General feedback on new acoustic tune

[beesea]

Hi Folks
Just looking for some general feedback on a new stripped-down acoustic tune "Build a Bigger Fire". Does the arrangement need anything else? Genre-wise, is this more "singer-songwriter" or "folk" sounding to you? Any other thoughts? Thanks for listening!

https://soundcloud.com/bobcrow/build-a-bigger-fire

[andygabrys]

hey Bob,

nice tune. sounds a little more folky to me. Builds nicely with the piano and other vocals.

IMO - the intro guitar is a little noisy - there is kinda of a high buzz / hum / hiss which is pretty understandable if the recording was not totally hot level wise and you compressed it - and it would do well to keep the really intimate vibe on the vocal. Kill (Eq) the top end of the reverb on the vocal above maybe 2-3 Khz, as right now it bounces around and any sibilant bits of the vocal ricochet around i in the verb.

Nice!

[beesea]

hey Bob,

nice tune. sounds a little more folky to me. Builds nicely with the piano and other vocals.

IMO - the intro guitar is a little noisy - there is kinda of a high buzz / hum / hiss which is pretty understandable if the recording was not totally hot level wise and you compressed it - and it would do well to keep the really intimate vibe on the vocal. Kill (Eq) the top end of the reverb on the vocal above maybe 2-3 Khz, as right now it bounces around and any sibilant bits of the vocal ricochet around i in the verb.

Nice!

Thanks for the feedback! Yep, the acoustic was recorded w just an SM 57, and I was picking with a pretty light touch. I'll try easing back on the compression a bit, and work on notching out some of the noisiness. Haven't done too much with eq-ing just the reverb on vocal parts, I will definitely try that - thanks for the tip!

[eeoo]

Old school singer/songwriter, nice tune. Yeah I'm hearing the sibilance in the vox as well, easy enough fix though.

Good stuff!

eo

[beesea]

OK, just got done with another mix of this one. Noise reduction on the guitar, de-esser in the lead voice, re-EQ'd and backed off the compression on everything. If you have a few moments, I'd love to hear some feedback on this mix. Enough lead vocals? Too much piano?

https://soundcloud.com/bobcrow/build-a-bigger-fire-1

Thanks!
Bob

[andygabrys]

hey Bob,

sounds much better. balance is fine for me.

still not digging the sound on the reverb on the voice but that just might be taste - you could low pass the verb send so that you don't hear the sibilance echoing through the verb (assuming you used the verb on a send and not an insert on the lead vocal channel. there are also a couple of plosives in the vocal that you could drop in a high pass filter in on and zap, automate the eg in and out.

[beesea]

hey Bob,

sounds much better. balance is fine for me.

still not digging the sound on the reverb on the voice but that just might be taste - you could low pass the verb send so that you don't hear the sibilance echoing through the verb (assuming you used the verb on a send and not an insert on the lead vocal channel. there are also a couple of plosives in the vocal that you could drop in a high pass filter in on and zap, automate the eg in and out.

Cool, I'll try and tweak that. The 'main' reverb IS on an insert (I've got a different one on a send, but it's mixed really low.) I can change that though. Overall - too much reverb, or just get the "s's" and "p's" out of there?

[mikeymike2000]

Overall - too much reverb, or just get the "s's" and "p's" out of there?

Nice!

Verb adjust: Just on the syllables: S,P,T,C etc. Other than that this is great!

[SteveJCurtis]

Hi Bob.
Great advice from the guys before, and I just want to add that I really enjoyed listening to the song. Good luck.
Best,

[feaker66]

bob

Really like your voice.

I have already forgotten where you were going with this, but it sounds like movie trailer to me??

Like to hear that little lift come in somewhere around the minute mark like it does at 2:52

Although the vox and acoustic are pleasing, one can quickly lose interest otherwise.

Your voice doesn't need much reverb. You are lucky there.

Sincerely

Paul