so misshapen and cluttered that I could barely make out actual songs under all those whizjets. The production on "Better" is just as excessive, but the song underneath it all is strong enough to shine through everything, and most of the track's elements actually strengthen the song's impact rather than diminishing it. So Axl has gone and gotten me excited again. I'm such an idiot.

Voice review: Greg Milner on Guns N Roses at Madison Square Garden

[BBF Rocks]

i by principle stopped reading when i saw the following "threatening to be a bit emo".
this guy is no longer worthy of my time, he is not worthy of my eyes, he is garbage.

[Jackamo!]

They seem to be digging the effects.

[philspectorshotme]

why is this important?
and it's already been posted.

[HBK]

Thanxz Friends GUNNERS Real !!! I Love BETTER !

hbk *

[philspectorshotme]

jarmo, how come you don't have news of the recent leak on the front page?

it just seems odd that the premier guns site on the net doesnt have a report on a subject that the rest of the web is happy to discuss.

[CAFC Nick]

*Wonders why they have toned down Buckethead so much on the new leak* 

[Crashdiet]

Not much difference really. Axl's voice has more processing and is higher in the mix. The keys are up, rhythm guitars down (which isn't as cool)... A bit of a change the second chorus the old version had 'you don't know you know better, i don't know you know better' but now its sounds like they cut and paste another chorus over. The heavy part isn't nearly as heavy as the guitars are way down... and there is a chorusy like guitar that is much more present

overall too much keys in my opinion  BUT this does not sound like a final mix to me... i own a studio so i know a final mix when and i hear one, and if this is the final Geffen should sue axl for their money back.