acoustic cover song

[Kolstad]

Really nice cover that lends itself well to your vocals, John, imo.

I like the way the drums, the acoustic and the strings were mixed. There was something with the piano, bass, vocals that felt unbalanced still. Bass didn't line up tight with the piano some places, and the piano have a low mids thing going that competes with your vocals. And I agree with the guys that you need to ride the vocals to make the phrases equally intelligible throughout.

I missed a little something to take it over the top, like a surprise uke or banjo doing a figure or ostinato, maybe in 8th or 16ths, to notch the tempo up a little bit (and to give voice to the person being sung about). It was on the brink of dragging as is.

Could also be nice with a little backing vox, if possible. Maybe some ad libbing

Anyways, thats what I got. Really nice work!

[funsongs]

The relationship of piano-to-vocal is improved.
There are some nice piano and acoustic guitar fills that are way buried - why not bring them up to full-volume,
sitting just beneath, or almost-equal to the piano?
Good ear-candy parts going to waste, IMHO.

[johnlewitt]

There's a new mix up of this. I tried to addressable the comments (again!). Same link.

[Kolstad]

My ears:

- vocal doesnt sit well yet, too much this time. Dip it so it sits with the snare at low listening levels.
- vocal short reverb is audible at this level, might not be if you dip lead vocal volume, but if it still does, maybe you can either make the decay longer, so it sits better with the mix, or turn down the reverb relative to the vocal. Can be a creative desicion, though.
- bells up (they add intrest to the mix)

2c, imo ect

[lesmac]

Sweet! Yeah vocal dip half or one dB.
Try using your headphones sitting on the desk or some distance away from you to get the snare vocal balance at low volumes. I find I can get that quieter than using my monitors.

Nice version of a nice song.

[johnlewitt]

Another new mix up. Thoughts?

[funsongs]

Sounds like you've dialed in the mix much better, to these Old-Guy ears -
good level on your vocal, and nice to be able to hear the bits & licks of ear-candy.
Well done, Sir. There's a 'completeness' quality to it now, compared with when you first posted it - FWIW.

[Kolstad]

Now 99% sits great, imo.

I think something's happened to the low end, though.

When listening on my PC speakers, the low congas or hand drum levels pops out and dominates the mix with a distorted thumpy sound. You should check that with high level monitoring.

Also bass almost dissapeared in the mix, might check that too, so it is carrying the low end properly. (check the phase)

Hope you can balance it out, now you put the vocals in the right spot.