Better Believe - New Mix, less yada yada

[Mark Kaufman]

Sept 4, 2008, 11:22pm, grandmatarkin wrote:Funny, I immediately thought of Beck too... nice! Couple of comments... 1) I'd make the little intro a little shorter... maybe just half the length.2) I'm hearing a full stop at 1:07-1:08... I don't know why... I just am (and all the equivalent parts later on)3) Bridge is awesome!4) hold back a little on the drum fills, I'd say. Save them for the biggest moments5) as for the tempo issue, i would speed it up slightly... not too much, but right now I feel a bit of dragging. Overall I thought it was very cool.... nice vibe and lots of potential. Good luck!Thanks grandmatarkin! Very helpful. I never thought about that intro...yes, I believe I will cut the electric guitar section out of it to get to the vocals more quickly. I'll have to wait till tonight to know where you mean about the full stop, though I'm guessing you mean just before I sing "you better believe". Maybe so, maybe so...I've been known to do a lot of full stops, so I'm surprised I missed an opportunity. Glad you like the bridge, that's typical me right there, it seems. And yes, drums are the glaring eyesore on this one...I believe I will go back to the drawing board on that one and re-do them. Tempo...I may be getting swayed now, but it's the perfect tempo for that keyboard riff, and I keep thinking the problem is that the song isn't doing right by that riff, which is the anchor...Thank you so much for your opinions, it's a great help to me. -Mark

[Mark Kaufman]

Sept 5, 2008, 3:30am, billg wrote:hey Mark, this is a cool song & i really like it. I think the drums may have worked better for the instrumental version than this one. The sound is too overprocessed & there are too many un-natural sounding fills. Also, I kept wanting to hear some upfront guitar work throughout . . . something "jangly" would be cool.No doubt about the drums, I will fix. As to guitar, yes, probably true. When it was an instrumental, it was nearly electronica because each part is basically a copied sample. But that doesn't really come through anymore, so I think you're right, I should just play through and change it up a bit.Thank you! -Mark

[Mark Kaufman]

Sept 5, 2008, 6:52am, teashea wrote:Just like over at JPF, I like it. I think it has interest and energy. It makes me want to listen to it.TomSo glad to hear that, Tom. After a certain amount of time spent on a project, I begin to lose objectivity, until finally I don't even know if it's a good listen or a punishment. So your opinion is great to hear. Thank you!-Mark

[cameron]

I dunno, I don't have a problem with the drums, but my headphones tend to be a bit bass-heavy so maybe they're softening it. All around good song. I like the "Riders on the Storm" electric piano and I hear some Grateful Dead and Beatles in there too, yet it sounds modern in an indie rock sorta way. Lyrics are fine as well. Good job Mr. K!Cameron

[Mark Kaufman]

Thanks Cameron! The drums sound better than they originally did because I did a new on-the-fly mixdown before I ran off to work this morning. A lot of it had to do with side effects of a Stereo Enhancement plug-in, and too much trble on the overall EQ. It sounds much better now, but I still have a long way to go. Each original track sounds great...all the mess and the mud comes from how I'm mixing it...That organ is a great free plug-in called "MrRay73", designed to emulate the Rhodes electric piano sound.In fact, here it is: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1658.html

[suzdoyle]

Hey Mark.I like this tune, and agree that it has some things in it that don't match each other. The vocals are sweet, but they might be more effective if done a bit brighter and energetically, to match the underlying intensity of the instruments.And the drums at the beginning were startling to me, too.Maybe tone them down a tad in the mix.LOVED the bass runs! And the keyboards. Really nice feel. I think you're on the right track; perhaps making the vocals a tad more staccato and with shorter phrasing would be more effective.E.g.Instead of: Saaaallllliing (<--2 beats) past the faces, Try: Sailing (1 beat) past the (1 beat) faces (1 beat) then 1 beat space. ,Suz

[cameron]

Sept 5, 2008, 3:28pm, lyle wrote:That organ is a great free plug-in called "MrRay73", designed to emulate the Rhodes electric piano sound.In fact, here it is: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1658.htmlSome of these plug-ins are just amazing. I just bought RealGuitar, which is an acoustic guitar VST and RealStrat which (as you might have guessed) is electric. They're not free but damn, they're good! I play a very limited amount of guitar-- don't even own one anymore-- so these are a godsend. I thought my cyber Strat needed some effects so I got a plug-in called GreenMachine. It rocks (literally)! I've been composing songs with them on my laptop while I'm on the road and when I get home next week I'm going to have a couple of songs pretty much finished instrumentally and ready to add my vocals and keyboard parts to.Cameron

[Mark Kaufman]

Thanks Suz! Yes, there are elements that struggle against each other here. I actually had a completely different lyric and melody a few days ago, very staccato and headtoney...but I kept coming back to this style. But maybe this NEW mix works better? Same link above.I took a lot of advice from here and elsewhere, really toned down the drums, snipped away a few measures here and there, and made some of the other instrumentation pop a little more. Is this one TOO bass heavy?Thanks for all the help, folks! We all get a little blind after awhile on our own...Yes, Cameron, I can't believe some of the available plug-ins these days. Just a world of wonders. Imagine someone telling us about this twenty years ago.

[heinsite]

very nice fix buddy--i like it much better, allot clearer. not sure about the synth thingee "wadda wadda wadda wadda wadda wadda...", liked it better the second time i just listened, but not sure it adds much to the entire package, maybe gets in the way a bit, as it's on the same track/tracks and coincides with many of the drums pounding, which i dig a whole lot better now, still maybe a few too many. dunna. dig the bass by the way. just not sure about the wadda thing....have no suggestions what to replace it with, if anything, so i'll shut the hell up! still really dig it though, maybe being a little picky... the best,warren

[Mark Kaufman]

No way. No how. Uh-uh. I refuse to lose the wadda wadda wadda thingee.