PLEASE: Need your critiques for this song.........

[mcanty]

A couple of weeks ago, I linked our song "My Way Down".....reviews for the song were positive, but the production wasn't where it needed to be. Based on your suggestions, we have gone back and remixed the song.Here is the OLD version:Down for now but link back laterHere is the NEW version based on your suggestions:Stay tuned for a new version.Tell us where we need to go from here..................We are not looking for pats on the back............so don't be shy. We can take it and are willing to make any changes necessary to get this song to broadcast quality....................don't hold back.Thanks!

[orest]

I thought the guitars sounded much better in the second version! I think the vocals and the drums are still too much "in front of you" and the guitars are way back in the background. I can't hear exactly everything in my laptop, but are the drums panned in the center? I think you still need to broaden the sound image, and put the drums more in the background. I also know that rock music is a very individual taste as well, some prefer the vocals to be very near, and some prefer to have them more mixed into the rest of the music.Liked the song, The chorus is really catchy!

[heinsite]

i like this, and have to agree with orest on his "individual taste" thing with heavier rock--mine is that i DO like to hear the vocal...but this is JUST a bit, out front, but close, (i do like to hear the lyrics,)--on the oh oh oh backing in the pre-bridge/guitar, it sounds a bit pitchy--maybe "chorus" it? or resing?--lead guitar a bit out front too IMHO--the drums just about average in quality of track, i'd like to hear it more beaty, less tinny, and yes, maybe a bit back there. wasn't crazy about the tom tom run toward the end...but that was only one listen.like the song though, and that's the important part. you can fix the rest if so inclined...all the best,warren

[andreh]

What's your target for this song? Whom you're trying to sound like (if you are at all) should play a part in your production decisions.Aside from what Alex and Warren have already said, I thought the vocal reverb sounded wrong....made me feel like I was standing in the living room with your band. If you didn't add any verb to it, then I recommend you treat your recording space to get a "deader" sound in your recordings, to which you can later add ambience processing. If you DID add verb, then I'd try a longer decay (but probably no more than a second or so), more pre-delay, or perhaps can the reverb altogether and try a delay - maybe with the highs and lows rolled off so it doesn't step on your dry track.Also, The whole mix sounds over-compressed to me. I like the sound of compression on a rock mix, but in this case the kick drum is causing the vocals to drop in level in some places, which in not a desirable effect to my ears. If you're using compression on the mix buss, perhaps you could use a high-pass filter on its key/sidechain input so the kick drum doesn't have as much effect on the overall compression.André

[southpaw]

Cool song! I didnt hear it originally, nice tune.You've gotten some good input so far, ill add to a few comments and give you some of my suggestions.Quote: If you didn't add any verb to it, then I recommend you treat your recording space to get a "deader" sound in your recordings, to which you can later add ambience processing. If you DID add verb, then I'd try a longer decay (but probably no more than a second or so), more pre-delay, or perhaps can the reverb altogether and try a delay - maybe with the highs and lows rolled off so it doesn't step on your dry track.These are great tips. Personally, I usually advocate delays over reverb. Roll of under 200hand over 9k, helps lvox cut through a little cleaner.As orest said, you need to widen the mix for sure. Way to one dimensional. You have a great vocal performance to work with, sculpt everything around it. Mainly my issues are that the vocal delivery is powerful, but the music doesnt deliver the impact that the song could have.I think the most effective thing to start with is the guitars. Basically, if you get a better tone,and more power behind the part everything else should settle much better (I.E the too loud vocals, and too present drum levels) and then you can fine tune from there. You should try to layer the guitar part, and if you have already layered, layer again. It should sound massive and engaging for this track. It sounds weak and feeble with no edge and a dull stack tone.. You have a pretty good 'driving' quality in the tone, but it should be layered with at least one other part and different tone, to cover more of the freq spectrum. Imaging tools work well to expand the width too. (and needless to say, panpots are your friend)Most of the warmth and power here falls between 2-600hz and then you'll want to add a little presence round 2.5-5k. Give a little air to one of the EG tracks and which might help it breathe a little better and open it up. (As opposed to a more brittle, fuzzy distortion characteristic)The snare part also stuck out like a sore thumb. Its Missing fullness, and sounds synthetic.It sounds like you have too much presence dialed in, and needs to be boosted in the 120-240 octaves for body, and could use a little 'boing' in the midrange.The vocals have a resonant kind of sound that was probly from tracking, you could try to cut a few dbs in the 1-2k range which might help with that a little.Jamie

[ideascapes]

McC,You're getting quality comments here. I'll just add that I think I'd work on getting the drums right first as that will be a primary source of power for the song. If you want specific advice, we'd have to know how you recorded them--do you have individual tracks, etc.Vince

[mcanty]

Feb 24, 2009, 3:21am, ideascapes wrote:McC,You're getting quality comments here. I'll just add that I think I'd work on getting the drums right first as that will be a primary source of power for the song. If you want specific advice, we'd have to know how you recorded them--do you have individual tracks, etc.VinceThe drums were recorded with two overhead mics in an x-y configuration. 1 mic per tom (3 total), 1 snare top mic, 1 snare bottom mic, 1 bass drum mic using resonant head port. The source tracks are clean, no clipping or garbage on inputs. Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing your suggestions for drum mixing.

[southpaw]

Quote:I'll just add that I think I'd work on getting the drums right first as that will be a primary source of power for the song. If you want specific advice, we'd have to know how you recorded them--do you have individual tracks, etc.I gotta disagree here. Although the drums sound pretty terrible, (no offense) and will need to be fixed at some point, to sound professional.. I think the guitars should be focused on first because they are causing the the mix to sound thin, in this case. As a general comment i agree with vince, but in this case i think your time is better spent working with guitar tones and the bass (was there a bass...? I couldnt tell) Mixing is mainly boiled down to the relationship between the vox, kick, snare and bass, everything else is pretty much mood glue and sparkle. Getting your drum sounds in place is quick and painless, as long as you tracked everything right. Quote:he drums were recorded with two overhead mics in an x-y configuration. 1 mic per tom (3 total), 1 snare top mic, 1 snare bottom mic, 1 bass drum mic using resonant head port. The source tracks are clean, no clipping or garbage on inputs. Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing your suggestions for drum mixing.What kind of tips do you want... I mean asking for drum mixing tips is like asking for 'mixing tips'.. Their are thousands of tips... Not to mention, everyone has differnt tools.. hearing perception... mix environment... thats why i try to talk in frequencies because it is the only universal language in engineering sound.What, in specific, do you want to hear suggestions on....?Drum mixing suggestions: Paying attention to detail.(It bugs me how people appear to be just throwing something up and asking people to review something without a clear focal point for the listener....Its just a waste of time, for everyone, if the intent for the review is not expressed, thats the bottom line.)

[mcanty]

Quote:What kind of tips do you want... I mean asking for drum mixing tips is like asking for 'mixing tips'.. Their are thousands of tips... Not to mention, everyone has different tools.. hearing perception... mix environment... thats why i try to talk in frequencies because it is the only universal language in engineering sound.What, in specific, do you want to hear suggestions on....?Drum mixing suggestions: Paying attention to detail.(It bugs me how people appear to be just throwing something up and asking people to review something without a clear focal point for the listener....Its just a waste of time, for everyone, if the intent for the review is not expressed, thats the bottom line.)Southpaw,Listen man, I wasn't asking for anything specific for the drums. I didn't think we were too far off on the drum sound. Vince from Ideascapes asked me in a previous post how I recorded the drums and he seemed to imply that he might have some specific suggestions if he knew what my recording method was. So if he has specifics for me based on that information, great. If not, no problem. I'll leave the drums as is for now. I don't think I'm wasting everyone's time by replying to a user's previous post.As for your suggestions for guitar sound and tone... We are currently working up some new mixes of the song that attempt to create the "massive, engaging and wide" guitar sound and body that you speak of. As for the bass guitar, yes there is one in the track. And on that point, It would be helpful for me to know what you are listening to this mix with? It will help me to determine if my monitoring solutions are overstated with the bass response. The bass sounds quite full and large with my monitoring setup. So I'm a bit perplexed that you don't hear the bass at all?

[rld]

I didn't read all the replies in their entirety.First off, I like the song.I like your singers voice.I think if you were to A/B this against a pro release of the genre you are trying to emulate, the problems would be fairly obvious.Let me also say that I know its easy to lose perspective after you've heard your own songs many times...I do it all the time myself.It does sound over compressed and pretty harsh in certain frequencies.I think you could, and need to get a much larger/wider guitar sound as now they are very centered and somewhat small sounding.Here is a snippit of a tune I recorded.http://roger-davis.home.comcast.net/MP3 ... pet.mp3I'm not saying its a great song or comparing it to yours, but I think you can hear how much wider the guitars sound and how it opens up the whole stereo spectrumAlso I think you could get better drum sounds, particularly the snare.Right now it sounds very 70-ish...small and dry.Anyway, hope that gives you some ideas.