Re: My Heart Was Tryin' To Tell Me

[allends]

Do you think that your chorus would be stronger and more memorable if you had chosen to write it with the title in the first line rather than the last? The present version is satisfying enough but I'm guessing that a highly competitive commercially oriented version might have gone the other way. Nice pre-chorus and bridge! BTW: I tend to like the song overall.Could it be that you chose not to end with two choruses after the bridge because you intuitively know that this chorus is more introspective than catchy?I ask these questions for two reasons?Whether or not you can defend your artistic choices, you can't lose by verbalizing them.I want to know the answers because I'm an idiot! -Allen

[mazz]

Initial thoughts from the desk at the day gig, cheap computer speakers:1. Not digging the chorusing FX on the voice, at least not all the way through. Maybe on a line or two to emphasize something. Maybe starting to bring it in on the pre-chorus and then a bit more on the chorus. If it was dry on the verses, then on the second verse it would help to bring me back to where you want me to be after the chorus (does that make sense?)2. The bridge reminded me of Seal (that's a compliment). Why not go the whole Seal route and do at least the first half of the chorus after the bridge a-capella and then slam us in to the second half. Or maybe better, do the entire chorus after the bridge a-capella with a building vocal arrangement and then take us home with a huge repeat of the chorus (per Allen's suggestion). It's not a long chorus so that might work as well.3. I can't comment too much on EQ on these speakers but the voice could be a bit bright. I'd like to hear it without chorus and on better speakers before I go further.Good work as usual. Keep going.Mazz

[dgolding]

Yet another good song. My first impression on the technical side is that it sounds a little harsh overall, maybe just a little too much top end. On the production side, it seems like all the instruments are 'wide-open' if you know what I mean. Everything sounds like it's being played hard and loud all through the song.As for the vocal, you mentioned previously that you use Waves Doubler. For my money, I think your voice could stand up on it's own without much processing. It may be that thats tending to give it a toppy sound and stealing the warmth.By the way, the control freak in me would love to hear a hammond with a rotary on this track, I think it would warm it up a lot As always, jmo, and keep up the great work

[mixopenta]

Just commenting on the mixing and vocal/overall sound here. This is IMHO in terms of production a vast improvement compared to the earlier versions of "Come Swimming in the Rain" (which by the way are much, much better now). I just want to ask a question:Do you often experience that your mixes sounds overly bright when played back on other systems? Your mixes will be an inverse reflection of your monitoring situation, i.e. If your monitors over reproduce treble, your mixes will be dull. If your monitors over reproduce bass, your mixes will be thin. This is because you will compensate for what you hear, and only a few dB in either direction will have a huge impact.Are your monitors placed close to a back wall? That will make the monitors over represent bass.Are the monitors too close to corners? Corners are practically acoustic bass amplifiers. You'd want to eliminate corners as much as possible (this is true even if the speakers are not placed close to corners).Is the room in which you mix perhaps too dead (too many drapes, acoustic foam, not enough reflecting surfaces etc)? The monitoring situation is a science of its own, and I'm not saying it's easy to address. But as small deviations in the frequency response can have a huge impact on the final result, it's well worth try fixing it as far as possible, if your goal is having mixes with broadcast, and/or master quality, that is.I'm saying this because I believe you already have what it takes to make a great sounding mix, in terms of skill and ears. It's the environment that needs the tweaking.Your system might either reproduce the upper midrange/treble poorly, or your system might reproduce lower midrange/bass too much (although the outcome will be roughly the same, the approach of addressing it will differ). This does not necessarily mean you reach for the EQ to make conscious adjustments to compensate at all times, but all decisions made in the recording/mixing, and even arranging process will subconsciously be based on the listening environment, and all those decisions will one by one add up to compensate for these shortcomings.