TAXI.com

OK mix #2.I think its a little better. Just 10 more mixes and 10 more bottles of Wild Turkey and I might have a hit ( or a bad liver )Opinions please,"another day in the life of a country man (mix#2)"www.taxi.com/matthoggard my hosting page for those who cant DL songs.http://www.taximusic.com/song.php?song_ ... rueAnother day in the life of a country man© 2008 Matt Hoggard, Mark CalhounEvery day in some small townThere's a little cafe they gather aroundRight on the corner of main street USAThey talk about the drought and the heatWhos bailin hay, whos cuttin wheat.only God knows if they'll ever get some rain.Chorus They help each other when they can.Always there to lend a handIts another day in the life of a country man.If your building fence im not for hireYoull get me for free and Ill bring the wire.Another day in the life of a country man.Their pickup trucks are the tools of the tradeYou can bet your life theyre American madeThe measure of a man is his brand.They drive Chevy's and Ford's and even DodgeThey're livin by the grace of GodOnly He knows how much they love this landChorusThey help each other when they canAlways there to lend handIts another day in the life of a country man.If your building fence Im not for hireYoull get me for free and brother Ill bring the wireAnother day in the life of a country man.Most make their livin right off the landSome spend their days as an oil rig handThere aint no nine to five'rs out thereThey dont quit till the job is doneThey work dawn to dusk it aint much funBut for each other there's always time to spare.

I totally dig the vocal tone and expression, cool. Vocals still seem behind everything else though, crank em man...

Matt,This is better but the vocal is still buried in the mix. I've spent a year submitting to a songplugger in Nashville and the one thing they hammered and hammered was the vocal has to be the most present aspect in the mix. They will not tolerate any instrument that takes the focus away from the lyric at any time. I can tell you from experience that this is painful because when that vocal comes up all the flaws and gaffs are exposed. That's the challenge. To kick it up so hot that you are forced to make any corrections necessary. Then settle it back in. Your voice sounds great so kick it up and work it out. You will need to spend some time on the EQ as the greater volume makes the sound much harder to deal with. Production is a very difficult process but if you keep at it you'll get it. This song has a great melody and great lyrics and that needs to be the focus above all else. Right now your hi hat and rhythm gtrs are louder than the vocal. This song is great!! To make it SOUND great takes a lot of time so be prepared for that. Stay on it!! Kitz

Matt, I'd like to hear this song with an acoustic, or maybe a lonesome telecaster guitar (with a little tremolo me thinks) rather than run through the stereo chorus.Yup, vocals are still buried. I thought maybe it was my headphones until the others mentioned it too.Cam

man do i dig the intro, and then your vocals still damn near disappear man!! i can tell this is a great tune in the making. whenever you get the vocals up (LOL) i'd help that chorus with a nice higher harmony. since no one else can hear your vocal, something wrong somewhere, but i can't tell you what, but great tune! now get 'er done! i'm just wondering what your hearing, then the nice solo guitar comes in loud and clear, then the whole thing drops down again...all i got, damn man, do i want to hear this mixed right! if i could help, hell "id bring the wire/s..."all the best, great tune,warren

Oh ya a high harmony inde chorus... thatid be niiiiice....

well..............The vocals are louder I thought. BUT im not going to diasagree with you guys. I hear them well but Im also the biased ear.Back to the mix. Thanks, this is good feedback.M~

I get some stuff that's painful loud when mixing, and it dissappears when I get to work and listen. I'm all "dang! That vox was biting my head off last night! Where did it go?"I have to agree, the vox is too quiet again...I'll throw a few ideas out in case any hit home...it's all stuff I've been told since joining Taxi/working with other producers (and man, I needed it!!). Don't be offended if you do all this stuff already...I didn't...and I really want to hear your tune with the voice full throttle!- may have pronounced mid range in your monitoring spot? I did.Here's a free application that's kinda cool to play with http://www.esseraudio.com/ttg.htm I'd set the sweep function to about 10 seconds from 20 - 20 000 Hz, then sit in your normal mixing spot so you can listen for any exaggerated (or diminished) frequencies. Second, I'd manually set the frequency to be constant, then slowly move around the room to listen for standing waves, etc.- My guess is you're mixing to wave from your music software, then exporting an mp3? Make sure you check out the mp3 on your mixing set-up too...that's all we have to listen to here on the forum. My first encoder was junk (I switched to Audacity).- Listen to some commercial music on your monitors before, during, and after mixing this tune. It can help reveal stuff about your setup and the current mix when you do that immediate comparison. "So that's how CC does it...and mine sounds like...aha!"- vary the volume when mixing...including some really low volume mixing, quieter parts show up then- I've been bitten before by old automation on a track. I'd crank the fader during the song, it would sound good...then export while the fader would reset to yesterday's level. (OK, I almost didn't want to admit that mistake here )Good luck Matt...and just kick me in the junk if I'm being overbearing...my $0.02 is just that.

Hey Matt, the vocals are still way too low. I've been through this before & it's frustrating as hell but the only way you're gonna get it right is to crank them up to the point where you think they are too loud & then give it a rest for a day before you listen. If you hear on a regular basis that the vox aren't loud enough in your songs then it may be as Devin says, something is not quite right with your monitoring situation. For me it's a matter of just not digging vox that are louder than the snare, but I'm always being told to crank the vox as well.You need to get it right on this tune because it sure sounds like it could be a forward.

MATT.....PUT THAT TURKEY ON THE ROCKS WITH A SHOT OF SHNAPPS....AND ROCK THE FREE WORLD...Love YA! DUDE... JAY...