Newest song

[partyofone]

yo matt,I dig the song and the character of the vocal. I'll pretty much 2nd everything Mojo said.. the main thing being the mix getting smashed by the compressor (pumping). Weird that it's barely engaged. Chris also had some insight and I've heard his mixes and he does good work so I'd take them into consideration. This might sound weird but this reminded me a little bit of something I'd hear on a New Radicals record.. that kind of southern rock/soulful but modern pop thing. I think the bass needs to sit in a lower place freq wise because I more mids in it than lows.Lots of soul here... I'd like to hear a shaker or tambourine in the chorus too. Good luck.

[jwebbinspired]

Matt, I'm liking this a lot. I can definitely hear that soul influence of a James Otto or even Jack Owen. I like the imagery of the song. Great title. Production has never been my cup of tea, however, the vocal to me seems to be buried at times. Andy

[cameron]

Hey Matt,Nice work here. I've been wanting try some James Otto style stuff too. I think Warren had some good comments about the lyrics. I personally didn't have any problems with the mix as you said this is just a work tape for a future demo, and as such I think it works just fine. It's a nice song. Whether it's good enough to get past the screeners is anyone's guess, but I like it.Cam

[southpaw]

hey Matt, i hit repeat on the player, and got into the song and the mix for a good 20-30 minutes. I just kept listening to it, i love it!Unfortunately i have to say though, everytime it repeated i heard something else that hurt the mix. Instead of re-iterating, ill say that i agree, (damn near point for point) with mojo/patrick and chris's comments. Also the comments about the tempo change. By the way, in addition to Ableton 7, (which i dont own and am not sure the elastic audio functions it boasts work well for the master recording) I know that Melodyne is one of the standards in time and pitch editing. (own it/ can run it through if you need) Regards to the mix, my notes are:I am willing to donate $10 to the 'get this cut by a pro studio asap' fund. (To be brutally honest... I know you are just trying to get some practice with mixing, but this one may not be the best one to do that with imo. One, because i think this will be a great song and am anxious to hear it with the bells and whistles...! and two, their is quite a bit of (what sounds to be) tracking bloopers, and may make it very difficult to shape a quality mix with some of these recordings. kinda like trying to make a great cake and you've got an awesome recipe, but some ingrediants just smell funky.. Though if you have time to go in a isolate the problem areas and retrack, this could be a great training exercise. These are just my humble opinions.That said, here were some of the production notes that i didnt see mentioned yet:The vocal production and recording sound pretty good, but all the accompaniment crowds and overpowers it that its hard to hear if it in fact a good cut. There is little 2-4k definition and it sounds like a big chunk of presence in missing. The levels of the instrumentation are too loud and sit on top of the LVox. Namely, it is being drowned out by the guitars. Since you say the bus compression is barely engaged, might check your attack and release settings. Plus it doesnt sound like you've got hardly any headroom, it also may be possible that your limiter or whatever you are using to regulate output levels, has to lop off some of the signal because the instruments are all putting out high levels...? What are you using on the submixes, and master bus? The drums are really hurting here. I could hardly hear the kick, there wasnt enough snap on snare, aside from the part that was played. It just doesnt hold the foundational groove right for some reason, i mean, they're in time.. But the groove isnt really tieing things together, i dunno. Maybe the pattern is just too choppy or something. It sounds kinda like they're played in cut time, and with very little enthusiam. They were pretty boring with the 1/4 HH for the verse. The mix sounds too narrow all around i thought. There is not much clarity or spacing for each part, and the bass is especially chaotic. might try an hpf and compression and give it some low drive in the bass fundamentals. you dont have a driving low tonal quality which this song needs imo. If you want more attack you can usually find it with an eq boost around 700 and add some snap at around 2.5k. The guitar part is impresively holding the groove together no help from the drums, which arent very fluent or groovy imo.However the guitars are so loud and up front, they dont compliment and support, instead they seem to fight with the vocal and other instruments over frequencies. Turn em all down a little bro. Replace with the vocal, in terms of level and placement. It can be helpful sometimes to draw out the mix in terms of placement and frequency, and write out where you want each part in regards to their importance. You can always use automation to draw and refine parts you want to come out front at times, and then sneak back into the background here and there.Wow, that was longer than i expected. I spent the time to write these notes out becuase i really like this track. As you know Matt, Im not trying to tear your mix apart. Just trying to give some ideas. Take em or leave em.Jamie

[matthoggard]

Great review Jamie!Thats some great information.I have no illusions that this recording is the "one". We wanted to build this one out to get a feel for what it could sound like.I really appreciate the time you took here! Very helpful stuff for the mext studio project. Im stillgetting my chops up as and engineer so things like this I will take with me.Thanks again man this is most helpful!Matt

[djb]

Hey Matt, Just wanted put in my thumbs up for the song. I see you're gettin' plenty of advice on the mix and production. Note that the overall reaction to the song is very good. Dave

[matthoggard]

Yeah Dave im pretty stoked.I hope ill be able to afford a good demo soon,Thanks Man, you always have kind words for my stuff and I really appreciate it.Matt